Introduction: Color Changing Glowing Crystal Ball
Hey !
I'm gonna show you a very easy to make decorative object which uses one single RGB color-changing LED.
Step 1: Materials
The parts list for this project is very small , the only things that you need are :
-A cheap crystal ball , the ones with a flat side which is used to stand still , in our case it's a good space to place the LED in. I got my crystal ball from Ikea .. (Tip: use a ball with bubbles in it , like this one http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2188/2238715683_ff8a6a16f6.jpg , so the LED light can shine in the bubbles)
-An automatically color changing RGB LED (The ones with only two pins , which change their color automatically)
-A Jack male cable from some old headphones
-A Jack female connector
-A battery holder which holds as many batteries as your LED needs (in my case 6V so i used a 4AA battery holder)
-A 5 Liter bottle cap
Tools :
Soldering gun
Hot glue gun
Step 2: Step 1: Put the Led in Place
Get your LED , your 5 L bottle cap and the jack cable
You will see that a headphone jack cable has actually 2 cables glued together , you may want to cut one of the cables as you won't need it.
Remove the protective plastic from one of the two cables and then get a ligher and burn the protective layer from the orange cable , so you will be able to solder on it.
After preparing the cable , solder the two wires to the LED pins , and then use hot glue to put the LED in the center of the cap.
Step 3: Step 2:Glue the Cap to the Crystal Ball
Get your hot glue gun , crystal ball and the cap.
Find the flat side of the ball and place it on the cap , and then use hot glue to keep it in place.
Hot glue is very good for this because if you want the ball back as it was before , just pull the cap very hard and it will come out,leaving no glue marks . Additionally , clean the remaining glue from the ball.
Step 4: Step 3: Polarity Check
Get your jack female connector and remove the plastic part from it , and then plug it into the jack coming from your ball.Now get your power supply's wires and be sure to insert the wires in the plastic part of the jack female connector , i will explain why just a little bit later.
Now use your power supply's wires to check all the 3 connections on the female jack and find the correct ones which will light up the LED . Solder the wires in the correct places on the connector and then use the plastic part to twist it around the connector , so now it's isolated(if you solder without the wires coming out of the plastic isolation , you will have to cut it to put it back).
Now put batteries in your battery holder and it's all done ! The next time you want it to light up just connect the two jacks together.
Now you may notice that i used a 9V battery clip from an old AC/DC adapter for my supply , because my battery holder was using a 9V clip .
Step 5: So How Does It Look Like ?
Just in case you want to see how the finished thing looks like , just look at the posted images and the video .
I hope you all liked my instructable :)
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20 Comments
13 years ago on Introduction
Cool, And i might have to try this somtime.....But i probably wont. I have a long list already and not enough time or money. =(
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
Care to share the list...?
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
care to share the list...?
13 years ago on Introduction
Where do you find (5) Five Liter Bottles?
I have never seen anything of that size in Arizona.
What are the dimensions of the cap so I can find a substitute?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
Apple juice lid or gatorade/powerade top.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
Assuming that the drinks come in the same type of container as the oils I import from Europe, the cap for those is generally about 50mm in diameter, which is about 2" in diameter. Hope that helps! Cool project!
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I live in Romania and those things are found in almost every store here . . . anyway , you can substitute it with any other cap which has a big diameter , like the cap of a pickle jar , just search for a big cap and that's all ;)
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
MMMM......5 liter coke. Maybe a 4lb bag of spicy pork rinds to go with it? cool project though. simple enough even for me!
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
Yeap , as long as it fits the gap on the ball , then it is ok !
13 years ago on Introduction
Where in Ikea did you find that ball? There's nothing like it on their website.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I am so sorry but i cannot anwser because my parents bought that ball ... and it was from a hypermarket aisle where it was written "Ikea products" ... anyway , it had an ikea sticker on it so it really is from them ; ) , any other crystal ball will work for this project .. and in any color =D
13 years ago on Introduction
Quick, easy, fantastic. One of the better Instructables yet. Thanks.
13 years ago on Introduction
I edited the instructable and corrected the "protective copper" part
13 years ago on Introduction
Great project, but in step two, you say burn the protective copper off of the wire. If it were copper, you wouldn't have to burn it off to solder to it. Just thought I'd share. Awesome project.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
oh you're absolutely right ! it cannot be copper , i was only confused by the copper-ish color , anyway , it still needs to be removed .
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
If it were copper, you wouldn't be able to burn it off. Copper is known for it's high melting point
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I remember seeing copper in the melting temperature chart in the chemistry laboratory xD
13 years ago on Introduction
IT LOOKS REALLY GOOD!
13 years ago on Introduction
Nice work mate :) I'll definetly consider this for Christmas ;)
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I'm glad you like it :) Anyway , why christmas ? I have it working right now and it looks great in dark zones of the home :P