Author Topic: How did the light show work?  (Read 5414 times)

Alanko

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How did the light show work?
« on: August 18, 2015, 03:20:15 PM »
I'm interested in the guys of those Lightshow instruments Rickenbacker made, including a 4005 variant. I've never seen it explained as to how they worked. From what I gather, the lights run off of mains electricity delivered via a 5-pin jack. The lights themselves seem to respond differently depending on which notes, or strings, are being played. How did this circuitry sense the strings, and convert that into switching for the lights?


Highlander

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2015, 03:29:18 PM »
The random mind of a Silver Surfer...
If research was easy, it wouldn't need doing...
Staring at that event horizon is a dirty job, but someone has to do it; something's going to come back out of it one day...

Alanko

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2015, 03:17:08 AM »
Thanks for the links! They sound like a nightmare of hot plexiglass and mains voltage...

I still don't understand the circuitry involved, from converting the output of passive pickups to 3-bands of control voltages for the lights.

chromium

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2015, 03:43:02 PM »
I still don't understand the circuitry involved, from converting the output of passive pickups to 3-bands of control voltages for the lights.

There's a circuit example here with a nice video walk-through explaining how the color organs typically work.  Similar concepts are probably at play in the Ric, just using different components...

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?search_type=jamecoall&catalogId=10001&freeText=2126272&langId=-1&productId=2126272

Alanko

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2015, 02:11:44 PM »
I cannot get that link to work.  ???

Highlander

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2015, 03:43:23 PM »
Strike 2...
The random mind of a Silver Surfer...
If research was easy, it wouldn't need doing...
Staring at that event horizon is a dirty job, but someone has to do it; something's going to come back out of it one day...

chromium

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2015, 04:37:41 PM »
Weird- the link works ok for me, so not sure what's up with that.

Here's the link for the video at any rate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sf6lq6NcJU

Highlander

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2015, 11:22:55 PM »
Very geek...  ;)

Went the other way, Joe, and got back to the source... two links...

Light Organ PDF

relevant page link
« Last Edit: August 20, 2015, 11:30:04 PM by Highlander »
The random mind of a Silver Surfer...
If research was easy, it wouldn't need doing...
Staring at that event horizon is a dirty job, but someone has to do it; something's going to come back out of it one day...

Alanko

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2015, 02:54:05 AM »
Many thanks guys! I will look at these when I get some down time.

Denis

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2015, 03:54:49 PM »
Here's a video of one in the dark!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sraw-Pah_lg
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uwe

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2016, 11:04:32 AM »
I didn't know that it goes on and off as you play it, très cool if not exactly practical. I'd play it in a psychedelia band. A thousand p(o)ints of li(gh)t(e).
We've taken too much for granted ... and all the time it had grown ...
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Jeff Scott

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2016, 02:46:51 PM »
I didn't know that it goes on and off as you play it, très cool if not exactly practical. I'd play it in a psychedelia band. A thousand p(o)ints of li(gh)t(e).
It's a light organ; remember those?

Denis

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2016, 07:45:21 AM »
Until I found that video I assumed that individual lights were tied in with individual strings or tones. Never occurred to me that groups of lights or sections of the bass would light up like that.
Either way, I like it.
Why did Salvador Dali cross the road?
Clocks.

uwe

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2016, 01:53:55 PM »
It's a light organ; remember those?

I like my organ heavy.
We've taken too much for granted ... and all the time it had grown ...
From techno seeds we first planted ... evolved a mind of its own ...

Highlander

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Re: How did the light show work?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2016, 02:55:26 PM »
Hammond C3 is pretty heavy...

John Lord let me play with his organ, just would not cut it, I guess... :mrgreen:

Edit Uwe: Un-for-give-ab-le!
« Last Edit: January 20, 2016, 06:21:40 AM by uwe »
The random mind of a Silver Surfer...
If research was easy, it wouldn't need doing...
Staring at that event horizon is a dirty job, but someone has to do it; something's going to come back out of it one day...