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Incense adds a nice mood to a room, as does mood lighting. This instructable shows you how to modify an incense burner to subtely glow via hidden leds. The combination of light, smoke and nice smells makes for a really cool chill-out object that looks quite magical.
This project is really easy to build and is very cheap, making it a great beginners electronics project. Hence, I've written this instructable with beginners in mind. Also, the modification is done in such a way that you won't do any damange to your incense box and is easy to remove whenever you want.
I gave this incense burner to a friend of mine when he graduated. Hope you're as happy with yours as he was with his :-)
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Signing UpStep 1Stuff you need
For this project you will need:
1. An incense burning box
The type with a closing lid and holes for the smoke. You can usually pick these up in new age or fair-trade shops. This one cost around £6.00 and takes either incense sticks or cones.
2. Some square dowel
You can get this at all good hardware shops. The stuff I use in this project has a profile of around 8mm square. 1 meter cost about £1.50
3. Leds.
I used 3 green ones but this is where you get to be creative. No reason why you can't have different colours. I chose some with a wide viewing angle to get a nice distributed light.
4. A Swtich
I took mine out of a broken torch (flashlight). You want something that you can mount inside the box when the lid is closed. It also needs to lock in position (like a light switch).
5. Battery holders + Batteries
2 single AA holders provide enough power while not taking up too much space.
6. A bit of wire
To connect it all together (two different colours)
7. Heat shrink (optional, you could use tape)
To prevent short circuits
9. A bit of Tape (duct, electrical or masking tape all good)
10. An elastic band
Tools
You will require this modest selection:
1. Soldering Iron + solder
2. Super Glue
3. Pencil
4. Junior hacksaw
5. Strong safety pin / Tack
6. Helping hands / crocodile clips (optional but a great tool to have anyway)
7. Small piece of sandpaper (a file will do)
1. An incense burning box
The type with a closing lid and holes for the smoke. You can usually pick these up in new age or fair-trade shops. This one cost around £6.00 and takes either incense sticks or cones.
2. Some square dowel
You can get this at all good hardware shops. The stuff I use in this project has a profile of around 8mm square. 1 meter cost about £1.50
3. Leds.
I used 3 green ones but this is where you get to be creative. No reason why you can't have different colours. I chose some with a wide viewing angle to get a nice distributed light.
4. A Swtich
I took mine out of a broken torch (flashlight). You want something that you can mount inside the box when the lid is closed. It also needs to lock in position (like a light switch).
5. Battery holders + Batteries
2 single AA holders provide enough power while not taking up too much space.
6. A bit of wire
To connect it all together (two different colours)
7. Heat shrink (optional, you could use tape)
To prevent short circuits
9. A bit of Tape (duct, electrical or masking tape all good)
10. An elastic band
Tools
You will require this modest selection:
1. Soldering Iron + solder
2. Super Glue
3. Pencil
4. Junior hacksaw
5. Strong safety pin / Tack
6. Helping hands / crocodile clips (optional but a great tool to have anyway)
7. Small piece of sandpaper (a file will do)
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It looked cool but it was hard to tell if the smoke was glowing more because of the UV or just being lit up by the LED. I mean, the led lights up my hand and everything else so still emits quite a bit of light in the visible spectrum.
So I'm afraid I'm not sure how it worked out.. :-/ It did look cool though so I guess you've got nothing to lose by using UV leds :-)