Desktop Ornament

[Johnson777717]

good day folks! I thought I would run a project by you to see what you think, and possibly get some advice for improvements.

I'm creating a scene (Nativity, Calvary, and Easter scene) for my little sister. One side will depict the nativity scene, the middle background will contain a Calvary scene, and the opposite side will contain a Easter scene. The entire ornament should end up to be about 12" wide by 8" deep by 4" high.

I'm currently making the base out of plaster, which will be a platform for these scenes according to the measurements that I mentioned above. The base will taper off on all sides to create a mountain type form, for the calvary scene. Then bulges in the front right and left will provide for the Nativity scene and the Easter scene. I plan to sculpt the plaster to make the manger and the tomb for these scenes. Once this is complete, I plan to make the landscape using miniature trees and grass, similar to the items used for model train landscaping. A little paint and clearcoating may be in store as well.

Electronically speaking: I'm making a LED fader, using a LM324 and some transistors. This is similar to the common "fading red eyes" circuit, only I'm multiplying the circuit by 4, thus using all of the OP-amps of the LM324, in order to provide for 8 LED's which will fade off and on every 3 or 4 seconds. I plan to install these LED's as "scene lighting" for each of the individual scenes. I'm planning to use Yellow LED's for the nativity, Red LED's for the calvary, and Green LED's for the Easter scene.

Additionally, I'm going to install a music player (One of those from Radio Shack) to play the song "Silent Night".

I plan to store all of the electronics components in a void, which I will cut out from the bottom of the plaster. The system will run off a 9V battery, but I'm pondering making a power supply to run from a mains supply, just to minimize the battery cost.

Does anyone have any neat ideas for improving this project? I'd really like this to be something neat for my little sister, so the more neat stuff I can add, the better.

Thanks for your input.
PS If you're confused about what the Nativity, Calvary and Easter scenes depict, let me know and I'll send an email / private message which descibes these scenes.

 

[jem]

How about staggering the fading in/out of the different color LED's? That way, you can highlight each scene in turn (highlight one while the previous one is fading).

If you use a microcontroller and some kind of proximity detector, you can even make all the LED simply flash randomly (to attract attention), but once someone comes near, the you can do the fading in/out, and bring on the music.

Jem

 

[Johnson777717]

Jem, Thanks for the reply.

Now that is an awesome idea! I'll look into the proximity "switch" idea. Thanks again for your input!

 

[grrr_arrghh]

Possibly this is going a bit far, but you could make the characters out of a translucent material, and put some LEDs inside the characters so that they glow!!

Dunno how well it would work, but it might be ammusing.

Tim

 

[Johnson777717]

That would be awesome! Maybe I can find some hollow glass characters, and paint them with that stained glass paint. That way the light will still shine through the paint. What a neat Idea! THANKS!

 

[Electric Rain]

Well, first thing's first... I hate batteries. They're a constant drain of a lot of money. I would use an AC adapter WAY before I'd use batteries for just about anything. :wink: And for the kind of display that you're talking about that doesn't need to be mobile, I would have no hesitation in using the AC adapter. But if you want, you can use a coaxial DC jack with a normally closed switch so that you can use a 9 volt (or a 12 pack of AAAs, AAs, Cs, D, whatever you want) and when the AC adapter is inserted, it will draw power from that rather than the batteries. Those are my favorite setups. 8)

Well, that's my opinion about that, and... this kind of stuff really catches me, you know, little landscaped models with electronics built in... they're cool. So I'd like to help. But I'm not quite sure exactly what you're shootin' for here. I need more details.
I can't promise anything, but when I really get on something like this and know exactly what I'm working with... I can make it more entertaining than a fireworks show at Disney World! :lol: :wink: 8) (j/k because I mean, come on now... I'm not THAT good. :lol: )

But, like I said, I need very fine details and um... I tend to blow off even my own projects... a lot... so I can't promise anything. :lol: But I'll try my best. Also, I need to know what kind of budget you're on. That'll make a huge difference in this whole thing.

Well, gimme some details and I'll see what I can do. :wink: See ya.

Rain

Edit: Oh and also, how good are you with mechanics and electronics? Give me a 1-10 rating for electronics and give me a 1-10 rating for mechanics.

Second Edit: Hmm... I just looked at your dimensions again and realized they might not be quite big enough for some of the ideas I had... but again, I need to know what I'm working with...

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

Do you have to believe in cheebus to design a circuit?

 

[Johnson777717]

No.