L.E.D. Easter Eggs

I saw this in Popular Mechanics magazine and thought it looked fun...It is inexpensive and very easy to do.  It is safe and my son (he's 11) thought it was very cool.  Best of all, there was nothing to clean up (no typical egg dye) and we have the makings for scrambled eggs in the morning.

Supplies:

• 6 L.E.D. lights (various colors from Radio Shack)
• 6 2032 flat batteries
• 6 Eggs
• Electrical Tape
• Nail

Directions:

Make a hole in each egg large enough to fit the battery in.

Remove the egg white and yolk through the hole and wash the inside out with water.  Set aside to dry.  

Place the longer side lead of the L.E.D. bulb on the positive side of the battery and the shorter lead on the negative side.  

Place a small piece of electrical tape around battery and the leads to hold in place.

After the egg has been cleaned and dried, place the battery and bulb inside the egg and step back to enjoy your glow eggs!

Have fun!

Comments

[TOCO]

Seems expensive. I know that I bought a bag of random leds from radio shack for about $2 that had around 30 random leds. Of corse they were cheap leds that operate specifically at 2.7 volts. anything lower and they barely light. Anything higher and they burn out almost instantly.

[SpagoPizza]

I bought leds from Radio Shack as well

[PaleoDan]

My Radio Shack was out of those (luckily) as I did not notice that they were that specific power wise. The ones I purchased were two to a pack (same color) and I just grabbed one of each color. I also grabbed a UV one by mistake so that shows you how much attention I was paying. My son and nephew were looking at the toys so I had one eye on them.

[gobproperty]

too late for this year; consider adding a cheap switch and using a section of pvc as a "holder", the battery and/or switch could then be under the egg. Just expanding the ideas from this page...
they could last for years.
This is a project I'll have to remember for my now 3.5 yr old grandson. He'd get a kick out of the lights and the project.

[freethetech]

I actually have a nice idea for this. Perhaps wiring in a touch-button kind of thing? I'm not entirely sure how we'd get inside of the egg, but my cousin has precision tools, and my school has laser equipment, so I'm going to try adding mini-touch buttons.

[PaleoDan]

That would be very cool - please post and let me know how it goes. You might be able to hide the touch button in the basket if it will not fit in the egg.

[freethetech]

That is an excellent idea! I am trying to do something for my sister for Easter, and I suppose a little basket would be a great idea. I was planning out how I would do this, and someone suggested using plastic eggs you would find in stores. I thought the plastic would be too thick, though.

[Cabbages and Kings]

Anyone in the UK know where to buy white eggs? White hen's eggs now, not duck eggs or those strange light greeny blue ones you can get in Waitrose. This will probably work much better with white shells.


[Note for the curious and overseas: eggs here were usually white here when I was tiny, but a few were brown. People somehow a myth grew up that brown ones were healthier. This was around the time that brown, wholemeal and unbleached bread and other products started being promoted as healthier so possibly it is a weird side effect of that. Now you can't get white ones.]

[PaleoDan]

Sorry about your egg situation. I would thing that if the eggs you have are light in color, they should still work (if you can't locate the white ones) - you might just get different colors than expected, like if you had a light blue one and you put in a yellow L.E.D. you would get a green one when you lit it - could be fun to mix and match.

Cheers

[nanoz300]

Hmmm... I think i can make a lamp out of this... thanks!

[SpagoPizza]

I will try to make this for my 6yo girl !

[nsaini10]

this is so nice :D

[The nerdling]

why flat batteries?

[mad_mat]

Flat shape, not flat 'dead' ;-)

[PaleoDan]

Because they fit very well and the L.E.D.s do not require very much voltage. The 2032 battery is almost a perfect fit between the two leads that come from the L.E.D.

[allstarn09]

I just used this in conjunction with a couple other instructables to make my parents a Easter preset. Thanks for the help!

[PaleoDan]

That is awesome - please post a picture when you get a chance

[zoekkk]

what did you use for making the hole?

