flickering leds... you'll love this...

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paul ron

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out of curiosity, i did an autopsy on one of those led flikering candles to see if it had some kind of control electronics...

there is NO electronics at all! the led has all the flickering built in. so if you want flickering cabins or lanterns, just pull the led out of the candles and wire m up in parallel with a 3v power source n you are good to go.

these led flickering tea lights are dirt cheap at dollar stores. so cheap, even the batteries, 2 AR44 buttons, are more expensive if bought seperately. i get m at dollar tree, 3 for $1.25. cant beat that!

so im going to make lanterns for all my ships.
 
paul ron said:
these led flickering tea lights are dirt cheap at dollar stores. so cheap, even the batteries, 2 AR44 buttons, are more expensive if bought seperately. i get m at dollar tree, 3 for $1.25. cant beat that!
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Great idea. We probably have 30 of these flickering candles in the house. I hope she does not notice when a few are missing from the shelves and wind up on a model................ nah, not worth the grief, buying them as you describe is a better idea..... :)
Allan
 
For years I have used them in dollshouse fireplaces wrapped into creased red cellophan, but that's another story....
 
Check out this Amazon item. Very cheap and easy to use LED's
/www.amazon.com/EDGELEC-Flickering-Flicking-Emitting-Resistors/dp/B0785G1SBP/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8HB5seOwM6gHmS0ZvToG1BmPPBFSloU8ShFOKLnX4WGBr-lD52OtxoOrsV-gItZXSFqpd2oZAafCD-gC8tqyjfbtj0AsJ55MCs-IzH0NUrugVw8W62rVwccAPPq7-mTov6s2X3gvCSUjVWW9oY853lVEKz6jFpvYojkyd8WdSkCDxFpCvApKR2T_an0z2zscn2Yb9howBx5Vn2-tftPZdo8XdlGiGPTAdEvBK7s2X7sddpEtFUjC0RpNYkAxgjwvdx-VKACp3SdJnvzISlHC0uvl35o-3uM8aSNQPWcQHsCTYDKyfbaD0bcklFKP0JZMe7086n_tmp5H8W_F87gFnA93QFJrzDPaZDpICeUQV6NcVlFF92ZKqjFMJa7FDN5I11PD-Qs4Tlhhu2n1kHIryLVC4eIo19Z3RYpVIu7I1pLnKG7_Aq8IjvOmMm8M2JNN.jg3J5c63iJ5zG5wYsP-e1Y_4iZQ53yCE3vdRMuF3r1g&dib_tag=se&keywords=LED%2Bflicker%2Blights&qid=1739628932&sr=8-6&th=1
 
AllanKP69 said:
Great idea. We probably have 30 of these flickering candles in the house. I hope she does not notice when a few are missing from the shelves and wind up on a model................ nah, not worth the grief, buying them as you describe is a better idea..... :)
Allan
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Yes, but they'll look so much better on the model!
 
I am a little bit more cautious of those flickering lights. With the brightness they have and the flickering and transferring it to the scale, this much gives the impression of the ship being completely ablaze

Seen the scale lights should be quite dim and leveled as those small lanterns were not really ww2 areal search lights.
XXXDAn
 
dafi said:
I am a little bit more cautious of those flickering lights. With the brightness they have and the flickering and transferring it to the scale, this much gives the impression of the ship being completely ablaze

Seen the scale lights should be quite dim and leveled as those small lanterns were not really ww2 areal search lights.
XXXDAn
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A simple way to correct the brightness is to apply a few drops of black paint to the bulb until you find your desired brightness.
Most LEDs are 3 volts, so if you hooked 4 of them up in a series, you get 12 VDC. Amazon has many inexpensive 12VDC plug-in power supplies
 
Most LED's do have a range of power and depending on the supply, may need an appropriate resistor in series too....
 
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A word of caution, ensure you use a heat sink with the flickering LEDs when soldering wires to the legs. The LEDs have tiny chips in them that don’t like heat, fried a few before I realised they are less heat tolerant than normal LEDs.
Regarding brightness, I am using an inexpensive voltage regulator inside my latest model. The digital readout gives you a starting point, start with 2.8 volts and slowly work up. 12 volt power supply to the model and no resistors, a whole lot easier to wire up and you have control of the brightness. Mixing normal and flickering LEDs on a model will help dull down the towering inferno look and make the effect more subtle if you are lighting a full deck.
 
Paul, did the LEDs you tested for the lanterns, blink slowly, realistically, in1:48 scale for 1800 's ship ?
I'm having trouble finding low-brightness yellow LEDs in 2 or 3 mm bulbs with these characteristics.
Can they be wired in parallel , directly from the power source ? Without some kind of flash strobe control ?
 
the tea light leds dont need any electronics, just a power source. the tea light has 2 ar44 button cells... thats 3vdc. you wire them directly to the power source.

they dont blink... they flicker like a candle. it will dim then get brighter like a candle randomly flickers in an air current.

to dim them, as someone mentioned, paint black stripes or cover it with a paper dome. make lanterns out of them.

the amazon leds look great because they come in different sizes... the 3mm leds would be perfect in lanterns on deck. it would be fun building lanterns around these leds. because the power draw is so low, you probably could run blackened #34 ga wire to them concealed very nicely.
 
Genesis said:
Check out this Amazon item. Very cheap and easy to use LED's
/www.amazon.com/EDGELEC-Flickering-Flicking-Emitting-Resistors/dp/B0785G1SBP/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8HB5seOwM6gHmS0ZvToG1BmPPBFSloU8ShFOKLnX4WGBr-lD52OtxoOrsV-gItZXSFqpd2oZAafCD-gC8tqyjfbtj0AsJ55MCs-IzH0NUrugVw8W62rVwccAPPq7-mTov6s2X3gvCSUjVWW9oY853lVEKz6jFpvYojkyd8WdSkCDxFpCvApKR2T_an0z2zscn2Yb9howBx5Vn2-tftPZdo8XdlGiGPTAdEvBK7s2X7sddpEtFUjC0RpNYkAxgjwvdx-VKACp3SdJnvzISlHC0uvl35o-3uM8aSNQPWcQHsCTYDKyfbaD0bcklFKP0JZMe7086n_tmp5H8W_F87gFnA93QFJrzDPaZDpICeUQV6NcVlFF92ZKqjFMJa7FDN5I11PD-Qs4Tlhhu2n1kHIryLVC4eIo19Z3RYpVIu7I1pLnKG7_Aq8IjvOmMm8M2JNN.jg3J5c63iJ5zG5wYsP-e1Y_4iZQ53yCE3vdRMuF3r1g&dib_tag=se&keywords=LED%2Bflicker%2Blights&qid=1739628932&sr=8-6&th=1
Click to expand...
check out the @Genesis post #4 link above for small 3mm leds btw you dont need the resistors if you use 3vdc. the resistors are if you want to use a higher voltage source.
 
paul ron said:
the tea light leds dont need any electronics, just a power source. the tea light has 2 ar44 button cells... thats 3vdc. you wire them directly to the power source.

they dont blink... they flicker like a candle. it will dim then get brighter like a candle randomly flickers in an air current.

to dim them, as someone mentioned, paint black stripes or cover it with a paper dome. make lanterns out of them.

the amazon leds look great because they come in different sizes... the 3mm leds would be perfect in lanterns on deck. it would be fun building lanterns around these leds. because the power draw is so low, you probably could run blackened #34 ga wire to them concealed very nicely.
Click to expand...
Paul, thanks a lot for your help, I'll look on Amazon.
Regards
Luiz Bruno
 
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