LED Parachuties

A LED Parachutie is basically a LED Throwie with a small parachute attached to it. You can toss it out from a tall building, bridge, mountain etc.
When it's dark, you don't see the parachute itself, but only a flying light. It looks pretty cool.

This is a great little project for kids, since it's easy to make and it doesn't require any soldering.

Here is some videos. It looks much better in reality than it does in the video.

I'm sorry for the bad video, but a car drove by, when the LED Parachutie was going to land.

NOTE: The annoying "rrrrrrrrrr" sound in the video is just my camera, when it zooms.

The parachute used in this video was thicker and heavier than the one used in the other video. That's the reason why it descents faster than the one in the other video.

You can control the speed of the descent by changing the size of the parachute. The bigger the parachute the longer "hang time" in the air.

Step 1 Get the parts

To make one LED Parachutie you'll need:

• A LED. Use any size and color you like. I used a 5mm superbright blue diffused LED.
• A 3V Lithium coincell battery. These are available in many different sizes. The most common though is the CR2032 which is also the type used in the original LED Throwies.
• Some tape.
• A chewed chewing gum or a small piece of clay (a chewing gum works best).
• A garbage bag.
• Some sewing thread.

Comments

[daniel!]

this is pretty cool is it just me, or are there too many ibles called "how to make an led (insert random name here)ies"?

[a918bmxr]

its me also, not just you

[raykholo]

maybe... adding a hole in the middle of the parachute might help

[twitsl]

Since weight isn't an issue you can use AAA batteries. You might even be able to use AA's but that would be pushing it.

[Artificial Intelligence]

You could probably do that, but then you'll need to make a larger parachute in order to get a slow descent.

[Batryn]

can you launch it with a blowgun somehow??? I was thinking of that... but it won't go far enough

[Weissensteinburg]

I'd like to see 1000 of these dropped from a plane at night.

[Artificial Intelligence]

Me to!!!

[Karel Jansens]

I wonder if you can put throwies in helium balloons. Tape or tie the throwie in the middle of a piece of sewing thread a bit longer than the diameter of the (inflated) balloon, tape one end of the thread inside to the top end of the balloon (before inflating), inflate the balloon and secure the other end of the thread by knotting the balloon. This way the throwie stays in the center of the inflated balloon. I bet a few dozen of these, let up at night, would freak out the Homeland Nazis no end...

[Kiteman]

Is there anything you can't add a throwie to?

[Artificial Intelligence]

Probably not. Is that a good or bad thing?

[Yellow84]

Personally i don't like the whole 'throwie' thing seems like a bit of waste for 5 minutes of...throwing...not to mention they can also get pretty pricey. I just think there's tons of other things you could do with an LED rather than tape it to a battery and add some neodymium magnets...

[Kiteman]

It's the artistic drive