Building chasing airport lights -- Attn: Jim Weir?

Today a pilot-guest had the coolest idea for the side-entrance to our lobby:
"Chasing" lights recessed in the drop-ceiling tiles, leading to the main
lobby area, that look just like the "rabbit" lights that lead to the
approach end of a runway!

(Background: Over half of our guests come in the "wrong" door to our lobby,
which leads more directly to the pilot's lounge than to the reservation
desk. As a result, we've often got people milling around looking "lost" in
the pilot's lounge. These chasing lights would "lead" them to the correct
area, and be really cool looking, too.)

So, I stopped at the local Rat Shack, and found the perfect little 12 volt
blue lights, 1/2 inch in diameter. (Blue would be a bit toned-down from
white strobes!) It would be a simple matter to drill 1/2 inch holes in the
ceiling tiles, every 12 inches or so, and push them through the tiles from
above so that only the blue "dome" was sticking out through the hole. I
think 12 volt lighting would be safer in the ceiling than 120 volt Christmas
lights, as a couple of people have suggested...

Here's the problem: How to sequence them? The guys at Radio Shack had NO
advice at all -- they were all stumped. The lights should flash
sequentially pretty fast, but I think they'd look pretty stupid if they
weren't coordinated properly. I'd also want to incorporate a motion
detector on/off switch, so that they weren't running all the time.

Anyone got any ideas? Are there affordable electronic "sequencers"
available? Is this something RST Engineering could build for me, Jim?

Thanks!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:GBCPb.117569$xy6.376015@attbi_s02...


Anyone got any ideas? Are there affordable electronic "sequencers"
available? Is this something RST Engineering could build for me, Jim?

Shouldn't be very hard. How many of these bulbs you going to use?

In article GBCPb.117569$xy6.376015@attbi_s02,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Here's the problem: How to sequence them? The guys at Radio Shack had NO
advice at all -- they were all stumped.

The guys at most radio shacks these days can't change the batteries in a
flashlight without a training video and a map.

25 years ago, I would have grabbed a 555 timer, a 4-bit counter, and a
4-to-16 demux out of my TTL collection and built a sequencer in an
afternoon for about $10 in parts. The breadboard it was built on would
have cost more than the chips. Of course, if I told you I was going to
use it to drive a series of blue LED's, you'd look at me like I was nuts
(everybody in those days knew it was theoretically impossible to build a
blue LED).

I wish I knew were all that stuff went. I can only guess it got tossed
when mom sold the house a few years back.

Shouldn't be very hard. How many of these bulbs you going to use?

Not sure, but I'd guesstimate between 20 and 30.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You mentioned Christmas lights, some of those have sequencers attatched.
Maybe you can adapt the controller off of something like that.
--
Jim Burns III

Remove "nospam" to reply

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:GBCPb.117569$xy6.376015@attbi_s02...
Today a pilot-guest had the coolest idea for the side-entrance to our
lobby:
"Chasing" lights recessed in the drop-ceiling tiles, leading to the main
lobby area, that look just like the "rabbit" lights that lead to the
approach end of a runway!

(Background: Over half of our guests come in the "wrong" door to our
lobby,
which leads more directly to the pilot's lounge than to the reservation
desk. As a result, we've often got people milling around looking "lost"
in
the pilot's lounge. These chasing lights would "lead" them to the correct
area, and be really cool looking, too.)

So, I stopped at the local Rat Shack, and found the perfect little 12 volt
blue lights, 1/2 inch in diameter. (Blue would be a bit toned-down from
white strobes!) It would be a simple matter to drill 1/2 inch holes in
the
ceiling tiles, every 12 inches or so, and push them through the tiles from
above so that only the blue "dome" was sticking out through the hole. I
think 12 volt lighting would be safer in the ceiling than 120 volt
Christmas
lights, as a couple of people have suggested...

Here's the problem: How to sequence them? The guys at Radio Shack had NO
advice at all -- they were all stumped. The lights should flash
sequentially pretty fast, but I think they'd look pretty stupid if they
weren't coordinated properly. I'd also want to incorporate a motion
detector on/off switch, so that they weren't running all the time.

Anyone got any ideas? Are there affordable electronic "sequencers"
available? Is this something RST Engineering could build for me, Jim?

Thanks!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:57:58 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Today a pilot-guest had the coolest idea for the side-entrance to our lobby:
"Chasing" lights recessed in the drop-ceiling tiles, leading to the main
lobby area, that look just like the "rabbit" lights that lead to the
approach end of a runway!

You might search on rope lights. Here's an example:

http://www.all-lights.com/IBS/Simple...rchy/0401.html

Don

This sounds like a horrible idea, actually. Someone is going to have a grand
mal seizure right there in the lobby.

Here is my very brilliant idea of the week: why don't you send Jim Weird
(Mr. Fantastic) a private e-mail?
I need to take a ****, everyone! I just thought I would let the whole world
know.


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:GBCPb.117569$xy6.376015@attbi_s02...
Today a pilot-guest had the coolest idea for the side-entrance to our
lobby:
"Chasing" lights recessed in the drop-ceiling tiles, leading to the main
lobby area, that look just like the "rabbit" lights that lead to the
approach end of a runway!

OK. Back when I was in college I worked part time for a company called
Coastal Sales NW. They manufactured and distributed sign parts. Their rotors
were especially good. What you want is called a "chaser." These devices were
once very expensive, but now they can be had for less than $100. Digital
Lighting Systems makes good ones. http://digitallighting.com/index.html You
probably want the BC series for your low voltage system. A guy could go nuts
wandering through their on-line catalog. Christmas light chasers are
probably too low voltage for your application, although blue LED Christmas
lights might work well and the whole string only uses 5 volts.

If the lights are too bright they will indeed induce seizures in the
susceptible. Red lights and white lights are worse than the blue lights you
propose. This is a problem at theme parks where a lot of rides have flashing
and chasing lights. You will often see signs warning epileptics of the
danger, but under the right circumstances these lights have induced seizures
in persons not known to have had epilepsy. I suspect that having the lights
overhead will increase the level of discomfort.

"plumbus bobbus" wrote in message
news:MbEPb.97212$Rc4.586923@attbi_s54...
|
| Here is my very brilliant idea of the week: why don't you send Jim Weird
| (Mr. Fantastic) a private e-mail?
| I need to take a ****, everyone! I just thought I would let the whole
world
| know.
|

Yes, we can all see that you are full of it.