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Post by toratora on Oct 29, 2007 11:37:18 GMT -8
I am interested in the grain of rice lights that Dan was telling me about. He said there were a bunch of lights with a programable box. I asked at the Hobby Bench, Micheals and Radio Shack, of course all were clueless. So, where do I find one?
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Post by davewilly on Oct 30, 2007 4:50:53 GMT -8
Micro marks catalog has them. Also model railroader has ad's for them in their magazine. I used to have a box of about 500 of them awhile back. We used them in the N-gauge trains when I worked at Con-Cor.
Dave
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Post by toratora on Oct 30, 2007 6:50:52 GMT -8
Thanks Dave, I will check that out.
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Post by my80malibu on Oct 30, 2007 15:49:04 GMT -8
Hey Dave what was Con-Cor just curious
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:31:27 GMT -8
Greg, Here's what I was telling you about. These were sold at Michael's for several years ... only during Christmas season and in their department for decorating miniature Christmas trees.  It's a set of 25 grain of rice bulbs direct-wired to a small circuit board hidden inside the "gift" package, which also contains a box for two AAA batteries. Wanna see what I'm doing with it? |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:34:18 GMT -8
After I unraveled the bundle and cut the circuit board out of the "gift" package ....  |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:36:23 GMT -8
Then I hooked them up with a car of their very own ...  |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:38:18 GMT -8
But then I covered some of them up ...  |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:39:34 GMT -8
Test fit.  |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:43:47 GMT -8
Did I jump ahead? Okay. Here's what the lightbar engineering looked like.  The domes were individually colored. The bulbs were selected to present the most realistic flash-sequence-pattern possible. The wire bundle/cable torqued so much, it kept breaking epoxy glue, so I drilled and tapped the brackets for small brass screws to bolt the lightbar to the roof. |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:47:15 GMT -8
Here's what the underside looks like ... without the wiring bundle for the beacons. Yes, I wired the Arrowstick (bottom of the lightbar in this pic) to work, also. It flashes sequentially from right to left to move scale traffic around the scale hazard!  |
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 18:51:12 GMT -8
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Post by moonmodler on Oct 30, 2007 18:58:32 GMT -8
The scale perp should have known better than to take on Sheriff Joe (with some help from Danno). Great detailing work Dan.
Bernie
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Post by Danno on Oct 30, 2007 20:14:04 GMT -8
Thanks, Bernie! Oh, yeah, I almost forgot ... Greg's original question: Here's what the typical grain-of-rice bulbs look like in their natural habitat ...  |
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Post by toratora on Oct 30, 2007 22:18:35 GMT -8
Thanks for the explanation and photos Dan, Very impressive detail as usual.
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