RGB or Aurora-Boreal Lamp

This is a small room-lamp inspired in Aurora Boreal using Chameleon LEDs

Experience needed: Perfect for beginners in electronics, self-learners and no special skills needed.

Audience: Great for Parents or professors for a 20 to 40 min activity with kids between 8 to 12+ years old. Or any other age I'm 24 !!

Materials and budget: Use a lot of recycled materials and low budget needed ($5 to $10 usd)

Happy Making!!

#Lamp #LEDs #Lighting #KidsProjects #RGBlights

Hello everyone!

I was looking to build a small lamp inspired in the Aurora Boreal for a kids room and I thought of the chameleon LEDs, so in my creative process, I looked up for some recycled materials and I found some plastic cases from old speakers and a fake candle with a LED light, I I disassemble and reuse it for the battery holder with the chameleon lights. I know not everyone is lucky to have this lampshades but try to find anything you like to be a good lampshade ;)

Materials to buy:

1. 1 Aluminium thin sheet (0.2mm) to use it as a cap-holder and reclector for lights
2. 2 Pusher buttons
3. 6 Chameleon LEDs - Alibaba
4. 3 - 3V clock battery
5. Clock battery case
6. Prototyping wire

PD: I Live in Mexico, so it was easy to find everything in a electronics store named Steren and the Aluminum Sheet in MetalesMarchina. And I spent less than $100 pesos = $5dls

Tools :

• · Regular Drill (low power and wireless) or a Dremel 3000 Rototool
• · Soldering iron
• · Wire stripper/cutter, big and strong Scissors, tweezers, lead solder, and digital multimeter.
• · AB Glue

* Any other electronic tool will be useful, I'm sorry If I missed it.

So, You don't need any advanced skill in electronics, autocad or anything just your creativity, a little bit of practice and your interest in self-learning from youtube, adafruit, or other.

Tips on how I did it:

1) First, plan: Measure all items and sketch them to know everything needed and how is going to be builted. Plan the size of the aluminum sheet, how many holes you need for buttons, how LEDs will be reflecting light and how the circuits will be arranged. (Series circuit in this case)

2) Then Prepare: The aluminum sheet helps as reflector for light, as a circuit holder and as a cap for the lampshed, cut the sheet with regular scissors so it could fit the plastic case and weld all positive and negative wires for the leds.

*Note: The white case you see, is a clock battery holder founded from a fake candle lamp you can find in any "OneDollar Store or Flea Market" it already has a button installed, the only thing I did was to connect the LEDs.

3) In LEDs always the shortest string will be positive side and the longest string the negative side. So you just need to wire all positives with the battery and the button, then all negatives with the button and the battery. For a detail explanation: https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/c...

4) Make all the necessary holes in the aluminum sheet to screw the battery holder, a hole to hang it in the wall, a hole for the on/off button or anything else.

5) Glue everything you need, the battery case and plastic lampshed to the aluminum sheet ( I recommend AB glue for resistance)

Before you close or glue everything make sure your circuits work perfectly, sometimes with movement or glue circuits can be easily disassemble, specially put some detail on how light reflects in the aluminum sheet.
I hope you liked my first instructable and use any recycled material you can find.

I appreciate any comment, feedback or correction ('cus English is not my native language) Please, don't hesitate asking anything !! --- By Laura