[PaleoDan]

I used a nail. If you start out gently tapping in one place, it will slowly crack in the spot you are hitting it. Once you have a small hole then just work around the edge of the opening to expand it. It does not take much pressure so go easy.

[zoekkk]

k thanks

[Geekin]

The geekiest easter eggs ever!! :)

[PaleoDan]

Thanks - they are fun

[anglerfish]

Use plastic eggs and you don't have to worry about making the hole. This would make a great game of hunting eggs at night.

[PaleoDan]

Cool idea but then you would not have the scrambled eggs in the morning and I do love scrambled eggs! Plastic eggs would hold up better and their colorful "shells" would allow you to only need to purchase white L.E.D.s

[farzadbayan]

Nice work ! Your own is better than mine :)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bright-eggs/

[PaleoDan]

I love the blinking and color changing ones. Great job!

[JimMcKeeth]

I found the batteries on Amazon for $3.95 for a 25 pack: http://amzn.to/hLRure and the LED's from SuperBrightLEDs.com for $0.27 - $0.59 each http://bit.ly/h8iTQ0 - Shipping on the LEDs was $5, free on the batteries. I am sure the batteries won't last long, but enough for Easter I am sure. Shipping might be more though if you try to get it here for Easter.

These LEDs are super bright (thus the name) 800 - 5000 mlm at 360 degrees, while normal LEDs are around 50 mlm - so orders of magnitude brighter, for less money. I went with mostly the 360 degree diffused ones, but got some of the other styles for different colors.

I tested them and from across the room with the overhead lights on they are very bright. There is a voltage difference by color (which is standard) and using the wrong voltage will cause the bulbs to not last as long. Again my goal is short term (the eggs will break first I am sure) so I will run either one battery or two in series to get close to the voltage.

Also I put a cotton ball in the egg to cushion the battery and help diffuse the light.

[PaleoDan]

Great information - I will check out those links. Prices seem very good compared to what I spent.

Thanks for posting

[jankol]

Hi! I'm new here. How long it's work on battery?

[PaleoDan]

The eggs have been lit since around 7:00 EST Saturday night so about three days give or take so far. A couple seem to be dimming slightly.

[nuckthebuck]

hey what would you price the batteries and lights at, and where would you buy them? these look pretty cool and all just maybe spread it out through different steps.

[PaleoDan]

Thanks - I purchased everything but the eggs at Radio Shack. The L.E.D. lights are about $1.99 for a pair of bulbs. I purchased 6 different colors so about $12. The batteries were $12 for three so I bought two packs. Total cost was about $40 with tax for everything.

I was going to make more steps but this was really that easy.

Have fun...

[nuckthebuck]

well i wonder if i can find a cheaper way to make them. because for 6 eggs using them apx 1-3 days a year is quite expensive. if i find a place to buy materials cheaper i will let you know. great instructable though. =]

[alterator]

eBay is a good place to find cheap LEDs.
Bought 100 UltraBright blue LEDs for 10$ w/ shipping
the same is for batteries -- maybe not as good as they wuld be in the store, but anyway.

[PaleoDan]

I would think you can find them much cheaper online. I was in a rush so Radio Shack was faster but I know the batteries were way overpriced.

Good luck.

[TOCO]

Hey, If you still have the uv lights you could put those in some eggs and send the kids around in the dark with any digital camera with a screen and they should be able to find the eggs purple glow through the camera. Now that is something I should do for my kids when I get old enough. (only 15 now I think it will be quite a while).

[PaleoDan]

Awesome - I just tried it and it worked great - used my son's iTouch and it showed up well. Thanks for the suggestion.

[TOCO]

Cool that it worked. Now there is finally a use for the camera on the itouch.

[Johenix]

Idea: Use a color shifting LED. The egg cycles through a rainbow of colors.

[falcotheimpaler]

I reloaded the page to make sure i was seeing all steps. Then i realized how simple this is. Awesome. Everything is better with an LED in it.