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Magnet activated Led Pen

A handy Light in a pen activated by a magnet. Easy project

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Step 1Materials

What you need:

- drill
- electrical tape
- 3/16 in drill bit
- LED about 2.7v
- expo marker
- exacto knife
- reed switch
- soldering iron
- solder
- 9v battery
- wire cutters
- needle-nose pliers
- about 26ga red wire
- black sharpie

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20 comments

Apr 23, 2009. 9:26 AMmutaz says:

also i would like to know if i can use this pen which you just described above on the magnetic board oe its only for the one which works with the infra red pen . thanks

Apr 23, 2009. 9:24 AMmutaz says:

dear Sir, first of all i would like to thank all of you a lot for this great website, iam student at the american university _girne north of cyprus, and i am graduating within 5 months, and i have project about the magnetic interactive whiteboard, if you dont mind Sir supplying me with some information about this project , because i looked hardly to get some informations about the michanism of the IWB but the magentic one i couldnt find anything. Sir kindly iam asking you if you can supply me with any idea of bulding this interactive magnetic whiteboard,or how it works, on this email address (mshannag84@hotmail.com) yours truely . thanks a lot

Apr 14, 2009. 12:50 PMjcduplessis says:

Hi QuicksilverRox, I have to say that this is a most excellent instructable! Partly the reason being that I have made an almost exactly similar highlighter LED light a couple of months ago! I also used 9V battery cells and a reed switch! You may think I am just trying to steal your shine, but honestly that is not my intent! It's just amazing how similar our ideas are... as they say, grate minds think alike! I mounted two small pieces of broken magnet in the cap thus the light will only shine when the cap is stuck on the back! Wonderful instructable anyway! Kind regards. (PS - I have added some pictures of mine I took as soon as I saw yours to prove it exists. I unfortunately don't have assembly pics. If you would like some pics I could disassemble it and post a instructable with some video as well.)

Apr 14, 2009. 5:12 PMQuiksilverRox (author) says:

Cool!!

Mar 5, 2009. 4:16 AMagis68 says:

Nice idea and done well but the limited life of the batteries kill your project.... For the idea 5/5 for the job 3/5 total (average) lets say 4/5...:)

Nov 26, 2008. 4:28 PMraykholo says:

can it be done so that a magnet is attatched to the unit, and the led turns on when it is put on a metal surface? kind of like a fridge magnet light that turns on when u put it on the fridge and goes off when u take it off

Nov 13, 2008. 4:34 AMsplib says:

I have finished a similar project. Guys with Macbooks (not PRO), you know of the magnets in the corners of the screen of a macbook. You need a reed switch, a keychain LED mini-torch, and a tiny metal plate (glued to the minitorch, to hold it on the magnet. Better glue a tiny piece fabric or leather on the surface of metal plate to protect Mac from scratches). Connect and enjoy the visible keyboard on those dark nights of chatting. Advice: might sandpaper LED to diffuse the light to a wider angle. When you stick the torch to the magnet, light goes ON. Take it off, light is OFF

Nov 13, 2008. 2:48 PMQuiksilverRox (author) says:

cool!

Jul 20, 2008. 7:29 PM

westfw says:

oh oh oh! If your reed switch behaves like mine, they're also sensitive to a magnet being brought near one of the leads, rather than at the center (mine seem to be MORE sensitive in that direction!) So you might be able to put the magnet in the cap and carefully arrange the components so that when the cap is "on" the light is off, and when the cap is in the "on rear" position, the light is ON. Sorta like shown in the pic. Let us know if you try it!