Thread: Fire Flies

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Holy Smokes Mike, those look awesome! Watching this I feel like I'm drifting in a boat through the bayou, Great job! Thanks for the tutorial and the videos, I'm trying this.

Thanks again FatRanza. Knock yourself out! My girlfriend has told me I need to make a lot of them.

I double checked. The bulbs I am using are Miniatronic 1.2mm, 1.5 volt, 30 mA. The twelve volt variety are twice as large at 2.4mm. I think they will work but the primary reason I chose such a small bulb (1.2mm) was that I wanted to reduced the likelyhood the bulb would iluminate the black disc itself. I used LEDs smaller than a pin head in model railroading but can't find them again. (now, they would be interesting!)

MikeBru, You said you would like to see a 12 vdc version and I just made one last year. I use a prop1 to run it and use 5 12volt grain of rice bulbs that I had to paint the lenses green. Even though this becomes a lot more expensive, it is as close to real fireflies as I've seen. When I put them out this year, I will increase the wind on them a little. Yours are still very nice and an inexpensive way to get as many fireflies as you want. I think if you try putting the card stock on the side of the light it may become a more on/off blinking look. Don't know though, never really tried that. I didn't even know you could get 1.5 vdc bulbs. So here they are....OH, ignore the house lights in the upper right corner.

That looks fantastic Indiana. I am guessing that FX card you use is turning the lights on and off.
I put the bulbs pointing straight out of the card for two reasons. The tip on the bulb focuses the light and if the card is in the same plane you can see the card. Second, these 1.2mm bulbs are so small they function almost like a point source.

Yes, it is a prop1 microcontroller. The cost on these is around $40, with the start up accessories a little more. They run randomly with the actual lighting anywher from 250 milliseconds to 1 second and the off times are random as well. There are eight outputs on the controller, but I only had 5 bulbs. As for your cards, I would think that if you made them smaller and painted them black, they would become practically invisable. I may have to give your tutorial a try. Don't think it will be this year though. Too much going on right now. But thanks for posting this. I will be bookmarking it for later.

Some day I plan to get into automation and running things with a computer, it just does too many cool things.

The cards are painted black. As for size, I just guessed. I am afraid that if I make them too small they won't be stirred by the breeze enough to move the weight of the wire. (they are under two inches in diameter) I did bend them into an "s" shape to help improve the odds of catching the wind. Thanks for the suggestions.

You know what they say about imitation... I am humbled and happy I was able to inspire you. I hope you really enjoy them.
Mike

Originally Posted by indianaholmes

Yes, it is a prop1 microcontroller. The cost on these is around $40, with the start up accessories a little more. They run randomly with the actual lighting anywher from 250 milliseconds to 1 second and the off times are random as well. There are eight outputs on the controller, but I only had 5 bulbs. As for your cards, I would think that if you made them smaller and painted them black, they would become practically invisable. I may have to give your tutorial a try. Don't think it will be this year though. Too much going on right now. But thanks for posting this. I will be bookmarking it for later.

Randy,

Very cool effect! I know absolutely nothing about micrcontrollers, but did look this one up on the net. Where does one look to learn about this stuff? I need to learn from the ground up what these things do and how to make them do that, what kind of computer you need, the programs to run, etc. Do you have any suggestions where to start?

Those led you were using were likely surface mount diodes or SMD's. I recently modified my wiimotes with them in various colors. Approx 50 mcd's at 1.5 volt. You can find them online for around $.30 each, lots cheaper than the incandecent rice bulbs. Just google SMD 0603 (beware, these things are TINY!). I'll make one tonight in green, and if I still have it white and yellow too, and will post pics/vids. Could be a great way of making more for cheap.

Right on Mitaccio. Doing this with an LED, I figure, would last a lot longer too. The bulbs are rated at 1,000 hours. I recall those LEDs are so small they are pesky to solder too. lol I look forward to your post with... ... anticipation.

This is gettin' good!

Standing by for more cool stuff.

Look what you started Mike.