Making the Top Light fade in and out, ON THE CHEAP...

[Alien Wacker]

I made my top light out of a patio lantern, and I made it fade in and out by coupling an old VCR's tape eject motor to the dial of an ordinary household Dimmer Switch...

Since it's already 1am my time, I will leave you with the video... If you want / need details, just ask...

[Mark]

Ingeniuos solution. It works really well.

[DoctorWho8]

You stole some of the guts from the Kandyman!
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[Alien Wacker]

Erm?  Is that a person or a movie?

Pill cap glued on to the VCR motor gear, with an unpopped rivet as the pivot for one end of the long gear, other gear glued on to the dimmer's round switch (both using Silicone).

Was originally thinking of using some kind of tiny "bow" and wrapping it around the switch, like how you would start a fire using a bow and 2 pieces of wood?  But then I remembered my printer pieces...

You need to make sure your gear you use is long enough to run the whole width of the circle on the drive gear, and that the gear on the dimmer is small enough that when you run that whole length that the gear goes around enough to go from full on to full off... Mine is actually a little short, so I have a choice of longer "hang time" at the low end or the high end of the dimmer...

Sorry it's all kinda hard to explain... But AFAIK I didn't steal any of it from anyone...?     

[DoctorWho8]

Look up The Happiness Patrol to get my reference.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[Theta Sigma]

Wow!  Simply amazing!  I can't get over this!

I was just trying to think of a way to motorize a dimmer switch the other day, and gave myself a headache.  Then I stopped.

Your solution is so simple, yet ingenious at the same time!

[Alien Wacker]

Ah ha! Whirly gig rigs that are in the Kandyman's kitchen... Got it...

I tried to motorize a dimmer switch years ago, my problem was that I wanted to be able to turn it manually as well... Something like this would work for that as well, simply because the spring on the end of the long straight gear allows it to "click click click" over the spinning one...

Again, kinda weird to describe...

The spring holds the long gear against the one on the dimmer knob - if you try to turn the dimmer knob, the straight gear clicks but still lets you do it... I guess this could eventually wear teeth off of one or the other, but it still allows manual operation...

You would need to add "end stops" to the rotating motor, so that the whole thing doesn't just turn off/ on / off / on like mine does... lol

[Senseidale]

Very Very impressed
I have got an old VCR in the garage  so I am going to have a go my self.
Fab video as well.
Regards senseidale

[Alien Wacker]

What you really want is a small motor that's really slowed down... I find the ones with screw gears on them have a nice speed for something like this, and though I didn't need it for this, lotsa torque...

[NotaMountainGoat]

What an ingenious solution, that also looks really cool in motion as well! I've been looking around for simpler ways to get the fading effect as well, and might have to consider something like this.

David

[davidnagel]

That is clever indeed - well done!

Now upscale it and get a TARDIS console column working

[Alien Wacker]

Now upscale it and get a TARDIS console column working

Uhhh.... Not this build - it's only 1/2 depth, so no room for that, and it's already gonna be a bookshelf... And DVD shelf... 

[pizzaroger123]

I want details please

[galacticprobe]

Okay. Let's put the brakes on for a minute here. The requests for information are coming fast and furious. And in short sentences (especially starting with "I want") can give the impression of rudeness or impatience. This Forum does have a Search bar for things like this, and most questions like this can be answered through typing some keywords into that Search bar, which you can find at the top of any Forum page (right-hand side - see image below for clarification).


For a light flashing circuit, there is a great one here, http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=616.msg73221#msg73221, and if you want to see that circuit in action there is a video of it posted here, http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=616.msg72819#msg72819. This is a very simple circuit to build and it can vary the flash rate of the lamp.

The synchronizing of the lamp flash and TARDIS sound is something that seems to have cropped up only since the New Series started. In fact there is even one scene in "Rose" when the flashing lamp is not in sync with the sound. All throughout the Classic Series the lamp flashed at different rates, and almost never in sync with the sound. Syncking thinks is fine, but that's one more thing that can go wrong.

Personally, a simple flasher circuit for the lamp, one like in the link that can be made adjustable with the twist of a knob to get a rate that looks good, is a much easier way to go. Also, many of the lamps that have been worked to sync their flashing with the sound usually have this jittery look to them when they're flashing. There is one build that I've seen so far that has gotten the sound-lamp sync smooth so the lamp fades on and off without the jitter, but I can't find it at the moment.

Perhaps a polite question regarding the build with the lamp that flashes smoothly in sync with the sound is in order (maybe asking if that builder could direct you to the Build Diary so you could read through it and see how it was done, and how complex such a thing might be). But for something really "on the cheap" (as in this topic's title), a separate, simple flasher circuit is the way to go.

Dino.