Flickering Fluorescent lights

[Capt.Chaos]

Anyone have any advice on building this effect? I have a asylum theme and I know this would fit perfect. I know how to build flickering regular bulbs but not sure on fluorescents. Thanks for any direction.

Chaos

[RJ Productions]

How about a string of LED's in the plastic protector tubes ou can buy at Home Depot sprayed a milky white.
Hook up the lights to a flicker generator of choice... flashing Flourscent!!

There was a Haunt company that sold this effect, but I can't remember who!
Rich

[Capt.Chaos]

Nice RJ!! I will give that a try. I have a whole box of LEDS. Great idea. Thanks

[RJ Productions]

After reading this thread I looked into the LED's and the existing flickering units. All seem to use a section of rope light strung through a bulb protector sleeve.
The only problem is they are very dim and yellow looking. Doesn't really look like a fluorescent bulb.

I was attending a different trade show here in Vegas and found a supplier for an actual LED replacement bulb.
There is no nee to hack the bulb, it doen't require a ballast or a driver. It is AC so all you do is provide AC to one of the
tombstones (the fixture the bulb locks into). So just interupt the AC with your own haunt controller and you have a
UL approved flickering bulb!!! Bonus, shut off the controller and you have a real work light!!

I had to make a minimum purchase to get them so I'm also offering them to the haunters.

Go to rjprops.com I put up a quick website to show them. I took them to TW and had a show special of
$100 a bulb. Email me and I'll honor the discount. rjprops@cox.net

Rich

[icandrawem2]

If you want to flicker a real fluorescent lamp you need to limit the current flow to the ballast by using a sort of "resistor" wired in series with the ballast, such as an incandescent light bulb. Basically when power is applied, the ballast has to compete with the light bulb for current so it will try to fire up the lamps but once it does it cant stay on because the light bulb is drawing current as well. Its a rather crude setup but I have done it before and with the right combination of ballast, lamp, and light bulb wattage, it makes a decent effect. I dont endorse this method nor am I an electrical engineer, so try it at your own risk.

But like the other guys said, there are alot of cool products on the market now that will do it alot easier, such as the protective tubes with LEDs at each end (I like these because the light is closer to the ends of the tubes which is very similar to what a bad lamp would look like)

[damon wilde]

Scareproducts.com has the faux fluorescent fixture. Its 12v led and they sell a flicker add on unit

[bhays]

You can always buy the led replacement fluorescent tubes on Amazon, etc. then use any flicker controller. I've done this with a Lights alive mini flicker with very good results.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thrilltainment]

we offer a flicker module that you can hook up 12V LEDs to:

check it out:



http://www.darklightsystem.com/produ...Simulator.html
you can hook up to 1 Amp worth of LEDs onto this box.

you could just use your own string of 12V LEDs and put them into a plastic tube for that effect.