Help please!
 

Hi i'm new to the group, and i'm not really to awesome when it comes to
electronics, so I thought I would ask people who really know!

Heres the situation: I play bass in a thrash/rock-punk band and I want to
customise my bass a little. And my idea is to place red LED's under the
scratch plate which I will raise up with washers/nut(s) to give a glow
eminateing from underneath on dark gig's.

I'm from the UK and I dont know how to make a circuit with a switch and
LED's or where to buy them in the UK, I really need this to run off a small
battery pack for obvious reasons!

A freind mentioned I could get a sort of fibre optic wire, that he has on
his PC for cosmetic effect but I guess that runs off 12v?

Cheers for any advice!

Leds run off about 2V @ 20-25 ma, so a small lithium disc battery would
suffice, along with a switch and a resistor.

The best place to get a disc battery holder, would be an old PC board, keep
in mind that leds are polarized, so if you hook them up the wrong way they
won't light.

With the above description, you should be able to get about 10 hours of
continuous light with 1 led and 5 with 2 leds etc.

Best bet for you is to befriend an electronics tech over there somewhere and
ask him to build it for you.

If you do have space in the compartment, I would recommend using a 9v
battery and make it rechargeable, so you don't just throw them away.

Paul

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear...=gensearch&y=9


You could check out this electroluminescent wire from Farnell. Not seen it
in action but it looks pretty cool actually. You can buy mail order.
With regards the wire above, you will need to run it from an inverter (also
available from Farnell). This is supposed to run from12 volts but will
probably still work with a 9 volt battery, though maybe not as bright.
It'll be a small cube type thing with 3 connections. One to battery
positive, one to one end of the wire and the other to battery negative and
the other end of the wire. Pretty simple.


Good luck,

Gareth.






"REMUS" wrote in message
...
Hi i'm new to the group, and i'm not really to awesome when it comes to
electronics, so I thought I would ask people who really know!

Heres the situation: I play bass in a thrash/rock-punk band and I want to
customise my bass a little. And my idea is to place red LED's under the
scratch plate which I will raise up with washers/nut(s) to give a glow
eminateing from underneath on dark gig's.

I'm from the UK and I dont know how to make a circuit with a switch and
LED's or where to buy them in the UK, I really need this to run off a
small
battery pack for obvious reasons!

A freind mentioned I could get a sort of fibre optic wire, that he has on
his PC for cosmetic effect but I guess that runs off 12v?

Cheers for any advice!

Hmm, just thought that you may find the inverter induces noise from the
pickups, so you may have to screen it or site it where it doesn't.

Hmm, just thought that you may find the inverter induces noise from the
pickups, so you may have to screen it or site it where it doesn't.

Could I wrap the inverter in somthing like tin foil to stop or reduce any
type of interferance?

A steel can would be better, with the metal connected to the earthing of
your guitar, but I'm no expert on screening.

Best thing to do is try it and find out for yourself - you may not need any
at all, or you may find that orienting the inverter a certain way or siting
it in a different body cavity will make a big difference. (Oo-er, missus)

BTW, The inverter runs at a frequency at around 2KHz, which is well in the
audio band and if it does interfere, you will hear a high pitched whine.

Gareth.


"REMUS" wrote in message
...
Hmm, just thought that you may find the inverter induces noise from the
pickups, so you may have to screen it or site it where it doesn't.

Could I wrap the inverter in somthing like tin foil to stop or reduce any
type of interferance?

Alternatively, you could build the battery and inverter into a belt pack and
run an extra cable to the bass.

Sounds interesting. I've been designing effects boxes for
guitar/bass/whatever for a few years now...maybe I can help.

Of course, being in Canada, I wouldn't know where you could get the
parts.

As for the circuit, I can quickly draw a schematic and send it to you.

I'll need a few details though for the circuit and parts.

- How many LEDs ?
- Is it a simple switch on / switch off circuit ?
- Does the switch have to be low profile ?

Where in the UK are you anyway?

Dan

www.whelantechnology.ca



"REMUS" wrote in message ...
Hi i'm new to the group, and i'm not really to awesome when it comes to
electronics, so I thought I would ask people who really know!

Heres the situation: I play bass in a thrash/rock-punk band and I want to
customise my bass a little. And my idea is to place red LED's under the
scratch plate which I will raise up with washers/nut(s) to give a glow
eminateing from underneath on dark gig's.

I'm from the UK and I dont know how to make a circuit with a switch and
LED's or where to buy them in the UK, I really need this to run off a small
battery pack for obvious reasons!

A freind mentioned I could get a sort of fibre optic wire, that he has on
his PC for cosmetic effect but I guess that runs off 12v?

Cheers for any advice!