Could you take a picture of how it's wired perhaps?? We can alway backwards engineer and then do a write up for the other builders

Quote from: Rox on May 04, 2018, 09:37 am
I don't know how much expertise I have to offer the forum to be honest...

I have to agree with Russell; you shouldn't be so modest. Your Old Girl is still standing, and solid, after living outside for 10 years! (That alone is an accomplishment!) I'm sure you have a wealth of info and expertise to offer anyone who's joined us recently - or will join us at some point in future - and is planning to build an outdoor TARDIS. You could let than know what you've done that's allowed your Old Girl to last so long while still looking so good, and staying so sturdy. That would be a gold mine to many builders.

Dino.

That's very kind of you guys to say so. 

Anyway, as for the lighting, I've found the schematic for the unit, which is pretty straight forward:

https://quasarelectronics.co.uk/manuals/velleman/manual_mk111.pdf

It must have been updated since mine, because mine didn't have the terminal blocks.  So basically, transformer wired to the inputs and your lighting unit wired to the output.

We used a car headlamp bulb as they are designed to be turned on and off a lot, and kick out plenty of brightness too.   

The headlamp holder is one of these:

[noimg]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41TKAb%2BPFYL._SX355_.jpg[/img]


The H4 bulb can be picked up at most motor stores.  Even some supermarkets have them!

The three prongs are ground, high beam and low beam.  I just wired the high beam and ground.

I hope that's of help.

With regards to flashing lamps, I connect one of these...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5x-3-Keys-Dimmer-Controller-12V-for-Single-Color-5050-3528-LED-Light-Strip-/332493419833?hash=item4d6a26f539

To the output of one of these...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18W-240V-to-12V-DC-Constant-Voltage-Compact-LED-Driver-Power-Supply-Transformer-/231892007728?hash=item35fdd73b30

Mains voltage input (240v or 110v - your mileage may vary) with a 12v output. Then adjust the dimmer controller to an appropriate fading speed, connect the flasher unit up to my patented beer can LED lamp cluster and job done (and energy efficient too - Excuse me while I just hug that tree over there...)  

All for less than £12 (Individual flasher, transformer, can of lager and LED tape)

Those flasher units are so easy to use, I even use them on my models with a 9v battery supply.

Yes; the NE555 Timer chip will operate with a wide input voltage range, from 4.5 to 16 volts, so 9 volts would still work fine with it. (See my explanation of some of those near-bulletproof components up-thread: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=616.msg72828#msg72828.) The flasher circuit (on the previous page to that) which got me started on the circuit would work really well with Steve's lager can and LED approach if you didn't want to use the car lamp and power transistor method (which is one of the circuits I posted as an option, a little further down from the above link).

Looking at the PDF of that circuit I noticed a relay in there. That's starting to complicate things because you need extra components to go with that (like "D1", the "anti-chatter" diode which stops the relay from "bouncing" when the power is removed from it - that would require another lecture on electronics and how relays work... which is a story for another day).

I like the idea of terminal blocks. It makes connecting things easier. You just wrap a wire around a screw and tighten the screw - of depending on the type of terminal block, insert the wire into the slot, and then tighten the screw to press the plates together, effectively "clamping" the wire in place.

And just in case anyone is wondering what D3 is doing in that PDF's circuit, it's wired in like that to protect the circuit from accidental reverse-connecting the power supply going in: connect the supply correctly and current flows normally; connect it with the positive and negative reversed, and D3 will not let current flow through the circuit. (Nice thing about those diodes; they're one-way doors. Push on it the correct way and you can walk through with no problem; push on it from the wrong side and it will not open and let you through.)

I hope some of this makes sense.

Dino.

When rewiring the TARDIS (isn't it great to say that?) the electrics for the flasher unit had been snipped before it was dismantled, and the bits put in different places (I sadly wasn't present at the time!).

The wires on the transformers weren't entirely clear as to which was live or ground, but I guess I got them the right way round as it's all working as it should, thank goodness.

This particular set up does give a marvellous on/off flash so I was very happy it was back working, and very happy to find the circuit is still available should the existing one stop working!

I'm rubbish at anything to do with electrics so I just used a LED B22 smart bulb which flashes when it's looking for WiFi which I don't give it. It flashes a little to fast for my liking but it's a very easy solution.



https://youtu.be/3EL1G1IygCc

Here's a very neat solution

http://indolighting.com/product/b22-e27-belisha_beacon_led_lamp/

So, I haven't built the light yet on my Tardis bar but I found a light bulb that has speaker that can be set to flash on and off and be synced to your phone to play the music/sound from Dr Who. My idea is to get one of those lamp kits with cord and on/off switch, attach the light bulb and set it inside the fresnel looking glass lamp I bought.  https://www.walmart.com/ip/LED-Music-Light-Bulb-With-Smart-Bluetooth-Speaker-Multi-Color-Changing-APP-Control-Remote-RGB-One-to-one-Connection/629782165
The circuity building was too much for my newbie Tardis brain to handle, so we'll see how it goes.