Curved Circuit Art: Make A Double Helix LED Lantern

This simple circuit creates an LED lantern that can sit on a desk or be hung outside. It consists of a curved circuit board, a few LEDs, and some resistors.

By adding a nine volt battery in the base and changing the circuit slightly, it can be made into a portable light source. See step 2.

Step 1 Materials

For etching curved circuit boards:

2 x-acto knives

Clear vinyl shelf lining from Walmart

Ferric Chloride

12"x12" Thin Scissor cut copper clad fiberglass board from Electronic Goldmine:
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G17115

Other items:

000 or 0000 steel wool from hardware store

Krylon Crystal Clear Satin spray paint from hardware store

LEDs, Ferric Chloride and resistors from: http://www.mouser.com/

12 volt battery or 12 volt power supply

Comments

[mr.frob]

beautiful

[carmaster]

It would be cool if you didn't see the LED's directly, maybe put a plate lining the inside so the light comes out the edges.

[im3733]

I saw this and had an idea for an epic jacob's ladder... if i ever build it i'll make an 'ible and give you cred.

[orangesrhyme]

Commit to building it, that'd be legit!

[curlyfry562]

+1 That would really cool

[knektek]

GRATZ DUDE! nice project :)

[Gonzalo Ruiz]

Congratulations. It´s... Impressive. Shure that if yo build a lot and you sell it you will win a lot of money. It works really good to decorate your house. Really good work.

[solarblade90]

Congratulations on coming first place!!

[swinfos]

I like just looking at it

[twist2b]

I freakin love it dude, bought all the materials for the original curved ones you made... Can you give me a link to the LEDs? I'm having bad luck finding good ones. Thanks!

[mikey77]

I've had good luck ordering surface mount and regular LEDs from:

http://www.buy-leds-online.com/

[onlyjus]

I have had good experiences with http://www.superbrightleds.com/

[livestrong2431]

DAS SEXI O_O

[shubham garg]

This project helped me to decorate me my room.Instructables give excellent ideas.

[BEAST14]

gorgeous. I get really cool ideas like this in my head but when I build things they never turn out as good as this did.

[mikey77]

For every project I do that turns out like this, I have at least one that is a total failure and another that barely works.

It is persistence beyond failure that can eventually teach us success.

[ChrysN]

This is beautiful, well done!

[jeff-o]

I think it would be cool to artificially colour the copper with various chemical agents, to make the copper turn blue, green, or rainbow-coloured.

[recordmasta001]

Looks like a streamy award!

[Kaelessin]

absolutely astonishing! I have GOT to try this out some time! Boo having no money lol