Fireflies

[Bill P]

I took Jon?s advice and got a handful of grain-of-wheat bulbs from Radio Shack (272-1140), 6v @25mA.  Then I had to figure out how to display them.  I figured since I had 8 bulbs, I should make some kind of octagon prop.  Used 1/16? brass tubing from the model train store and a small piece of brass to solder them to.  I used 30ga wire-wrap wire.  I ran one lead of the bulb through the tube and soldered the other to the tube, all the wires are connected to the Prop-1 out-0 to out-7, a wire from V+ is connected to the brass plate holding the tubes.  The prop is run on 4-AA batteries (holder from a Parallax Boe-bot kit).  All the wires are a different length from 9? to 36? spaced randomly on the ?spider?.  I hung it from the umbrella on the patio.  At night it really looks like fireflies hovering and flashing.  I could not get any night shots because the lights are too dim and too quick. 

[Bill P]

Photos will not attach and become part of the message.  Any help out there? All suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Bill

[JonnyMac]

You can link to your files if they're hosted somewhere else -- Vern Grainer does this all the time.

[Bill P]

Mechanically & electonically I can grasp what is going on, but when it comes to the internet and how to send photos to a hosted web site for sharing, I am totally at a loss.  I guess it must be a senior moment thing, so I really need help with this.

Bill Plano

[JonnyMac]

You can use a hosting service like PhotoBucket.com to share your photos, then post a link to them.

[Bill P]

Talk about senior moments, I had opened an account in PhotoBucket last year so I could post the video of the Grim Reaper Prop I make.  Thanks for the reminder.  The photos and video can be viewed at:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/BillP_photos/Showingfireflies.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/BillP_photos/Seenfrombelow.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/BillP_photos/Prop-1.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/BillP_photos/Lookingfromabove.jpg
http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/BillP_photos/?action=view&current=PCDV0008.flv

Thanks
Bill P

[JonnyMac]

Perhaps your camera has a manual setting that will let you do a long exposure and you can catch the fireflies in action.  There's a very cool haunt in Santa Monica, CA called "The House of Restless Spirits" that uses the Prop-1 for their fireflies and they really look great.  With long, thin wires a very small breeze will move them.

[Liam]

Fireflies are such a cool effect, and your solution looks quite impressive, Bill.

I might add that I was at Rocky Point last month, and they use LEDs hung off of a very small CPU fan hanging from another wire to blow the fireflies around. Again, this could easily be controlled with a Prop-1 to make them turn on and off. Just another option to consider.

Liam