h a l f b a k e r yGo ahead. Stick a fork in it.
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So you've got that light at the bottom of a fountain
effect, but
it moves with the water as if the water falling into the
catch
basin or pond causes a flash of light.
You can also splash water into the pond by hand and get
the
same effect.
It's a little like a man made version of that
bioluminescent
algae that illuminates when it's churned up by boat
propellers
or waves.
Each LED would be activated by a motion sensing switch
of some sort, perhaps a wire or whisker sticking up from
it that's
moved by any water flow hitting it.
Actually an optical sensor would probably be the way to
go. The same sort of technology used in an optical
computer mouse perhaps.
To summarize, you'd get this magic sparkly effect with
individual drops lighting up as opposed to the other
waterfall fountain light idea where you just had one big
light not blinking dynamically in sync with the water
entry points.
[link]
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This would be cool, but there's a eleganter way to do it.
Have a large array of LEDs bonded to a flexible film; the
film sits just above a conductive sheet. When a drop hits
the film, it briefly pushes that part of the film into contact
with the conductor, lighting the LED - sort of like a
keyboard but for water drops. Without the need for
individual sensors, you could make the LEDs as tiny as those
on an LED display, giving very high resolution. |
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Yea, simple is always good. |
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I would think this is something that pretty much every resort
with a falling water feature would want. |
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You make this thing big enough the waves propagating from
the splash point could be illuminated as well. |
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How's this for dumbing the process down a notch?: |
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Sheet of LED covered by a sheet of very light, flexible,
opaque plastic
with tiny little slits above each of the LEDs? When
undisturbed, the slits are closed blocking the light but when
water hits it, the slits are knocked opened until that water
has passed through and or around the slit. |
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NOW we're talking stupid-simple, which is stupid-smart. |
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Another would be to have the LEDs have a little umbrella
dohicky attached to the top by a flexible wire. When water
hits it the umbrella gets knocked aside for a second and lets
the light go up. |
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Could have a wind version of that as well. Not sure where
you'd put it. |
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By an airport runway perhaps? |
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Actually, all you really need is a black sheet with pinholes
in it, a few mm above the LEDs. The pinhole will block
most of the light when it's a few mm away, but will let a lot
of it through when it's pushed close to the LED by a water
drop. |
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Dohickeys are bad - there'll be a cost-per-dohicky. A sheet
with holes in is only the price of the sheet plus the price of
the holes. |
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Half punched holes could work too. Little flaps. |
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Those would actually be better for the flowing waves
effect
maybe. I like the idea of the illuminated waves moving
out
from the impact point. |
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Of course with the sheet and holes thing, you don't
necessarily need all the little LED lights. A few flood
lamps and you're good. |
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Now we're getting pretty cheap. |
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Strings or plastic strips undulating and swaying above the
lights along the
water flow path
throwing corresponding light patterns might be cool too. |
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If you want some half-punched holes, I can let you have a
bunch of them - my dog makes them. |
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Or, if you want to go really hi-tech, go for a material with
two half-reflective layers a few microns apart. Distorting
the material will make it transmit or block various colours,
so you'd get a petrol-on-water effect from a white light. |
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No - wait! There's more! I mean Moiré! Just have two
layers of mesh, not rigidly linked, and ripples/drops will
Moiréfy them. |
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I don't know that your hole idea would work out. It's
pretty easy to splatter a droplet. |
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