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Step 13Runway Landing Lights
There is a memorable scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind where the landing lights are turned on in anticipation of the approaching space ships. As a subtle homage to the movie, I wanted to build my own for the display.
The main materials were 24 used battery operated tap lights, 12 strands of LED Christmas lights, 6 furring channels ten feet in length (available at Home Depot for $6.63 each) and a T4 four channel light chaser made by American DJ (less than $60).
First, gut the tap lights and remove the bulb, battery box and tapping mechanism. Glue the white domes into place. Use your handy dandy Dremel tool (an essential tool for this entire project) to cut evenly spaced openings in the furring channels along with larger holes in the tap light bases. Dremel off the ends of the LED Christmas bulbs (so they become frosted/muted) and tape them together in groups of four (for extra brightness) in intervals that will reach with the openings in the channels.
Connect three channels together end-to-end with hinges to create 2 thirty foot runs (which can fold up to ten feet for storage). Screw the tap light bases onto the channels and feed the Christmas lights within the channels so the bulbs come up through the bases. Lay them out according to the chart. (You'll have to string together two sets of lights for the third and fourth runs.) Enclose the bottom of the channels with duct tape, then spray paint a flat black color (while covering the bulbs). Place the domes back on the bases, plug each run into the T4 chase controller, set the desired speed and you're good to go...runway lights with no computer programing knowledge necessary.
(In case you were wondering, yes that is a lawn on my roof, but we'll save that for another instructable another day.)
The main materials were 24 used battery operated tap lights, 12 strands of LED Christmas lights, 6 furring channels ten feet in length (available at Home Depot for $6.63 each) and a T4 four channel light chaser made by American DJ (less than $60).
First, gut the tap lights and remove the bulb, battery box and tapping mechanism. Glue the white domes into place. Use your handy dandy Dremel tool (an essential tool for this entire project) to cut evenly spaced openings in the furring channels along with larger holes in the tap light bases. Dremel off the ends of the LED Christmas bulbs (so they become frosted/muted) and tape them together in groups of four (for extra brightness) in intervals that will reach with the openings in the channels.
Connect three channels together end-to-end with hinges to create 2 thirty foot runs (which can fold up to ten feet for storage). Screw the tap light bases onto the channels and feed the Christmas lights within the channels so the bulbs come up through the bases. Lay them out according to the chart. (You'll have to string together two sets of lights for the third and fourth runs.) Enclose the bottom of the channels with duct tape, then spray paint a flat black color (while covering the bulbs). Place the domes back on the bases, plug each run into the T4 chase controller, set the desired speed and you're good to go...runway lights with no computer programing knowledge necessary.
(In case you were wondering, yes that is a lawn on my roof, but we'll save that for another instructable another day.)
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