Need Help with Lighting Supplies

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hey guys, me and a friend are going to partake on making a ‘TARDIS’ Christmas Ornament in a few weeks or so.

Its not going to be that big, small enough to hang on a tree without pulling the branch to the floor.

The issue is it needs lighting, a slow flashing Light for the top (like a lighthouse) and a non flashing one for the windows.

I know how we are going to place them so they dont all light up everything.

The issue is 2 fold,

First is that all the stuff I find for lighting has a HUGE circut board, well not huge, but to big for a christmas ornament.

Second where can I get these things online, dunno any shops around that would carry them.

2

Micro-Mark sells a circuit board that is 1/2" x 1-1/2" with the height of the resistors and capacitors at 1/2". It is made for a lighthouse model and has an adjustable rate. Haven’t checked lately but I think the price is around $25.00. It comes with a transformer and light. I think there is a place on the board to put a steady light too. We have a porcelain lighthouse on the stereo in the living room with one of these set-ups. I put an small micro switch in the line also so we can turn it on and off when we want. Works great. Hope this helps.

Jim [cptn]

3

Check your LHS model railroad lighting section, Smeagol… LEDs, Grain of Wheat, and Grain of Rice bulbs are all over the place. Look for HO or O scale EOT (End Of Train) lights for LED flashers… Caboose light sets are available too…

Example:

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mtr/mtr100cb201.htm

4

I looked at alot of railroading stuff but they all had circuit boards which were to big in the long run for such a small project.

We eventually settled on using

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/dcflasher.html

and

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/mi.html

were gona make the bottom part of the Tardis on a hinge so we can open it and replace batteries.

5

Dayum… Must be pretty small if an HO or N-scale caboose EOT/light kit won’t fit…

6

It probably wont be more then an square inch or so and maybe 2, at most, tall, and it has to have an inner box inorder to keep the flashing top light from interfiering with the ones on the sides so yea, pretty small