Thunder and Lightning Help

[mijoangel]

Does anyone out there know how to do thunder and lightning?

[jimswinder]

Check these out:

http://www.yardhaunter.com/halloween_lighting_lightning.html

http://www.horrorseek.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/ThunderAndLightning/clsint_LightningSimulation.html

[Robert G.]

Using the LOR system, set certain channels dedicated to strobes or flood lights acting as strobes. Using the 'twinkle' effect gives good flashes.

[Cray Augsburg]

You could also give wowlights.com a try. They offer lightning sequences and packages that include floods and strobes for a lightning effect, along with the sound. At the very least, since they include video, you should be able to get a few ideas for what might look good.

Cray

[jerrymac]

Last year I purchased the lightning sequence from WOW and am very Happy. It makes it very easy to see how to add lightning to othe sequences ( also simple to copy and paste parts or all). Well worth the experinace in my opinion. By the way Results were great (only suggestion is high power strobes not the low power inexpensive minis unless you are using them as suplement in a lightning sequence. You need good solid bright stobes as the main feature itmes in the sequence for lightning).

[TJ Hvasta]

I was considering getting a few of the better strobes, sitting out here in my yard in Phoenix, waiting for a monsoon storm (trust me, you've NEVER seen thunderstorms til you've seen a monsoon cell roll thru the Valley) to record the sounds and making a sequence flash a few seconds before the thunder starts.. but we havent had a real start to the Monsoon yet.. 'nother couple weeks or so..

I'm not trying to be cheap (an airline pilot, cheap? really? yer kidding!!), or get away with not having to pay $$ for the time/effort to sequence the flash/thunder, but has anyone just "rolled their own"? Watching WOW's video clip.. yes, it's very good, and I'd be temped to buy the package (minus the controller) if it were a lil less, but has anyone just built their own by buying the good strobes and making their own flash/thunder sequence?

I'm not trying to be cheap, just be a real builder I guess.. I can post the thunder.mp3 when the Monsoon starts so anyone can make their own..

[Scott T]

I have been thinking about a small Halloween display, so for the lighting to be in sync with the sound; what about the new LED floods. I bet they are fast reacting and should give a very well synced lighting and thunder effect.

I might go out pick up a few LED floods at Lowes this week to test.

[TJ Hvasta]

I have 4 of Greg's Rainbow Floods coming, I dont know if the LED white thats made from RGB being on is bright/startling enough to simulate lightning white but I'm going to try it unless someone has, or will before I do.. I have a number of white incandecent floods for the fill/background flash, but strobes would really give it the brightest white of the stroke.. It's just difficult to justify the $329. for the kit then that would buy at least 3 more controllers..

Where's a good supply for some of the better/brighter strobes?

[scubado]

On ebay you can find 10W leds that run on 12V and put out 600 lumens, also very easy to use with a DC controller. I have one that lights up my birch tree at night. These leds are about $10 ea. The downside to these leds is that they burn extremely hot( I'm not kidding) and need proper heat sink such as an aluminum casing.
A second alternative is a P7 led. They put out 900 lumens. These leds run on 3.6V max and generate little heat. Two ways to power it, Supply a 3.6v source to the led and use a DC controller to control a relay or use a driver chip that will step the 12V down to the 3.6v.

[huskernut]

scubado wrote:

A second alternative is a P7 led. They put out 900 lumens. These leds run on 3.6V max and generate little heat. Two ways to power it, Supply a 3.6v source to the led and use a DC controller to control a relay or use a driver chip that will step the 12V down to the 3.6v.

The DC controller can run with 3.6 v as the input for the display part as long as you run a 12V wall wart to the small ( probably little used ) jack on the opposite side of the board.

[scubado]

I don't have my DC controller yet, so I'm not able to conjure up a nasty lightning bolt yet...
I have several P7 leds used in different applications. 1 P7 can light up a large maple tree quite nicely.

[rstately]

I know your not supposed to do this, but for the last 2 halloweens I put about 6 4' fluorescent work lights around the yard, behind bushes hitting the house.
I do a sequence that had them coming on randomly for 2/10's of a second at a time. the sound of them firing up is creepy and the light out put is amazing.
The down side is the bulbs burn out in 1 or 2 nights. also I'm not running music so I don't see any feedback problems that are most likely happening.
Anyway, I do not recommend this, but it works for me.



Ron

[JoelSturman]

A simple hack is to take the cheap $10 strobelights (little square ones). Bind them together and set the timing on each of them a little different. Plan a few seconds ahead in your sequence, they take a bit to warm up. Having them go at different rates provides the randomness to make a more realistic lightening effect.

I like to make the strobes be somewhere the viewers cannot see, but reflect off of a light or semi-reflective surface. For example, have the lights point towards a door with glass in the screen. The light comes from behind them, but they see it in the glass.

A different feel is to use the large incandescent lamps (like Pirates at Disneyland does)

I would not waste a lot of time recording, there are plenty of thunder wavs on the internet.