Analog LED Table

This is my instructable on building a simple LED table that works and responds in an analog manner. It was to be built of individual pods with 4 LED's with there own photo-transistor to detect movement, or rather a disturbance in the light/wave patterns above them. It seemed simple at first, hook up a couple LED's & a resistor to a power source that is interrupted by a photo-transistor to act as a switch and voila, right? place foot in mouth here.

Please rate me, it just takes a click.  Thanks!

Weeks later of googling, and reading forum after forum I came up with a circuit that I was happy with. Realistically this would have been easier using a micro controller but I was rich on time "or so i thought" and low on cash. Total cost of this panel including the wood frame has been around 35$ Now of course I did have to scrounge, look for freebies and of course use eBay. I live in a quite remote section of Northern British Columbia, so sadly there was no quick run to an electronics supply store. This table was to go to my best friend for a Christmas present but sadly, I ran out of time. He got an radiant ceiling mounted heater for his garage instead. So the LED pods I built, sat in bin being bounced around for a year and a half. They looked so sad and neglected, all they need was a home, some 12V juice and a little love, See what they needed for a happy home on the
next pages

ADDITION:

1. I forgot to mention, this table was built as a panel. That is why the power is on the side. The panel can easily be moved about, it can be placed on my coffee table, kitchen table or even the wall as interactive wall art. I believe this is important as my family likes to be able to mix up our furniture arrangement and may not always want such as large piece to be hard to move around . In pictures and videos the table is sitting on top of my living room coffee table. It would be simple to add permanent legs or even cheat a little and pick up a cheap used table and buck the legs to the desired height
2. I have added a new circuit diagram in step 4, feel free to comment, give advice and poke holes - its how we all learn, and I have a lot of learning to do!
3. Added the write-up on building the frame, guess I didn't save it properly when I wrote it the first time.  Live and learn...
4. See step 11 for some pictures with a paper diffuser added!  This optional but it does soften the look.  This is fire resistant paper, the kind used for lamp shades, I thought this prudent as the power source could potentially spark or heat up
5. Wife's friend they sell similar tables to parents with children with sensory seeking Autism.

Before building this table, remember your are using dangerous power tools, exposing yourself to potentially lethal doses of electricity, cutting yourself with broken glass, burning yourself with solder, dealing with nasty paint fumes and in general annoying the crap out of those you live with, and danger unto its own! So be warned!

 

 

Step 1: Supplies, supplies, supplies

Supplies needed
Panel

*Most of the panel supplies can be skipped if you all ready have a ready built glass table with enough space below to contain the electronics.

• One 48"x30" sheet of tempered or laminated safety glass
• Two eight foot 2"x4"s
• Four eight foot 1"x4"s or 2 eight foot 1"x1"s if you can find them cheap
• Two 1/4" thick pieces of wood paneling/plywood one being 48"x30", other one 49"x31"
• Wood screws, 3/4", 1-1/2", 3-1/2
• Gorilla Glue
• Stain & corresponding sealant or paint

Electronics

• 240 Leds
• 300 12v 470 ohm resistors
• 60 22k resistors
• 60 3 leg photo transistors
• 120 transistors (2N 3904 -J05)
• Spool of bailing wire
• Small spool of thin non stranded copper wire
• Ethernet cable or equivalent
• Simple SPST switch
• 12v DC bulb and holder
• Converted computer power supply
• Electronics grade solder
• Hot glue
• Electrical tape or shrink tubing
• Thins sheets of semi flexible clear plastic, I used the replaceable plastic face inserts from a face guard I no longer had the base for, "waste not want not"
• black silicone tubing, similar to kind used for fishing gear, or sling-shots

Tools used

• Table saw
• Circular saw
• Drill
• Router
• Hand held power planer
• Soldering iron
• Other tools used for the wood frame are up to you, its just matter or preference or budget.

Comments

[pepehdez]

Last post was almost a year ago, but I just stumbled upon this project and I really like it, I hope my 2 cents get to you on time, how do you feel about adding a fadeout effect to the LEDs ? I think it would make it look even better, and is fairly easy to do, you just need to add a capacitor to the circuit.

