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gline
Newbie
Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:04 am Post subject: Question on remote control activated LED |
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I was wondering if anyone here could help me with a simple project?
I am a armature magician trying to create a trick using LED’s.
The trick is a new twist on the D’light trick that you can see all over then net.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rSAkfnncLFY
What I am trying to do is create a simple remote control that can activate a LED… but it needs to be small. |
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Alan
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Posts: 1399
Location: Winnipeg, MB
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:35 am Post subject: |
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| Does it have to be a remote control, why not use thin wires that can't be seen? |
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gline
Newbie
Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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I am trying to construct an orb of light that is about the size of a large marble that can be rolled across a table, ground or the palm of my hand and could be passed off to an assistant.
For maximum mobility I would need the orb to have a self-contained power supply and I would need to be able to turn the light off and on from a distance.
The transmitter could be any size but the receiver would need to be small.
Any ideas or technical expertness you could lend me would be much appreciated. |
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Alan
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Posts: 1399
Location: Winnipeg, MB
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Very possible to do but I am not sure you can make it that small. After considering a few coin cells and an LED there isn't much (if any) room for the receiver... |
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gline
Newbie
Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:35 am Post subject: I more feel lost then ever |
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I will be the first to admit I know nothing about electronics but maybe not knowing the limits of what can be done helps me not limit my creativity.
I built a prototype to experiment with and concealing orb was not all that difficult. The difficult was with activating the orb on command. I also experimented with wiring systems but that proved to be too visible and complicate things by getting in the way.
Some of my magician friends and I were talking and we believe the orb could be as large a ping pong ball if need be.
I went to talk with some guys at a local electronics store to see if they could help design such a device and direct me to the needed parts but they didn’t have a clue as to what I would need to build this device. Any advice you could give me would greatly appreciated. |
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Peter3D
Newbie
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 3
Location: Gouda, The Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject: Remote control for a LED |
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| How about an old wireless keyboard or mouse ? Just an idea. . . |
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nexusone
Newbie
Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:51 pm Post subject: Here is maybe a solution |
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Tesla had a very interesting idea of transmitting power over the air.
You could find a remote to hack that would fit in a space, problem becomes still powering it.
Other option is to power it via a hidden power source inside your clothing.
The power source would be a simple power RF transmitter, when you want the led on. Just bump a switch for the transmitter inside your clothing to come on.
All then you would need inside the ball is a tuned coil and a diode and the LED, maybe a small capacitor.
You could have the transmitter, power up slowly to make the light come up in brightness slowly.... not sure what type of distance you could get with it. but maybe if your not too far from the assistant it would still work when you passed it off...
Eric |
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Nuticulus
Newbie
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:48 am Post subject: Re: Here is maybe a solution |
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| nexusone wrote: | Tesla had a very interesting idea of transmitting power over the air.
You could find a remote to hack that would fit in a space, problem becomes still powering it.
Other option is to power it via a hidden power source inside your clothing.
The power source would be a simple power RF transmitter, when you want the led on. Just bump a switch for the transmitter inside your clothing to come on.
All then you would need inside the ball is a tuned coil and a diode and the LED, maybe a small capacitor.
You could have the transmitter, power up slowly to make the light come up in brightness slowly.... not sure what type of distance you could get with it. but maybe if your not too far from the assistant it would still work when you passed it off...
Eric |
I had an idea on the same wavelength. Geddit, RF, wavelength? Never mind.
Transmitting power over RF is a bad idea. It's horribly inefficient. If you think about the power required by an LED, and the size of a marble, you can see that a marble-sized receiver would require a huge RF power density to pick up enough power to light the LED. So you'd have to have one hell of a beasty transmitter. Plus, it'd only be efficient on frequencies in the microwave band. Which would most likely mean you could light the marble-orb thing, but would also unfortunately cook you and your audience. Wow, what a magic trick.
Instead, I suggest you use a radio signal to tell the LED to turn on/off. Wouldn't be too complicated. You could use watch-batteries to power an LED, which could be turned on/off by a transistor. An antenna and tuned circuit could pick up any signals sent by a little RF transmitter, and could be used to control the transistor. Could be made into a very simple and compact circuit.
This might be quite a big ask on your skill if you admit yourself you know nothing about electronics. You might be better off just searching for a design, or searching for someone to design it for you, then building the thing following nice and easy instructions. |
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