Electric Umbrella

Step 7 Finishing up

Lastly, attach the battery clip to the shaft. I left mine tired, but free to move up and down a bit - this way it can move down when you close the umbrella (further from the tip is better as it closes up pretty tight and you don't want to adding extra stresses onto the delicate wires on the LEDs), and moves up when you open it (the folding mechanism pushes the battery clip closer to the hub)

And finally you can take it out for a spin!

It looks amazing, but is a bit delicate. Don't take it out in the wind - I don't know if it would survive the umbrella reversing itself in the wind! Also be careful opening, closing and transporting the umbrella so as not to put too much mechanical stresses on the fine wires.

Comments

[veesrini]

once you take the umbrella in rain "BOOM" THERE WILL BE A SHORT CIRCUIT. and everything will become dark?

[browncar]

No this looks like a DC voltage project and as far as I know it will be pretty resilient to water. Water sump pumps run on DC motors for this reason.

[vamshi24x7]

can v close dis umbrella

[angelik0504]

Super Cool idea! Do you sell them? I'd loooove to get one :)

[sugar dad]

It's a cool idea.

Wonder if there is a way to conceal the batteries into the umbrella shaft, possibly behind the handle. 3 AAA are pretty small, make it easier to open and close.
Just a thought.

[vallee]

sweet project! like it! i was wondering though (since i'm pretty new to electronics): how do you manage to power 60 LEDs with only 2 batteries? when they're all put in parallel won't the current be huuuuge?

[sockmaster]

White and blue LEDs have more internal resistance than the old fashioned red & green ones. The ones I use are tiny surface mount LEDs which pull less current than full-size LEDs as well. It runs bright for a few hours on 3 AA batteries, and with the variable resistor dimmer you can make it last longer at lower brightnesses.

[Nucleus]

Joule thief does't decrease battery cunsumptio it just raises Voltage potencial since dead batteries firstly loses voltage, and also amperage, but no so dramaticly so adding a joule thief only helps when voltage is lower then needed/

[cylver]

Cool project!

I think it might be easier to make if you used conductive thread and adhesive (wire glue). Not quite so much finicky wiring, and flexibility wouldn't be an issue, though it would drive up the cost.

See also http://www.instructables.com/id/Conductive-Glue-And-Conductive-Thread-Make-an-LED/

[sockmaster]

That stuff looks really cool! It would be a little tricky to use conductive thread as it's not insulated - ie: you'd have to make sure two threads never touch each other of they'd cause a short. It might work if the LEDs in a string were wired serially, as this would avoid having two wires/threads side-by-side.

[cylver]

Oh, and a joule thief circuit to decrease battery use would be pretty neat too.

[cylver]

Well, you could either sew it through the umbrella cloth, or use the same thread you'd use on the wire to tack the conductive thread down. Admittedly, you'd need a lot more non-conductive thread to do a good job, but it could be done.