Well, after fiddling around with this thing for weeks, I finally got it done.
I bought the hut at Petsmart months ago. It sat in my tanks, bubble wheel doing the required 90 MPH. But because I'm restless, a bit hardheaded and have way too many creative streaks that I never seem to have time to answer - I decided to stop and try this one.
The idea was to light the porch as if it was lit by an old oil lantern. It had to flicker. But I wanted a random flicker, like a real lantern. I figured there was enough detail on the porch that it would "read" at a distance. The second idea was to light the inside with another light as if there was a fireplace going. I got together with an electronics guy at work and we started brainstorming. He found some circuits, l.e.d.'s and whatnots and soldered everything up. I potted the works to waterproof it, wet tested it and the bonded it to the inside.
I found out the flicker inside was competing with the one outside so I moved it up inside the chimney to backlight the bubbles instead. Came out cool.
This is a temp setup because I want to scratch build a slightly larger hut soon.
The last shot is slightly overexposed. The tank is lit with a single night lunar light after the mains are turned off for the night.
I bought the hut at Petsmart months ago. It sat in my tanks, bubble wheel doing the required 90 MPH. But because I'm restless, a bit hardheaded and have way too many creative streaks that I never seem to have time to answer - I decided to stop and try this one.
The idea was to light the porch as if it was lit by an old oil lantern. It had to flicker. But I wanted a random flicker, like a real lantern. I figured there was enough detail on the porch that it would "read" at a distance. The second idea was to light the inside with another light as if there was a fireplace going. I got together with an electronics guy at work and we started brainstorming. He found some circuits, l.e.d.'s and whatnots and soldered everything up. I potted the works to waterproof it, wet tested it and the bonded it to the inside.
I found out the flicker inside was competing with the one outside so I moved it up inside the chimney to backlight the bubbles instead. Came out cool.
This is a temp setup because I want to scratch build a slightly larger hut soon.
The last shot is slightly overexposed. The tank is lit with a single night lunar light after the mains are turned off for the night.
