03.29.2010 Randomized lightswitches
Based on an idea by Dirty Electronics guy John Richards, I built these today:
I saw his version of this when I went to University of Plymouth's Peninsula Festival of new music and electronics.
Here's another video, with the lights on, so you can see what's going on with the structures themselves:
What's happening is that there's a starter for a fluorescent lightbulb wired into a circuit with a red incandescent bulb. When you turn on the power, the starter tries to "start up" a fluorescent tube that isn't there. It cycles fairly rapidly and completely unpredictably. When it's trying to turn the switch on the circuit is connected and the lightbulb is on. When it's "warming up" the starter itself emits a glow, and the lightbulb is off.
I haven't tested it yet, but supposedly the starters emit a tiny radio shriek every time they turn on and off. So by putting a radio near them you also get a sound effect.
As soon as I can make £10 I'm ordering some ambient light detectors to put on these, so that this randomness can control other things, too.
Posted by charlie williams at March 29, 2010 04:03 PM
