lewisurwin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Hello all, I wondered if anyone had any suggestions as im trying to rack my brains about this one Director has asked for around 10-15 "chinese lanterns" for a production. We eventually settled on paper lanterns (that are basically circular lamp shades made from paper chinese style) Then comes the light part, I need to have some kind of lighting inside them, and they will be hung from the ceiling with something like fishing wire (they are only paper) and initially I was thinking standard small LED's connected in a little circuit with a removable battery for future use, but after trialling this it was not bright enough. I need something that is similar to the bulb in a torch (ideally a little bit brighter) and needs to be powered by battery, but all I have found are LED or halogen lamps (like ones that can be ceiling mounted) that are 12V so I cant mount a massive 12V battery inside a circular paper lantern, but something that bright would be amazing, or am I simply missing something obvious? Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if its just pushing me in the right direction Cheers! - Lewis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan.hughes Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Try wheatgerm lamps. They are 12v but shoud be bright enough at 9v. They are similar to car dash lamps and come with wires already on them. You might also want to look on CPC for wedge lamps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 How about these http://www.response-box.com/rgblights/2007sale.shtml. I'm sure forum member peternewman will be along to recommend them soon. They are out of stock at the moment but he seems to be waiting for some as we speak, I don't know what time scale you are on but these seem like a good bet if you have the time to wait for them. Alternatively look at this thread here about something slightly similar although with bigger lanterns perhaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maeterlinck Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 What about suspending with or running with the fishing line some bell wire or even some Kynar wire depending on the rating of the bulb. This would allow you to use 1 or more high powered bulbs at low voltage. It would also give you some control over them if run through a dimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewisurwin Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Thanks maeterlinck for suggesting the kynar wire I didnt even think of that! Any more suggestions from anyone would still be appreciated so I could present the director with a few options because of the unconfirmed budget as of yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 How about these http://www.response-box.com/rgblights/2007sale.shtml. I'm sure forum member peternewman will be along to recommend them soon.As Joshua has already said, I'm quite a fan of these, although they won't necessarily be suitable for your task, as you need at least four wires for control (2 x power and 2 x DMX), or two Cat 5s or similar looping. You've not mentioned the size of the lanterns so its kind of hard to tell. They are very cheap for what they do, as a fully DMX RGB fixture however. See my post here for a bit more information and a few photos of them. They are out of stock at the moment but he seems to be waiting for some as we speak, I don't know what time scale you are on but these seem like a good bet if you have the time to wait for them.When I was in email contact about ten days ago, the new batch were a few weeks away. On the other hand, a friend of mine lit the vast majority of quite a large complex of railway arches with a selection of low voltage lamps. I think in the end quite a few of the ones he used were 2V or something, wired in series to a birdie transformer, so you could potentially run them of a battery and keep it all contained in the lantern, although how long they would run for is a different question. Basically have a browse through the lamps available in the CPC catalogue/website and see what they do and what specs the lamps have. It was also quite amazing the difference the reflector from a torch made, although this won't necessarily be of use in your application. What if anything are they likely to be competing against? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Dragging an old-ish topic up, I was discussing plans last night for Aladdin (Jan 2010 so plenty of time!).One idea was to hang around 50 Chinese paper lanterns around the auditorium with prac lamps in - which MAY be enough to act as house lights but not essential if they're not. So I'm looking for a source of FR paper lanterns in various colours/sizes. They'll need to be able to take a low powered (prob low voltage) lamp easily.Google is going to take a bash soon, but does anyone have any tucked away from previous productions...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 So I'm looking for a source of FR paper lanterns in various colours/sizes. They'll need to be able to take a low powered (prob low voltage) lamp easily.We've just done Cinderella, and did exactly this - made some strings of 12v lamps inside Chinese paper lanterns. I'll ask our props people and find out where the lanterns came from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Why not hang each lantern on two bits of wire instead of fishing line so then your DC supply can be remote from the lantern? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 If you require the lanterns to be self contained, I would use halogen torch bulbs with an MES base, these are brighter than regular torch bulbs, and easily connected via MES lampholders.Power from AA cells in simple cheap battery holders.Remember that the on load voltage of alkaline cells is about 1.2 volts, therefore for a 6 volt bulb you will need five cells and not four as might be suspected.Using a 0.5amp bulb the run time should be a couple of hours, for frequent use consider high capacity rechargeable cells. If instead you are going to power the lanterns externaly then I would consider 12 volt compact flourescent lamps, powered remotely via thin wire.You may need a supply of a bit more than 12 volts due to voltage drop in the thin wire. I would avoid 12 volt halogen lamps since they get hot enough to be a fire risk near paper, they are also sensitive to voltage variations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Yep - I'll need them to be dimmable preferably, though switched at a push, so batteries are a no-no I'm afraid.And again yes the option of halogen lamps is out of course for just the reasons you give.They don't need to be hugely bright to be honest - just bright enough to light the lantern will probably do, and I'll fill with the regular house as needed. Oh - got stacks of LV dimmable xfmrs by the way, as we stripped out the 80 foyer lights 18 months ago to replace them with cold cathode, so PSUs will not be an issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Yep - I'll need them to be dimmable preferably, though switched at a push, so batteries are a no-no I'm afraid.And again yes the option of halogen lamps is out of course for just the reasons you give.They don't need to be hugely bright to be honest - just bright enough to light the lantern will probably do, and I'll fill with the regular house as needed. Oh - got stacks of LV dimmable xfmrs by the way, as we stripped out the 80 foyer lights 18 months ago to replace them with cold cathode, so PSUs will not be an issue! In which case I would consider useing 12 volt, 15 or 25 watt, GLS lamps in the paper lanterns, suspended by thin wire, and wired to your surplus halogen lighting transformers.Unlike vehicle or halogen lamps, the lower power GLS lamps dont get hot enough to be much of a fire risk.This would be readily dimmable, the only problems I can forsee are finding wire thats thick enough not to cause excessive voltage drop, without being too obtrusive.In view of the low voltage, single insulated wire would be fine. Also if your surplus transformers are electronic types, then these are prone to produce both audio and RF interference if not mounted close to the lamps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 All this discussion around the lamps and transformers is fine (and pretty much academic as I have all the bits I need barring the lamps and holders 'in stock') but the actual reason I dug up the topic was to source the suitable paper (or other material) lanterns themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 All this discussion around the lamps and transformers is fine (and pretty much academic as I have all the bits I need barring the lamps and holders 'in stock') but the actual reason I dug up the topic was to source the suitable paper (or other material) lanterns themselves. Would these from IKEA be suitable?http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90103409 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Would these from IKEA be suitable?http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90103409Interesting - possibly...I'll fwd to the director. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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