fade
Staff member
This is mostly to satisfy my own curiosity, but I want to find the designs for the original "Larson Scanner", the name dubbed by Evil Mad Scientist for the scanning lights found in a number of Glen A. Larson's TV shows, including the front of KITT and the Cylon's eyes. There are a bazillion LED scanner circuits online, but those don't tell me how the originals were made. They also rely on trickery to simulate the fading tail. This tail was presumably just a natural effect of using incandescent bulbs in the original scanners. You can go even further back in time to Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still to find a scanning eye, but I'm not sure this one wasn't just rotoscoped. It also appears under the viewing screen of the TNG Enterprise, though to my eyes, that looks like one of the more modern variants you can easily find online.
Also, I'm curious about the circuitry behind the popular "blinkenlights" effect in 50s-80s scifi. By this I mean all the blinking lights all over the bridge of the TOS enterprise, for example. It's possible these are just on a ton of bimetal blinkers or something like that (though I imagine that would be rather loud, and the mic would pick it up). I've also read that a lot of the older scifi involved grips activating things manually with switches behind the scenes. Or "random" cams operating switches via electric motor behind the sets.
Thanks for any help.
Also, I'm curious about the circuitry behind the popular "blinkenlights" effect in 50s-80s scifi. By this I mean all the blinking lights all over the bridge of the TOS enterprise, for example. It's possible these are just on a ton of bimetal blinkers or something like that (though I imagine that would be rather loud, and the mic would pick it up). I've also read that a lot of the older scifi involved grips activating things manually with switches behind the scenes. Or "random" cams operating switches via electric motor behind the sets.
Thanks for any help.
