Opposites Attract: a Magnetic LED Valentine Heart

by technick29 in Circuits > LEDs

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Opposites Attract: a Magnetic LED Valentine Heart

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This Instructable will take you through the steps on making a magnetic LED valentine by which one can convey their feelings through a thought-felt message and glowing red LEDs. ;) Send your loved one one half, get a puzzled look, and the unite the two to form the one Valentine to RULE THEM ALL!

Please rate this if you like it! Thanks!

Gather Materials and Cut Out Your Heart (from Cardboard)

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What you need for this project:

~Four (4) red LEDs, any size/shape
~Four (4) small magnets
~Cardboard to cut the heart from
~A 9-volt battery & clip
~One (1) 330-ohm quarter watt, 5% tolerance resistor
~Wire
~A soldering iron

Start out first by cutting out your two heart halves from the cardboard or other material you obtained. I just cut once by duct taping the two halves together and sketching a heart on one side.

Add Your Message!

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Pour out your heartfelt message onto the heart through your own handwriting or via a printout. I ended up doing the latter because my handwriting is so-so. .

My message read "You Complete Me", pun very much intended. I grabbed some rubber cement and glued that sucker right onto the cardboard.

I positioned the LEDs four on each side to solder in a series circuit connected by the magnets later on.

Wire It!

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I first tried a simple circuit out with the magnets to make sure it works. I then proceeded to wire up the existing LEDs mounted in the heart to the magnet combos. I decided I would be wiring a 9-volt battery out through a 330-ohm, quarter watt, 5% tolerance resistor to power the LEDs. When I saw that it worked, I then hot glued the magnets, LEDs, and the battery clip into place.

If anybody who knows more about electronics and could teach me how to better use battery power or use a better circuit, let me know via a comment or on my orangeboard. Thanks!

Downloads

Clean-Up -- Make It Fancy

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I finished up the design, got rid of those pesky stray hot glue wires, and added some red ribbon for the full Valentine's day effect. It was complete. The beast had been created. Enjoy!