Sparkling LED Ganesha

This is the season of festivals in India and Lord Ganesha is one of the most revered and adorable God, especially for children. He is the first God to be worshipped in all religious ceremonies.

What better way to enjoy the festive season than assembling an illuminated Ganesha? Hope it sparks the creativity of electronics enthusiasts.

In this project, we will join LEDs in parallel connection by soldering to make a wonderful display.

Soldering is a very crucial 21st-century skill which must be mastered by every individual. Parallel connection means the positive terminal of all the LEDs will be joined together and all the negative terminals will also be joined together with the help of soldering using connecting wire. If one of the LEDs is not working or not connected properly, this will not affect the whole circuit. Remaining LEDs will keep glowing. The circuit is powered by two pencil cells (3V).

Step 1: Material Needed

We need the following:

One Vinyl board or cardboard.

LEDs: 10-15

Cell holder and two pencil cells

Toolkit containing soldering iron (25 watts)

Solder wire

Wire stripper

Ribbon wire

Take half cardboard and draw Lord Ganesha's figure.

After drawing the figure, mark the dots on places where you want to place the LEDs.

Step 2: Inserting LED in the Circuit

Make two holes at the position where an LED is to be placed with the help of tweezer.

Insert the LEDs into these holes.

Step 3: Labelling the Circuit

Turn the board and bend the legs of LED.

Mark the longer leg as ‘+’ and shorter leg as ‘-‘.

Step 4: Placing LEDs on the Board

Likewise, place all the LEDs on the board at the marked places.

Step 5: Soldering

Turn on the iron.

Clean the iron bit and let it heat.

Measure the length of the ribbon wire needed to join positives of the two nearby LEDs.

Step 6: Preparing the Wire

There are three steps involved in preparing the wire before soldering.

Cut

Peel

Twist

Measure the length of insulating wire to ensure that the legs of LEDs are connected comfortably.

They should not stretch.

Step 7: Peeling Insulation

Peel 1 cm insulation from both ends of the wire using wire stripper.

Step 8: Time to Twist

Twist the uninsulated ends of the wire with the help of your fingers, so that no strand is protruding out from the tip of the wire.

Your wire is ready to be soldered now.

Step 9: Wrapping Around the Wire

Wrap the uninsulated part of wire on the positive lead of the LED.

You need two wires to be connected to the LED’s leg, so wrap both the wires simultaneously and fix it on the lead.

Step 10: Time to Solder

Check the soldering iron using solder wire.

If the wire melts, the iron is ready.

Hold the iron as you hold a pen or pencil in your active hand and solder wire in the other and solder the connection.

Step 11: Joining the Positives

Likewise, join all the positive leads of the LED together.

Start the same procedure and join all the negative leads of the LEDs.

Now, we need to connect all the LEDs to two pencil cells through cell holder.

Soldering on cell holder is very critical to the circuit and needs a lot of skill.

Step 12: Solder the Cell Holder

Here are steps to solder cell holder.

A cell holder has two metallic edges at one end. Hold the cell holder such that metallic edges face upside.

Put some solder on these metallic ends.

Be careful that hot solder iron should not touch the plastic body of the cell holder.

Step 13: Tinning

Take two connecting wires preferably of different colors.

Prepare them for soldering (cut, peel, wrap).

Apply some solder wire on the uninsulated part of the connecting wire using hot iron.

This process is called tinning.

Step 14: Joining the Wires

Now keep this wire on one of the metallic terminal of the cell holder.

Using soldering iron, join the wire to the terminal.

Similarly, join the other wire to the other terminal of the cell holder.

Step 15:

The terminal of the cell holder with the spring attached, is the negative terminal.

We have joined grey wire to the negative terminal.

So grey wire is negative and red wire is positive.

Step 16: Empowering the Circuit

Connect the positive terminal wire (RED) of the cell holder to the positive leg of any of the LED.

Connect the negative terminal (spring side) wire of the cell holder to the negative lead of any of the LED.

Step 17: Fixing the Wires

Fix all the wires on the LED board using insulating tape to prevent them from entanglement.

Insert cells in the cell holder (Flat side of the cell to the spring side of the holder).

Step 18: Time to Glow and Shine

All the LED will start glowing.

Isn’t it cool !!!!