[iminthebathroom]

exactly, I hope the last 3 commentors at the top look for this!

[iminthebathroom]

NICE, i am going to make this the featured comment so others can learn from it, including me! Awesome

[krzysztof21]

Welcome to the attached diagram fotce is where you should slowly dim lights, slow fading depends on the capacitance

Yours Christopher

[zupyo22]

wow you are a genius
so i am working on a bike project that i want to replace the 3 old head lights with 3 leds and i want them to be hooked up to 3 toggle switches
the nly problem is that i am a newB at lighting and circuits so if any one could give me any ideas i would greatly appreciate it.
thanks.

[121ck,4]

Dose it work with IR phototransistors? or some else photo tranzistors .
I have conected everything but it dosent work jus leds lights and nothing more and i used IR photo tranzistor. Plz help me . my email [e-mail]

[iminthebathroom]

That sucks! I'll dig up the exact photo transistor i used. Off the top of my head though, it wasn't a IR photo transistor, unless i am confusing my terminology. i have run the same circuit using a standard 2 leg photo diode, the type you can find at most radio shacks bundled in an assortment bag of 3-4. I used the 3 leg photo transistor as it was mega cheap on ebay for a large amount.

[121ck,4]

I tryed with 3 leg photo tranzistos and it vas the same

[iminthebathroom]

Rats, thought it might have been something simple. It will be a couple of days to be honest, but I will try to get to it. i work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day so I am a little bit of a zombie by the end of the day -

Just a thought though, have you brought the completed powered circuit into a room of complete darkness? It might just be the sensitivity level of the photo diode/transistor you are using. when i first did the circuit, it wouldn't work. In frustration I left it where i was working during the day, in my back sun room. Later that night, i went to retrieve something from the sun room and low and behold the leds were one, as soon as I flicked on the lights it went out, flicked them off again and it began to glow. Keep in mind, the only lights that will keep the leds in the off position is sunlight, halogen or conventional. Fluorescent lights will have no effect. The photo transistor used in the instructable had a different sensitivity level and made all the difference.

[121ck,4]

no I had that in my mind but I didint try something like that but I don't think thats the problem becouse ven I conect to power source the leds jus turns on and stays like that no mater the photo diode is conected or not ... I used this circut...

[iminthebathroom]

Any Luck? Biggest problem I had was on several of the pods i had wired the poles on the transistors wrong, which produced LED's on, all the time. Look at the hand drawing of the circuit, and try to visualize that circuit and yours, could one of the transistors be wired wrong, is the schematic different from what you see then in the drawing. I'm curious. If you do figure it out, make sure to include the fix here, to help others who may be having a similar problem

[121ck,4]

yes about that hand drawing I noticed that the poleritys c and e are
diferent from schematic that I whas bulding I will try soon and I will
tell you about it.

[121ck,4]

I tryed to swich poliarites of tranzistors and the same problem led's are glowing ://
I used http://www.evita.lt/show_doc.php?id=10920
an 3 kindes of photo tranzistors http://www.evita.lt/?pid=catalogue&action=search&keyword=fototranzistorius&submit=Ie%C5%A1koti
And the same ...

[iminthebathroom]

That is so frustrating, sorry its not working for you. When i built this, I built the prototype much larger for visualization purposes. I will try to dig it out, just out of curiosity, where are you from? Reason I ask, is someone else was having problems and I ended up sending them a version of the circuit to use as a guide. Took a while though as they were from Pakistan, and I am from northern British Columbia, Canada

[121ck,4]

I am from Lithanian I would be wery thanful if you would help me to solwe this problem...

[iminthebathroom]

Hmmm, perhaps it is the addition of the capacitor, all though in theory it should work. In step 4, I did right this spiel - Ah yes, its pod building time! Now you will have to bare with me as I built the actual circuits over a year and a half ago. Little embarrassed to say that I never properly learned how to draw a circuit diagram and it is next on my list. So I have included my bizarre 3d representation of the circuit picture #8 along with many photos.  Perhaps take a look at the hand drawn picture, second to last photo in step 4.  As all "real looking" circuit drawings were added after.  The diagram with the capacitor added, was from another instructable member.

