Jeremy Smith Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 For an upcoming production of Ayckbourn's Snake In The Grass I need to adapt two hurricane lamps so they can be battery powered but switched on an off remotely from the wings. Any ideas how I can do this?Replacing the wick with, say, a 9v battery pack and light bulb is simple enough, it's the remote switching I need help with.Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Wireless DMX is good if you can afford it...it works a treat, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get hold of. I used it on a panto, but got lucky in that one of our crew had built his own! If that's not an option, I have seen a smoke machine operated with a garage door opener, but never saw exactly how it was done. Might be worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny7299 Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 I don't think you will find anything the will fit into a base of an storm lantern... it would have to be very small. !!! good luck though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Tec Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 For an upcoming production of Ayckbourn's Snake In The Grass I need to adapt two hurricane lamps so they can be battery powered but switched on an off remotely from the wings. Any ideas how I can do this?Replacing the wick with, say, a 9v battery pack and light bulb is simple enough, it's the remote switching I need help with.Thanks! Hi Jeremy,If you are a elctronics person (or know someone)try taking apart a cheep wireless doorbell they have coding and a output than can be used for switching the lamp and the button is allready packaged. hope it helps Guy Douglas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 I started this topic a while back on movable table lights. Might have some useful info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Easy, a tiny RC receiver, a motor controller for a model racing car, and add batteries to suit. Have a look at my pages (linked below) for a suitable receiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 A friend built one similar to how dbuckley suggested, however I think ours was a really cheap RC car, so I believe the lamp was wired directly in place of the motor (as opposed to servos). Range wasn't particularly great, but it worked, watch out for the Faraday cage effect if the aerial is in the fuel tank. Ours had to be non destructive, so ended up as a cylinder strapped on the bottom IIRC. PN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jifop Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 A friend built one similar to how dbuckley suggested, however I think ours was a really cheap RC car, so I believe the lamp was wired directly in place of the motor (as opposed to servos). Range wasn't particularly great, but it worked, watch out for the Faraday cage effect if the aerial is in the fuel tank. Ours had to be non destructive, so ended up as a cylinder strapped on the bottom IIRC. PN either that or you can buy similar to one of these, http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/part...d%2Btorches.htmhttp://www.shop.edirectory.co.uk/autosave/...&afid=88888http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAMPING-LANTERN-LAMP...1QQcmdZViewItem and just rip the insides out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieR Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Surely someone like Maplin have some sort of remote kit which operates a relay? In fact, this might do it - IR Remote Relay Kit Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 ive got the maplin ir relay kit it works very well and can run off 9-12v and small enougth to fit in the base of a storm lanturn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 And being IR, it will need line-of-sight, be fairly short range and easily overwhelmed by other bright IR sources.Theatre lamps, for example. I would definately stay away from the dirt cheap IR and wideband radio kits. A decent R/C aeroplane speed controller with miniature receiver and a standard transmitter is probably your best bet.You want a 40MHz set with interchangeable crystals. 40MHz is one of the three licence-free bands for hobby remote control - the other two being 27MHz (shared with CB radios) and 35MHz (assigned to R/C aircraft only. The interchangable crystal sets (main manufacturers are Hitec and Futaba) are narrowband and can be retuned to avoid interference - the cheap tat that just says "27Mhz", "40MHz" etc are wideband and get squished by almost any interference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bh00 Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Robert Dyas are doing cheapy wireless doorbell kits, 1 transmitter and two recievers for £9.99. They've got an LED on the front that lights for about 4 seconds when the bell is pressed (and it plays a tune but just snip the wire to the speaker). Perhaps some sort of simple relay latch and that could offer remote switching. Chime units aren't too big but I haven't taken them apart so not sure how big they actually need to be - they take 2 AA batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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