Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 5Potential Applications
Christmas Tree Light:
For sure, I think a tree filled with these babies would be just awesome. I can envision a nice warm glow of green lights with light snow falling down through the tree. Maybe a slow fade from green to red with random falling snow. Chaser lights making a helix spiral pattern up and down the tree would be neat too. Of coarse, I'm going to park this tree out in the yard and drive the "Jones" next door crazy. There, try and beat that!
Accent Lighting:
Anything that needs accent lighting is a target for these lamps. My brother in-law wants to put them in the bottom of his fish tank. A friend want to accent his hot rod engine - tromping on the gas pedal would ramp up a red flash of light. I was also considering build one of these with my lamps: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED_Paper_Craft_Lamps/ Would make for a great Cub Scouts project.
Folding LED String:
A string of LED lamps could be folded into shapes. Seven lamps could be folded into a seven segment LED pattern. A huge display could be made - would be a great count-down display for new years! Or maybe, a display to show the stock market - red digits on bad days and green on good. Maybe a big display showing outside temperature.
3D Grid
By hanging and arranging a string of LEDs, a 3D grid of LEDs could easily be created. There are some cool 3D LED array examples on YouTube. However, the existing examples I've seen look small and painful to wire. Maybe a big 3D grid out in the yard during Christmas too.
WinAmp Plug-In:
Everyone who's been in my lab, and has seen the lights, asks if they dance to music. I did a little digging, looks like it would be fairly easy to add a plug-in to WinAmp. The plug-in would send messages to an attached string of lamps so that the lights would be synced to the music that WinAmp was playing. Syncing some Christmas music to my Christmas tree would just be awesome.
Embedded Baby Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller with H-Bridge:
The little controller from Pololu would be perfect. See: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1220 This board already has an H-Bridge ready to go. Lamp patterns can be programmed into the micro so the PC could be turned off.
802.15.4:
By adding 802.15.4 the lamps could become wireless. For Christmas tree lights spread around the house, this would be great. Or, adding lamps to every window in a large building complex would be possible. Cool.
Rotating 'Lighthouse Beacon:
My son had a school project to build a Lighthouse. The idea was to build a cheesy battery powered light with a paper clip switch so that the Lighthouse would actual light up. No son of mine will go to school with that when he can have a full blown rotating beacon! Have a look at the attached pics and video.
For sure, I think a tree filled with these babies would be just awesome. I can envision a nice warm glow of green lights with light snow falling down through the tree. Maybe a slow fade from green to red with random falling snow. Chaser lights making a helix spiral pattern up and down the tree would be neat too. Of coarse, I'm going to park this tree out in the yard and drive the "Jones" next door crazy. There, try and beat that!
Accent Lighting:
Anything that needs accent lighting is a target for these lamps. My brother in-law wants to put them in the bottom of his fish tank. A friend want to accent his hot rod engine - tromping on the gas pedal would ramp up a red flash of light. I was also considering build one of these with my lamps: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED_Paper_Craft_Lamps/ Would make for a great Cub Scouts project.
Folding LED String:
A string of LED lamps could be folded into shapes. Seven lamps could be folded into a seven segment LED pattern. A huge display could be made - would be a great count-down display for new years! Or maybe, a display to show the stock market - red digits on bad days and green on good. Maybe a big display showing outside temperature.
3D Grid
By hanging and arranging a string of LEDs, a 3D grid of LEDs could easily be created. There are some cool 3D LED array examples on YouTube. However, the existing examples I've seen look small and painful to wire. Maybe a big 3D grid out in the yard during Christmas too.
WinAmp Plug-In:
Everyone who's been in my lab, and has seen the lights, asks if they dance to music. I did a little digging, looks like it would be fairly easy to add a plug-in to WinAmp. The plug-in would send messages to an attached string of lamps so that the lights would be synced to the music that WinAmp was playing. Syncing some Christmas music to my Christmas tree would just be awesome.
Embedded Baby Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller with H-Bridge:
The little controller from Pololu would be perfect. See: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1220 This board already has an H-Bridge ready to go. Lamp patterns can be programmed into the micro so the PC could be turned off.
802.15.4:
By adding 802.15.4 the lamps could become wireless. For Christmas tree lights spread around the house, this would be great. Or, adding lamps to every window in a large building complex would be possible. Cool.
Rotating 'Lighthouse Beacon:
My son had a school project to build a Lighthouse. The idea was to build a cheesy battery powered light with a paper clip switch so that the Lighthouse would actual light up. No son of mine will go to school with that when he can have a full blown rotating beacon! Have a look at the attached pics and video.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
