Make Your Own Chewing Gum Box LED Night Light (Breadboard Prototype)

The following instructions are to make the breadboard prototype for a battery powered LED night light made out of a chewing gum box — like the ones you get in the aisle of a grocery store or convenient store. This kind of project is super-easy and is a great way to learn how to use basic electronic components to make something useful.

The following steps are to show you how to set up the prototype of The Chewing Gum Box LED Night Light on a breadboard. To see the entire build process, from start-to-finish, visit our page titled "Make Your Own Chewing Gum Box LED Night Light".

The chewing gum box night light we’ll be making is a great way to get kids involved in electronics. Not only is it cute for kids, but it’s portable too!

You can get a more detailed description of this project, its parts list, and free downloads of some of the documents associated with this project at our page titled "Make Your Own Chewing Gum Box LED Night Light".

Breadboard Prototype Parts List

1. 1x Red LED – 5mm Diffused
2. 1x White LED – 5mm Diffused
3. 1x Blue LED – 5mm Diffused
4. 3x 820Ω Resistor
5. 1x SPST Rocker Switch
6. 1x 9V Battery
7. 1x 9V Battery Snap Connector
8. 1x Solderless Breadboard
9. Several miscellaneous sizes of Jumper Wires

First, take your breadboard and set it up for power — but DO NOT connect your battery or other power supply to it yet. I’ve shown you how to do this for either a 400 point or an 830 point breadboard. I used the 830 point breadboard for my test circuit, although the following simulation circuits show a 400 point breadboard setup.

400 Point Breadboard: Connect the positive (red) terminal of the 9V battery snap connector to a positive (+) line of points on either outer edge of the breadboard — this will be our positive supply. Connect the negative (black) terminal of the 9V battery snap connector to a negative (-) line of points on the opposite outer edge of the breadboard — this will be our negative supply.

For this example — I am using red, white and blue LEDs at my daughter’s request, but you can use all white LEDs or whatever color combination you prefer. We will place the LEDs side-by-side across the center groove of the breadboard — making sure to point all the anode (+) terminals toward one side of our breadboard and all the cathode (-) terminals toward the other side of our breadboard, as shown above.

For this example — I am using 1200Ω resistors to limit the current to each of the LEDs. I tested the LEDs with 680 Ω resistors and thought the LEDs to be too bright for a night light. The 820 Ω resistors made the LEDs less bright, but still too bright for sleep if my daughter kept the night light near herself.

Learn how I determined which resistor value to use and how I determined the battery life based on my choice of resistor values here, where I did an LED comparison test for brightness.

Next we need to connect each of the anodes of the LED’s together. We do this because we’re connecting our LEDs in parallel.

We are connecting our LEDs in parallel because we want all of our LEDs to be of similar brightness and receive the same voltage potential.

If we were to connect our LEDs in series, each LED in line would gradually get dimmer and dimmer because of the voltage drop across each LED and the resistor in the circuit.

Now, to be able to control our circuit and complete it — we need to connect the switch. If you need to know more about connecting switches to a circuit, check out our Simple Switch Circuit page here.

Next, we need to connect our battery to the battery snap connector. There is only one way to connect these — since the positive (+) terminal of the 9V battery is a small male button stud and the negative (-) terminal of the 9V battery is a larger female button stud.

Now our circuit is complete! Time to test it to see if it works — go ahead, turn it ON at the switch. Did the LEDs light up? If not, check out our frequently asked questions section here for this project.

If you're interested in continuing this fun project and are looking to transfer your prototype circuit to a PCB, to then complete the project as a chewing gum box LED night light, then check out the full tutorial here.

At our page titled "Make Your Own Chewing Gum Box LED Night Light", you'll find a more detailed version for the steps of the breadboard prototype build, more close up images, and documents, as well as a more thorough parts list. You'll also find the steps and accompanying videos to instruct you to complete this project in its entirety.

Thanks for trying out this neat project. Hope you had fun! Remember to keep at it and stay motivated!