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Medieval/Victorian/Flame Lighting ideas ...

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core:
First off, I am embarking on this project (hey I did order the 12 candles already!) - no promises as to the pace of progress though   ;)

Secondly, I'm posting to get your generous input, so type away!

I picked up a box of flickering LED candles via ebay (dozen for ~$14 shipped), runs on CR2032 3V, and easy to take apart.  LED is 3mm variety.

core:
At the moment these are some of the Playmobil open flame items I intend to convert.  To keep it authentic I would like to use existing (an currently available via DS) Playmobil items to use as battery holders - for eg, barrel (will fit LR44), chest (fist A123 and N, AAA barely), and under rockies - any other suggestions?

core:
These are a couple of issues I'm considering at the moment (in no particular order):

Lamp Type
The candles already come with the 3mm LED and works quite well (boys and I had fun putting it around all the castle/ships, and turning the room lights down - had plenty of light to play and night scene!), but I will also be sourcing some grain-of-rice bulbs 1.5V which are 1.4mm diameter.  I can also power the grain-of-rice bulbs as steady glow lights and it would be the easiest method.  I'm trying to decide where steady lights would come into a medieval setting (Victorian's easy, gas lamps  ;)).

Wiring
Going to use 30AWG wire along with 80-pin ATA ribbon cable (computer HDD).  Issue here is how much centralized power source vs. power-at-each-light should I go with.  For eg, a campfire or torch with no back-wall, I can use a barrel to house 2x LR44's to power it via a short lead.  Inside/outside a building, I can have several leads running into the chest that houses the batteries.  For power-at-each-light for eg, I mount the LED assembly under the 2x1 roof/floor piece, I can also mount a CR2032 holder there to power it directly.

Battery
I'll try a mix of LR44, CR2032, A123 and AAA and see how it goes.  Any idea how I can make/get a holder for 2x LR44's?

Misc Thots
Although it might not be very 'authentic', I've found that mounting the LED's inside of a roof piece (eg, 2x1 flat, conical, square, etc) works VERY nicely to illuminate a room.

The pirate ships have great potential for lighting, and much easier to mount a battery case and switch, and route the wiring.  (2x main deck light, cabin light, and perhaps one or two from the mast with a lantern).

If I can't drill the flames out to accommodate the LED's, I might go with making some replacement silicon flames.

I'll be ordering a chandelier from DS and try to install 5x grain-of-rice bulbs on it.

Finally, this last picture is at least what I'd envision for standalone lighting; I should be able to fit 2xLR44, the PCB into the barrel, and then wire up the LED to the torch flame.  The puzzler here is getting a small battery holder for the LR44's.

Richard:


Hello, Peter ...

This is a very ambitious undertaking!

Lighting Playmobil lamps, candles, torches, etc. is something that probably many of us have only thought about doing.

I think that quite a few PF members will be very interested in your results.
Hopefully, your results will be simple enough for us to replicate ... :)

As I'm sure you know, Playmobil has offered a "flickering" fireplace as well as lighting kits.
see attachments

Sylvia:
What an exciting project! I'd love to hear if this works and see photos of the end results. 8-)
Lighting the flames on these accessories will really bring your dioramas to life.

Little Jo has had some experience in this area, so he might be able to give advice or make suggestions, if needed. :)

http://www.jr-x.de/playmobil/projekte/crip.html

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