It’s time for geek girls to prove their mettle at the prom with this cool glowing headband. What’s special about this is that it’s striking, fashionable and since it’s a DIY creation, it’s exclusive too. The ordinary looking satin headband can actually stun the onlookers in the dark. Instructables has put up the detailed guidelines on how to make this glowing flower headgear using MagicLite LED powered fiber-optic light. When all arranged and finessed, it turns out to be a really beautiful yet out-of-the-box fashion accessory.
Want a totally new and bizarre way to create home decor? Stick an LED light inside of a sea urchin shell! Taking a break from our typical hacking projects, here’s a dirt simple, fast way to create unique decorations. Using colored LEDs connected to small lithium coin cells, you can create the diffused lighting effects inside the tiny sea urchin shells.
For the craftsters & LED lovers, great idea by Johanna Hyrkas. The LED carpet-light: a simple, yet novel DIY project. A single strand of LEDs is encased in a knit tube; the knit tube is wound together to form a carpet. Brush up on your knitting skills, and get creative.
Hopefully, you won’t be using this LED grow light to grow your illegal plants (or maybe legal depending on where you are and what licenses you have), but here’s a great way to keep your plants healthy full of artificial LED light by making LED grow lights!
We put up these color changing LED lights on this deck just in time for a big party thrown every year! They added a nice atmosphere to the party and everyone loved them.
This whole project only took about 1 1/2 days to complete. The first day to install the wiring and flexible LED lights, and the second to connect the controllers and go over the strips with clear silicon for extra protection.
I had just picked up a cheap-o glass chess set at my local arcade for the low low price of only 15,000 tickets. The novelty of playing with glass pieces quickly wore off, and I wondered how I could make it better. The thought of illuminating the set seemed very appealing, but there were so many different ways that could be done.
I could put alternating colored lights under the board following the checkerboard pattern. The light would shine up through the glass board and make the pieces glow. The problem with this design is that the pieces would change color with each move, and (since the difference between the two sides is not black / white but frosted / clear) this would make game play somewhat confusing.
I could put a small battery and light inside of each piece, so the two sides would each be different colors. This would probably be the simplest way to get glowing pieces; however, this design is not without its problems. The batteries would need to be replaced. Their lifespan could be extended if a small sensitive on/off switch, activated by the chess piece being in an upright position, were added. This would complicate the design though, and still only be a temporary solution, as the batteries would need to be replaced eventually. This design (with the switch) does have one more advantage. It gives the chess pieces two states, on and off. I liked the idea of the chess pieces being illuminated while they were in play (upright and on the board), and dark while they were out (dead and off the board).
The final design I chose (which will be explained in more depth in the next step), was to have each piece contain an LED that would be powered by a conductive board. The board is plugged into an outlet, so there is no need to worry about the power running out. While the pieces are on the board they are "live" and illuminated, and while off the board they are "dead" and dark.
I made a stop motion animation of game six between Kasparov and Deep Blue . The animation does not end with checkmate, because when Kasparov saw that he was going to be beaten by a computer, he threw a hissy fit and stormed off.
Led Light Table
Nice table project that takes a bunch of LEDS and mounts them under a sheet of frosted glass. The table gives off a neat effect that is sure to impress your friends. The blog post doesn’t give any details just a set of pictures showing the construction of the table. Here are some of the pictures below:
Diana Eng of Project Runway fame is a geek's fashion designer. Today, she's teaching us how to sew LEDs into your clothing.
We're all familiar with the LED belt buckle and the Motorola/Burton jacket, but now we're grabbing fashion by the threads and showing you how to make your own tech-inspired clothing (and not look like an MIT project in the process). After the jump, we're gonna show you how to sew an LED onto your shirt in 8 easy steps. Yeah, we're gonna sew. But we will sew while drinking a beer to re-emphasize our masculinity.
Before you begin, you'll need conductive thread (the same material used to make fencing vests), a sewing machine, a hand sewing needle, pliers, scissors, an LED, a 1,000 ohm resistor (which can be purchased at any Radio Shack), alligator clips (also from Radio Shack), and a 9-volt battery.
1) Start by cutting the end wires (or leads) of the resistor down to a shorter length.
2)Bend the leads in a round shape. You'll notice that one LED has a longer lead. This is the + side of the LED that electricity flows into. The shorter lead of the LED is the ground side. Like the resistor, cut the leads and bend them into loops. Make the longer lead + a larger loop. Bend the loops so that the LED can sit flat on the fabric.
3)Mark where the components will go on the fabric. Make sure that the resistor is placed by the side of the LED that has a larger loop.
4)Thread your sewing machine. If the thread is too thick to pass through the needle, you can use a larger needle.
5)Sew lines and leave gaps where you'd like the resistor and LED to be (basically you will be sewing between the marks you made on the fabric). Be sure to backstitch the ends where you want to add your components (to back stitch, just push the reverse button on your sewing machine and the machine sews backwards). Backstitching keeps the end of thread from coming undone and ensures that there is more surface area for the components to make contact with. Using a hand sewing needle start from the back. 6)Hand stitch the loop of one lead to the edge of a sewn line.
7)Hand sew the resistor and LED into the circuit. Using a hand sewing needle start from the back of the fabric (so as to avoid loose threads in the front). Hand stitch the loop of one lead to the edge of a sewn line. Be sure that the hand stitched part overlaps with the sewn line.
8)Once all of your components are sewn on, add a power supply. Attach one end of an alligator clip to the + side of the battery and the other end to the resistor side of the sewn line (refer to red clip in photo). Using the second alligator clip attach one end to the side of the battery and the other end to the LED side of the sewn line (refer to green clip in photo). The LED should light up. Now throw on the shirt and hit the town.
Diana Eng is a nerdy fashion designer in New York City who's designs are inspired by science. She was a contestant on Project Runway 2 and her work has been featured in Maker Faire, Siggraph, Wired, and ID Magazine. Diana has recently cocreated BlackBoxNation.com with Emily Albinski, a company dedicated to merging fashion with technology.
Contact information for this author is not available.
