LED Rollie

The LED Rollie is a pretty silly, but funny thing.

Simply roll it through your neighbourhood and you'll gain a lot of attention.

I got the idea of the LED rollie when I was bored, and I saw this roll of solder, but without solder. I found out, that 2 AAA batteries fitted perfectly into the center of the roll.

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Step 1: Parts you'll need

To make one LED Rollie you'll need:

a Roll of solder, with no more solder on it.

Some LEDs (I used 2 5mm diffuse blue LEDs and 2 5mm diffuse green LEDs)

2 AAA batteries.

Some hookup wire.

an on/off switch (optional)

sbrookes1 says: Oct 10, 2011. 12:01 AM

Kinda ironic how it's made from a solder spool

agis68 says: Oct 25, 2010. 4:58 PM

nice and cool my cats will love it!!!

jam BD says: Aug 5, 2009. 3:32 PM

really shouldn't solder on the batteries...
BUT...
hey the more dangerous it is the better = )

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to jam BDAug 9, 2009. 7:55 AM

Yeah. I know It's a bad idea, but if you do it for a short amount of time there shouldn't be any problems, hopefully ;-)

jam BD in reply to Artificial IntelligenceAug 9, 2009. 9:52 PM

there are more dangerours tyhings to do than that
LOL =D

dragonis says: Sep 14, 2008. 11:59 AM

What can you use to substitute the roll of solder?

BraisedDuck in reply to dragonisJun 18, 2009. 4:30 AM

bandage tape or cloth tape without any more tape can be a good substitute.

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to dragonisSep 14, 2008. 12:09 PM

Almost anything, that's round. Just use your imagination.

BraisedDuck says: May 26, 2009. 6:29 AM

what happens when the batteries die off?

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to BraisedDuckMay 29, 2009. 8:52 AM

then you'll need to desolder them and insert some new ones, however they last pretty long.

BraisedDuck in reply to Artificial IntelligenceJun 18, 2009. 4:28 AM

you can desolder???

dudejetfighter says: Feb 16, 2009. 1:19 PM

LED Yo-Yo hmmmm

pls says: Nov 28, 2008. 3:29 PM

Very cool!

Keith-Kid says: Oct 11, 2008. 1:53 PM

I love it! I bought some new LEDS just for this!!!

peachlover says: Oct 6, 2008. 8:30 AM

may i ask how long the batteries will last? thanks.

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to peachloverOct 6, 2008. 12:23 PM

Actually, I don't know that, because I don't use it so much, but I think it will last for 2 days of continuous use.

ecctao says: Aug 19, 2008. 12:14 AM

very sapiential thing for play

combot55 says: May 11, 2008. 10:53 PM

omg the 2nd vid looks like u cast Magic Missle lolz DO IT FASTER!!!

mage in reply to combot55Jul 20, 2008. 4:27 PM

alas, thy can begin mage career. i should build one with red and orange to give the illusion of mario's fireballz

awkrin in reply to combot55May 14, 2008. 2:09 PM

yeah, it kinda looks like that, but AI can simply increase the framerate to make it look faster

Brennn10 says: Apr 20, 2008. 7:00 AM

Wow, those look really neat! Nice job!

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to Brennn10Jun 2, 2008. 5:39 AM

I'm sorry for the really late answer, but thanks for the comment and thank you for featuring it.

awkrin says: May 3, 2008. 11:22 AM

wouldn't it be more fun to add a low speed motor with a weight, and make that thing spin by itself, at least in a circle? a counterweight is probably needed on the other side lI mean like that:

musicalbee2003 in reply to awkrinMay 8, 2008. 7:08 PM

Or take a zip pull, put it around the axel of the motor, and let it push against the ground, like an elecric Cotton reel tank

Artificial Intelligence (author) in reply to awkrinMay 3, 2008. 12:32 PM

That's a very good idea. how did you make the 3D drawing?

awkrin in reply to Artificial IntelligenceMay 7, 2008. 5:20 AM

u mean that's good?? it took my like 10 min and I didn't even rendered it anyways, I use google sketchup. it's really easy to use and u can render the images with some add-on(forgot the name).

wezdog1 in reply to awkrinAug 30, 2008. 1:56 AM

Dude, sketchup? why that when you could used decent software like solidworks, pro desktop or even (if you had one million dollars), Catia. Nice instructable though!

mwwdesign in reply to Artificial IntelligenceMay 5, 2008. 8:08 PM

Looks to me like it was modelled in 'Rhinoceros 3D', and rendered using 'Penguin'... if it wasn't, it could have been!

awkrin in reply to mwwdesignMay 7, 2008. 10:11 AM

what do u mean in: "if it wasn't, it could have been!"?

mwwdesign in reply to awkrinMay 7, 2008. 4:05 PM

I meant if it wasn't done using Rhinoceros 3D/Penguin, then you could get the same effect by using Rhinoceros 3D/Penguin. You can download an evaluation version from their site to try it out. www.rhino3d.com. I use it for work.

awkrin in reply to mwwdesignMay 8, 2008. 1:33 PM

doesn't Rhinoceros 3D/Penguin mean exactly Rhinoceros 3D/Penguin?

mwwdesign in reply to awkrinMay 8, 2008. 6:04 PM

I give up.

awkrin in reply to mwwdesignMay 10, 2008. 3:55 AM

yeah, I've always been good at annoying people..

snagglebeard in reply to Artificial IntelligenceMay 3, 2008. 11:15 PM

another simple wat to make it roll would be to have some type of foot attached to the motor instead of a weight and have the foot hit the ground and kind of drag and the motor and the whole rollie thing woud spin and the foot would stay stationary. then you could use a high speed motor. I think two motors would be needed tho... and i also suppose that its alot of bs to go threw for a lighted spool... but then again if you unleashed a whole fleet of the things on a large parking lot, or a street, mabey at the mall...better yet the second story, now thats worth the effort

awkrin in reply to snagglebeardMay 8, 2008. 1:28 PM

nah it won't work. it'll have to "scrape" the surface it touches, so I think the weight or nothing at all is better

snagglebeard in reply to awkrinMay 25, 2008. 8:27 PM

yes it does work I've built something similar to this for a school project. It was a two wheel vehicle for a hill climb. It had a single aluminum rod about an 1/8th thick and it was at about a 35 degree angle below horizontal with a small upward bend at the part where it made contact with the ground it was far lighter than building a third wheel and the body to support it.

awkrin in reply to snagglebeardMay 26, 2008. 4:34 AM

sorry then..