# Firefly Lightning effect



## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I have a "Firefly Lightning" effect that I would love to use to light up two sides of a house. I'm trying to find cold white LED "Parcans" that will do that for me. 
Anybody have an Idea where I can find a thing like that for less than the $1000 lights I've been able to find so far? I REALLY do not want RGB,. just cold white.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

What do you mean by firefly? Do you mean Par 38 cans? You can make your own spotlights as seen in the LED spotlight tutorials, you could just make larger ones using LED resistor calculators to find out what types of resistors and wiring configurations you need based on power source types. You can power a lot of LED's on low voltage 12 volt DC power converters so its safer to work with than 120 volts.


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## CoolDJTV (Jun 28, 2011)

goneferal said:


> What do you mean by firefly? Do you mean Par 38 cans? You can make your own spotlights as seen in the LED spotlight tutorials, you could just make larger ones using LED resistor calculators to find out what types of resistors and wiring configurations you need based on power source types. You can power a lot of LED's on low voltage 12 volt DC power converters so its safer to work with than 120 volts.


The firefly system is a thunder and lightning box.
I would recommend looking into Chauvet,
Do you have a sound lighting or music shop near you?


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

Firefly is a brand of lightening simulator. There site recomend the use of led light as you can hook up many more of them to a controler. 

Search for chauvet techno strobe. There is an RGB version and a just white version. However I am not sure how well these will work with the firefly controler. You could also search eBay for led flood bulbs but they can still be $50 or so each.


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## thefireguy (Aug 11, 2008)

I would purchase LED cool white only. Cool white gives off a very realistic flash. You can purchase them at minionsweb......look for the led lights in the effects.....lighting...section. Yes there expensive but well worth it. If you purchase anywhere else.....make sure the led's are dimmable......the non dimmable WILL NOT WORK.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

Any LED is dimmable with PWM. There should be no problem with dimming LEDs. You can buy really cheap ones for 12 volt wal wart power for cents each. The Chauvet systems seem to be a bit pricey for us working women and men with full time job pay or for early start haunters with, um, no pay at all.

You can do it on the cheap. I'll try to help. But I have a lot to do for this year. I could have you set up with at least 16 channels of lights for a lot less than a lot of these jokers charge parts. I will have a tut for 16 channels and a few hundred of LED for about $200 for the entire show. My tut wont be ready until after the big night due to time constraints. I won't charge a dime for my work. It is already free. 

I won't charge you anything. You just have to buy your own components. I have a lot to do for this year. Follow my Blog and I have no problem putting a full tutorial to get the whole setup going.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I picked up a second hand Xenon strobe, hooked it up to the output of a single channel light organ and set the strobe frequency to the fastest. Coupled with a good thunder track, the effect is superb. The cost was $30 for the strobe, $20 for thevlight organ, $30 for a second hand guitar amp and $10 for a basic mp3 player. $90 total.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

He already has the color organ. That is what the firefly lightening controller is. Just like an Izombie. A color organ set to react to low frequency audio


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Looks like I'll be running 4 American DJ P64 led pro's to wash the house for the effect. I was trying to get away from RGB as the Firefly Lightning simulator seems to mess with the chips in the parcans. The default however turns out to be cold white light. So, I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you all for the help here.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

The problem you will have with an RGB.fixture is that when you first power them on they do a 1 second self test of all the leds. I feel you won't get flashes consistanly.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I'll be testing the RGB's today to see if they work. If not, it's back to the Husky work lights until I can get something better.


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## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

Do you like the firefly? Was thining about getting one if they goto Transworld.


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## pagan (Sep 9, 2009)

Lights alive is now making a led light specifically for the firefly
http://lights-alive.com/light_spots.html


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

The verdict is in and the RGB's have lost. back to Husky work lights for this year. Thank you Pagan I'll look into Lights Alives' lights again. I was staying away from them until now because I had hoped that I might find something with far more Lumens than they offered when I got the Firefly from them.
As far as the effect goes, DeathTouch. I like it very much. It is easy to work with, comes with a number of good storm soundtracks for both LED and incandescent lights. The Firefly 501 that I'm using supports 3000 watts per channel (I'm using ALL of them) and also has a dimmer channel that will dim lights plugged into that one as lighting flashes on the others. If all that isn't enough, you can use your own storm soundtrack if none of theirs suit you.


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