What?
High-Intensity LED Lighting SystemWhen?
Spring 2004Why?
So the dolls can see. Obviously.Or possibly, so that it's not too dingy to be able to see the dolls. That would make more sense.
How?
Fairly straightforwards, this one. The house needed lights, and we didn't want a mains power supply anywhere near it so as to reduce the risk of curious fingers finding a 240v circuit. Having looked at conventional dolls' house lighting kits, it became apparent that you'd never run 12v filament bulbs for any length of time on battery power, which gave me an added excuse to use LEDs instead.Wiring was straightforwards (glue guns are so useful...), the only points requiring any thought were the switching box and the light shades. We needed a secure mounting for the LEDs to reduce the chance of damage, so a section of broom handle was cut into discs and turned on a lathe so as to provide a fixture. This seems to have worked well, and looks quite tidy.
The switch box is not quite perfect, as it was difficult to find a box with a battery compartment of the right size. This may be changed at a later date. The current box is provided with a master power switch, dimmer knob and pushbutton switched for each individual light on the house, nine in all. There is an LED on the box to show when the voltage regulator is active, to avoid it being accidentally left on.
In use, the system runs for around six hours on a single charge before showing any noticeable reduction in intensity, which is quite long enough that you don't have to worry about it running out whilst someone's playing with it.
I have so far resisted the urge to add some sort of Ethernet interface to the system...