# Inverting Lightning FX Output?



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Anyone know how to do this or if there's a circuit for this someplace?

Essentially I want to invert the output of a lightning fx box - the lower voltage out the brighter the bulb and vice versa. I know it's gonna take a secondary circuit with it's own AC input.

Basically I want to dim the display lighting whenever lightning is flashing. Or take it a step further by plugging a thunder/lightning soundtrack into a Gemmy Christmas Lighting FX box. Then feeding some of the display light through a channel then through this extra circuit and the rest of the lighting normal. This should create lightning flashes that are separate from the dimming display lights.


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

Not sure how to do what you're asking, but why not just create a separate audio source to plug into your FX box to get the desired results? Basically just an audio track to control the lighting.


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

You might could just put a dimmer on on a 4 or 2 way box. Then use that for the separate display?And run a splitter out of the FX box.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

What sort of dimming effect are you looking for? Do you need the display lighting to dim in sync with the lightning flashes, or to just dim uniformly while the lightning is flashing? 

Either way, you'll need a system that overrides the "normal" display lighting circuit while the lightning is flashing.

You could do the former with a 110 volt, 30A electro-mechanical relay that switches between the "normal" lighting power source and a circuit with a dimmer, as TW mentioned. Not sure how long the relay will last, as it will be actuating with each lightning flash. There may be SSR's that are actuated by 110VAC (I use DC-switched SSR's), which would minimize the failure possibility.
If you need the latter, use a SSR powered by a 12VDC wart to switch the "normal" and the dimmed power in and out. The wart will smooth out the input power fluctuations caused by the lightning flashes (warts act like capacitors in this application) and will give you a uniform dimming effect until the flashes stop.
The downside to all of this is that you need to run all of the lights you want to dim from a single outlet (as far as I can see), unless you use more than one FX box/relay. Then you'd split the sound signal to the two (or more) boxes and adjust the sensitivity accordingly.


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