How to Make Led "throwies"

by space_thief

1.3K429

Intro: How to Make Led "throwies"

An LED Throwie is a fun.it will stay lit for about one week, but they are easy to make so you should never run out!

things you will need:

LED's in any colour. They cost anywhere from 3p-15p each. Red, yellow and green are cheapest. Standard 5mm size is best.

Duct-tape,or movers tape

Button batteries like found in calculators, 3V Lithium.

STEP 1: Know Your Battery

your lithium battery has a positive side and a negative side. The negative side has less surface area than the positive side. The positive side is larger and has a (+) symbol and includes the side of the battery.

STEP 2: Examine Your LED.

It probably looks like a tiny plastic bullet with two legs or leads. One lead is longer and possibly darker, this is the anode and needs to touch the positive side of the battery only. The other lead is shorter and possibly lighter, this is the cathode lead and needs to touch the negative side of the battery only( dont inverse these two).You can find out what color of LED by correctly attaching it to your battery, the battery. An LED is a light emitting diode, not a light bulb. The color is not determined by the plastic bullet shape, but by the semiconductor material inside the LED.

STEP 3: Tape the LED to the Battery.

Cut a 1" x 7" piece of tape. Holding one wire from the LED to each side of the flat battery, wrap the tape around the outside of the wires and battery. Wrap it one time around, neat and tight. The LED should come on. If it flickers, you did it wrong. Do over. You should have a portion of the tape strap hanging off to one side.

STEP 4: Tips

Batteries will likely last longer on green, blue or white LED's, than red, yellow, or orange LED's.
You can make Throwies that stick to all kinds of objects by wrapping them with double-stick tape.

STEP 5: Enjoy Your "throwies"

have fun with your throwies and good luck making them.

28 Comments

space_thief 16 years ago

i only got the pics of there and the intro ma grandpa tougt me how to make these hes a electricien.

space_thief 16 years ago

i changed it and made my own version i only used some text i couldn't change. soon i wil publish a instructable which is the only one on the net.

Patrik 16 years ago

Yeah, I have to agree with the rest of the posse here...

Note that it is perfectly fine to post an instructable showing how you built something, even if there is already an existing instructable on the topic! A mention of the earlier instructable would be appreciated, out of common courtesy, but is not really required.

However it is NOT fine to just copy somebody else's work and pass it off as your own! That's called plagiarism - it's unethical, and may or may not be illegal as well (depending on the copyright license of the material).

It is also NOT fine to copy somebody else's copyrighted image. In this case, the original image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, meaning you have permission to copy and change the image however you want, provided you acknowledge the original creator (in this case, Nadya Peek).

zjharva 16 years ago

wo! space_thief really is a thief!

Spl1nt3rC3ll 16 years ago

...<br/><br/>Ummm, I came to this site through the LED Throwie instructable *Bows down humbly* Are you just trying to get as many views/ rating as it and win the contest that is <em>IN HONOR OF THE LED THROWIE</em>? I don't think that's gonna work.<br/><br/>*Shameless spamming*<br/>In fact, if not for LED throwies, I would not have made LED Jigglies,<br/>*/Shameless spamming* : P<br/>

Spl1nt3rC3ll 16 years ago

LED Throwies were published here on Instructables.com on Feb. 14, 2006 by Q-Branch of the GRL.

This simple, elegant project spawned a minor LED revolution: from Instructables like the LED Throwie Floatie, Talkie, Rat, and motion-sensor to the weird mash-up of art and advertising in the Boston Mooninite scare, it's clear that anyone can make something fun with LEDs -- including you.

So, in honor of the upcoming two-year anniversary of the throwie, we're holding an LED-based speed contest we're calling Get the LED Out!

ry25920 16 years ago

INSTRUCTABLES STAFF Please delete or remove this.

Ohm 16 years ago

How did this make it past the filters? -1

bumpus 16 years ago

wow, you dare copy one of the biggest and most influential insrtuctables ever, the gods are not pleased

space_thief 16 years ago

its not a copy my grandpa taught me how to make these i only used some piks from wikihow

microman171 16 years ago

An copied the text word for word... I have just checked Here Kiteman showed the link and I looked on the page. Low and behold you have copied it word for word.

microman171 16 years ago

I also found that the actual wikiHow page pointed the origional page the info was taken from. At least he didnt copy word for word.

cooldog 16 years ago

you just put it in a ballon and it's a copy

microman171 16 years ago

what i meant was the wikiHow page linked the the real throwie page. The wikiHow user didnt copy any text he just used information from the real throwie page. At least the wikiHow user didnt copy anything. Sorry for any confusion. I do thinkj this is a copy. space_thief really did copy this word for word.

GorillazMiko 16 years ago

The 1st and last pictures are awesome, but this has been totally stolen, obviously because it's on Instructables already with a lot of views/ ratings.

geeklord 16 years ago

1)im dissipointed, and 2) your grandpa told you my butt!!

ry25920 16 years ago

I like the effort, but microman 171 is right. 100% copied.
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