How to make a phone light up internally with LEDs? Batphone!

[mr.stinkhead]

Hello, I'm brand new here.
I have no electronic knowledge whatsoever.

I recently got this red hotline phone and want to make it light up like Commissioner Gordon's on the 1966 Batman TV series

The phone is pretty opaque, so I've heard that LEDs are the best way to go. I'm looking to buy a cheap pre-made array since I have no soldering experience.

Below the pic of my phone is a pic of the open ports (there are two)

I think I can just stick a jumper in there, and it will light up when the phone "rings" however the entire front of the phone is empty, so I have space for the lights to have independant power.

After I get this working, I want to play with adding a device to play the infamous beeping sound when the phone rings as well, but that's not as important as the light at this time.

Any ideas on where to get a good LED array? I found this one:
https://www.theledlight.com/specialtyleds.html
(scroll down after naked circuit boards)
"Unique circuit board design allows for the Light Bars to be snapped to the desired length. A single 12 inch bar can be quickly turned into four 3 inch bars or two 6 inch bars with no soldering or board jumpering."

That's only $19.75, plus it looks like I need a "jumper" to connect it to the ringer.
(or we'll set it up with an independant power source)

Someone also recommended EL Wires, but I don't know if those are bright enough.

I could really use some help on what I need to do.

Here's the catch
When I'm done, I want to put up an article on my site
on how anyone can build a batphone with the directions... so the less soldering, the better.

Thanks!
Mr. Stinkhead

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

 

[euhero987]

Hello, I'm brand new here.
I have no electronic knowledge whatsoever.

I recently got this red hotline phone and want to make it light up like Commissioner Gordon's on the 1966 Batman TV series

The phone is pretty opaque, so I've heard that LEDs are the best way to go. I'm looking to buy a cheap pre-made array since I have no soldering experience.

Below the pic of my phone is a pic of the open ports (there are two)

I think I can just stick a jumper in there, and it will light up when the phone "rings" however the entire front of the phone is empty, so I have space for the lights to have independant power.

After I get this working, I want to play with adding a device to play the infamous beeping sound when the phone rings as well, but that's not as important as the light at this time.

Any ideas on where to get a good LED array? I found this one:
**broken link removed**
(scroll down after naked circuit boards)
"Unique circuit board design allows for the Light Bars to be snapped to the desired length. A single 12 inch bar can be quickly turned into four 3 inch bars or two 6 inch bars with no soldering or board jumpering."

That's only $19.75, plus it looks like I need a "jumper" to connect it to the ringer.
(or we'll set it up with an independant power source)

Someone also recommended EL Wires, but I don't know if those are bright enough.

I could really use some help on what I need to do.

Here's the catch
When I'm done, I want to put up an article on my site
on how anyone can build a batphone with the directions... so the less soldering, the better.

Thanks!
Mr. Stinkhead

The phone looks really nice,i was curious how does it look .Did you really get the led array?How does it look like?

 

[duffy]

Are you trying to make the whole phone light up like in the TV show?



For that I would suggest making an RTV silicone mold of the body, and then casting it in a 2-part polyester resin with red tint. Your phone is probably phenolic, and that stuff just won't transmit light no matter how brightly you light the inside.

 

[DJDAudio]

I buy from here often,

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

 

[audioguru]

The ringer on a phone operates with very low current at a high voltage (127V peak). It operates with AC.
Bright LEDs operate with a fairly high current at a low voltage, which is completely different to a phone's ringer. LEDs operate with DC.

If you connect LEDs to the ringer terminals of your phone then they will probably cause the telephone line to answer on the first ring (but none of your phones will make a sound) then hang up. They will also interfere with speech volume.

You can buy a very bright strobe light that blinks when the telephone line rings. It plugs into the telephone line or into a splitter and is powered by electricity. It is used by deaf people.

 

[duffy]

Even a strobe light isn't going to get through the phenolic. That stuff is as transparent as a block of lead.

 

[euhero987]

anybody bought leds from this site?
**broken link removed**
they seems to carry a few led stuff