Thread: Floating lantern?

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I want to have a lantern sitting on a headstone in our graveyard that will, on cue, float a few feet up in the air, hover, and then lower back down. There's a tree right above said scene that I can run fishing line up to, but I don't know the best way to control it? Maybe a continuous rotation servo with a reel to wind up the line? What controller would I need?
Would a type of reversable motor work better? how would I control it?
I'm not opposed to lifting it from below if I can find a way to hide the lift.
Everything else is controlled via DMX so i'd like to keep it the same.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Are you familiar with the rig used to work a Flying Crank Ghost? You can eliminate the two outboard extensions (the ones used to raise and lower the ghost arms) and use only eyelet/string to raise and lower your lantern. Duration and height would simply be a matter of the distance of the eyelet from the motors swivel washer. I used a rig like this to make a skeleton's arm 'wave' while sitting in a chair for a couple of years. Just hang the rig in your tree, attach the fishing line from the pulley to the lantern handle and adjust the amount of lift you want.

I had considered something similar to the FCG rig, but I don't want a continuous motion. It will only float up once every couple minutes. I could use VSA to time the motor to stop when it rests on the headstone, but i'm worried that if i'm off even a fraction of a second, after a few nights of running the resting point would not end up on the headstone.

my back yard.... full random motion of up and down at any place in yard never taking the same path twice.... created in 2007
YouTube - Floating Lantern
enjoy

or a 555 timer to turn on for 15 seconds then shut it down

-PB

Originally Posted by gravedigger greg

my back yard.... full random motion of up and down at any place in yard never taking the same path twice.... created in 2007
YouTube - Floating Lantern
enjoy

You tease.You know you can't post something like that without sharing how it was done.
Love it!!!

Originally Posted by halloween71

You tease.You know you can't post something like that without sharing how it was done.
Love it!!!

I agree... I have a floating lantern too but haven't found a good way to light it wirelessly. The flicker circuits I've found online don't give a realistic flame effect.

Originally Posted by Bilbo

I agree... I have a floating lantern too but haven't found a good way to light it wirelessly. The flicker circuits I've found online don't give a realistic flame effect.

for my flame i busted apart three flicker lights, glued the leds together, and hooked them up to a AAA battery pack sitting in the bottom fuel tank, switch on tank gas cap

Greg, your lantern is seriously amazing! Great job!

Ok i too want to see the how to Greg, you have to share or we will all go crazy trying to figure it out....lol