Topic: Using Broken glass shards in front of an LED fire effect

[Clonehead]

I came across this by accident. I had been working on the T2 cab, adding a lighted fire effect to the coin doors with LED nano lights and a programmable light controller for train enthusiasts. In the night, as old guys do, I stumbled to the bathroom and had knocked this glass jar ” the one with the cotton balls I had dipped into for a light diffuser” right off the counter to smash onto the floor. While picking up the glass, I wondered how the LED nano lights would react to shining through the glass. I had worked with fiber optics before and liked the idea of being able to move the light anyways. I found with particular placement, the shards would not only transfer light like the fiber but would sometimes magnify and intensify it.

I will experiment more but Check out this video. The digital camera has a hard time capturing the appearance correctly but this stuff looks wild
https://youtu.be/vlaDEFTHqss

[Tamer]

Thanks for sharing this Clint. Awesome effect.

Definitely on the front pages.

[Clonehead]

For the led fire effect, the cheaper route to take is definitely this $12 set of pico chip leds tied to a 3 way fire circuit. 1 red Flickr and 2 yellow blinks at different speeds.  It has a built in resistor,A model rectifying device also makes it work for ac/dc/dcc “digital command and control for digital model train stuff” and, I believe at either polarity. Pretty easy to hook up. Works at 5-19 volts, what a range, so, with this small set, the scale campfire could be emulated well enough and powered by a 9 volt battery, if you wanted.

I’ll try to shoot some test footage of this and the other two fire emulation circuits that I bought so you can see how they run and how they would need to be powered.

[Tamer]

Looking forward to seeing the video on this.

[Clonehead]

Still stumbling around with the editing on these, soundtrack as well.
The good stuff starts at about 2:00
I need to chop off that first part

I was on the deck looking for twigs at 5:00 this morning for the campfire

Haven’t thrown any glass or fiber at it yet for flames but this will give you an idea where you can start and how easy it is.

That is an old diorama I had started years ago to experiment with staining the plaster of Paris-cast rocks

https://youtu.be/OFQHxx7eaWE

[Tamer]

Looks like it works pretty good to me.

Off to share.

[Clonehead]

More video and a couple attempts at
Visualizing a smoke effect

Glass over hot glue over wax paper
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jGUvmzuMBzc

[JDeck]

That is an awesome effect. Good smoke to fire ratio. My diorama campfires are smoke heavy, maybe my firewood is wet.

[Starchaser]

That is an awesome effect. Good smoke to fire ratio. My diorama campfires are smoke heavy, maybe my firewood is wet.

Starchaser's response
Snicker, snicker...

[Starchaser]

I think the effect is stellar. The colors are excellent. It looks a lot the fire I had in my fire-pit just a week ago. I'd say your experimenting is paying off.

[JDeck]

That is an awesome effect. Good smoke to fire ratio. My diorama campfires are smoke heavy, maybe my firewood is wet.

Starchaser's response
Snicker, snicker...

  At first I typed wood then I thought, what would Beavis say?  Lol I didn't know how to phrase it without sounding bad.  What I was saying was some wood is hotter than others. Lol I can't.

[Clonehead]

I think “what would Beavis say? “ would make a great t- shirt slogan.

Here is another of those fire circuits. This one, will also run off of a 9 volts battery. 9-12 volts is the range on this one. I see connections to daisy chain multiple circuits together in a line.
2 outputs, probably good for ten or so leds each. 1flicker and one flash
There is a screw I can turn to adjust the speed of the effects higher or lower for both simultaneously. I like the action on this one and the speed adjuster. I Just wish it had more than just 2 things going on at the same time.

This one combined with the last array would be perfect, you could make all of that variety look very convincing with the right light color and placement

[Tamer]

Sure seems like a nice effect to me.

[Starchaser]

That is an awesome effect. Good smoke to fire ratio. My diorama campfires are smoke heavy, maybe my firewood is wet.

Starchaser's response
Snicker, snicker...

  At first I typed wood then I thought, what would Beavis say?  Lol I didn't know how to phrase it without sounding bad.  What I was saying was some wood is hotter than others. Lol I can't.

I think you should stop now 
Seriously though, I live in the Pacific Northwest and am very aware of how much the age and water content of branches and  split tree trunks can impact the smokiness of a fire - there I did that without invoking Beavis or Butthead

[Starchaser]

I think “what would Beavis say? “ would make a great t- shirt slogan.

Here is another of those fire circuits. This one, will also run off of a 9 volts battery. 9-12 volts is the range on this one. I see connections to daisy chain multiple circuits together in a line.
2 outputs, probably good for ten or so leds each. 1flicker and one flash
There is a screw I can turn to adjust the speed of the effects higher or lower for both simultaneously. I like the action on this one and the speed adjuster. I Just wish it had more than just 2 things going on at the same time.

This one combined with the last array would be perfect, you could make all of that variety look very convincing with the right light color and placement

That's a pretty cool set up, but it looks bulky enough that "hiding it" could be a challenge, I would think.