*I was banned from Candle Power Forums for the following post. Can anyone help me here? I would appreciate it.
Hey everybody! Hoping I could get help with a project. Please excuse my incorrect terminology if any. I am sure you all will understand exactly what I want to do.
I am getting a rooftop gargoyle for my house. I want to drill the eyes out and wire in some LEDs into the pupils. Red or I am sure other colors are cool too. I will likely drill straight back to other side of head. I figure it should be pretty easy to tunnel the LED and wires through and I guess glue in place.
Now for power, this is where I could definitely use guidance. Wiring diagrams would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I was thinking. Couldn’t I buy a small battery cell and a mini solar panel and essentially have this run all the time? Charge and run off solar in day and run off battery cell at night?
This is where I need help. What size LEDs do you guys think? Battery size? Solar panel size? Also, which online vendor would be good to get my supplies?
You can google rooftop gargoyles and look at images for an idea. I have not chosen any specific one yet.
Mini solar cell like on a solar walkway light? I don’t think those will have enough power for all night & day. More light a few hours after sun sets. It would be the easiest tho. Need a charge circuit if you get your own larger solar cell & battery.
How much effort and / or money do you want to spend?
Would be cool if you could wire it to a sound/motion detector and the lights would glow brighter when it senses loud sounds or motion. Also, put in some circuit to make the lights shimmer so they’re not always at the same brightness to make it look a bit more interesting.
Sorry, no knowledge on how to do all that extra stuff. Just thinking it would look kind of boring if the lights are always at the same brightness.
Hey everyone! Sorry about delay. I just wanted to let you all know I didn’t disappear. I appreciate all the input. The solar garden lights are definitly something I will look into. I also like idea of a dynamic intensity and or motion censors lol
To answer money question, well I was hoping to keep cheap but I would spend a couple hundred to have some of the above features!
I love a challenge and finding assistance on forums. I admit, I am a forum wh@*&!!
I have a sweet high end lay person solder station I want to use would like to rig up something if someone can help as I go.
I will certainly update thread as I go. I don’t anticipate ordering gargoyle until after I move to Denver next month.
Anyone have good recs for online supply stores that sell the doodads I would need?
Brilliant idea. Check with your HOA first, they might not have the same sense of humor. ;)
I'd use 2 10mm red diffuse LEDs and run at low power, like 10 mA to keep it subtle. I'd use a photocell so they only turn on at night, and probably use a microprocessor to program in various behaviors, like blinking on and off, or slowly fading in and out.
At that low power I'd wager a few D cells would last a year or more so I'm not sure I would worry about trying the solar route. Those rechargeables would need to be replaced from time to time anyway.
I'd power it with constant voltage using a simple LDO regulator with a very low quiescent current, like the LT1529 for example. Find a 3.3V regulator to power the micro and the LED with a small current limiting resistor.
Assuming your gargoyle is a hollow mold, carve out the eyes completely and replace with plastic from some cheap sunglasses. Mount the LEDs right behind and use plenty of hot snot or epoxy to keep out the weather.
Anyway these are just the first thoughts that popped into my head. Can't imagine why CPF would have a cow about this.
Some great ideas revolvr. As I get closer to this project, will you be able to further develop these ideas? Will I still be able to reach you here in a month or two?
I thought about the HOA….whatev. If they make me take it down I will find some passive aggressive means to get back. Lol
Regarding candlepower forums…sounds like some heavy handed moderator just blocked me “by accident”. They were supposed to reinstate it but I didn’t follow up on it yet to check. There was some head guy named Sasha who was a bit arrogant as well.
Yamaha is my favaorite but I like all 2 wheelers. Amazon has these for $4.40 each shipped. Good reviews. You will have to ask the modders about supplying the power.
Maybe instead of doing surgery on your gargoyles, you can just put some phosphor on the pupils and than aim a UV light at them. The UV light might also give the gargoyles' faces even more unworldly look and make them faintly visible on very dark nights.
mx_599 , Your first post was fine….you got some answers and ideas but when you sent a second one asking for pricing and where to buy the things you might need for the gargoyle well I find that post is over the top.
Is there an admin here that could ban this fellow? He just isn’t playing nice.
Never, ever, EVER buy a place with an HOA… EVERY HOA eventually will be run by some Nazi’s with big sticks up their ass (who else would want the job). And you thought CPF moderators were a pain…
You might be able to replace the white LED in the solar garden lights with two red LEDs connected in series. Red LEDs run on a lower voltage than white ones. With two in series, you would not be wasting power like you would with two LEDs connected in parallel.
Welcome to BLF
would like to rig up something if someone can help as I go.