Post #587157 by freddiefreelance on Fri, Apr 29, 2011 5:03 PM

On 2011-04-25 02:30, Mr. Pupu Pants wrote:
Hi Guys, as I look for things to do until I am physically able to get back to work on Hula Sue's,
I've most recently bored you with home movies and waxed poetic on how to burn bamboo.

Here's an idea I've been planning to do for a long time and thought I'd mock up for my TC pals
(aaaaaaand make myself feel like I've made an honest to goodness creative contribution in a while).

Over the years, I've collected several of the old motion lamps that have fish
and other creatures of the sea swimming in circles -- just like in your finer aquariums.

The illustrations below are just quick Photoshop mock-ups but the actual effect does work pretty nicely
to combine the spinner mechanism and spinner (and even the outer shell of the motion lamp as in the first
example), to create a nice (if kitschy) tropical themed lamp.

In the Glass float, you can also use some 'actual fake' undersea foliage to camouflage the physical base of the motion lamp
which also helps add to the 3D feel of the scene.

Just in case there is anyone unfamiliar with these cool old lamps, they basically work by using the air movement
generated by the the heat disappation of a light bulb to turn a vented 'spinner' --helping create (sometimes with
multiple juxtaposing patterns) all kinds of fun animated scenes.

Hope you like them and hope you all had a great weekend,
John

I really like the idea and how it looks in the mock-up of the fishing float, but I can think of one major stumbling block to it working in a fishing float: you need an air inlet at the bottom for cool air to come in & be heated by the lamp, and an outlet at the top to let out hot air. I think turning speed is affected by the amount of airflow, too, so the inlet & outlet holes can't be too small.

Thinking out loud, a possible way to disguise these needed holes (besides using the aforementioned real fake undersea foliage at top & bottom) could be to make the fishing float/motion fish lamp the central float in a vertical trio of fish floats, with the needed air holes camouflaged by the knot work securing the three floats in line.

Taking this direction in disguising the air holes for the lamp also affords you the possibility of using red & green "floats" above & below the motion lamp and putting flicker lamps in them for added atmosphere, or using frosted "floats" and putting an RGB LED, a randomizing driver, & a battery in each to make a color changing light, like the new Mickey Balloons at Disneyland (only slower in their color changing I'd think).

[EDIT]I distracted myself too much there and forgot that I wanted to say I hope you're making great strides in getting better! PT can be a bear, and improvements can be small in the short term, but keep working at it and you'll continue to get better in the long run.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance 2011-04-29 17:18 ]