[dominic69]

Nice instructable!

Just a question, how many milliampere is used?

Thanks

[iminthebathroom]

you would think i should know that... I'll have to look into it

[dominic69]

I want to use another type of power source and I would like to know how the table consumes milliamps.

Maybe you can read information about your power source?

Otherwise it's ok, I'll test.

Thanks for your fast answer.

[iminthebathroom]

well, as in the instructable, i pretty much destroyed any information about it, when removing the case of the computer power supply to fit in the table. In theory though you could just add up the draw of however leds you plan on using, the draw of the other items used ie transistors should be negligible. use this as a basis, and give it a bit more power then you think you will need, the resistors will negate any issues of too much power

[VISI]

nice work but look on you tube -panou cu senzori optici -that looks interesting

[splazem]

Amazing!

[aliberkman]

Great Instructable. Thank you for sharing. I have a question. With what type of phototransistor we can increase the distance of perception for phototransistor?
thank you

[iminthebathroom]

I am not sure to be honest, the phototransistors used are all ready very sensitive. Enough so that I had to add the black silicone tubes as sensitivity reducing sleeves, "its towards the end of the instructable" Reducing the height or removing the sleeves all together will increase the sensitivity.

[1up]

I really like this, especially because I was going to make something exactly like this a while back. I had a circuit prototyped up that would light up the LED and fade it out when you waved your hand over it. I never got around to building enough to put in a table, though. Great job!

[mpep]

Great Instructable. Love the idea.

As a thought, if slow turn-on was required (to make it look more analogue ;-)), a capacitor could be added across the first 2N3904's Collector and Emitter.
The 22k would charge it when the photo sensor detects darkness.

Just a thought. Haven't tried it yet, but should work okay.

[mhkabir]

I suggest you add an opaque acrylic cover on top, instead of glass so that the LEDs are diffused and provide a better effect.

[iminthebathroom]

tried that several ways, it didn't work as well as i thought it would. I'll post some pictures one of these days

[broach]

What about filling the panel with light diffusing material, like polyester quilt batting or something more flame-retardant, perhaps?

[iminthebathroom]

Not sure if you noticed or not, but if you go down the comments i actually posted a picture of it when the glass had a sheet of velum under it. After a while i returned it to the raw leds though

[iminthebathroom]

maybe, dunno

[sdtacoma]

In the videos there is a pod of LEDs that always seems to be on. Is that the pod that is mentioned in Step 10 or is that pod on for some other reason?

Great work and great ible!

[iminthebathroom]

Pretty sure it is, some of the other pods would do the same thing though from time to time. Different location different pods. It all depended on the lighting, this table really is susceptible to it the ambient light around it sometimes. Where we live there is a large aluminum smelter "alcan". The power is fed locally from a hydro power dam "kemano". Anyway sometimes when things happen there unexpectedly we get crazy power surges. Clocks speed up, lights brighten, but the table displays it in waves. Hard to describe, have to try to get it on video one day. Almost like a sine-wave

[corkey123]

Awesome! Great instructable & idea :D

[iminthebathroom]

Thanks!

[ProCactus]

Th example video simple does not work, Segments don't light ?
I cant hear it as well, Sound is very bad.

No Interest in reading further.

[iminthebathroom]

thanks for the awesome and constructive comments

[JermsG]

Typo note: In number 1, step 3, 'the non descript one on the left' should be 'the non descript one on the right'.
=8-)

[iminthebathroom]

whoops yup, maybe I meant my other left!

[violentorchid]

Maybe someone has already said this, but if the switches are light sensitive and are hooked to led's, won't the turn themselves on and off? Maybe opaque walls between "cells" would be a good idea.

[iminthebathroom]

Oh haha, no. Photo transistors can not be triggered with LED light, nor with fluorescent. Only incandescent, halogen, mercury vapor or natural sunlight

[violentorchid]

... good to know. But why, then, in the videos where you have the light off does it still work? And then it twinkle like it's reacting to it's neighbors... Maybe that's someone else's video.

