CCCP (Christmas Color Change Ping-pong) lights

Here is an idea for a nice string of Christmas lights.

It is made by bright ping pong balls slowly changing their color through the sequence RED, GREEN, BLUE, YELLOW, CYAN, PURPLE, WHITE and again ...

At first all balls change color at the same time, but due to the less than perfect LED chip internal clock, after some minutes each led has its color different from the others !

Step 1 Parts and materials

You need tese parts and materials:

- slow flash color LEDs (browse ebay with these keywords), I used 30 of 5mm type

- white plain ping pong balls (you can find the by dozen on ebay or just on your street stores)

- a simple pvc insulated bipolar copper cable (I used a white one, but choose every color you want)

- a wall wart power supply (I used a 12V/1000mA one, but every type from 7V upto 13V works)

- an LM317 regulator IC (a 7805 type can be used, but in other way, see next steps)

- a 2.2 ohm 1.5W resistor (or a parallel of higher value resistor group, see next steps)

- a 1000uF/16V electrolytic capacitor (470uF or 2200uF work as well)

- heat shrinking tubing (2-3 mm type)

- clear hot glue (with the relevant gun of course)

- moderate power soldering iron

- typical christmas plastic fake green festoons (optional)

Comments

[Erind]

Anybody know what to look for when trying to find these LEDs on digikey or mouser?

[raykholo]

not good suppliers for larger quantities.. try bulk sites like goldmine elec or they even have some good deals on dealextreme.com for leds

[amaze1]

It seems they are exclusively noname stuff from Far East and China

[Erind]

I did find SOME LED's from Mouser, but they only seemed to be 3-color color changing instead of full spectrum. They matched the definition you posted very well, but it also specified they were RGB.

[amaze1]

Buy these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6488
add ping-pong balls, hot glue on LEDs, a 5V/600mA or so power supply and you are on the way !
BTW IMHO dealextreme serves very well.

PS: you can use battery box for many other projects

[sing1ejack]

I'd love to put together a set of LED christmas lights to keep energy usage down and these look georgious - very nice effect. How much did the materials cost you?

[amaze1]

I really don't remember exactly (I made it before 2006 christmas), but not so much since I used some recycled elements like the power supply. Other parts are relatively cheap, look on ebay for LEDs, hot shrink tubing, ping-pong balls, you can use them for other projects too. BTW I measured power consumption and it is about 6W. I think you could have better results with a (now) common and cheap USB out (5V) power supply/charger (look for a 1000mA one), and saving the LM317.

[static]

Just the thing for those Christmas globe Coke bottles. I guess I'll pick up a few more the next time I'm in WM. Though a buck for a 12oz. bottle of Cake is hard to swallow.

[oakironworker]

I bought some of these off ebay and they just stay red. I waited ten minutes and nothing Do yours start to change right away

[amaze1]

Strange behaviour indeed, LEDs I bought start changing immediately.
Do you have check voltage ? I use to apply straight 5V, even if sometimes it is too much (depends by color changing leds manifacturer). Maybe you use too low or high voltages.
Try a well kown 12V supply with a limiting resistor (470 ohm).

[Vertigo666]

Haha, I read CCCP and said, Soviet lights? But in all seriousness, good instuctable.

[amaze1]

Yes, hope soviet friends don't feel offended by my words. I admit, it was a "marketing" trick :)

[Vertigo666]

Haha "In Soviet Russia, lightbulb changes you!"

[jongscx]

...I didn't see mention of an arduino or conductive thread... ... is this one complete? JK, good job!!

[amaze1]

This piece of hardware works without a microcontroller, the LEDs themselves change their color in automatic fashion. Nor conductive thread is necessary here

[jongscx]

I know amaze, I was kidding. I was commenting on the great simplicity of this project, using a discrete color-changing LEDS, instead of all the other LED-based instructables that had everything that I listed above. :-D

[amaze1]

oh, well ... sorry, I didn't saw any smiley so replied in serious way.
Indeed I have all one needs to develop with PIC, AVR, ARM etc, but I lack on free time, so I end always to make very simple things just like this.
BTW I think this year to make this variation (sorry for neck pain, I don't know how to rotate a video :) ):

[Plasmana]

That is a very good instructable! I am going to try get the LED's...

[Plasmana]

Oh, and 5 stars!