LED Eye Fidget

by bonnette

10K15417

Intro: LED Eye Fidget

Just like the spinning hand fidget toys that occupy you
while you think.

The LED eye fidget occupies you by providing a soothing cascade of color, light and patterns.

What you will need:

1 12 X 12 X .118 inch clear acrylic sheet

1 12 X12 X.118 inch black acrylic sheet

1 can thin acrylic cement (or other glue)

1 adafruit Trinket (or other small Arduino like processor) (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1501)

2 adafruit 8 pixel led stick. (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1426)

Hot Glue

Tape

STEP 1: Cutting and Assembly

Use your laser cutter and the Corel Draw pattern (provided) to cut out the LED fidget items.

The Items on the right of the drawing are the clear items.

Choose the clear item you want and cut out 16 of them.

The items on the left of the drawing are the black items.

Cut the black items out and assemble them using the clear cement so they resemble the photo.

Be sure to assemble the box so that the large slots are on the outside of the box.

Once the black items are assembled and the glue is dry. Glue the clear items to the front of the box.

STEP 2: Inserting the Electronics

Once the enclosure is complete and the glue is completely dry.

Wire up the LED sticks and Trinket on the outside of the box. The PDF file contains the breadboard wiring diagram.

Connect the assembly to your computer and install the strandtest.ino program (provided) into the Trinket.

Test the program and be sure that the LEDs light etc.

Get some tape and with the LEDs still "on" place the LED sticks into the enclosure. Move the LEDs up and down in the enclosure and observe the brightness on the outside of the box. When you get the LEDs is the sweet spot use the tape to hold the LEDs in place.

You can use hot glue to permanently fasten the LEDs or just use tape (as I did).

Now fasten the Trinket to the bottom of the enclosure with double sided sticky tape (or hot glue) and enjoy.

12 Comments

mach1950 6 years ago

Hello, the top piece seems to be too small? I am about to order the acrylic pieces, and the top piece is only 0.853 in wide. This will leave a gap at the top rear, no?

mystery21dds 7 years ago

the cdr file is empty (corel drawX5)

bonnette 7 years ago

I'm sorry, I saved it in Corel Draw X7 format (V17)

I placed another version that I saved in the oldest version of Corel Draw that I have (V11).

Hope that helps

DIY Hacks and How Tos 7 years ago

Cool display. This would be fun to use as a display with a music player.

bonnette 7 years ago

I agree,

I can see it used as a VU meter. Pulsing to the music.

The only problem I can see is that the Trinket has only a small amount of memory. But you could use something more hefty like a "Teensy"

Fezder 7 years ago

also, since you mentioned teensy:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Surrounding-Sounds-Feedback-Box-SSFBB/

Fezder 7 years ago

No need for microcontrollers, check lm3915, gives 3db/step and very easy to use, unless one really wants to use microcontroller that is. And it would need very good ADC for 30db scale...I'm building -90db stereo bargraph from lm3915's, just been buys with other stuff.

scifiguy451 7 years ago

I wonder what it would look like using old CD jewel box cases.

If you were the kind of person that has a bunch of empty CD csaes laying around for no goo reason...

allangee 7 years ago

If you're looking for a cheap source of acrylic, start grabbing dead LCD monitors from friends and family. Most fave a pretty thick sheet in them.