Rusty Candle Lamp

Halloween is coming. Although we never celebrate it in Indonesia, I decided to join the party in Instructables this year ^_^

Grim Reaper is the first thing crossed my mind when thinking of something scary, something bad. Death. He and his unique scythe. Then I noticed that he always carry an old candle lamp at the other hand, another unique prop.

This time I am making an Old Rusty Candle Lamp with my own version. Modern technology blends into old ancient art. What an art ...

Step 1: Materials

• Old rusty fluorescent lamp fixture.
• Plastic bottle.
• Old rusty dog chain.
• An Arduino Uno or make your own at cheap.
• 2 yellow LEDs.
• 1 red LED.
• LiPo battery or make your own at cheap.
• 2 jumper wires for battery.
• A piece of paper.

Step 2: The Base

• Cut the fixture at half your bottle circumference.
• Split the fixture into half, lengthwise.
• Cut the base of the fixture and fold the wall at bottle's corner. So we get two "L" shape base forming a rectangle surrounding the bottle.

Step 3: The Cap

• Cut the fixture a little bit wider than the bottle.
• Flatten the fixture.
• Cut from every corner toward the center, but do not cut them off.
• Fold the left and right triangles down and curve the front and back triangles to shape a rooftop.
• Fold and clip the corners as necessary.

Step 4: The Candle

As I mentioned before, a new technology blends into ancient art. I pick a digital candle, powered by a lipo battery, which is much safer than a real candle which can cause fire when the wind blows.

• Put a piece of board to cover the hole at the base.
• Put in your Arduino Uno.
• Plug a yellow LED. Anode goes to D11. Cathode goes to GND.
• Plug a red LED. Anode goes to D10. Cathode goes to D8.
• Plug a yellow LED. Anode goes to D9. Cathode goes to D7.
• Make sure no contact on every legs of the LEDs.
• Plug a jumper wire on VIN (preferably red).
• Plug a jumper wire on GND (preferably black).
• Route both jumper wires (black and red) below the base board.
• Put in your battery.
• Route the battery wire below the base board.
• Connect black wire to battery negative pin.
• Cut a piece of paper and shape like a candle (cylinder).
• Stick it on your Arduino or base board circling the LEDs.

Step 5: The Code

// 3 LEDs Candle Effect

int Ground1 = 7;
int Ground2 = 8;
int YellowLED1 = 9;
int RedLED = 10;
int YellowLED2 = 11;

void setup()
{
  pinMode(Ground1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Ground2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(YellowLED1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(RedLED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(YellowLED2, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(Ground1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(Ground2, LOW);
}

void loop() {
  analogWrite(YellowLED1, random(135)+120);
  analogWrite(RedLED, random(175)+80);
  analogWrite(YellowLED2, random(175)+80);
  delay(random(100));
}

What a simple code playing random brightness of the LEDs.

• Load the code into your Arduino.
• Unplug your cable to PC.
• Connect the red jumper wire to battery positive pin. Check if your "candle" is working good or not.

Step 6: Finishing

• Put the bottle in. Here I cut only the top side of the plastic bottle, then I placed it upside down so that the top side can help spreading the light. But I guess it has no effect at all :D
• Put the cap (rooftop) on.
• At this point the lamp looks funny rather than spooky.
• Then I use this old rusty dog chain circling the lamp.

Step 7: Your Time Has Come

Now it is no more funny. Hang it on a huge wrinkled tree in front of your house to gain the effect. Then I added a piece of board hung underneath : "Your Time Has Come." That is when the Grim Reaper is coming to fetch you.

Here is the video of the candle in the dark.