Iron Man Arc Reactor

Here I will show you how to make an awesome Iron Man arc reactor prop.

You'll Need:

-7 White LEDs
-4 Resistors
-White candle wax
-Two Speakers
-A motor from a VCR player
-A small piece of window screen
-9v Battery

Tools

-Soldering gun
-Something to melt the wax in
-Scissors (to cut the screen)

Step 1 The Base

Take your motor apart and drill seven holes in the bottom big enough to fit the LEDs in

Comments

[Begradoo]

Neat idea!
I took most of your design for my Steampunk Arc Reactor
(used my phone's cam. Bad pic)

[lemonie]

Yea, good job! I don't quite understand how the LEDs are wired - can you add a circuit diagram? L

[Emsaid]

Ok this the the best i can do, I don't have the Paint skills, so i think its in a series circuit.

[peachamom]

I love it!

[lemonie]

Is this schematic right? What resistors did you use (Ohm or colours)? L

[drbill]

I like his better. lol

[Emsaid]

yes me too...

[Emsaid]

i think they are 130 Ohm (the color code is yellow purple black Brown)

[lemonie]

Yellow - purple - black is 47 Ohm - too low. Even 130 (brown - orange - brown) is a bit low, you might want to up these a bit? L

[Emsaid]

ok the guy at radio shack said that they were the right ones

[lemonie]

Oh well, expert advice there. The fact that he made a sale wouldn't bias your judgment at all? If they are 47 Ohm the max limit on current you'll have is ~200mA (much too much). The LEDs will bring that down, but I'm not convinced these will last as long as they should. L

[Emsaid]

lol they didnt, for some reson it stopped working

[lemonie]

Well, you can pick that apart. I doubted they would last, see if anything I said previously seems relevant now.

L

[Emsaid]

oh they work really well

[lemonie]

They will, for now. But I think they might die prematurely. L

[thetech101]

220 ohm is a good resistor for running LEDs off of a 9V battery. I've got an LED flashlight that uses a 9V lithium battery pack and so far it has yet to quit (after 2 years).

[lemonie]

That'll be running at 20 - 40mA? so sounds right. I'm not too sure about what we've got in this one (you know it's right if it lasts 2 years, 2 weeks and maybe not). L

[thetech101]

If your LEDs run at 3.5 volts and 20 mA, then wire two of them in series and put a 100 ohm reistor to the series.

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz I've found this wizard to be helpful in designing an array.

[lemonie]

Yes I think I have that bookmarked, it answers many questions. L

[Emsaid]

i just wired them two LEDs per resistor randomly, I'll try making one

[lemonie]

The LEDs are in series, those are 1KOhm resistors? (hard to see) L

[Emsaid]

I dont know anything about resistors ether does the guy at radio shack

[zack247]

how did you manag to get the magnets off of the speakers? mine wont come off

[darknessfalls]

how would it look with blue wax? or a sheet of clear(ish) blue film over the wax but below the metal?

[dtmoore13]

how does it look under a shirt?

[Emsaid]

finnaly posted a pic

[Emsaid]

ill post i pic soon!

[dtmoore13]

how does it look under a shirt

[Emsaid]

ok it started working again so i Finally got a pic of it, sorry for the wait

[Emsaid]

sorry i didnt get a pic but for some reason it stopped working i think it was the wiring so im making a whole new reactor pics will be up soon!

[ronchi84]

do you know what size of speakers they are?   I do believe that it is wired in parrellel, if the share the + and - it is parrellel, if they are connected anode to cathode then it is series.

[ronchi84]

correction to my own stupid self, it would be a combination circuit.  and doing some research, a 1.5v led works best at between 180 and 240 ohms, but it does depend on the size of the led and the power source.   a good estimate would be like tech101 said and go with a 220 ohm (thats r,r,br)

[Emsaid]

sorry i dont really know anything about this stuff

[spaceboy22]

does it have a light on it

[Emsaid]

it is the light

[spaceboy22]

thank you for commenting

[spaceboy22]

what size are the speakers i want to make one

[garagebandpunk]

Sorry to ask, but what part of the speaker is that?

[srhadaham]

its the part behind the paper/plastic front cone.
Here's a shot of a bigger one just for reference, the speaker is laying cone/visible part down
http://www.instructables.com/image/FCG4PZQFEMY2UUI/Disassembly-cont.jpg

[Emsaid]

yeah its the metal piece, sorry i didnt get back to you sooner