# Light Flickering???



## Biggy

So I have this handheld outdoors light that I plug in to any AC Wall power source to turn on. Well I was wondering if there is anything I could buy that would make the light flicker, like it is running low on power. So it is bright, and then dims for half a sec and then flickers at full power again. Would Home Depot have anything that would do it?


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## Warrant2000

Buy a FS-2 or FS-5 (stay away from FS-4) flourescent starter in the light section. It looks like a small white cylinder with 2 silver plugs sticking out one end. Split the 2 wires at some point in the wire, cut one and solder the starter into each wire tip.

Something like 



.


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## Biggy

Warrant2000 said:


> Buy a FS-2 or FS-5 (stay away from FS-4) flourescent starter in the light section. It looks like a small white cylinder with 2 silver plugs sticking out one end. Split the 2 wires at some point in the wire, cut one and solder the starter into each wire tip.
> 
> Something like this.


That looks great! Thanks for sharing the video!


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## fontgeek

Great video and explanation on the flicker unit.

To make your light dimmer, you might see if you can replace the bulb with a lower wattage bulb, and or put some paper or something around the light or lantern to act as a lampshade of sorts. That lets you control the color and the brightness along with the flickering you get from Warrant's flicker unit.


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## Warrant2000

Here's what I made this weekend, took about 5 minutes. 15W deco light (~$2), ceramic base ($1.50), extension cord ($1.50), FS2 starter ($1). I didn't solder, although I should. I wrapped it with electrical tape. I picked up parts to make 3 more of these.

BTW, the video is not me, it's one I found on YouTube.


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## Offwhiteknight

I wonder if the wife will allow me the time and money to rewire the entire "pumpkin patch" of electrically lit jack o lanterns with these...


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## p3ppy

This worked perfect for my flickering lights in my asylum. I know LTDCommodities.com used to sell this for xmas too for only $12.00 but cant find the link, same product, but has a christmas tree instead of lighning bolt, and who cares, its just going to be hidden anyway. well good luck!
http://www.costumeshop.us.com/light...=&utm_medium=shoppingEngine&utm_medium=Google


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## zombastic

Just today I too made one of these flickering cords using the youtube video above.
What a great and cheap idea! Only a couple of bucks for a 2 pack of FS-2s.


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## scarrycher

Oooo I'm so excited, I picked up a 2 pack of the FS-2 at a small store in my town..it was marked down to 25 cents, wish I got all of them now!


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## Tai95

Wow I'm all for DIY stuff, but that seems so unsafe. You would be much better off buying the actual starter holder and wire that into the cord. That way you could at least get a decent solder point and cover it with heat shrink tubing. Here is an ebay link to show what they look like. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Fluoresce...595?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae9842e63

You could also scavenge them from old fluorescent fixtures. With T12 bulbs getting phased out the prices on those fixtures should be dropping soon.


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## Lord Homicide

I'll tell you how I made a flickering light purely by accident... I bought a dial dimmer switch and installed it for my dining room. At some point I punched it to turn the light on. Now it flickers hauntingly if you turn the light on and crank the brightness all the way up.


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## Offwhiteknight

Nothing seems to indicate that it does matter, BUT, does it matter which wire is cut and connected to he fluorescent starter?

I'd like to know prior to actually cutting up any electrical cords...


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## corey872

I was wondering that as well. Technically, the small-blade side of the extension cord is the 'hot' side and the large blade side is the neutral side - given standard polarity.

So if you did:

small blade---FS2----Bulb----large blade Then the FS2 is seeing full line voltage and grounding through the resistance of the light bulb.

If you did:

small blade---bulb----FS2----large blade Now, the FS2 is only seeing the voltage after the bulb resistance and is directly tied to the neutral line.

Does this make any difference with AC power? I would suspect only if the starter has some preferential way of running, which I don't believe it does. But might be interesting to see if there is any difference in the flicker rate.


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## R. Lamb

I was on my way to HD any way so while I was there today, I picked up a couple of those FS-2"s. 20 minutes after I got home I had a fantastic way to make lights flicker. My Wife took one look at it and decided it was the best flickering light she had ever seen! BTW I used solder/shrink wrap and secured the whole thing in a way that is completely safe. Best $2.19 I could have spent.


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## GhostTown

What a great and easy method.

Do you think this would work for a string of C7 lights? I suppose the down side would be that they would all flicker in the exact same sequence though.


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## brooksfamilylights

Awesome!! I'm stopping at home depot in the morning on my way home from work!!


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## Haunted Spider

I am not sure it actually matters but in electrical code, you always cut the hot wire to put in a switch. I would assume the same would apply here as well.


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## R. Lamb

For those of us that don't know, If I cut into a cord to install a FS-2, witch of the two wires is the "Hot" wire?


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## Haunted Spider

I have read up on a couple forums on flickering lights. The other halloween related forum did a test on which wire to cut and not to cut and both the results were the same, so it really doesn't matter. 