[iminthebathroom]

its not completely dark, still picking up some ambient light, and yes they do react to there neighbours, it how i wired it to setup a natural feedback, this loops and triggers the neigbouring pods

[inventing]

heey

really cool instructable!
i've got one lil question.
i'm not the best at creating circuits and stuff but the building part goes pretty well.
does the pod go out when you "dim the light" or does it really stay lit like forever?

i'm planning on making one of those tables myself and i thought it'll be cool if there where a few who dimmed when light dims, so that's why i'm asking.

hope to hear from you

btw, i reached step 7 reading until i really read your name and i kinda laughed out loud:P but it's a cool name

[iminthebathroom]

its stays lit forever I'm afraid. Similiar to my last commetn though this could be solved simply by adding a capacitor, the power source would charge it, the photo transitor would then tell the capacitor to dispel its charge to the leds, turning them for however long the capacitor was rated for, then they would wink out completely. take a little fiddling but do-able for sure

[KT Gadget]

3 things to say:

1) This has got to be the SIMPLEST circuit I have seen with fading LEDs in a table! I hope I can make something like this in the near future - it's so awesome!

2) I'm just thinking this now, but what could help a little with the fade in and fade out of the LEDs brightness is dedicate a ring that isolates the photo-transistor from any light coming in sideways and is flush with the underside of the glass or plastic top (like the waterproof IR light security cameras with the foam around the lens so the IR doesn't affect the video at night).

3) What would be cool if you could make an actual light piano that actually plays notes when one of the photo transistors is covered and turns on the LEDs - that would be cool and a great entertainer!

In all, really great intructable!

[iminthebathroom]

Thanks, yes pretty simple. Capacitors would give a longer fade. As for the light piano, part of the voltage triggering each led could be diverted to a relay, this would hten deliver a stronger signal - if thats whats needed

[krzysztof21]

przydało by się powolne wygaszanie spróbuj dać kondensator przy tranzystorze obok fototranzystora pojemność może 1uf

[iminthebathroom]

Gdyby użyć Google Translate unerstand tym:) Tak kondensator by dodać efektu zanikania. Może następnym razem. Należy szukać w "Evil Mad Scientist"stronę.

[ay01]

I cant make it work :( . . . . . .. has any one tried working with just a single POD not the whole table ? I wanna try with one working POD and then when it works wanna continue with the project. I am using a L14g3 transistor some one please tell me what lights will trigger it ? IR didnt work and no ordinary bulbs neither fluorescent one :S

I just soldered the components on a board as shown on the circuit diagram and supplied it with 12v but no LED are now lighting up at all

[iminthebathroom]

are you using a 3 leg photo transistor? I would try it with a simple photo diode, had a hell of a time with the 3 leg photo transistor. Only reason i used it was it was super cheap to buy a bulk amount of those. I was getting help from the group at evil mad scientists as they are the primo experts on responsive LED tables. They blow my stuff out of the water

[iminthebathroom]

i'll try to tackle it later tonight or tomorrow, just got off a night shift... The l14g3 is the photo transistor right. Trying to think off the top of my head. The way how I engineered the circuit it would run off voltage from 5 to 12 volts with no noticeable difference. And I did it the same way for sure, make sure the single pod works before continuing. The first time I made it it had no board at all, just the components soldered end to end in a wire like pom-pom. its hard to tell the orientation of your components from the pictures though Im afraid. Could it be something as silly as the leds polarity is reversed? My photo transistor had 3 legs, on of which I knicked off as only 2 were needed. Maybe check to make sure its the right one one removed. Where in the world are you located? no big deal to drop an envelope with a couple stamps on it containing most of the parts I used, as i do have extra. Just in case i would maybe test your LEDs, its easy to blow them if wired wrong, but it does look like your using the right resistors. May have some spare pods lying around in my bins, I'll take a look

[iminthebathroom]

Message me a shipping address, Ill see what I can dig up and post mark something out monday.

[krzysztof21]

Witam przydało by się też jeszcze płynne wygaszanie przy zastosowaniu kondensatora np 50 uf

[iminthebathroom]

is that Polish?, saying - Hi przydaBo that is the | more pBynne decay eg using a capacitor 50 uf?

