Show your Halo pride with this simple LED light. I saw this design on Xbox live years ago and loved it. So I made a T-shirt of it over at redbubble.com for a buddy _{(http://www.redbubble.com/people/theerikjohnson/t-shirts/1398774-halo)}. Turns out, a lot of people dug it. So I’m trying my hand at this simple Ponoko.com design. I think it came out pretty cool, but I’m considering it the prototype, the beta, the 1.0.0 version, etc. This was my first Ponoko project so I’ve learned a few things and have improvements for this project in mind. Depending on the response I’ll consider a 2.0 version. And also a deluxe version of all plastic or something.

This beta kit is available from Ponoko here: _{http://www.ponoko.com/showroom/ErikJohnson}
But if you’d rather do it yourself, below is an .eps file that can be transferred to some white card board and below are the shapes for blue and red plastic. You’re on your own for the electronics.

Step 1: Materials

The kit comes like this: one box of electronics from Sparkfun containing a white LED light bar, a Barrel Jack to 2-pin JST, and a Wall Adapter Power Supply - 12VDC 600mA (a bit different from the one pictured in this Instructable, this one I had laying around.)

And a second box from Ponoko with the laser cut materials: 2 one-sided white cardboard pieces, a red plastic one and and a blue. The parts come stuck to a protective contact paper so take care in removing them. Also the plastic parts come with more paper stuck to both sides of them.

Step 2: Folding

First we need to get the cardboard creased in the right places, I’ve added some lines to help below. The way I’m doing it here is to hold a ruler on the upper side aligned with the crease desired. I then reached my other hand under it and pressed it down against a flat surface. I’ve added some dark lines for the picture to show the creases needed so it folds up right.

Step 3: Plastic Parts

Peel the paper off the plastic pieces and place them in the box over the cut design so they nestle together romantically.
Peel the backing off the foam tape on the back of the plastic mount that came with the LED light bar and stick it to the bottom panel on the inside of the cardboard.

Step 4: Finish Up.

Insert the pins on the under side if the LED light bar that are labeled as + - into the 2-pin JST end of the black wire. You should plug it all in to be sure pins are right. If it doesn’t light up, then flip it over, polarity matters.
Clip the light bar into the plastic mount and secure the wire with tape on the inside of the box in such a manner as to allow the cord to exit a lower back corner of the soon-to-be-closed box.
I put a piece of paper in there to get better light reflecting out the front. I just cut down some typing paper so it curls a bit when the box is closed.
Close it up. I ended up cutting the upper and lower tabs of the back cardboard panel. It was just too tight than what I planned for in the design.

Step 5: Improvements to Beta.

Some of the improvements I’d like to make:
1. better cardboard design to it fits together and creases better (probably just use tape to hold it together and stead of panels and tabs).
2. The blue plastic is far lighter than I imagined when choosing it. I’d go darker and find some frosted finishes for both plastic parts. Or just frost them myself.
3. I’d consider more light bars inside too. Any other thoughts?