[dawinter]

Some of you will get a kick out of this...

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/dawinter/Men%20at%20work.AVI

What you can do with an old AM radio and a blue LED /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif

Dave

 

[wmumpower]

What..!!  No face shield...No googles..!!  Geez I'll have to turn you into OSHA.  /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gifOh, that's right.  You're Canadian.  Your workers can get away with that..../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue2.gif

That's a neat effect.  How about a little explanation as to how it's done.

 

[Burl]

Yeah, but they're both gonna go blind if they don't have welding masks!

 

[SteveC]

Sight isn't going to be much of a concern, if there happens to be any leaks in either of them tanks behind'em. Nice old ways still do the job, driving the lamp off the audio signal, very nice Dave.

 

[dawinter]

Posted By wmumpower on 02/08/2008 7:07 PM
What..!!  No face shield...No googles..!!  Geez I'll have to turn you into OSHA.  /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gifOh, that's right.  You're Canadian.  Your workers can get away with that..../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue2.gif

That's a neat effect.  How about a little explanation as to how it's done.





The guy on the box has goggles.  The 'supervisor' does not.  Is that a surprise? /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif

Get an old AM radio.  Remember amplitude modulation?  Too young eh?  Anyway, turn it to a station with good volume and cut the wires going to the speaker.  Attach the leads to a common 2mm LED  (blue in this case but I have used white) and it will light at an random audio rate.  This particular;ar one seemed to be polarity sensitive so I just turned it around the other way.

Once I had it working (I ran it for a few hours too see that the 'station' didn't fade away) I set the volume and tone for the best flash and put it under the layout with a new, longer pair running through a hole in the 'ground' under some pipes the guy is welding.

Piece of cake. Give it a try.  IF you can find an AM radio.  I picked this up as a junk shop for $2.00.

Dave

 

[Greg Stevens]

Majorly cool Dave. It looks real.

 

[Semper Vaporo]

Ummm. it does NOT "require" an AM radio... an FM will work just the same... so would a tape recorder... anything that produces a randomly varying voltage will do. The Audio from an AM radio is no different than the audio from an FM radio. People sometimes us an AM radio for this type of thing because an FM radio, when tuned to a non station will squelch the audio and produce no sound (thus no varying voltage) whereas an AM radio will produce a hiss and sometimes that hiss is random enough to drive the LED and make it flicker. If you are tuned to a station then any type of radio will do.

 

[dawinter]

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 02/09/2008 12:35 AM
Ummm. it does NOT "require" an AM radio... an FM will work just the same... so would a tape recorder... anything that produces a randomly varying voltage will do. The Audio from an AM radio is no different than the audio from an FM radio. People sometimes us an AM radio for this type of thing because an FM radio, when tuned to a non station will squelch the audio and produce no sound (thus no varying voltage) whereas an AM radio will produce a hiss and sometimes that hiss is random enough to drive the LED and make it flicker. If you are tuned to a station then any type of radio will do.



Your right of course.  

I've used a card from an old answering machine.  I just like that warm AM noise.

 

[digger]

Now that is neat!  That LED would seem to be bright enough to show up out of doors.  Shouldn't be too hard to configure the electronics and build a little weatherproof unit to hide in a shed../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif

 

[Dave F]

Very cool...
Now I need to add another line to my "Project lsit".

 

[Torby]

That supervisor's going to have an awful headache.

Great welding effect!