For R Lamb, if you are cutting into a lamp cord, one blade on the plug is bigger than the other. As stated above a few posts higher "the small-blade side of the extension cord is the 'hot' side and the large blade side is the neutral side" If you happen to be cutting into a 3 wire extension cord, the black is the hot and white is neutral. 

Hope that helps.


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## R. Lamb

Thank you. Now I know how to find the "HOT" side. Now, could some body please explain to me how the FS-2 that I installed yesterday is making the light flicker?


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## Offwhiteknight

Thanks Spiderclimber. That's what I needed to know; I just won't bother with checking then if it doesn't matter.


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## Warrant2000

R. Lamb, this should answer your question:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question337.htm


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## R. Lamb

Thank you Warrent2000. I had to read it twice but, I understand it now.


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## brooksfamilylights

Picked up 2 fs-2's this morning and gave it a try.

Love this!! Going to do some more testing after I get home from watching resident evil 5 today.

This gives me some ideas now and I bought 4 of these so its play time! LOL


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## bleigh

Made one of those today using the fs-2. Like the effect it gives. Tried it with a filament bulb and a cfl bulb. Seemed to get a better effect with the filament bulb.


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## Offwhiteknight

Yup, tried it out on an extension cord and it worked as advertised...and super fast too. Now I just need to clear out the stock of the local Lowes and Home Depots before the rest of you do...


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## typoagain

I have done this a couple of times myself. When I did it I was unable to find the sockets that you can get to plug the starter into. So what I did was strip the wire, twist the wire around the male posts of the starter and solider them. I was unable to get the post hot enough to get the solder to flow properly onto the post. However, the solder on the wire stopped any movement of the wire on the post and prevented it from coming off the starter.

I hooked my to a 100w light bulb and set it outside and let it run. I ran it for 48 hours with no trouble.

I did discover that it really does not work well when running LED strings. You just need a little bit more load that a single string of LED lights will produce. But with small incandescent lights it worked fine.

You can also find flicker circuits that use lights, photo cells and relays.


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## MildAvaholic

I made a few last weekend. I used empty pill bottles for housing the starter. Not 100% waterproof, but Im sure it could be made to be. A couple holes in the sides, wire the starter, slide in, and put the cap back on.


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## Offwhiteknight

Here's a question.

Can these FS-2's be strung up in series? As in, let's say I decide to do a few PVC candles. I want to run them all together of a single lamp cord...can I run more than one flourescent starter off a single power supply and a single cord?

Thanks!


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## spark

Offwhiteknight said:


> Here's a question.
> 
> Can these FS-2's be strung up in series? As in, let's say I decide to do a few PVC candles. I want to run them all together of a single lamp cord...can I run more than one flourescent starter off a single power supply and a single cord?
> 
> Thanks!


I've done this with 3 spotlights and 1 cord. They are wired in parallel however, if you wired them in series at worst it wouldn't work, at best, they would all flash together which I don't think is what you want.


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## R. Lamb

After putting one of these together I went out this evening to see what it looked like from across the street. (It was wired into an old lamp) The neighbor came out to tell me that I had a bad electrical connection and I should have it looked at.


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## MildAvaholic

R. Lamb said:


> After putting one of these together I went out this evening to see what it looked like from across the street. (It was wired into an old lamp) The neighbor came out to tell me that I had a bad electrical connection and I should have it looked at.


That means you did it right!!


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## Otaku

R. Lamb said:


> After putting one of these together I went out this evening to see what it looked like from across the street. (It was wired into an old lamp) The neighbor came out to tell me that I had a bad electrical connection and I should have it looked at.


No better compliment than that!


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## Cole&Jacksdad

I just made one. I put a 15 watt bulb in and spray painted the bulb black on the big end oh the bulb(not sure what that part of the bulb is called) and it turned out great! Low light and flickers great!


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## Cole&Jacksdad

Here is how mine turned out.


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## grismcdonald

Couple things. First I saw a post of using FS-2and FS-5. I bought the 5's today and wired up them to a cord. Stripped the wires back long enough to get a good twist around the post. I then encased all of it in hot glue. Wrapped it in electric tape. I did not get a good flicker until I used a low watt bulb, below 100w. I also tried a LED bulb we had and got a cool lightening effect. What is the difference between the 2's and the 5's in their performance?


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## randomr8

There are some tutorials out there on how to set up several starters on a power strip. Fun time making 'em and of course be careful.
hack-power-strip-installation-fluorescent-starter-sockets.html

I think that might be the work of one of our mods.


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## randomr8

grismcdonald said:


> Couple things. First I saw a post of using FS-2and FS-5. I bought the 5's today and wired up them to a cord. Stripped the wires back long enough to get a good twist around the post. I then encased all of it in hot glue. Wrapped it in electric tape. I did not get a good flicker until I used a low watt bulb, below 100w. I also tried a LED bulb we had and got a cool lightening effect. What is the difference between the 2's and the 5's in their performance?