[iminthebathroom]

um? not sure of the language, sorry

[ay01]

Can some one please tell me if I can use a L14g3 transistor in this project and what would be the changes I would need to do to make it work if any ?, and the light source which it will work ? Because I am using it made just a single POD to see how will it work supplying 12v voltage to it the LEDs to operate but there is no change in their working (Blinking etc)

[iminthebathroom]

looks like it should work, still post a pic. perhaps I can spot something slightly askew.

[iminthebathroom]

can you take a couple pictures and post it here of your completed pod. Also remember fluorescent lights will not work to trigger it. Meanwhile i'll look up the transistor you used.

[ay01]

But I guess your project works on fluorescent lights ?

[iminthebathroom]

No, not at all. When I was doing the project in my living room the circuit worked just fine. Mine you my living room is overhead halogen lighting. I then was working in another room, and suddenly the gazillion pods I made wouldn't work - aagh, discovered it was the Eco-friendly fluorescent lights over head. Fluorescent lights do not trigger photo-transistors. A lit cigarette in the room affects it more. Also, as these take in light from a lot of different angles the addition of a about 1/4" of black silicon tubing over the top of each sensor dialed in the sensitivity nicely. Each of these diodes though is built for different light levels so the height of the tubing will need experimenting with.

[solis365]

why are you driving 4 LEDs in parallel? forward voltage on blue LEDs is ~3v, and you have 12V supply. You could probably do one series combination of 3 LEDs or 2 series combinations of 2LEDs in parallel if you really wanted 4 LEDs.

Seems a bit wasteful of power, and even if you don't care about that, its a less elegant solution, which is what we analog people care about anyway =P

[iminthebathroom]

Forward voltage for the blue LED's was slightly different then the forward voltage of the green LED's, the green and blue LED's had there own specific resistor ratings, thought the simplest way to run the two different voltages was to run them in parallel being that they had there own resistor values. By all means though, I love objective criticism, its how I'm learning. I think i have learned more from peoples comments then my limited exposure at school. Read through some of the other comments, you will see many other discrepancies pointed out, the beauty of these comments, is that they will be helpful to others wishing to build something like this. One day I would like to redo this tables electronics as there is so much that I would do differently. For now, I'm happy with it as it work, as it was cheap to produce, was simple if not time consuming to put together and amazingly on my limited knowledge base it works for its intended purpose if albeit, through a round about manner.

[harthoppy]

Would it be hard to put in a delay type switch ? I dont know how to explain it other then when you move some thing across the table it leaves a "Trail " for a few seconds?

Very nice by the way .

[iminthebathroom]

Oh yes, this is what I wanted to do, just couldn't get the parts in time. First what should be done is to add a small diode to each led pods positive power supply lead. That way you isolate each pod, sometimes I get feed back when one pod is triggered to light, the whole string can be set off from electrical feed back. Second for that sweeping effect, you simply need a small capacitor per pod, this would be soldered on to one of the power supply leads. Depending on the size capacitor used will give you the desired effect. It might be advantageous to build a single pod on a bread board and try it with various sized capacitors. You should also read down through all the posts made from other people, they have some excellent ideas as to how to refine this project. Most people have seen the awesome led tables they have at "evil mad scientist". They use capacitors to get the sweeping look you looking for. Feel free to ask for more info or what have you!

[doubleshockz]

thanks. i feel like a dummy. this is really cool i could never do this i suck with electrictronics. last time i tried something like this i burned of my fingerprints

[Opsenica]

hihi u just need some1 to show u, its easier than finding google page on internet =)

[iminthebathroom]

Hey, I fumbled through this, I got so much help through this website! Trust me, their be many solder burns on my body! The circuit is quite simple, its figuring out exactly what you need that's the hard part. If you ever wish to try I'd be more then happy to look up all the exact item numbers I used, then just plunk those numbers into ebay or bring to an electronics store. They'll set you up!

