How can I make small-sized lighting? (Kind of urgent)

[magus57]

I am doing a diorama for my History class, and I have to do a art museum featuring Hans Holbein the Younger's works. Right now I plan to have plywood as a base, then drywall, then paint for the wall and plywood, cement, and tiles for the floor. The pictures in is will range from stuff like 2x2 to 4x8 to 4x4 etc. Which comes to my question:

 

How could I create some lighting for this? I want to have small light bulbs (very small, 1/2 inch diameter or smaller) or some LEDs, but how would I do that (what tools would I need, how much would it cost, etc.)? I want to have 5-8 lights, and I also want a on-off switch (preferrably small, like a house light fixure where up=on and down=off, but downscaled to about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch).

 

Thanks in advance. This is kind of urgent because it is due this Wednesday (I learned about it yesterday).

[5614]

Do you mean that you want your array of 5-8 lights to light up in a certain order and then you'll position them in a lightning bolt shape which will then make it look like a lightning bolt?

 

Or do you want the lights to make a spark, like lightning on a small scale?

[gcol]

Er...I read it differently. lighting, not lightning. (flash bang wallop). Sounds like a simple electricians job to me. What is required, a wiring diagram and parts list?

[5614]

Ah... good point, he said lighting... I misread it.

 

Just attach your power source to a switch and then to all the bulbs and then back to the power source again.

 

What bulbs or LEDs do you have? Like standard 100W bulbs would run off the mains, whereas small 5mm LEDs work off a 9V battery.

 

And like what gcol said, what do you want to know?

 

(Maybe a mod/admin could move this to Engineering, seems more appropriate)

[magus57]

I want to know what type of light I would need that would light up just a 8x8 (or less) amount of space. I want them to all 5-8 of them to light up simultaneously when I press a button.

 

What I'm looking for is the specifics:

What type of bulb would I exactly need?

What kind of wires should connect them?

How do I connect the wires to the bulbs and the power supply?

Could I cover the wires with drywall?

Where can I buy all of this (near Chicago or Park Ridge, IL)?

[5614]

8 inches or 8 feet?

 

If 8 feet then I'd suggest you get 2 or 3 75W bulbs and buy a plug and do it like that.

 

If 8 inches then get 2 or 3 powerful LEDs. The sort which are about 5mm in diameter but are classified as "super bright" like the ones you get in those key rings which hurt to look at. Power those off a 9V battery and use a resistor as well.

 

Whichever method you use just stick a switch in between the power and the bulbs/LEDs.

 

I suggest you go to a local electronics shop, I live in the UK so I don't have a clue where you'd go, but ask them to help you. The lights/power question isn't too complicated and they should be able to help you.

[gcol]

I would suggest a low voltage system. Isolation transformer. Safer for the beginner. fixtures, fittings, switches, bulbs etc. smaller, wiring smaller gauge, minimum safety regs problems, etc. etc.......

[YT2095]

if you can get a a thin strip of frosted perspex that will help with eveness of the effect, a bit like a larger version of the 7 segment led number displays, with the advantage that you can warm this up and shape it to whatever you like

 

although your dealine is up, this may be helpfull for future ref anyway.

[ecoli]

in the US, go to a place like Radio shack or curcuit city... they should* have everything you need.

[magus57]

Thanks, and it's due this Wednesday. I think I'm just going to save time and buy a small set of white christmas tree lights and take out the bulbs that I won't use. I'll try to stop by Radioshack and ask if I get the chance, though. And it's inches, not feet (which would be pretty huge for a diorama).

[YT2095]

well how about these tiny fiber optic x-mas trees, you could always unravel one of those and take the fiber out to a light box then place the ends in whatever room or patern you want, they`re quite flexible.

[H2SO4]

id imagine christmas lights would be awful. They just dont have that big of an output. Id go with LED's. Plugin lights are to large. Led's are small, and intense. Buy four hgih intensity white ones, then put them into a series circuit with a resistor (cant tell you how many ohms, or how much resistance the resistor should be, im kind of an electronics noob for the most complex thing ive built is an astable multivibrator (very simple)). Im guessing a 30,000 ohm resistor. Go to radio shack and theylll tell you. Run it off a few AA's or a ine volt or a dc adaptor.

[H2SO4]

And YT, fiber optics would be neat, but to light the thing up like hey wants to they wouldnt channel enoguh light. Unless he pokes them through THE THINGS HE TRYING TO LIGHT. Like maybe text.

[Pleiades]

http://led.linear1.org/led.wizis a good page for finding which resistor to use for LEDs. Personally I’d use small halogen lights like these: http://www.pegasusassociates.com/MR16LoVHalogenLamps.jsp but that’s just me.