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?

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!

"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.

I need to take a ****, everyone! I just thought I would let the whole
world
know.

Well, it couldn't hurt, and it *might* be an improvement.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"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.


ROTFL! PB can be an obnoxious son of a bitch, but sometimes he hits it
right on, you have to admit. Kind of like Donald Rumsfeld at some of
his press briefings (whom I otherwise truly abhor as a public
official, for the record).

Anyways, no hard feelings, Jay ;-) I for one don't mind the mild
spamming, and don't consider it abusive. Besides, I think Jay posts
here because he loves what he is doing, not for a direct profit
motive. Member galleries like his are very common with IRC groups,
BTW, that's nothing new under the sun. I *am* mildly annoyed at the
occasional cheerleading for our eternally righteous leader, but even
that is within parameters, any time you have a group of real people,
politics will eventually come up. Besides, they are more interesting
to bounce off of people you have something else in common than bunch
of strangers in soc.politics.* who think VOR is a an '80s metal band
;-)

Martin