Thread: AC flicker power strip hack

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I finished hacking a 6 outlet power strip for creating AC flickering lights. Some may have seen the single starter flicker circuit - this uses the same starters, but mounted in a power strip so that you can get three distinct flicker effects from the strip. I'll post some pics tomorrow. It's easy to do, but does require some soldering. More to come...

This sounds awsome, I'm looking forward to it

I have a PDF of the hack ready, but it's too large (257 KB) to attach here. Drop me a PM if you're interested and I can email it to you.

Just sent you a PM Otaku... that sounds awesome!!!!

With Otaku's permission, here's the file:
http://www.starkmadness.com/photos/a...hack_rev_3.pdf

Boy, my wife is going to be proud of me!! This year combining this flicker circuit with my Lightning FX box and a relay I made from info I also found here. So my outdoor floods will flicker until the lightning flashes and they darken!

Ok, so replace proud with frightened...

LOL! This is a terrific prop! Cant wait to use it for the "fires" lighting for the Pirates in the jail cell...
Way to go Otaku!!

Some test results:
I plugged a 50 watt floodlight into each outlet (1 flood per flasher) and the flash rate slows quite a bit. None of the starters failed, even with a 100 watt load, but at 100 watts the rate rate was quite slow - about one blink every 2-3 secs. It looks like the FS-2 starter definitely likes low wattage bulbs. I plan to test with some higher rated starters and see if the flicker rate improves. More to come...

Here's a short vid of the effect using FS-2 starters and low wattage (4 - 15) bulbs:

[ame]http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i231/Otaku1031/?action=view&current=MOV06227.flv[/ame]

Looks really good!

TJ