Print PDF
Favorite
Email
The deep sea anglerfish is a bony fish with enormous teeth, best known for its unusual method of catching prey - a worm-like bioluminescent 'lantern' protruding from its forehead is wiggled about to entice smaller fish to come near for a closer look - and an untimely demise. Here is an easy way to construct an eerie luminescent growth to make your own spooky anglerfish jack o' lantern.
The supplies should cost about $10 or less. You will need:
1x pumpkin (of course!)
1x Blue LED
Stiff wire (coat hanger, florist's wire, etc.) to maintain the growth's shape
Electrical wire (insulated or enameled) - at least a couple feet. Thinner wire will be easier to hide.
Battery holder (4x "AA" or "AAA" (etc.), or 9V battery snap) and batteries
Resistor (value depends on battery holder)
Hot-melt glue and gluegun
The supplies should cost about $10 or less. You will need:
1x pumpkin (of course!)
1x Blue LED
Stiff wire (coat hanger, florist's wire, etc.) to maintain the growth's shape
Electrical wire (insulated or enameled) - at least a couple feet. Thinner wire will be easier to hide.
Battery holder (4x "AA" or "AAA" (etc.), or 9V battery snap) and batteries
Resistor (value depends on battery holder)
Hot-melt glue and gluegun
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Choose your battery holder and resistor
The first step is to pick a battery holder, then a resistor (or vice versa, depending on availability). The most common battery holders that will work for this project are either a 4x 1.5V cell holder (that is, four AAA, AA, C, or D cells in series), or a single 9V battery holder. The blue LED requires only a small amount of power; without a resistor to slow down the current flow from the batteries, it will burn out very soon!
A resistor's "stopping power" or resistance is measured in Ohms; the higher this value, the more strongly it resists the flow of current. A typical blue LED can handle 20-30mA of current. For either type of battery holder, a resistor value in the range of 250 to 560 will work fine (you can use higher values to make the LED dimmer). If you are using a 4-cell holder, you can go as low as 100 ohms.
1/4 Watt is the most common size of resistor you will find, and will be fine for this project. You can use larger wattages (1/2W, etc.) if you have one lying around, but I wouldn't recommend going smaller. Since it's hard to inscribe a numeric value on the round package (and harder still to read!), resistors at this size are normally marked with colored bands to indicate the resistance. If you are faced with a package of assorted resistors without numeric values, look up "resistor color code" for help in identifying the correct one.
A resistor's "stopping power" or resistance is measured in Ohms; the higher this value, the more strongly it resists the flow of current. A typical blue LED can handle 20-30mA of current. For either type of battery holder, a resistor value in the range of 250 to 560 will work fine (you can use higher values to make the LED dimmer). If you are using a 4-cell holder, you can go as low as 100 ohms.
1/4 Watt is the most common size of resistor you will find, and will be fine for this project. You can use larger wattages (1/2W, etc.) if you have one lying around, but I wouldn't recommend going smaller. Since it's hard to inscribe a numeric value on the round package (and harder still to read!), resistors at this size are normally marked with colored bands to indicate the resistance. If you are faced with a package of assorted resistors without numeric values, look up "resistor color code" for help in identifying the correct one.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
i guess as an alternative to making your own LED contraption you could use one of those solar lanterns and just move the LEDs around etc..then you could light the inside of the pumpkin and the "lure" at the same time...with the sun