Recently I have been trying my hand at making replicas and I chose the Flux Capacitor because it's from my true all-time favorite movie: Back To The Future

Anyway here are some pics. As you can see I'm almost done. I have ordered the yellow "Flux wires" (which are actually spark plug wires) on amazon so those should be in soon, but the snag I have hit is how to control these. I need them to pulse like in the movie but I have no idea how to effectively control those high voltages. Suggestions? I've been thinking of a motor with a brush on it that spins and brushes against 4 contacts which light up the appropriate lights, but something tells me there's a better way.

Ok, here are those pics I promised:

Vacuum solenoid replicas:


Solenoid replicas complete:


Cutting the box:


Painted and applying gasket:


Applied labels, added cable pipes, and plastic window:


As always, suggestions and feedback is always appreciated!

This looks great so far!
(sorry that i have no constructive input, lol)

Wow! This is amazing!

I'm also a big Back to the Future fan myself It's an awesome movie!

Now only if it actually worked...

That looks awesome! This would make a fantastic wall decoration in any man/nerd cave .

This demands bigger pictures

Depends on how you intend to power those neon lamps.

I'd reach for FETs for relatively simple switching of DC, like a pair of FQS4901s. If you want to drive those lamps with AC instead (probably easier and a better choice overall), I'd reach for a TRIAC like a Z0103MA.

For cycling between lamps you could probably do something with a shift register and very slow clock, but it's probably easier just to use a microcontroller. You might choose to build a ring counter not unlike this Johnson counter built with 7400-series ICs.

You could probably also get a similar effect with LEDs, requiring lower voltage and power, generally being easier to work with.

Yeah, thinking about it I will probably end up with LEDs even if it means losing just a bit of realism. In the movie it seems like a white glow with a hint of yellow-orange color which is part of the reason I went with these bulbs. But I agree, LEDs are much easier to work with.