# Campfire simulation alert!



## Dave Sams (Nov 24, 2010)

Tea lights sold for pumpkins make great fire simulators for a good price. Menards has 6 for $2.99. If you are lucky, you can get them cheaper after Halloween.

I took one apart and wired it to my layout lighting circuit. A 470ohm resistor and small diode in series took the voltage from 12v to 3v, enough to keep the LED and flasher circuit from blowing. 

It's been working for a year now. 

I tried to make a video of the campfire, but the iPhone camera just didn't do it justice.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I found the flickering LED bulbs in various colors on eBay, so I've done some flickering firebox installations using the Red, orange, and a couple of yellow bulbs. It really looks cool, the flickering LED bulbs are neat for a number of effects.


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## Dave Sams (Nov 24, 2010)

I have 2 blue and one white flickering bulbs in my freight building. It simulates arc welding nicely on my layout.

With the $2.99 pack of tea lights, I also got 12 cr2032 batteries!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Yep, I bought a whole bunch at the dollar store several years back, three for a dollar. They had a nice Lionel sized slide switch, the CR2032 battery, and of course, the flickering LED. Since I now have about 50 CR2032 batteries, I don't need to buy more of those...


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Probably ok for O, but a little big for HO and smaller. I bought a campfire kit from Evan Design for $7, which runs off my accessory power supply and has 2 orange and one red flickering LED that tke up less than 1/8".


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

You can get smaller flickering LED's, I have them in 3mm and 5mm sizes.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

I made a couple "campfires" out of the flickering tea lights I bought at the dollar store for cheap. Simply glued some small pebbles in a circle, placed some small sticks of real wood over the ring like a tee-pee, then hooked it up to a 3V power supply.
They are scary real looking and get "Wow!" comments from visitors every time.
Bob


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