Awesome led cube

You never know when you might need a glowing cube to convince people you are from the future.

Step 1: Materials and tools

To make this you will need:
A LED (preferably high power)
a 3 volt coin cell battery
a 100 ohm resistor (anything close to 100 will work)
a momentary or push button switch.
thin sheet metal
plexiglass

tools:
hot glue gun
metal shears
sharpie
saw
soldering iron

Comments

[avamshi]

My friend i would prefer using a black paint on your armour so it would look more good in the light

[mariniq]

Could you try make an apple of eden sort of thing like that. please im really trying to making for some cosplay.

[N!GHTL!GHT]

instead of filling it with hot glue you could either use sandpaper on the led or the plexiglass to give it a frosted look

[pipsqueakboy]

For the battery issue you could have a place you push down on that pops upen so it looks futuristicy.

[Lenny24]

One Idea. If the Battery in these things are empty, youll have to throw it away, I guess. How about adding a Supercapacitor and an inductive charger to it? So youll have to shake it if you want it to Light up. I thought that would be kinda cool and youll wont have to worry about empty Batteries!

[GASSYPOOTS]

how bout a hinge?

[asoo1]

make socket (hole or wath ever to call it ) for ac adapter :D u can easely racharge it :D

[zack247]

or, since the metal would be conductive, use two of the metal plates as charging contact plates?

[trolomon]

I think it can be added a little door to take out the empty battery

[LogTrotter]

Couldnt you just wrap black tape around the box then cut bits of the tape off instead of putting metal on it, it would be a lot easier?

[midnite17]

wouldnt look as cool/futuristic!

[50PercentRevolution]

A fading LED inside would be awesome!

[plantguyrama]

I have a solution for anybody who thinks they will need to change the battery. Instead of using a battery to power the LED, you could use inductive coupling (a.k.a wireless electricity). However, this would only work if you wanted to place it on a table an light up, or something like that....

[hintss]

supercapicitor and/or rechargeable battery

[shadow wave rider]

is there a way of drilling srews into plexi glass. i was going to make a music shelf and i thing glueing just isnt going to cut the job. i will then attach it to a wall socket and use this instructable to make it glow. i will cut a pattern to conserve the amount of usb's and the overall power being used.

[mlaís]

Nice result dude... =]
i will make one :D

[jlumpkin1]

it looks awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Slayerfan666]

I'm wondering if instead of sheet metal would foil work?

[zack247]

yes but its thinner and shows any crinkles you might get in it.

[doubleshockz]

foil works but it definatly dosent look as good as sheet metal

[Jandro]

Wait, isn't one side of the box not going to be lit up?

[zack247]

nope, all sides will light up because the hot glue is diffusing the light throughout the entire box.

[vishalapr]

This is the only instructable with more than a 1000 comments!WOW!

[Firebreathing]

I just had an idea. You could make this like the Companion Cube in Portal 2, and have a small contact on one side of the cube, and make a Button like the ones in the Portal games, and put a contact on there, so that the LED would light up when you put the cube on the button. Then you wouldn't have to worry about replacing the battery.

[imBobertRobert]

why didnt i think of that... try it!

[asoo1]

maby plastic resent and hardner + black spray work better?

[Speedmite]

Could you get it to pulse? like a slow pulse? Where it dims down, then gets bright all the way, and back with out manually dimming it? If this is possible, I would want to do it, and run it off a usb cord.

[escobar]

can i put in the water??

[Delo97]

Of course you ca- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHRGHHRAAAARGHHHHHH!!!!
\\ \\ / / / \// \ \//
_
/ \ \ / \// /|\// \\ \ \

[ajjhh]

why do you need a 100 ohm resistor?

[imagigadgets]

I've killed a few LEDs because I wasn't smart enough to use one. You really need it if you don't want to waste supplies making these.

[wow_zakarum]

The resistor is used to keep the LED from drawing too much current and burning its self out. You dont HAVE to have one, but it will last longer if you do.

[bfwitt]

you should make alot of thm then make a rubicks cube with them

[violetkitty]

tou could paint it silver then engrave it. it would give the same effect

[mechaninja]

hahaha deja vu Tron!!!

[fantomzed]

this may help, its from a different led cube instructable

[elga]

thank

[TCInc]

has anyone actually passed this step. Can someone tell me which order you solder the LED, resistor, and switch without only showing a diagram?

[absolutekold]

it dosen't really matter. a diode is uni directional... as long is it, the switch, the resistor and the battery make a big loop if laid flat (series circuit) you should be good. if when you close the switch (turn it on) the led don't light up (provided the led and battery are good) switch what wire goes to the positive and negative plates on the battery. the resistor sets the current limit through the whole circuit the diode having virtually no resistance would over current (blow up) in absence of something limiting it. in fact if you didn't care about turning it off you could leave off the switch altogether.

[yvarcot]

first the switch , then the resistor and last the LED.