Thread: HELP: LED flicker candle + foam pumpkins?

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First, this is my project idea for this year... maybe I'm getting a late start maybe not, I'm not trying to make it too hard, just very cool and almost "old school" simple looking.

I'm wanting to carve 10 to 15 fake pumpkins and space them out around my yard / walk way up to the door, and maybe even one or two on the roof. I want to light all of these using fairly realistic flicker effects and figured LEDs would be the best to keep heat and size down and keep bulb life high. I would like to hard wire them rather then use batteries so I can set up the pumpkins at the start of October and have them on a dusk till dawn timer until halloween night... that could add up to A LOT of batteries.

So far I've found some REALLY nice flicker effect from three or four LEDs using an Arduino but my problem is the cost could REALLY get up there if I need to run an Arduino for each pumpkin. I'm wondering if anyone has any cheaper options or has worked with an Arduino before and if I can just buy one and use it to drive all the LEDs. My idea is having a package of three LEDs and a custom wire (so I can get perfect lengths) run back to the Arduino which I'll build a little box for and have protected from the elements right near the outlet on the house. This way I would have 15 different wires (if I have 15 pumpkins) all coming out of the Arduino box or a switch being controlled by the Arduino and then running all over the yard to the different pumpkins.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Real...of-the-effect/ <---- The effect I'm looking for

Second, does anyone know anything cheaper then Funkin's? I'm looking for different shapes and sizes and if I went with 10 to 15 Funkins it's looking like it'll add up to $300 to $350 JUST for the pumpkins before shipping!!!

I can't believe just to have some fake pumpkins around the yard might add up to like $400 after LEDs and an Arduino....

Anyone have advice, ideas, refinements? Our yard would look REALLY cool since we have this wall and a little walk way leading to the door and I could have them around the wall, zig zagging the walkway, and maybe one on the corner of our roof near our door. My girlfriend is really good at art and did a super job carving like 8 really cool pumpkins last year but they started to fall apart like 3 days later. I'm looking for something long term this time around.

I have absolutely no sense of electrical work BUT buying foam pumpkins ain't cheap. Try the Stolloween paper mache pumpkins. No need to be nearly as artistic for old school. But you can make 10-15 pumpkins over a couple of weekends. scroll down to the bottom of the site and you'll see it's just tape and plastic bags. He also explains what he uses for his paper mache receipe. And next year, buy the funkins half price after Halloween

http://www.stolloween.com/?page_id=67

Michael's fake pumpkins are cheaper than Funkins. I read on the forum that many don't think they carve as well, but some hold the opposite view. I've used them and find them fine, but I've done simple to moderate difficulty patterns, not really complex ones.

Your Arduino idea should certainly work. If you go that route, an alternative if you don't mind the pumpkins only being lit when someone is around is to use a PIR (motion detector) so that they only light when someone walks near the sensor.

I actually found some funkins at the thrift store back in Sep .. I dont think the old owners knew what they were or else were too lazy to carve them. I got 3 funkins for under $10 .. I was a happy camper

They have them at Hobby Lobby too for a tad cheaper than the funkins website

Michael's has thier pumpkins on sale now, $7.99 for the large oval shaped one and $4.69 I think for the smaller round one. They were $19.99 and $11.99.

There's a "Flickering Yellow Pumpkin Light" that looks like a tap light - the current generation are smaller than the classic ones and require a screwdriver to get to the batteries. They're quite bright. They take 3AAA batteries. I've been wondering how many of them I could wire in parallel to a 4.5v AC adapter. I've been designing an "AC Adapter Conversion Kit" to change any LED product that takes 3x 1.5v batteries to a plug. It would include 2 blank batteries that are simply used to complete the circuit. The third battery would have a wire coming out the middle of it with an AC adapter jack on the end. You would then simply have to drill a hole the size of the jack in the battery cover. That way the conversion can easily be removed and transferred to Christmas or other seasonal battery lighting.

I have used C6/7 flickering non-LEDs on strings with my foam pumpkins and it has worked great. I lined the garage with 12-13 pumpkins and have another 10 hanging in the tree as a jack o' lantern tree. The light strong has 10 bulbs, spaced 12 inches. They cost 15-20 a string. They flicker fairly well. Joann's online had a sale on the funkins, about 10 a pumpkin. I found them a bit brittle but faster to carve than the Michaels' brand (using the funkins tool) , but the Michaels seem a bit more durable (used Exacto blade to carve).