[Opsenica]

i did same thing few years ago, bit less complex..... there is no need for photo transistor, in my town, it is cheaper to buy photo diode, and connect it between collector and base of transistor.... anyways nice job =)
set of 4 diodes can be made with one resistor =)

[iminthebathroom]

Odd I wrote a huge comment, and hit publish, and it just re-wrote a comment I put in for someone else. Anyway, at the time photo transistors were all I could get. 300 for 99 cents and free shipping. Radio shack had photo diodes for 4.99 for a 3-pack. How do you make 4 diodes with on transistor, I thought the purpose of using a diode was to act as a "one way valve" for electricity. Thought if I put one diode on either the pos' or neg' lead to each LED pod it would stop any feedback going to its neighboring pod. Appreciate any input, as I am slightly "electro-illiterate!"

[Opsenica]

o ye, i tought so, but i commented that mostly for others so they can see photo transistor is not only way.. actually photo transistor is just normal transistor with photo diode inside, did not mean anything bad =)
and then i dont get it why did u use another transistor when you could have connected collector of photo transistor onto base of inverting transistor? :P
transistor what turns on transistor is like having switch for switch for light =)
if all led's are same, and in paralell, they have same voltage drop, and total current is euqal to all currents together. so taking one resistor 4x value of one single led will work just fine =)

[iminthebathroom]

yep, originally I was going to use a photo-diode so had assembled most of the circuits prior to getting the Photo-transistors. I kinda over did it, due to lack of knowledge. I've learned a lot from this build and other peoples comments. And no worries on me thinking your comments were bad. This is the best way to learn sometimes, trial - error and advice! Truly appreciate it. What do you think about the addition of diodes, Sometimes when the light is dim in the room running your hand over one pod will trigger all the other LED pods to come on, this dissipates with the addition of more light in the room. Its that sudden burst that seems to trigger all the other pods. Is it silly thinking that if I put a diode on each pod it will isolate it from the neighboring pods?

[Opsenica]

that triggering of diodes is because strength of light is on critical point between turning one set on or off, and when you trigger just one, voltage jumps a bit, just enough to change state of transistor from conducting to not conducting and all just turn on.... i'd fix this by adding source of light direct over the table, im not sure ( gonna check it up ) if photo transistor is sensitive to IR light. so idea is to put IR light high above desk ( on ceiling ) and they act as light for transistors to keep them on current state, and it wouldnt bother you because we cant see IR light =) tough it might bother your tv, because with more IR light in room ( sun radiates IR so when its sunny, remote control from tv doesnt work so good) signal will be weaker, but that again can be solved with good positioning IR leds so they dont shine around room...
hope i helped =)

[iminthebathroom]

Very interesting, In the picture below I have since added a simple piece of white paper, this cuts down on the intensity of the leds, "gets a little hard on the eyes sometimes with bare leds". One way we used to isolate the intensity of the photo-transistors was by fitting them with a 1/4" piece of black silicone tubing. Its a perfect fit as the i.d. is ever so slightly smaller then the o.d. of the photo transistor. this cuts down on the amount of light reflecting from below and entering from the sides. I tried shinning a IR led at it and it dimmed slightly. I then tried several TV remotes at it and it they would lightly flicker. Either way the IR source only effected it when held and inch or two away from each individual pod. Fluorescent lighting provides zero effect, it might as well be a pitch dark room. I am lucky to have recessed halogen lighting on a dimmer in that room though.

[Opsenica]

i used tape what is used to protect door frame or window frame and just sticked it over leds, and i had flat leds so it was more dispersed light rather than bright focused light from round leds.
eh i tought it would work with IR leds... =)

one question... how much hours of work did you spend on that table?

remote controler sends impulses to tv so it is supposed to flicker =)

light sensitivity can be modified by changing resistor value on photo transistor and resistors on switch transistor, but it would be perfect if you used capacitive or inductive sensor. inductive sensor has short range, but you dont even need some wide sensitivity and they are quite easy to build, especially if you need their sensitivity to be on 1cm range

[Opsenica]

and i have one tought... you could make analog LED table_updated, with new photos, new solutions, new videos, put your new toughts into it, maybe take some my advice and perhaps change electronic scheme, btw that trick with using one resistor instead of 4, works only for exactly same leds, every color and brightness led has its diferent current, so you would have first class instructable. =)

[iminthebathroom]

cool, how much time... The circuits were soldered together over two weeks on coffee breaks and lunch hours at work. Drove my cubicle friends crazy with smell of fresh solder in the air. Then the project sat shelved for a year as it was going to be a present for a friend who then had to move suddenly. Inspiration for the project struck when I saw the LED contest 4 days before it was due! So between work & family duties about 18 hours total, another 4 hours writing up the instructable - "slow upload speeds from my geographical region". Could have cut the time in half with friends helping with soldering and more commitment. The project slows down a lot when its stop-&-go due to other duties of life.

