Glass Martini Night Light With Auto Light Sense

A simple hack of a light sensing LED night light to create a suave night light

Ingredients:
Glass bottle
martini glass
serving tray
broken glass (take a walk on the wild side and find a spot where people break into cars frequently)
3-6 LEDs (if you want brighter, better, or different color LEDs than the stock LEDs in the night light)
LED night light with light sensor like this

The skinny is this:
Wiire up a few LEDs, slip them into the bottle and under the martini glass, fill 'em both up with broken glass bits, then wire the LEDs into the night light in place of the original LEDs so the whole things turns on in the dark and saves energy in the day, looking cool all the while.

Step 1: Drill Holes and Insert LEDs

Figure out where you want to place the glass and bottle, then drill holes for the wires in the tray

Drilling a hole i the bottle is probably the hardest part. I broke one bottle and almost lost my wits listening to the unending screech of metal on glass as the drill bit bore through...

Once you get through, wire up a set of LEDs and run the wires out of the hole. I used 4 LEDs wired in parallel. More will be brighter, but might draw more power than the night light is happy putting out.

I slipped a single LED under the martini glass and used a little plexiglass spacer to hold the glass over it.

Step 2: Glue It All Down

you should have the glass and bottle in place with LEDs inside the bottle and under the glass. The wires for the LEDs should come out through the holes in the bottom of the tray. Test the LEDs if you haven't already (using a 3v supply or batteries) then glue it all in place.

While you're waiting for the glue to set, pull out your night light and start hacking.

Step 3: Hack the Night Light

I got a little tricky and wired in a jack, since I'm tired of dragging cables around when I move things. It also functions as an on/off switch if you want to turn the bugger off for a bit.

Simply enough, open the case gently and clip out the LEDs. But before you snip, check the orientation of the LEDs. Find positive and negative and see if the LEDs are wired in series or parallel. The one I had was wired in series, so I wired my two sets of LEDs the same way. Essentially, pretend the two LEDs in the night light are your two bundles of LEDs in the bottle and glass and wire like so.

you can see the bottom of my tray in this pic, with a big black plexiglass spacer with channels cut into it for the wires. All extra fancifulness...

Once you get it all wired, plug it in and let 'er rip. If you get nothing try holding a hand over the light sensor. If still nothing, go back and start over... or at least check you connections, LED polarity, etc.

have fun!