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Water Drop Activated Light Matrix At Base of Fountain

A matrix of lights at base of fountain or waterfall that only lights when water drops onto it.
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So you've got that light at the bottom of a fountain effect, but it moves with the water as if the water falling into the catch basin or pond causes a flash of light.

You can also splash water into the pond by hand and get the same effect.

It's a little like a man made version of that bioluminescent algae that illuminates when it's churned up by boat propellers or waves.

Each LED would be activated by a motion sensing switch of some sort, perhaps a wire or whisker sticking up from it that's moved by any water flow hitting it.

Actually an optical sensor would probably be the way to go. The same sort of technology used in an optical computer mouse perhaps.

To summarize, you'd get this magic sparkly effect with individual drops lighting up as opposed to the other waterfall fountain light idea where you just had one big light not blinking dynamically in sync with the water entry points.

doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018

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       Hmm.   

       This would be cool, but there's a eleganter way to do it. Have a large array of LEDs bonded to a flexible film; the film sits just above a conductive sheet. When a drop hits the film, it briefly pushes that part of the film into contact with the conductor, lighting the LED - sort of like a keyboard but for water drops. Without the need for individual sensors, you could make the LEDs as tiny as those on an LED display, giving very high resolution.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       Yea, simple is always good.   

       I would think this is something that pretty much every resort with a falling water feature would want.   

       You make this thing big enough the waves propagating from the splash point could be illuminated as well.
doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018
  

       How's this for dumbing the process down a notch?:   

       Sheet of LED covered by a sheet of very light, flexible, opaque plastic with tiny little slits above each of the LEDs? When undisturbed, the slits are closed blocking the light but when water hits it, the slits are knocked opened until that water has passed through and or around the slit.   

       NOW we're talking stupid-simple, which is stupid-smart.
doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018
  

       Hmm. Could work...
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       Another would be to have the LEDs have a little umbrella dohicky attached to the top by a flexible wire. When water hits it the umbrella gets knocked aside for a second and lets the light go up.   

       Could have a wind version of that as well. Not sure where you'd put it.   

       By an airport runway perhaps?
doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018
  

       Actually, all you really need is a black sheet with pinholes in it, a few mm above the LEDs. The pinhole will block most of the light when it's a few mm away, but will let a lot of it through when it's pushed close to the LED by a water drop.   

       Dohickeys are bad - there'll be a cost-per-dohicky. A sheet with holes in is only the price of the sheet plus the price of the holes.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       Half punched holes could work too. Little flaps.   

       Those would actually be better for the flowing waves effect maybe. I like the idea of the illuminated waves moving out from the impact point.   

       Of course with the sheet and holes thing, you don't necessarily need all the little LED lights. A few flood lamps and you're good.   

       Now we're getting pretty cheap.   

       Strings or plastic strips undulating and swaying above the lights along the water flow path throwing corresponding light patterns might be cool too.
doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018
  

       If you want some half-punched holes, I can let you have a bunch of them - my dog makes them.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       Or, if you want to go really hi-tech, go for a material with two half-reflective layers a few microns apart. Distorting the material will make it transmit or block various colours, so you'd get a petrol-on-water effect from a white light.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       No - wait! There's more! I mean Moiré! Just have two layers of mesh, not rigidly linked, and ripples/drops will Moiréfy them.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 12 2018
  

       That sounds pretty cool.
doctorremulac3, Mar 12 2018
  

       I don't know that your hole idea would work out. It's pretty easy to splatter a droplet.
RayfordSteele, Mar 12 2018
  


 

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