Customizable Decorative Glowing Orbs

In this project, we’re gonna reuse a deodorant roll-on ball to make an awesome decorative glowing orb which is fully customizable. You can change or substitute whatever you want to any shape, size, color etc, as you are virtually just limited by your imaginations(well also your materials). You can even make it change colors remotely.
If you like this project, please vote for me in the “LED Contest”.

MATERIALS:
1. 3 leds
2. 3* 330ohm resistor
3. Plastic container
4. Deodorant roll-on balls *3
5. Switch
6. 9v battery and connector
7. Some wires
8. Spray paint(optional)

TOOLS
1. Solder
2. Soldering iron
3. Hotglue gun
4. Heat shrink tubing
5. Superglue

The first step is to diffuse the LEDs. If you already have a diffused led, then you can skip this. Using a fine grit sandpaper, lightly sand each led while at the same time rotating it. Be careful not to “oversand” the LEDs. Next, solder a 330ohm resistor to each of the led’s ground pin. The ground is the shorter lead of the led while the positive lead is longer. Pick any two of the LEDs and solder a wire of about 3cm to the other end of the resistors. If your resistor lead is long enough, then you can skip it. Attach a wire of about 5cm to the anode(positive) lead of the LEDs. I used heat shrink to keep everything tidy.

On one of the deodorant ball, cut a small triangle(it can be anywhere) just large enough for the led to pass through. Glue the LED in place. This will be the top orb. Pick another two balls and cut out two triangles opposing each other on either sides of the ball(You don’t have to do it exactly the way I did, just be creative). Use the seem of the balls as a reference(also, refer to the pictures above). Keep one of the ball for later use. Run the wires of the top orb’s led through the holes you’ve just made and secure the two orbs in place with some glue. I used superglue since it’s liquid and quite unnoticeable. You should now have the top orb’s led wires coming through the bottom hole on the second orb(ball). Insert an led into the hole and hold it in place with a bit of hot glue. Now connect the two LEDs together.
-Solder the positive wires of the two LEDs together.
- Solder the ground wire from the top orb’s led resistor to the upper part of the second orb’s led resistor. What we want to do is just to have all the LEDs in parallel connection. I used heat shrink to keep the wires from touching each other(you can use tape if you don’t have the heat shrink tubing).
At this stage, use a battery to test the LEDs to make sure that everything is working properly before proceeding. Runs the wires through the holes of the orb you’ve kept earlier. Again, glue the orb in place. You should now have three orbs connected together with two wires coming out of the third orb’s hole.

You can use any container you like as your base, here I used a small jewelry container. Make a small hole with a notch protruding outward(large enough for an led and wires to pass through ) on top of the container where you wish to mount the orbs. Depending on the type of switch you’re using, make a hole for it at the side of the container. Spray paint the container to the colour of your choice before proceeding. I decided to spray mine gloss black. Glue an led through the hole you’ve made and stick the switch in place.

Pass the orb’s wires through the notch and then glue the orbs in place on top of the led. Connect the anode wire of base led with that of the orbs, and then solder the positive wire of the 9v battery connector. Next, connect the ground wire of the orbs to the free lead of the base led’s resistor and then attach a wire which is connected then connected to the switch. The black wire of the battery connector is connected to the other terminal of the switch. Attach the battery and then we’re done!

If you’ve followed this instructable and made ur own Decorative led orbs, please post the pictures.