Thread: LEDs

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Has anyone ever made a set of LED eyes? We bought some last year - they're just 2 LEDs wired to a battery pack (2 AAs). Anyone ever made one of these? It looks simple enough, little bit of soldering looks like the biggest skill. We need some more this year, and I was wondering how hard it is to actually make the whole thing. Exactly what would I need parts and tools wise? Anyone got any useful info or tips? Or even flat out instructions on how to make em?

Here's a link to my site where you can kinda see the LED setup in the top pic, or atleast get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

http://www34.brinkster.com/halloween...ghtedheads.htm

-Brian

Brian,
Nothing could be simpler. Radioshack has all the components that you'll need. I use a 9V battery source instead of AA. It will last much longer and if you want to eliminate the battery altogether, Radioshack also sells, oddly enough, a 9V battery eliminator (it simply transforms 120VAC to 9VDC).
Anyway, these are the items that you'll need:

(2) LEDs (I prefer the green ones)
(2) 330-ohm resistors
approximately 18-24 inches of 22 gage wire
(1) 9V battery connector

Solder the connections as follow and you'll be good to go:



Now remember, you can always connect a battery eliminator to the 9V connection and you will never have to worry about changing batteries again. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, let me know and I will email you all the links you will need for parts, etc.



-fly

Check out my props here

Thanks! That sounds simple enough. Good pics too!

I was lookin at this site, which I'm sure many of you have, and it looks like they have all of that stuff... CHEAP. Anyone buy from them? Do they kill you on the shipping, or is it reasonable?

http://www.allelectronics.com/index.html

-Brian

What if I wanted to put an on/off switch on it? How would I go about doing that?

-Brian

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...254562786&rd=1

There..... that's exactly what I wanna make... just for less than $8 a piece! lol... maybe I'll make a bunch of em and sell em my self!

It looks like there's some heat shrink tubing over those, and the ones we already have. Would I need to put that over all the solder connections? How would I do this? Would a hair dryer work?

Sprfly - could you email me or post whatever links you have?

-Brian

It looks like the seller is using a special type of LED (really bright).

Here are the parts that I purchased from Radioshack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=276%2D022

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=271-1113

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...t%5Fid=270-325

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=278-1224

...and here is a good link describing LEDs and everything about them:

http://halloween.sitenation.com/site.../1011997374/ca

-fly

Check out my props here

Call me on this if I am wrong. You only need one power source for multiple LED setups, this will only work if it is setup parallel, a series circuit would cause you to "lose" power. However a parallel circuit would take "more" power and cause the battery to die faster, where a series circuit would cause all the lights to dim(or whatever LEDs do) and cause the battery to die faster(not as fast as tha parallel circuit). I also get the idea that you are not strong in electronics. Electronics is not a bad skill to have since we(haunters) use it a lot. You should read up on it, I took a few workshops at my local museum(Museum of Science Boston), and watched electricians, I also spent a lot of time with my grandfather and he probably taught me the most. Good luck on your led project.

Michael Ball
HERES JOHNNY!!-The Shining

Anybody in the forum who needs a set of LED eyes but doesn't know how to put them together or how to solder can contact me. If you can mail me the parts (including heat shrink)I would be glad to solder it together and mail it back to you. I normally use 9 volt batteries with a dropping resistor in the circuit for mine.

I ONLY WRITE WHAT THE VOICES TELL ME TO ......

I personally know how to do it, but wouldnt back and forth shipping probably cost the same as a new set?

Michael Ball

The statement below is true.
The statement above is false.

Daveinthegrave, free soldering, thats a big one for me - i could keep you soldeing circuits for weeks how about a dozen of these http://www.terrorbydesign.com/cgi-bi...ghting_Effects (you have to scroll down to the flashing eye circuit). Seriously, i just went and bought an electronic lab from radio shack just so i could remember all that stuff from school, which was alittle while ago. I really want the audio/servo driver that scary-terry has on his site but unfortunately Cowliscious seems to be closed this year and i don't see me attempting the cicuit board soldering that it requires. Then again we still have alittle time before the big day.

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