Mood Crystal Light

How to make a moody crystal light for under $10!

It is time to make good use of the Selenite crystal that has been sitting in my room for ages. I brought the crystal from a collection shop while ago on holiday in Devon for $2. You don't have to use the selenite crystal for this project, you can use any kind of crystal that is transparent or cloudy.

^{BTW, I am British, I have to use the American currency symbol because instructable dose not like the British currency symbol.}

Step 1 What you will need for the project

Nothing really expensive, other than the RGB LED's and the crystal, they can be quite expensive in some place.

• Double AA battery holder
• Two AA batteries
• A switch
• A small piece of veroboard
• Some wires
• Transparent or cloudy crystal
• A project box (I ran out of them, so I have to use a container)
• RGB LED's (see next step)

Comments

[Maazka]

Nice and simple! :)

You should mention that these are autochange RGB. most RGB (such as the ones you get off digikey) do not have the built in circuit that causes the color change. RGB LED is a LED w a red, green and blue LED glued under a single lense (speaking most simply) and one lead in common. Changing the voltage to the other leads is what gives the different colors

[nerd7473]

neat this is an easy experiment and would be a cool light

[rcisneros]

Cool. You can get a similar effect with a piece of plexiglass. Once it's sanded and roughed up it looks kind of cool. The crystal does look like it would be sharper looking.

[Berkin]

Awesome! I go to RadioShack all the time, they have RGB LED's there...

[Plasmana]

Buy from ebay, :-) much cheaper than those little rip-off stores.

[IW5 Industries]

Very much agreed! I saw one blue led for a dollar there. After Christmas I went to target and bought a 60 blue led string light set for 10 dollars. much less than radio shack.

[junits15]

wow you're lucky, my radioshack charges $3 for one blue LED

[becauseican]

i have found radioshach has ridiculous prices for components but for kits and electronic devises such as headphones microphones headphones etrc.

[maruawe]

but at $1.99 each.. the 50 for $9.00 is a better deal LED's are god for a lot of projects would not hurt to have plenty around

[pancho del rancho]

were can u get that crystal thing and if u no how much that would begreat. i really like this ible it quick easy but on others it say u needsome sort of processor for the rgb is that true or will it still work normal

[AJEVE]

If anyone's thinking of building this, then I found a 7" Selenite crystal for just £2.95 (+£2.40 shipping).

http://www.crystalreflection.co.uk/HFSE4204-selenite.html

[Wesley1]

If you are using Fire Fox just change the spelling to British and forget instructables spelling.

[elyador]

Nice. That is really trippy.

[Goodhart]

One tiny caveat.....some places call any LED that can change color a RGB or RBG, even those that must have current reversed to get two of the three colors, with the third being low amperage ac.

Otherwise, I like the application. :-) (if I could find my crystal I have that glows under UV lights I could add a few UV LEDs to make it really spooky looking in the dark ;-)

[Plasmana]

A crystal what glows under UV light? Cool! What is it call??

[Goodhart]

I got it YEARS ago (33-36) and so am not sure. I thought it was called Pennsylvanianite, or something like that, but I can't find a reference to it online or anywhere. I thought it was native to my area, but then I am not sure where we were (school trip) that had the crystal for sale. I have been looking for SOME kind of reference to it for over 10 years now......so far, I am drawing a blank....it glows under UV, very much like the mineral Powellite, but it doesn't LOOK like it

[Plasmana]

Hmm, I tried to do some research as well, no positive results, just lots of junk on google. :-( I got a feeling the crystal might be a fake, because I seen some sites (can't remember what is it called) selling greenish 'crystal' that glows under UV, but I later found it is made from plastic with UV reactive chemicals.

[Goodhart]

This was sold at a museum, or other such place while our class (don't remember the grade) was on a field trip. I thought it was so COOL looking in the black light room, but was crushed when I could no longer find it, about a year or so ago....

[PKM]

Very nice, I think I'd prefer the ability to control the colour but the slow fading is a simple option. Where were you in Devon? I'm guessing south coast, given you bought a rock crystal from a souvenir shop...

[Plasmana]

It would be nice to control the LED's, but I don't know about microcontrollers yet... :-) Yes, I got the crystal on the south coast of Devon from a souvenir shop, how did you know that?

[PKM]

I used to live on the south coast, selling stuff like that is exactly the sort of thing they are good at. On the north coast you'd probably be surfing or getting quaint countryside stuff, and no-one goes on holiday to the centre of the county except to go to Dartmoor where you'd probably get a nice decorative piece of radioactive granite :) I meant Plymouth, Torbay/Paignton, Dawlish, Exmouth/Sidmouth (if you remember)?

[Plasmana]

Hmm, I have not been to the north coast yet. And you can get radioactive rocks from there? cool!

[spacepirate04]

cool i think the shape of the crystal works well for this :)

[Plasmana]

Yeah, it does. :-)

[uberdum05]

I got a package of 20 LED's from Rapid and the package was tiny!!! 2cm x 2cm

[Plasmana]

Lol, that is small!

[venomireland]

Cool! I wish I had something like that!