Glowing Crystal Nightlight

Recently I had a large 30 year old ( I have only been using it for around 6 years) light bulb burn out so I decided to make a night light out of it.

I decided to make this a low voltage DC project...

Step 1: You will need

You will have to have basic soldering knowledge and the following materials:

Clear light bulb
quartz crystal that will fit inside of the light bulb
Plastic light socket (home depot sells this for $1.40)
Wall Wart, 5VDC
Regular household copper wire ( about 10 inches)
3 LEDs ( I chose amber DIgiKey part number  160-1653-ND)
150 Ohm 1/4 watt resistor
1 1K Ohm Pot ( this was an old spare with a click off switch on the low side, sorry no part number)
3/8 inch flat rubber washer

Comments

[7searls16]

could you make this without the glass of the bulb, it seems all that is really nessesary is the bottome srew part.

[Random_Canadian]

Absolutely! the bulb part is purely decorative.

[Cam918]

Cool, but looks tough to make.

[MissBetsy]

 Looks great and you made an awesome instructable. Had to bookmark it in my steampunk folder!

[electfire]

Same here!

[Nikiman]

Great idea, this is my version.. ^^ I connected the LEDs to an USB cable... It's alot Easier.. :D

[jamesona]

looks awesome as an idea for potential steampunk/fantasy lighting. I'd use a luxeon or rebel style diode, to REALLY light it up (ie. bright enough to use as actual room lighting).

[danm95]

Perhaps this could make an interesting joule theif project.

[Hexpigge]

As a replacement CuSO4 (Copper Sulfate) crystal can be used, color is nice too! :]

[Zergling_pack]

 Reminds me of the Steam Punk light bulb i made. Great instructable though!

[Capn_Zaphod]

Steampunk lightbulb?  Would love to see that!

I really like this lightbulb, but lack soldering tools and the skills to use them.  Would buy one though.

[Zergling_pack]

 Okay i will get the materials later today and make an instructable. I will message you when i upload it. 

[Capn_Zaphod]

Zergling_pack;
Sounds great!

Thank you

[Bad Donut]

i saw this and thought the crystal was magically glowing by itself.
too bad theres an led in there :(

[tundrawolf]

 I thought so, too. It's still cool.

[roland985]

Same here, it would be cool if it was, I wonder if it were possible?

[khanguy]

Actually LEDs themselves have crystals which produce light when current is passed through it. It is described here: www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-02/gray-matter-light-mystery

[incorrigible packrat]

It's almost like a tiny zero point module, imprisoned in a light bulb.  I'm tempted to make one with those little neon indicator bulbs.

[roland985]

Stargate Freek!


Enjoy it!

[Random_Canadian]

The ZPM is a great idea... I tell you what, I'll race you to the posting of one...


In Canada it starts with Zed...

[seabananers]

go canada (im canadian too nova scotia)

[incorrigible packrat]

Of course I said Zed.  Rodney would kick my arse otherwise.

Don't bother racing to post, as you'll win anyhow, on account of my being generally lazy and shiftless.

I think my "things I should get around to sometime" list is well into the hundreds by now.

[hot-fresh-rider]

great idea :D

[newroger]

ha muito legal gostei!

[chrwei]

I like how you made use of the "normal" screw base so the bulb is removable instead of just running wires out of the bottom of the bulb

for extra awesomeness find a base with room for a AA battery or 2 and use a joule thief circuit...

[mdog93]

hey looks great!

I didn't think you could use dimmer switches with leds, unless you have special dimmable leds. How does this work?

[Random_Canadian]

Thanks.

While the preferred method of dimming a LED is PWM, The quick and dirty way is to limit the current available to the LED by increasing the size of the resistor in the circuit.

Since the brightness of a LED is dependent on the current of the circuit, to decrease the brightness of a LED you need to either decrease the voltage available or increase the resistance of the circuit. There is a limit to the amount of current that the LED can handle which is why the circuit uses both a fixed and a variable resistor. Make sure that the potentiometer  that you choose can handle the power, In this case a 1/4 watt rated pot would have worked but I was going for a specific look.

Note that the resistance circuit used here will result in a differing brightness in the individual LEDs due to manufacturing but this is not seen here due to how they are mounted.

I hope that this helps...

[mdog93]

yeah, thanks for clearing that up :)

[ElectricUmbrella]

This is gorgeous!
I'm going to try and make it over, nice job!

[1up]

Nice! This would be even cooler if you combined it with this Instructable to make it mains compatible.

[Chromatica]

Hey dude, haven't seen you in awhile.

[1up]

What do you mean?

[Chromatica]

I don't see your comments as much.

[TorinMiasma]

This single project just struck a chord that reverberated through my brain... I'm mixing and matching ideas and instructables. I just want to thank you for giving me a new need to create. Just finished my first attempt with this. Awesome.

[Random_Canadian]

Thanks...
If you have any questions just let me know.

Good luck with you project.

[kcls]

Excellent 'ible! It creates a very warm and pleasing looking light.

[slayer_x911]

 5* and faved :)

[Chromatica]

Same!!

[Arbitror]

Whoa, this looks amazing! I just got some 10mm orange LED for a project, so I think I'll try this too! Great job on the 'ible!

[quincentopolis]

Amazing!  I saw this on the homepage and literally said out loud, "I MUST HAVE IT!"