Zip-Lights!

I recently broke my night light as I dropped it...so I needed a night light, and after a bit of searching etc, I thought why not make a zip tie cube night light! The light was small but provided enough brightness for me!

I had one challenge to face...the challenge was weather to power it by battery, AC power slot, or by USB...I decided that USB was the easiest because I usually play some music all night long and my pc is on, so I decided to power it via USB!

I needed a way to scare my friend, and after thinking about it, I decided to use this to scare my friend, andit worked! It was midnight and as he woke up to go to the bathroom, I turned the light on from a distance, and as it kept changing colors and brightness, I put up some scary music (Lucky we were having a sleep over, and his parents were not there!) And then he was so scared that he wet his pants!

I turn this on and leave it towards the wall at night which creates really awesome projections of light on the wall!

Some times the zip ties went in too much and I had some minor problems, but they were easily dealt with!

Here is a video of the finished product! Hope you like it!


So lets get started!

Things you need :

20-25 Zip Ties
1 Multicolor LED (doesn't have to be multicolor)
1 USB Cable

Tools that you need :

Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Hot Glue Sticks

Links to where you can buy the materials and the tools :

Hot Glue Gun :
http://cgi.ebay.com/GLUE-GUN-30-FREE-GLUE-STICKS-HOT-MELT-ARTS-CRAFT-/170670565784?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bcc22998

Scissors :
http://cgi.ebay.com/Home-Kitchen-Rubber-Wrapped-Handles-Cutter-Scissors-/270775258799?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0b768eaf

USB Cable :
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-USB-Data-Cable-Cord-Samsung-Epic-4G-4-Galaxy-S-/200624747042?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item2eb62ab222

Multicolor LED :
http://cgi.ebay.com/20-pcs-5mm-Slow-RGB-Flash-Rainbow-MultiColor-LED-Free-R-/120738809953?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1c980861
(These LEDs Automatically change color and do not need any programming...they change color slowly so they are slow flsh multicolor LEDs)

Zip-Ties :
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nylon-Zip-Ties-Wraps-Cable-Wire-80-x-2-5mm-/180546945448?pt=AU_Building_Materials&hash=item2a096fc1a8

First to make the cube you need 5 tiny little squares made from zipties...

To make the squares all you need to do is take 4 zip ties and attach them one to another and make a square....repeat 5 times for 5 squares.

Make sure that one square is a little smaller than all the others! This square will be called square A, then make square B which is a little bigger than square A but smaller than the other 3, and square Cs are the other 3 squares!

After you have made the square just snip the excess off on all sides...

Have a look at the images to see what size my squares were!

(Tip: If you pull the zip ties in too much all you need to do is stick a tweezers in the lock from the front and then just pull out the zip tie from the lock, if you need more details on this just comment)

Now that we have made all the bits and pieces we can get started on making the cube!

To make the cube first you will need to take square A and place it inside square B as shown in picture 1, A should be facing front and back and B should be facing left and right....have a look at the picture to understand what I am saying.

Then make a hole in the center on the top...This is where the LED will be hot glued.

Then hot glue them in place...the squares and the LED.

Then take the other three C squares and put one on top of the cube and push it down to the center...then take another C and put it above the center C and then take another C and put it under the center C.

Then glue them in place...

Follow the image tags to see how we start and how we go all the way to the end...

Now that we have finished making the cube all we need to do is take the USB cable and strip off the plastic insulating and you will find 4 wires...

1 Black or Brown
1 Red
1 Yellow or White
1 Green

You will only need the Black/Brown and the Red wire for powering the LED, so you will need to cut out the Yellow/White and the Green wire so that all you are left with is Black/Brown and Red.

Now take the Red wire(+) and connect it to the longer lead of the LED(+) and the Black/Brown wire(-) to the shorter lead of the LED(-).

Now connect the USB and check if the LED lights up, if it does then just take some black electrical tape and cover it up so that its sturdy and well instulated. I first covered it with black electrical tape and then used some heat shrink tubing to cover it off...

If it does not light then make sure the connections are properly made and then tape it up...

Here are some pictures of the Zip-Lights I made (made a total of 3)...hope you like them!

I will also add some pictures of what I tried to make later with my leftover zip ties...
If you made this or anything else using zip ties just post a comment with the photo of it! I would love to see what you people make with zip ties!

The smooth color transition makes a lot of other colors when the colors are changing...you can see in the pictures that the Tri color LED (RGB) is creating about 6-7 colors!

If you have any questions, just comment on this instructable and I will be more than glad to help!

Thanks for reading!