[Opsenica]

i watched video with sound for first time minute ago and i feel bad for pointing out things you mentioned in it =)

[Opsenica]

and i see in video, pods are not turning off perfectly when you hide light from them, that could be solved by higher positioning photo transistors or making shelter with opening up so light what comes from sides wont affect single pod =)

[Opsenica]

ofcourse, it can be and it doesnt have to be... i mean no harm by these comments and please do not be offended =)

[DIY-Guy]

Thank you for making something which is really "open source." This interactive LED table is something anyone can make without buying an overpriced kit from a profit-monger.

Your work deserves to be praised!

[iminthebathroom]

Thanks, that was the intent. Too many times I get excited about things like this, on this and other websites and then discover what i would have to shell out. Don't get me wrong, those others put a lot of work into their items and they are probably just trying to make a living like everyone else. But, for now their is something like this. It was cheap to make, but it does does take a while to produce as its NOT a kit. Anyway, thanks again, I appreciate it.

[doubleshockz]

is this for the gorilla glue contest

[iminthebathroom]

write up has been added!

[iminthebathroom]

Whoops, for some reason I had published the "frame step" with out the write up, just the pics! No wonder you had to ask if this was for the gorilla glue contest. I'll edit this shortly and include the write-up! If you look in some of the pics, you can see the bottle of gorilla glue.

[iminthebathroom]

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure other entries are more valid then this one. But the frame was built by gorilla gluing it together with doweling.  So I threw it in the competition.  Figured why not, I wasn't even a finalist in the LED contest.

[Frag]

hmmmm.... frosted plexiglass instead of clear safety glass may help with the sensitivity problem. ill give it a try if i get around to making this AWESOME table.

[iminthebathroom]

yes, we all ready tried putting a sheet of rice paper down over the circuit, then replaced the glass and it works so much better! But,... I really wanted to see the circuits. Just never happy...

[mary candy]

:)

[sweetcantelope]

K this thing is pretty cool.

[iminthebathroom]

Thanks!

[Dr.Bill]

With a relay this could be used to turn 'on' and 'off' all kinds of cool stuff just like in the space movies !

[iminthebathroom]

For sure, the circuit is surprisingly simple. To fine tune the sensitivity we used black silicon tubing. This tubing is perfect as it has a slightly smaller I.D. then the O.D. of the photo transistor. You just cut your length and slip it over the end of the photo transistor. It locks on well yet if you give it a twist it comes off with little fight. It can be found at most hardware stores and fishing stores. We only need lengths about 1/4 inch long, but you can achieve interesting results from longer strands. They also sell it in a translucent cream color, if you were to have strands 4-5 inches long so could mount these in a hall way for Halloween. As people brushed past them, they would pinch off the light and flip the circuit! oooh the possibilities.

[iminthebathroom]

"I forgot to mention, this table was built as a panel. That is why the power is on the side. The panel can easily be moved about, it can be placed on my coffee table, kitchen table or even the wall as interactive wall art. I believe this is important as my family likes to be able to mix up our furniture arrangement and may not always want such as large piece to be hard to move around . In pictures and videos the table is sitting on top of my living room coffee table. It would be simple to add permanent legs or even cheat a little and pick up a cheap used table and buck the legs to the desired height"

[iminthebathroom]

Video has finally been embedded. Thanks for everyone help with this little glitch!

[iminthebathroom]

This would be better if the video would embed, for mean while here is a youtube link for the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvqgpBtCr8&feature=channel

[depotdevoid]

Very nice project, and I love the selection of green and blue for colors, that's definitely the way I would go too.

[iminthebathroom]

awesome, thanks!