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Light O'Rama - anyone use it?

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Ed_McCarron:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on December 29, 2012, 10:59:28 pm ---Looks easy enough but man, I don't like the bit about sawing off the secondary coil.  Nick the pirmary too much and you'd get errant sparks all over the place. 

I also don't like the copper pipe either.  You could use it, but I would reccomened running a heavy gauge, insulated wire inside the pipes instead (I'm talking massive, like those used to wire the main lines into your house's electrcial box.) and maybe use a bit of ceramic or plastic on the ends to electrically isolate the contact tips from the pipe.  I'd wrap the crap out of them with electrical tape anyway.  Still that's pretty awesome.  I never knew that a spot welder was just a glorified transformer.

--- End quote ---

I just did this.  Took the secondary off with a band saw.  1/4" gap between the coils.  Easy peasy.

I needed a battery tab welder.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on December 30, 2012, 01:46:26 pm ---You've got to be careful with the ones with a single pushbutton.  Much like the ones with a remote, they usually don't remember the settings when the power is turned off.  With a remote you can change it while in the house, but with a button, man... that would be annoying. 

I'm not familiar with that particular box, so I'd ask around if I were you.

--- End quote ---


You're right, of course, if one were planning to use that "in production".  I'm probably going to build one or two simple displays and see how we like them.  That thing is only $15 so would make a decent prototype controller.  It's easy enough to start with that and then switch to a better controller later on if we move forward with the idea.  I'm sure my son will find a use for that thing in his room afterwards.  He's all about light displays now especially with that awesome neon sign dominating his room.  We put it in his bedroom window for a bit and you can see it a quarter mile down the street.  :D 

Donkey_Kong:
Though I may never build a LOR display, I'm still a big fan and love watching the videos. If you check the LOR website they have a video section showing some of the best of the best out there.

eds1275:
You can run some software on a computer for programming your lighting shows, one free example of software is

http://www.dmxcontrol.org/

Then you need to send the DMX signal from your compy from somewhere, that can be done pretty cheaply - for example http://www.enttec.com/?main_menu=Products&pn=70303

And then you can grab some dmx-controllable lights and connect them OR get a dimmer and connect non-dmx lighting to that. This is how is works on stages and whatnot [I'm a sound guy but in a punch I can run lights.]

lilshawn:
Just thought I'd post a off topic update...

The other day I built a transformer welder from a microwave transformer.


 Used Some super heavy 2 gauge wire. Got 2.2 volts....just tested the maximum amps produced by a dead shorting the output.

Ready?

Ready??

Over...1300 amps.

Yeah.

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