The Bottom Line
Pros
- LED's create almost no heat in displays
- Long lasting, up to 100,000 hours
- Available for AC or DC systems (hard wired or battery)
- Small bulbs are easy to site and cast bright light
Cons
- LED's are not plug and play, minor wiring to a power supply is needed.
Description
- Easy way to get campfires or fires which run on a main wiring circuit or battery.
- Lots of special effect light possibilities using different colors/sizes and flashes of LED's
- More satisfactory flicker for fires than the standard one blinking, one static bulb commonly used in dollhouse applications.
- Minimal heat generation - much safer for small space applications than standard dollhouse bulb fire effects.
Guide Review - Miniature Fire Effects from LEDs
Flashing LED's create movement in static miniature scenes. These sets come with three LED's, two flashing and one static. The fire set has a flashing yellow and flashing red LED with a constant orange. The lights are available in three sizes, 1.8mm, 3mm and 5mm which give different light levels and which allow use in different scale applications.
The lights are wired, with resistors in place to create the flash and do not require a controller. Lay out the light pattern you want and wire the lights to a power source. Input voltages are 6-12 V AC/DCC/DC or 5-12V DC. To create the simplest fire effect, you need a set of DC (direct current) lights and a 9 volt battery with a wire cap and lead wires, or a small battery box with the correct voltage (4 AA batteries minimum). If you want to add the lights to your railroad or dolls house circuit, choose the AC wired lights, LED's have polarity and are wired differently for direct or alternating currents.
Flashing effects can vary but these sets have a realistic flicker rather than a blink effect which makes them good candidates for representing fires. The flashing lights in each set are set to flash at different rates which adds to the random effect.
The lights fit easily into small applications. They can be gently bent right at the base of the 'bulb' to allow them to be placed into small settings.
The welding/haunting lights are a set of two flashing white and one steady blue LED. They can create the effect of work going on in a garage, strange lights in abandoned buildings, alien spaceship landings or skeletons with flashing eyes arising out of blue 'fog'. The Evans Design Website has a video demonstrating the flash effects of the welding/haunting lights which is similar to the effect of the fire sets, just different colors.
