Flyies, a Flying LED Throwie Mod

Throwies are awesome, they inspire folks to do more,  about a year ago I tried my first flying Throwies, and had a few problems(indoors helium balloons filled to the max pop very loudly). I will quickly in this short Instructable show how to do it, as cheaply as possible, and avoid the problems I ran into.

Step 1: Ingredients.

1 helium grade party balloon,  18 inch or so
1 LED (I used a blinking red)
1 CR1025 3volt lithium battery, you could use a cr2012 or cr2032 but they are big and heavy and the balloon needs to be inflated to near bursting.
Some electrical tape(I love the 3m clear electrical tape,  but I could not find my roll (perhaps its too clear! ;-))
Some Helium

Comments

[killbox]

Want to see something really cool done with this basic idea?? http://blog.makezine.com/2012/06/08/super-mario-night-kite/

[-chase-]

I did something similiar a few - well i guess actually it's several years ago as a club promo idea - only i used the really small multi flashing led jewlery like ear rings and pins and crystal necklaces etc that flash multi colors and seem much brighter than standard leds.

A pair of ear rings in a larger than standard helium filled bolloon was just the right weight to be lifted and hold about 20 feet in the air and float around.
- i had include two passes to the club - so whom ever found it - not only had a gift with the led jewelery but the club passes.

I wish i had taken a picture of  releasing them as it really looked cool with all the balloons flashing multi colors 15 to 20 feet in the air and blowing about along the South Beach Club area.

I had made up about 50 in total for that promo - it worked really well.

Nice to see a throwie led balloon with leds making it to instrucables.
it is a fun idea.
- chase -

[ilpug]

this is awesome. the only thing that would prevent me from letting a bunch of them go at night in a crowded city would be the pollution.

[killbox]

yah, the balloons do bio-degrade, but the LED and battery don't a while back i looked into if one should recycle little lithium batteries, and while the EPA says you can take them to a recycle drop off, the amount lithium in them is so small they are approved of for landfill disposal. and there is no recycle facility for the little batteries. The waste caused by these is fairly small. as is the danger if a bird or something eats it. but i wont advocate letting lots of them free just to be safe/nice.

[ilpug]

i hate to double post but i just thought of something. at dollar discount stores in my area you can get these large punch ball balloons. they inflate to almost 2 feet in diameter and are extremely tough. maybe you could substitute those for the baloons?

[killbox]

No problem, Yes, my dad (whom i borrowed the tank from) on the 4th of july launched one of those punch balloons, with a small flag pennant hanging from it, (we were under serious drought conditions, so they were asking for no personal fireworks).. it went up a about 1000' and then popped. im guessing he had it pretty full.

Checkout what i did with a huge 36" balloon today.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Budget-Launch-Aerial-Video-Balloon/

[mr.incredible]

cool idea. I like the flashing LED idea. Do up a bunch and let them go at the same time.