Papercraft LED Lantern

I read various design blogs on a daily basis, seeking inspiration for my next project. On one such day, I came upon the work of Yoshinobu Miyamoto, an architect and skilled papercraft artist from Japan. Please take a moment to check out his fantastic designs.

Many of his papercraft polyhedra are illuminated, as you can see in the flickr set I linked to. I decided to replicate and illuminate one of his designs, the "Tri-Star Fruit."

My Papercraft Lantern utilizes surface mount LEDs for illumination, and flexible self-adhesive copper foil as conductors. A single 9V battery provides power, for an estimated run time of about 40 hours.

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Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials

Three sheets of 8.5 x 11" card stock (Or get fancy with patterned or textured paper)
Glue (glue stick or white glue)
Copper foil tape (used for stained glass)
Some clear tape (packing tape or Scotch tape)
3 LEDs (I used Digikey p/n 475-2542-1-ND)
A 9V battery clip
One 9V battery

Tools

Computer (I assume you've got one of those already!)
A printer (laser is preferable)
A soldering iron
A good, sharp knife with fresh blades (X-acto will work fine)
Scissors
Wire stripper and other soldering hand tools

LW_T673_Pb_free.pdf(595x842) 622 KB

malialtin says: Mar 23, 2011. 2:25 PM

Very nice instructable!!! Very inspiring!!

tala910185010 says: Dec 12, 2010. 9:51 AM

Hi, bravo! welldone...that's really amazing...thank u

jeff-o (author) in reply to tala910185010Dec 12, 2010. 10:33 PM

Thanks!

mohsen_sam says: Oct 13, 2010. 1:42 PM

very Beautiful

jeff-o (author) in reply to mohsen_samOct 13, 2010. 3:05 PM

Thank you!

RPKH says: Oct 10, 2010. 7:59 AM

This is a bad design.
The Led must have a resistor in series to limit the current.

jeff-o (author) in reply to RPKHOct 10, 2010. 9:59 AM

Ordinarily I'd agree with you. But in this case, with the forward voltage of the LEDs equal to the battery, there is no need. Perhaps a few ohms of resistance - but that's taken care of by the resistance of the copper foil, and the internal resistance of the 9V battery.

I left the lantern running for a full day and nothing blew up, so I'd say it's quite safe.

Thanks for calling me on it, though!

RPKH in reply to jeff-oOct 11, 2010. 12:57 PM

The forward voltage of the led is 3 V. If you put 3 led in series it would be more less equal to the battery. Indeed the copper foil and battery have a resistance.
But for other people trying to make this project using other leds with different forward voltages should check how to connect a led properly.

jeff-o (author) in reply to RPKHOct 11, 2010. 9:07 PM

Definitely. Beginners should check out this excellent online LED calculator. You simply enter your power supply, number of LEDs and LED voltage, and it does the rest - even drawing a neat little diagram!

(The above calculator says I need a 1 ohm resistor)

octochan says: Oct 11, 2010. 9:25 AM

This totally looks like a ribcage! All it needs is something to suggest a spine, and maybe the collarbones and shoulder blades!

jeff-o (author) in reply to octochanOct 11, 2010. 10:59 AM

I'm sure I've seen a Halloween decoration made like that before. Can't find anything on Google, though.

gbrad says: Oct 11, 2010. 7:11 AM

ever thought of spray painting it a metallic color? don't know the electrical implications or hazards involved.... but probably not too hard to work around.

jeff-o (author) in reply to gbradOct 11, 2010. 10:57 AM

Well sure, you could spray paint it any colour you like. I doubt that it would make much difference electrically. Of course, you'd want to spary it before laying down the traces.

Crucio says: Oct 10, 2010. 6:13 PM

I really like it.

Reminds me of Star Trek, somehow ...

jeff-o (author) in reply to CrucioOct 10, 2010. 6:26 PM

Hey, to me, that's a big compliment! ;)

pda041376 says: Oct 10, 2010. 9:17 AM

You can also do the scoring with the "backside" of the X-acto blade. It works wonders.

mary candy says: Oct 10, 2010. 7:30 AM

Nice , you is sure cheaper ;)
http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/jewelry/kinema-pendant-luminaire-4710

jeff-o (author) in reply to mary candyOct 10, 2010. 7:35 AM

Wow, very nice! Cheaper, yes - but also not made of brushed laser-cut aluminum. ;)

(As a side note, it should be possible to make that design in the link out of paper...)

mary candy in reply to jeff-oOct 10, 2010. 8:25 AM

Cool ;)

marc_page says: Oct 10, 2010. 7:04 AM

Wow, this is really amazing !

Did anybody manage to find printable designs for which this method could be adapted ?

jeff-o (author) in reply to marc_pageOct 10, 2010. 7:36 AM

I looked around a bit but found nothing (at least not from the creator of the original design I based my lantern on). I had to design my own pattern.

Zpr88 says: Oct 7, 2010. 8:42 PM

thanks for sharing this awesome project...

i planned to buy a lamp shade this month but after going through your instructables i changed my mind. instead, ill be building this project this week end...

are there any other designs available on line?...

thanks! more power!!!

jeff-o (author) in reply to Zpr88Oct 8, 2010. 4:31 AM

Sure, give it a try! The paper costs less than a dollar so you've got nothing to lose, even if it doesn't end up working.

I searched a bit for design files and templates, but couldn't find any. So, I made my own. If you visit the links you'll find a Flickr set of all of Miyamoto's creations - perhaps you could figure out how to recreate of of them!