inspiredStudio

I like the idea! It gave me some inspiration, tnx! I would recommend not to run the power supply on full power for safety reasons. I usually try not to exceed 80% of the rater power on these kinds of projects, just get PS with some more amps.

When you underrun LEDs so that they barely work, they will look much more realistic. And they will not even warm up. If you run them with the full current they will get hot and wat too bright, no point in doing that in miniatures or dioramas.

Never heard of 'pico' naming, but they are very small indeed. I have some that are even smaller, but hard to solder. You can buy some SMD LEDs presoldered to wires, they are used in diorama and miniature builds.

Interesting project, great idea. Maybe nex version should be much smaller/compact?

Nice! Add a so-called Gabriel electrode to initiate the arc, which will work much better. Version 2, a more powerful yet simpler version is coming soon.

How do you want to power it? There are a lot of tiny switches on the market, for example, latching flashlight switches.

There are a lot of methods to make lights turn on/off. What exactly do you want to make?

LEDs are too cool for that. I have some of those LED candles that have been working for many years, still, look like on day one.

I have similar project in works, with some variation to yours :D I’m too late.Video preview would be cool!

I like the look even better without the paintjob :) Cool!

Great project! Maybe add smoother or even wavelike transition?

They do look eerily realistic in real life, even the simpler ones. Especially if they are in diorama or any other setting and you look at it from a little distance.

Hot-glue is really versatile, i used to tell myself, i do not need it. Now i have 4 glue guns and use it almost daily.

I did not get you first question. But in surface mount LED case i use one solid core wire to act as support for wick and flame, and other wireis thinner flexible one. I use resistors depending from the application and power supply, you have to calculate it each time. Voltage varies from project to project, 3.3V, 5V, 12V etc.. Resistor placement varies as well, sometimes I’ll add them to wires, sometimes it's hidden in miniature itself and sometimes i have resistor on controller board.

Tnx!

Tnx. This challenge was the main reason for this instructable :D Had to do in a hurry.

Very creative idea;)

VFD's are my new favorite obsession, along with bubble displays and nixies.Your project is really cool and inspirational :)

One small step towards cleaner planet by recycling! ;)

I live in Estonia, here it's totally different story with thrift stores, though I often visit them with intention to find stuff for my projects. I've been lookout for xenon, or any other noble gas tubes for a year. Though i got some noble gas tubes from china, they are not cheap.

Tnx!

Cool desing! Maybe add small magnets for latching ?

I was just planning just the same thing, but having trouble getting flashlight, None of my photographers friends had it. New ones are too expensive.

I have'nt seen cat litter in jugs in our country, but why not, as long as it's rigid enough it's a good storage unit.

Yeah I know, it bothers me a LOT, but did'nt want to draw attention to it. It as been already replaced ;)

Tnx!

You are right. keeping them out of landfill is one of it's main purposes. I did not have enough containers myself, so I’ve been asking my friends to keep them for me as well. As the years go by I try harder to recycle and produce less waste.

Nice! I’m in the middle of building 3 different formicariums at the moment :) Cool to see fellow ant friends over here.

Step 5 has the wiring diagram? Basically it just connects the booster output to the power supply output.

I have couple of simpler and powerful versions coming soon. And some even more powerful but more dangerous ones.

Royal circuit?

Neat project ;) Tnx for the ideas!

Tnx!

Something like this? I was looking somekind of meter for my higher voltage dc power supply and found this.

I touched the electronics part in "Step 9". There are a lot of possibilities. For me the micro-controller part is fastest and with most realistic result. You can add standard LED's or nowadays you can have fading LED's as well, they are actually quite nice. For powering them you need to do some calculations. Maybe I’ll add some simpler schematics and experiments later. All depends what size fireplace and how many LED's you want to have.In my case this fireplace was part of a window decoration that had almost 1000 LED's in it and was all powered with powerful 5v power supply.

Tnx Bob!

Gen2, will add microcontroller and add some game-like features?

Thanx!

Tnx!

Google the specific model? Contact the seller? I have little experience with this kind of multimeters :(

1. These where spare buck converters i had at the moment. When i took the picture i was still unsure witch one i was going to use.2. LED's near the toggle switches are led's connected from buck converter, they are built in indicators for charging batteries. 2...3. At first i had planned to have built in dummy load for setting the current limit, but ditched the idea in the end, so now it has 1 spare switch and LED.4. In my diagram i have 2 sets of wires connected to multimeter, I attached diagram below.