For halloween, I made some decorations. I'm only posting now because I managed to get the pictures off the camera.
The first decoration consisted very simply of an LED and a coin cell. You can pick up a pack of 12 coin cells (CR2032 3V lithium) on eBay for around £4. I now have 36 coin cells. More than I should even need.
The simplest way of using these is to get a small 5mm LED and place the LED's longer leg on the positive terminal and the shorter leg on the negative terminal. The battery limits the current so there is no need for a resistor. The LED and battery combination is held together with some tape. You now have a small indicator light which will go for about 1 week. I made around 8 of these using various different LED colours. I had some high brightness 6.3mm LED's with a diamond lens and these looked really good even running off the small battery.
I also experimented with attaching two LED's to each battery. I made some rats (using some fake sewer rats bought at a local shop) with glowing eyes using this. I think these were the best of the decorations - they creeped several people out.
And, to top it off, I made a 555 astable flasher for the pumpkins. The timer was assembled on one breadboard. Wires ran from the main "controller" pumpkin to the second pumpkin to light it up. The whole lot was powered from a 9V battery. 24 hours later, when I went to retrieve the pumpkins, the battery voltage had dropped to a mere 4V, but the pumpkins were still flashing (though not as bright.)
Schematics and pictures attached. I hope to have a video up soon.
The first decoration consisted very simply of an LED and a coin cell. You can pick up a pack of 12 coin cells (CR2032 3V lithium) on eBay for around £4. I now have 36 coin cells. More than I should even need.
The simplest way of using these is to get a small 5mm LED and place the LED's longer leg on the positive terminal and the shorter leg on the negative terminal. The battery limits the current so there is no need for a resistor. The LED and battery combination is held together with some tape. You now have a small indicator light which will go for about 1 week. I made around 8 of these using various different LED colours. I had some high brightness 6.3mm LED's with a diamond lens and these looked really good even running off the small battery.
I also experimented with attaching two LED's to each battery. I made some rats (using some fake sewer rats bought at a local shop) with glowing eyes using this. I think these were the best of the decorations - they creeped several people out.
And, to top it off, I made a 555 astable flasher for the pumpkins. The timer was assembled on one breadboard. Wires ran from the main "controller" pumpkin to the second pumpkin to light it up. The whole lot was powered from a 9V battery. 24 hours later, when I went to retrieve the pumpkins, the battery voltage had dropped to a mere 4V, but the pumpkins were still flashing (though not as bright.)
Schematics and pictures attached. I hope to have a video up soon.
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