Easy LED projects I can do at home?

Hey guys.

greenLED posted doing a 9v film cannister LED project with his son, and that got me to thinking:

I would really like to, in the near future, try putting together some simple LED projects with my girls.

Only problem is, I don't have a lot of experience at doing this stuff. Well, actually, I have practically no experience.

Are there any 'how to' project manuals out there that I can get ahold of. You know, how to take 'x' number of batteries, and 'n' resisters and 'y' LED's and putting everything together so that they all work together. Right now, I have no clue about the stuff, but I want to learn.

greenLED, that film cannister project particularly interested me because I was wanting to try an LED/ping-pong ball water proof ghetto lantern idea, and that would work well. Cutting a hole in the ping pong ball, feeding the LED up through the lid of the film cannister and into the ping pong ball that has a hole cut in it (small hole). Ping pong ball would be glued to the top of the film cannister lid via silicon caulk or something, or maybe to the bottom of the film cannister so that flex separation wouldn't be an issue. Would actually like to try a stronger LED, like a lux 1 with (lambertian?) reflector so that the think would glow real nice like. I could also try other cannisters, but the film cannister intrigued me. I know that there would possibly be heat and other issues to work through, but I'm game.

Where can I get simple resistors/wire, etc?

Thanks guys!

Hi

That pingpong ball sound as a smart idea
I dont know any idea for a project (?)

What I did do once was to put up 3 LED in a triangle.
One is BLUE
One is Green
One is RED
And they did all point to the center of the triangle, and that 3 colours toghether did make a white light at the sentrum
That was a nice little "lamp" to hang at the wall as a Bling-Bling...



What about buying a ONE-in-100 experints kit ?

The best place to buy cheap resistors\LEDs is eBay
You can buy like 200leds in difrent colour, and have fun a long time


cheers

Word of caution,

Ping pong balls are suprisingly flammable.

Don't ask.

Hi Sleestak,

Here's the link to the canister light I made with my son (page has links to other easy projects). All parts came from RadioShack. Later I bought some brighter (RS's are really dim, compared to others) from superbrightleds.com As I said in that other thread, it's fairly easy to do, illustrates many electronics concepts with the little ones, and they seem to last forever. It's just a fun thing to do on a rainy day. Actually, I should make some more as emergency lights. Which reminds me: I've been thinking about one of these for a long time: worldtorch.com

You can find shrink tubing at your local auto store. Make sure you coat all connections to prevent shorts. I first scavanged wire off old computer parts (state surplus is close by) but now I use teflon wire (shameless plug ). Before I forget, here's a link to some soldering tips. Get some solder flux from your hardware store; a world of difference-makes soldering 100x easier. Basically all my tools came from a regular hardware store and RS. It wasn't until I started messing with Lux's that I headed to the Sandwich Shoppe. Planning on taking the leap and ordering some IC's and other goodies from DigiKey in the next 6 months or so. Anyway...

Other projects (or something similar) that I did when I started playing with LED's and lights:
How to build a LED flashlight (this link actually walks you through the resistance calculations and differences between parallel and series wiring, etc. - I like it - the simplest circuit is the one the film canister light is based off of)
Mod idea for the Mag Soli.
How to make a LED "drop-in" bulb for a regular flashlight.

It'd be useful if you Googled "Ohm's law" and learned the basics - helps to figure out what resistors you need, how to wire them, etc. I ended up using Jtice's LEDPro software (sticky somewhere on the modding section on CPF) for all LED-related calculations - I have since forgotten all about Ohm's law (shame on me).

You'll be moving onto all sorts of modding/building/tinkering after all this (here's a bunch of ideas)! Have fun, that's what this hobby is all about. And don't hesitate to ask any questions.

is it just me ? that cant find the link ?

what link are you talking about?