I have a smelter that has furnaces that I'd like to illuminate to simulate their firing by installing varying brightness red LEDs in. Ideally, some automatic pulsating/adjustment in the circuit would be nice, but a regular pattern of glowing and fading is acceptable. I Googled up a bunch of potential candidate circuits, so many it made me wonder if someone has already done this and can recommend one that worked for them.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Not a smelter, but I used an arc welder circuit for the red and yellow LEDs inside a beehive sawdust burner at a lumber mill. I don't recall exactly which one I used but seem to recall that it was a kit from Australia. Some arc welder circuits go continuously, some have built-in pauses, and some even have sound effects.
Try http://www.ngineering.com/
skagitrailbird Try http://www.ngineering.com/
Yeah, that's the ticket
On This page: http://www.ngineering.com/lighting%20effects%20for%20structures.htm
The Furnace / Forge / Sawdust Burner Simulator looks like it'll do the trick.
Cacole's suggestion is a good one, too, but this kit looks specifically to do what I need.
COuld probbaly whip up a simple program for a PIC or AUrdino to do it. Wouldn;t need much more than the chip, some LEDs, and resistors.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker COuld probbaly whip up a simple program for a PIC or AUrdino to do it. Wouldn;t need much more than the chip, some LEDs, and resistors. --Randy
I could kidnap my wife's RaspberryPi, but she'd raise heck when she finds it's missing
For a one-off project, Ngineering offers a pretty neat little turn-key solution, so probably best for me in this case. If I borrowed from my wife, she might get it back in non-fucntional form if I experiment with it.
Not sure if this is what you're talking about:
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/fire-led.html
I have purchased other LEDs from Evans Designs, but not these.
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
PC99,
Looks like a great product, might have to get one for my hobo camp.
What I;m working in now is a somewhat more formal and well-financed fire. I managed to get the thing fired up this evening. It's not pulsing like I hope it will when I get my Ngineering "fire drivers", but hey, these are stills, so just imagine that happening...
Looks good so far, the flickering should turn out OK
I hope this does not sound sacreligious, but those newer LED votive lights that one can buy at BJ's and other places, usually about 24 for under $15.00, are already set up to "flicker" and are already wired with a resistor in the circuit.
They run on 3 or 4 button batteries, but are easily wired into an AC circuit. I would not change the circuit, but it's perhaps a less expensive quantity purchase alternative.
Cedarwoodron
Cedarwoodron,
Good tip. I'll keep it in mind, sounds like they might yield a good campfire, house fire, etc with the flickering.
I'm after something a bit different with the furnaces, which is why the Ngineering description sounded so right on.
"This module generates a slow, random undulating brightness output for either a single LED, or 2 series-wired LEDs. The effect replicates the glow seen in furnaces, forges and wigwam (sawdust) burners."
So I want something that's not regular, but is also an effect that rises and falls without a sharp cutoff. I'm really looking forward to seeing if it works well, I'm also going to try rigging another red LED lower down through a NAND gate, so that when both furnaces go low at the same time, it will fire up to make it look like they're tapping the hot metal at the bottom of the furnace. Not sure if that will work or not, but if it does it'll really make this thing come alive.
Got the parts together and decided to work on this project tonight. The results are pretty darn good.
Gonna try inserting a video...
https://vimeo.com/91384674?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfDkwYjIzN2JiYzI2NWUwYzliMDBmZjU1MGQwYzk2MjI2NDI1fDI2NzIzNTY4fDEzOTY5MzQzMDR8NzcwMQ%3D%3D
I think it's working, so here's another short one...
https://vimeo.com/91384675
And a rear view...
https://vimeo.com/91387938
Here are some pics of the guts of my "furnaces."
The parts: I made the "furnaces" from pieces of PVC cut and painted, brown on the outside and gloss white inside, to simulate firebrick. I use the big phat 10 mm red LEDs you an get at Radio Shack for the "molten" stuff. The black Ngineering N8046 module is in the center, with the two supplied resistors in the tiny white cardholder to its upper left. A resistor is only needed if you do NOT use two LEDs in series, as the module itself provide protective resistance for the LEDs. You also get some excellent 36 gauge wire to hook the module up.
I had some 470 ohm resistors on the LEDs for protection, as I was running them without the Ngineering modules first. I bypassed them with a short piece of wire. You can see how this is assembled with simple stuff and CA to hold it together.
The N8046 allows two 20 ma LEDs to be wired in series. I added a side-firing LED to the circuit on each "furnace." This lights up to enhance the glow from the mouth of the "furnace." I angled them slightly upward to overcome the narrow angle of visible light LEDs produce. I'm considering lining the inside of the furnace building with foil to enhance the effect further.
And the assembled LEDs and modules, ready to install.
See pics and videos above for the results.
I used another N8046 to animate my black foam core slash burner behind the sawmill in Rockwood. The "action" is the same as the furnaces. Just still pics for now, but might do a video if people are interested.
The "screened top" of the teepee-like structure was made of leftover pieces of the fine material that Walthers provides in their chain link fence kits. I need to cut some thin styrene strips, paint 'em black and glue them on to represent the supporting frame for the mesh spark catcher.
The rest of it is made of a front portion of a round piece of hard plastic protective bubble cut into the semi-circular shape. I left it clear. The next part is similarly cut to shape and is part of the bottom of a plastic Sobe juice drink bottle. It's got some corrugations that aid the effect. I painted it with ModelMaster iridescent red , used to make stoplight lenses. The very back is a smaller semi-circle of foil tape, so it doesn't shine on the backdrop.
I used two rectangular LEDs from Radio Shack. I may lower them, not sure, so none is visible, but they seem to work well.
Anyway, a distant view, then a couple of close-ups.