Suggestions wanted for a lighting trick

I would like to do is create a small and cheap widgit that I can tie onto trees that would do the following.

When I shine a flashlight on a widgit it will turn on a moderately bright LED and will also pass a signal (light, IR, radio, ???) to the next widgit "upstream" causing it to also turn on after about a 1/2 second delay, and so forth all up the daisy-chain.

When I turn the light off, the widgit will send the "turn off" signal up the chain.

I would like to replicate this about 150 times for a special lighting project. The widgits would be roughly 10 feet apart so would have to transmit that far.

The idea is to create "tracks of light" chasing along the edge of a property for an anniversary celebration.

The widgits would be put up for one night so they don't need to be that durable or weather proof.

Budget is (as always) more limited than imagination so cheap is the word!

Any ideas?

how many units are needed and how far apart would they be. Line of sight from unit to unit. and how bright, ie 1,3,5 5mm LEDs, or brighter...

Jeff

As I said...
-about 150 units
-each about 10 ft apart

I think single 5mm led would be bright enough (imagine a firefly type glow racing through the woods)

Oh, and obviously they'd have to run on batteries so running on alkalines would be best.

I may have to scrap the "transmitter" idea and run wires...ugh.

DUH, you did say 150 units. WIRED would be best. to do it wireless would REALLY bump up the cost. If going wired, it should be relatively easy. 3 conductor wire would require 1 power source, 2 wire would need seperate. a simple delay trigger should be able to be built around a 555 timer. voltage from unit one activates timer, after 5 secs (or whatever set delay) timer goes on, lighting the LED and sending the signal to the next unit. I dont think it would be as easy to have the same effect with the off cycle. I will have to look over my engineers notebook for the 555 series. If that would work, part count would be pretty low per unit.

Jeff

hehe, no problem. I look forward to further information, thanks.

Wireless - AA battery, 5mm led, and an IR led and sensor per unit?
Turn one on, led goes on, IR goes on, both go off, next light?

1. Buy some christmas tree lights, incan or LED models are cheap, make sure they have a chaser mode, like these ones
http://ww4.christmasdepot.com/prod.cgi?269002

2. make all the lights the same colour (if that's what you need)
3. Hook the power input up to inverter and use a remote switcher
4. ???
5. Profit!

Navck said:

Wireless - AA battery, 5mm led, and an IR led and sensor per unit?
Turn one on, led goes on, IR goes on, both go off, next light?

Click to expand...

Spot on. Build the delay into the 'detect to light' time. Bummer on the alignment. Like a series string Christmas tree string, a single failure to detect will kill the string from there on.

Sound is another option, perhaps. Each unit chirps to the next in line while listening upstream.

For one night, might as well drive the LEDs good a bright. Fun idea.

Doug Owen

zespectre said:

I would like to do is create a small and cheap widgit that I can tie onto trees that would do the following.

When I shine a flashlight on a widgit it will turn on a moderately bright LED and will also pass a signal (light, IR, radio, ???) to the next widgit "upstream" causing it to also turn on after about a 1/2 second delay, and so forth all up the daisy-chain.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

I suspect a lot could be saved if you control everything from a single point.
That way you only need one transmitter and 150 recievers.
If it's hard wired you don't even need the recievers, just a lot of wire.
It could be done very cheaply with a little wood, a power supply and some wires.

Well the effect I'm looking for is to stand in the middle of a field and shine a flashlight at the edge of the field. Where the light hits, I want it to trigger that LED...and then run a circle around the field. So if I point at 12 o'clock the led "trail" starts there. If I point at 9'oclock it starts from there, and so forth.

The property is an animal rescue place with different sections and as the announcer mentions them (and the donors who keep it all running) I wanted to use the light effects to highlight each section. I suppose finances will cause me to do it with a switchboard or something though. I was just brainstorming for a new and neat effect to see what I (we) could come up with.