Case #91: Dick Worked the Graveyard Shift

By Design News Staff -- Design News, October 9, 2006

When the local church needed storm effects for a skit, sound man Dick Neubert found the thunder on the Internet and added “lightning” with a photoflash strobe. He used an uncommitted output from the mixing board to trigger the strobe with the sound signal via a simple interface. The strobe places 300V across SCR1, which discharges this into the trigger coil to fire the tube. In all, this common strobe design will deliver some very uncommon effects for your next Halloween spookfest.

Lighting Special Effects
Amt	Part Description	Allied Part #
3	Diode 1N4001	266-0001
1	R1 470 Ohm, .5W	296-5678
1	SCR NTE 5457	935-6236
1	Phone plug, 1/8 inch	283-0072
Additional parts required
Strobe connector (Note: phone plug should matchamplifier); R2 – see build instructions

Download Dick Neubert's complete instructions on how to build your own lighting special effects.

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