Best I can tell is they flicker at different rates. If I remember right flickers can be different between several of the same kind. Just more so beween the different kinds.


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## Turbophanx

What if I have a 3 prong light to plug that I want to plug into a 2 prong socket that I have already modified with the FS2. I have seen where some people just broke off the ground plug. 

I have not seen 3 prong cords with easy to separate wire.


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## Otaku

randomr8 said:


> Best I can tell is they flicker at different rates. If I remember right flickers can be different between several of the same kind. Just more so beween the different kinds.


True. Here's a video of three FS-2's mounted on a power strip. All are flickering at different rates.

Flicker strip demo video by Otaku1031 - Photobucket


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## Turbophanx

Thanks for that video, I had not thought about installing one on a power strip.
ok, so do I just strip open the cord on the power strip? Which line to I install the fs2 on?


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## Otaku

There's a how-to I posted on here somewhere. That strip has three FS-2's (or your choice of starters) each running a pair of sockets. You have to use the right power strip - separate sockets, not railed power feeding each socket - for this to work. Do a search on here for "flicker strip" and you should turn up the how-to thread. It has a parts list and pics.

Here you go - http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=9811&highlight=flicker+strip


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## Turbophanx

Ok but what about a regular extension cord with a ground line. How do you do that with the starter? or my original question, is it ok to just break off the ground plug of my three prong plug and use it on a 2 prong cord?

I have an adapter for 3 prong to 2 prong...everything else should still work right?


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## zombastic

I just hooked my outside floodlight up to the flicker cords that I made and it is a cool effect. 
It would probably go good with some scary thunder sound effects on Halloween night.


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## Buzz

Tai95 said:


> Wow I'm all for DIY stuff, but that seems so unsafe. You would be much better off buying the actual starter holder and wire that into the cord. That way you could at least get a decent solder point and cover it with heat shrink tubing. Here is an ebay link to show what they look like. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Fluoresce...595?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae9842e63
> 
> You could also scavenge them from old fluorescent fixtures. With T12 bulbs getting phased out the prices on those fixtures should be dropping soon.


The other bonus to using a starter holder is that you can easily replace a bad starter or swap an FS-2 out for an FS-4 if you need to run higher wattage bulbs.


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## Buzz

Buzz said:


> The other bonus to using a starter holder is that you can easily replace a bad starter or swap an FS-2 out for an FS-4 if you need to run higher wattage bulbs.


Did some experimenting over the weekend and could not get anything out of the FS-4.

The FS-2, which is designed to start 14-20 watt fluorescents and works GREAT on 25-40 watt incandescent bulbs, has a very weak flicker when used with a 90 watt color flood. The FS-4 is designed for 30-40 watt fluorescent bulbs. So I tried it for the 90 watt flood and nothing happened at all. Before breaking this set up down, I put a 40 watt in the holder and also nothing.

So whereas the FS-2 worked great, the FS-4 was a total failure.

Found an FS-5 in the junk drawer this morning. These are designed for 4-8 watt fluorescents. Don't have much hope for it, but I'll try it tonight.


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## Haunted Spider

I have 5 of the FS 2 wired into brooder lamps put through pvc in a sheperds hook shape. I am running them on 15 watt bulbs I found at Home depot. They over hang the sidewalk and are mounted to my fence. The 15 watt bulbs work great.


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## MBrennan

I wired a motion sensor to the FS-2, and hide it on the TV stand.

When my wife walked into the room, the lamp in the corner turned on and began to flicker. Then mysterious went out.

Freaked her out! What made it even better was, later, both kids had the same reaction.


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## Otaku

Buzz said:


> Found an FS-5 in the junk drawer this morning. These are designed for 4-8 watt fluorescents. Don't have much hope for it, but I'll try it tonight.


I found that the FS-5 will work with higher wattage incandescents, up to 60W. Beyond that the flicker slows way down. Using 15-20W bulbs with the FS-5 gave me a rapid, more regular flicker. Agreed about the FS-4, they don't work at all.


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## Dave Leppo

I built a lightning generator using an fs-2 driving a small candelabra bulb, which drives a photocell on a separate circuit. I can run higher wattages thru the photocell and get the flicker effect. I also use a "flasher button" which goes inside a light socket, and gives me a more infrequent flash on the lightning lamps.
The photocell circuit flickers opposite the starter light. I found it works a little better in this case when I let the starter power two candelabra bulbs. Seems to me that the amount of wattage influences the flicker interval. 

Does this make sense at all?


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## Dave Leppo

sorry, wrong text color:

I built a lightning generator using an fs-2 driving a small candelabra bulb, which drives a photocell on a separate circuit. I can run higher wattages thru the photocell and get the flicker effect. I also use a "flasher button" which goes inside a light socket, and gives me a more infrequent flash on the lightning lamps.
The photocell circuit flickers opposite the starter light. I found it works a little better in this case when I let the starter power two candelabra bulbs. Seems to me that the amount of wattage influences the flicker interval. 

Does this make sense at all?


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