How To Give LED Strip Lights Special Effects for $10

If you use LED strip for your prop making or diorama builds, here's a quick and cheap way to give those lights some fun effects. Norm tests out a set of $10 LED controllers that connect between the power supply and LED strip, adding a variety of strobe, flicker, pulses that breathe more life into the lighting. As a turnkey alternative to programmable microcontrollers, these simple in-line controllers are a useful addition to our electronics toolkit!

Shot and edited by Norman Chan
Music by Jinglepunks

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

[adamgardiner]

Love the feedback loop of Norm getting the idea for this from the comments section. We feel heard mate!!

[bobhawkey]

I love that Norm is such a great guy with skills to die for and yet the challenge of keeping his glasses from sliding forward has yet to be tackled. Right there with you brother.

[tryathlete.]

I always get stoked when I see Norm has uploaded a new video sharing an awesome technique or ideas for miniatures and models!

It would be really cool if you guys could show some ways to create the illusion of motion in dioramas, such as smoke trails off of missiles or how to position figures in a way that conveys movement to further push that illusion of a "snapshot in time" factor

[davidsharp]

I know it's Akira, which spookily I watched the other night. But combined with the music I got a solid Tron vibe. Would love to see Norm do a Tron Diorama with his new led skills

[dezignateddriva]

amazing. taking a few of these tips, along with the neon sign vid and applying to my man-cave

[davefalkenburg]

Excellent options for folks who might not be into coding and soldering.

[NickWalters]

This is perfect for a project I am working on. Just ordered a set of the controllers. Thanks for sharing!

[griptopia]

My to Fav film styles... Akira and Blade Runner! amazing stuff... :)

[elliottadams]

Norm, bravo! Please make more content like this!

[TheChild]

Saw the Project BM! AKIRA/Kaneda 1/6th Soul of Chogokin bike (owned one my self along side 1/6th scale Kaneda and Tetsuo) in thumbnail got me curious and had to check out your next 1/6th scale photography exploit. Love your previous lighting/photography vid on Hot Toys Hulkbuster! Can’t wait to see more of your 1/6th scale photography/lighting guide! Also kudos to you joining Justin’s Collection interview as well. 👍

[nickiebanchou]

there actually are COB strips that are only 3mm thick and don't have any PCB showing on the side, it's all the width of the silicone strip itself
i had a hard time finding those and they are expensive, but thanks to some netherlands RC airplane shop i got me a couple meters and it's absolutely awesome

[edit: typos ! ]

[CloudSpecter]

What an great idea it looks really cool

[paulmcnamara]

That diorama looks absolutely fantastic, awesome work buddy! Will defo be checking those out!
😁👍

[rzr]

I did this years ago on my car with 4x 5050 led strips under the car going to a music/sound activated controller and then a mode/speed controller then a DC to AC to 9v to convert 9v into the normal expected voltage and amp requirements of the LEDs. Was stupidly cool as hell and illegal to use while driving but sitting in a carpark at night with it going attracted a lot of attention and it was great. That cars gone to scrap metal now but it was a Mitsubishi Lancer 1998 Australia model. Led strips would work on any car though.

[jktrisler]

Unable to find the previous video where you actually made the sign. Interested in the silicon led strip used. I think it must be different than the cob lights that are linked in the description.

[justinruthen]

Anyone that has used these kind of light controls. Do you know which ones strobe/flash fast enough to give almost a lightning effect?
Thanks

[sclassicallyme]

This was cool, but you should probably put a strobe warning on the video though.

[jctv]

Make me affective Deadpool costume with gun swords and more by howlaween

[makavelimusolini]

The bike from Akira and the YF-19 from Macross plus remain my 2 favorite mechanical designs from Japan.

Definitely not a fan of marvel/dc heroes or that star wars garbage myself. Hated star wars as a kid, learned to watch and enjoy them somewhat after the 2ks cause the quality of movies in general have gone to such a shitty state, that even star wars is now an ok movie.

[themaniac]

If you are doing something DIY why would you spend that much money for something so limited. A Simple Arduino board like does it all in one.