Electric Umbrella

Best.  Umbrella.  Ever.

hey buddy,
where did you buy your smd white leds?

Try sciplus.com. It's a great site for all of these kinds of items, with fast shipping and a great return policy.

wooooooooooonderfull!!!!!!!!!

ps: do you recommend any shops that have all of these items in Vancouver, Canada?

Try Lee's Electronics on Main street. ( www.leeselectronic.com ) They don't have anything on their website, but they did have some in stock last year.

really awesome. simple, yet beautiful. :D

I love this -- posted it on my newly launched blog:
http://fortheloveofbikes.blogspot.com/

it doesn't short in the rain?

Where did you find a 750 OHM dimmable variable resistor?

this is the most un-green thing ever!
though good i'ble

Are you referring to the Internal Combustion Engine Instructible?

Certainly not the most un-green thing ever. Definitely not the most green, either though.
But then again, it's only using a very small amount of power through very efficient led's. Besides that, who's to say he doesn't recharge his batteries via human, solar, or some other green power source? Hehe, a rain-powered led umbrella would be super green.

solar powered version would be awsum!!

i'd like to build this but i havnt soldered for a while n doubt my skills lol

realy great ible btw!!! very detailed and clear

If you live near Detroit or Pittsburgh, or Toronto, lots of acid rain there. Have it collect in small pockets on the outer surface of the umbrella, each pocket containing a zinc and a copper 'node (i never remember which is cathode and which is anode...), themselves connected to red LED's (the red are the more parcimonious). Super red then ,eh?

Diodes are dog people. So the CAThode is negative.

Well....

• it's unnecessary and uses electricity that could be used for better things.

that sound =green= to you

Unless you are replacing a flashlight for your umbrella, and since its all homemade, just adjust the number of lights and its about the same.

In my experience it rarely rains without some wind, just put a small fan blade on top (kind of like a beanie) connected to a small electric motor and generate the electricity that way.... Or maybe put pieso electric crystals in your shoes so that you generate electricity with every step (this last one is a joke). ;)

In the time its taken to type your comments, your computer has used more electricity than this umbrella could in a month of rainy days. Unless you are using some kind of pedal powered laptop-thingy. I am firmly in the pro-LED-umbrella camp.

It's providing light in the dark. He'll be able to see his way, be spotted by traffic, and be safer because of it. What is a "better" use for a minuscule 3v of electricity when stored in rechargeable batteries, cutting down on hazardous landfill waste? So he's using very little power to do something very useful that almost always requires much more (like 4 D Cells), and that power is stored in as green a battery as we've developed.
Does that sound like =the most un-green thing ever= to you?

if he was so interested in being safe and visible to traffic wear a reflective vest.
it uses no electricity and is readily available at most clothes (maybe thrift) stores.

How much energy went into producing the non-biodegradable materials in that vest? How long will that live in a landfill? Not to mention that people are going to be constantly asking you when your going to finish filling that pothole in front of my house that has been there for like, six months and that has wrecked at least one pair of my shoes, and eaten a poodle. Stupid pothole. Stupid stupid pothole.

From what I can see, all your doing is taking a project that was never advertised as being Green, complaining that its not Green, and offering no solutions to make it green beyond not doing it at all.

Criticism is great. Its how we develop new and better ideas. Constructive criticism is even better. Messages are much better received if you can offer a solution in addition to your criticism.

This could easily be made green with the addition of some solar cells or a small wind turbine and a string of suppercaps. No batteries.

It was in the green contest and i didn't see why given it doesn't solve anything 'greenly' and about the reflective vest i said THRIFT stores man ergo re-used.

And i never said it was a bad instructable, i actually said it was a good instructable in my first comment

I never implied you said it was a bad Instructable, and I'll agree its not appropriate for the contest it was in. I was just attempting to point out that you never offered a solution to making his idea more environment friendly.

to be honest i posted that comment ages ago and everyone took it the wrong way so i don't really mind much anymore, and btw neither did you.

