N scale kerosene lantern that flickers


mrstargate

mrstargate

New Member
Hi all! I'm new to the forum and have posted my intro. So as I mentioned in my intro I'm working toward an N scale mining layout based on the Possum Valley logging layout. I've pictured in my mind many times how certain scenes of the layout will look, and quickly realized that because of the era I've chosen--late 1800s/early 1900s--that kerosene lanterns were a likely element. I could just picture one of my mine shafts entrances lit by a series of flickering kerosene lanterns. Some google searching revealed I was in for a task. I tried a few approaches and kept winding up with a lantern of a scale size around 3ft...that wasn't going to do. But I kept at it and I have something that I'm pretty satisfied with. I'm attaching the first picture of my first attempt. It comes out to an N scale size of 17 inches, which I found totally acceptable, and it flickers. Total electrical components is 4 including the led the lantern is built around, and the rest of the materials are readily available. What's next to be tested are my patience when I attempt to build them in mass. This picture is just a still, taken in daylight since my table is right next to a glass door. When I have a darker room I'll take a short video of the lantern showing it illuminated and flickering. If anyone is interested please just let me know and I'll post detailed steps when I start building the next couple.
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Thank you! I found that the intro disappears when I attempt to create a link to this post. Luckily I was able to recover the text and repost my intro.
 
Well took me a little while to get back here...work keeping me busy and in the middle of a move. Good thing about that is now I'll actually have the space to start working on a layout...yay! So here's a video of the flickering lantern. I didn't realize how hard it would be to actually capture the flicker action on a video, so to exaggerate it enough to show up, I removed the capacitor that smooths out the flickering action. It does show up though. So in the video you see three leds; the top most led is the raw lamp that the lantern is constructed from, flickering independently on its own circuit. Below that is the actual lantern on its own circuit. It is noticeably more dim than the raw led due to the 'top' and paint. In the lower left corner you can see one of the 'master' leds on the breadboard that actually creates the flicker in the circuit. Cool thing is, if you have enough of these going on in your layout, the larger flicker leds could actually be used inside a building or something like that since the size would not be an issue. And you would never know that it flickers at exactly the same rate as another led somewhere else on the layout. I envision using a couple of these inside a mine tunnel to create the effect of lantern light, but since you won't see them the larger ones will work. I hope to start building a batch of the lanterns soon, and will document the process from start to finish here.

I've never used facebook to provide a public video link, so I hope this works. [video]https://www.facebook.com/orion.lukasik/videos/vb.1420182258/10213240188065492/?type=2&theater[/video]
 
If possible, you may consider posting your video on YouTube. Many of us here don't (or won't) have a Facebook account. I'd love to see that flickering lantern, though. Building it using an LED was very thoughtful approach! :cool:
 
Thanks flyboy. I was wondering if the 'public' setting on the video would make it accessible to anyone, but apparently not. I'll see about resurrecting an old youtube account I used to have. I definitely would not have a facebook account myself if it weren't to serve business purposes.

I've dreamed about my layout for at least a couple of years now. And from the very beginning the idea of a flickering lantern became an obsession. I originally wanted to do it with fiber optic but couldn't see how to make that work for lanterns in various positions...hanging, sitting on various objects etc. Once I found a small enough LED that solved a lot of the issues, and wire or electrical conductors can be concealed in a lot of creative ways. The one in the first picture is painted rusty brown and dusted with dirty brown weathering powder and looks pretty darn good if I say so myself. And they should get better as I make more.
 
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