Introduction: Rusty Candle Lamp
Halloween is coming. Although we never celebrate it in Indonesia, I decided to join the party in Instructables this year ^_^
Grim Reaper is the first thing crossed my mind when thinking of something scary, something bad. Death. He and his unique scythe. Then I noticed that he always carry an old candle lamp at the other hand, another unique prop.
This time I am making an Old Rusty Candle Lamp with my own version. Modern technology blends into old ancient art. What an art ...
Step 1: Materials
- Old rusty fluorescent lamp fixture.
- Plastic bottle.
- Old rusty dog chain.
- An Arduino Uno or make your own at cheap.
- 2 yellow LEDs.
- 1 red LED.
- LiPo battery or make your own at cheap.
- 2 jumper wires for battery.
- A piece of paper.
Step 2: The Base
- Cut the fixture at half your bottle circumference.
- Split the fixture into half, lengthwise.
- Cut the base of the fixture and fold the wall at bottle's corner. So we get two "L" shape base forming a rectangle surrounding the bottle.
Step 3: The Cap
- Cut the fixture a little bit wider than the bottle.
- Flatten the fixture.
- Cut from every corner toward the center, but do not cut them off.
- Fold the left and right triangles down and curve the front and back triangles to shape a rooftop.
- Fold and clip the corners as necessary.
Step 4: The Candle
As I mentioned before, a new technology blends into ancient art. I pick a digital candle, powered by a lipo battery, which is much safer than a real candle which can cause fire when the wind blows.
- Put a piece of board to cover the hole at the base.
- Put in your Arduino Uno.
- Plug a yellow LED. Anode goes to D11. Cathode goes to GND.
- Plug a red LED. Anode goes to D10. Cathode goes to D8.
- Plug a yellow LED. Anode goes to D9. Cathode goes to D7.
- Make sure no contact on every legs of the LEDs.
- Plug a jumper wire on VIN (preferably red).
- Plug a jumper wire on GND (preferably black).
- Route both jumper wires (black and red) below the base board.
- Put in your battery.
- Route the battery wire below the base board.
- Connect black wire to battery negative pin.
- Cut a piece of paper and shape like a candle (cylinder).
- Stick it on your Arduino or base board circling the LEDs.
Step 5: The Code
// 3 LEDs Candle Effect int Ground1 = 7; int Ground2 = 8; int YellowLED1 = 9; int RedLED = 10; int YellowLED2 = 11; void setup() { pinMode(Ground1, OUTPUT); pinMode(Ground2, OUTPUT); pinMode(YellowLED1, OUTPUT); pinMode(RedLED, OUTPUT); pinMode(YellowLED2, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(Ground1, LOW); digitalWrite(Ground2, LOW); } void loop() { analogWrite(YellowLED1, random(135)+120); analogWrite(RedLED, random(175)+80); analogWrite(YellowLED2, random(175)+80); delay(random(100)); }
What a simple code playing random brightness of the LEDs.
- Load the code into your Arduino.
- Unplug your cable to PC.
- Connect the red jumper wire to battery positive pin. Check if your "candle" is working good or not.
Step 6: Finishing
- Put the bottle in. Here I cut only the top side of the plastic bottle, then I placed it upside down so that the top side can help spreading the light. But I guess it has no effect at all :D
- Put the cap (rooftop) on.
- At this point the lamp looks funny rather than spooky.
- Then I use this old rusty dog chain circling the lamp.
Step 7: Your Time Has Come
Now it is no more funny. Hang it on a huge wrinkled tree in front of your house to gain the effect. Then I added a piece of board hung underneath : "Your Time Has Come." That is when the Grim Reaper is coming to fetch you.
Here is the video of the candle in the dark.