I have decided a Lava Lamp is just not for me .

[Tim Smith]

3 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I never had much luck with them. Water always destroyed them after a few months. Ever see Big Clive on YouTube? He does a lot of work with LED's and reverse engineering small electronics. He uses epoxy iirc over the little solar panels to help protect them from rain.

Just 2 days ago I finally got every single light converted to LED in and outside of my house. I went to Lowe's the other day and they had LED flood lights and bulbs by GE on clearance. Normally $15 each on clearance for $2.50. These are the ones that don't put out the blue light spectrum that keeps you awake. I think it's actually made a difference. I replaced the lights in my living room with them and I think they made a difference.

I love messing with LED's and little circuits that drive them when I have time. But it's actually getting cheaper to buy sets now than to buy them individually and make your own. I wanted to make my own sets for the Christmas trees I'm making for my driveway but the cost was double what I could just go buy a set with built in animations for now.

I haven't had any issue with solar other than shorter days here. In the summer they would stay on all night. Now they don't stay on as long. I also put one on my mail box post out front. Even in winter they stay on until the wee hours of the morning. Occasionally I might need to replace a battery. That isn't very often. Looks a little odd seeing them lit up out back in the snow when in summer they pointed at bushes and trees.

My first experience with the led lights similar to the ones used in studios was when I built my custom coffee/tea bar and I needed lighting over it. I picked up a  set of led lights. You basically stick them to almost any surface. They come with a remote control and are powered from a plug in transformer. You can configure them in different ways. They do a bunch of stuff I really don't need. There is the heart beat setting that pulsates like a heart beat. They dim to different levels. I didn't like the battery powered lights because then you're buying batteries. Since I just needed light above my coffee bar I mostly just use a basic light setting.

Those kinds of lights would be cool as mood lighting under a studio desk or in some other place where they could be inconspicuous and still see the lighting effect. They are not expensive.

I prefer mostly the incandescent look for working. The yellowish filament copy led lights.