Agreed. I'm bored now. Lets go ride bikes.

:)

K i'll just go get my training wheels =]

A reflective vest wouldn't compete for visibility at night with the umbrella. I'd say the safety is worth the lack of "greenness." If being "green" was your prime concern, build your house out of sod, don't heat or cool it, power everything using natural sunlight or physical exertion, i.e. an exercise bike, and grow all your own food.

Give the guy a break. It's a great idea. I know people that would pay for an umbrella like this. As for reflective vests, people get hit wearing them all the time. It's not a perfect solution. You're getting in over your head, bud.

it's one thing to practice being more "green" and it's another to hypocritically complain that a simple project is the devil for not being green.

Boris is right. If you're so concerned with living green, trash your computer. Why stop there? It's possible to live in the woods and eat plants for the rest of your life. AND it's much greener than living the way you do now.

No, sorry, those stores use unnecessary amounts of energy to operate. Also, the vests themselves are made from synthetic materials that don't biodegrade on their own in any sort of a timely manner.
Besides that, it doesn't solve the problem of lighting his way. I guess he'll have to use a 4D maglight - that should be more green.
If these arguments sound weak, it's because I'm just trying to illustrate the point that this is exactly the type of argument you're making against it.
This is a very well-written instructable about a project that is both artful and functional. Keep in mind that the contest guidelines state "You could: build an eco-friendly project, test and compare "green" products, repurpose old parts, or just show us greener way to live."
This is:
1) More eco-friendly than other options;
2) Repurposing old parts; and
3) A greener way to live.
In other words, it's not a contest about who can make the greenest project.
We will never be totally green. Humans consume in order to live, there's no stopping that.
If you really want to be green, stop arguing on here and go recycle your computer - it uses way too much energy.
This instructable fits perfectly into the contest and besides that, is quite a handy and very artful project.

glamour idea !! :)

you just made LEDs my new best friend.

This could be made really green by adding a generator of some kind. Adding the generator from one of those "shake to power" flashlights to the handle might be a good addition. Given the right size handle, or the right size generator, it might be possible to incorporate it right into the straight (vertical) part of the handle. Then to power it you would simple move the umbrella up and down a few times. Most people walk this way anyway (with umbrella bobbing up and down a little), the motion would just need to be exaggerated now and again.

Theirs not enough bobbing motion for one of these gadgets to power that many LED's, why do you think that they have only 1 LED in these torches?

Really is easier to use rechargables, which is greener or about as green you can get for a project like this.

man you hippies are just trying to get into everything aren't you! Leave us and our environment killing batteries alone!

Just kidding I think that would be amazing. Any ideas on like the shake to powered time ratio? Like commercial things say shake for five minutes and power for 2. I wonder if you put a spring at the bottom, would that exaggerate the movements because its vertical shaking instead of linear?

For that number of LED's, a shake generator might be inefficient. I would thing a geared twist style generator built into the handle would be better.

Having tried one of these "Shake" torches... not very good in reality, you need to shake for quite a bit to build up a charge... Really, having a **** is easier that charging up one of those torches.

what about rain?

Its three AAA batteries. The volts/amps is not enough to cause any kind of an electrical problem until the contacts corrode and break. No shock hazard, really.

should be fine, looks like everything is under the umbrella.

unless youre a wacko who likes keeping yourself dry with the upside down umbrella...

what is that black spot in the first pic cause it looks like there was smoke coming off of it

I don't see any black spots in the photos, unless you mean the pine tree branch overhanging the umbrella in the first pic.

This was on www.uniquedaily.com today!

That's awesome man.
Still too young for Burning Man though...

Looks interesting....

Could you use regular LED's instead of SMD LED's?

It looks like it belongs in a Beck music video. Awesome

the umbrella or his shirt?!?!?

lol i like this instructable