Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
today i went to radio shack and picked up some LED's they're about 2 bux each and they're nice and bright. after fooling around with some old wires, batteries, glowsticks, knives, Duct tape, LEDs, and rope I came up with a battery powered glowstick on the end of a string with the battery and power switch (found that on an old electronics project ) that can fit nicely in your palm.

The bulbs i used were 3.7V-4.5V blue bright ones. normal batteries come in 1.5Volts. so that sucked. i tried a bunch of AAA's but those got bulky. so i found a small 9V battery (one of those square ones) and connected it series to 2 blue bulbs . then I stuck the bulbs in the end of the glowstick and taped the hell outa everything.

currently its

1.bulbs inside glowstick
2. taped in with the "cut off" portion of the glowstick
3. wires coming out of the glowstick that is connected to teh builb
4. those wires loop around some shoelaces which are also connected
5. both wire and string go to the area u can grab it by.
6. the string is taut but the wire is a little loose so i'm not pulling by the wire and loosening the electronics
7. then it goes to a little power switch and 9V battery
Note: I did 0 sautering here. just pure duct tape ALL OVER THE PLACE its wonderful.

the results were IMO pretty damn cool. I only have 1 tho. I need to make another and the only LED's left are some red ones(2.7V to screw me over...) coz i never planned to use 2 per stick. I used all the real power wire that I have to make the first one so I think i'll use some telephone line for the other

Useful at parties? not really. Just for practicing at home without cracking glowsticks? sure.

here are some pics of the thing during the day, right after I made them

glowstick w/ it turned off. duct tape = win.
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0107.JPG


the whole thing:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0108.JPG


my hand and the rest of it. the little switch on the left and a 9v batt.
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0109.JPG


the thing on. taken with a flash:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0110.JPG


the thing on. taken without flash. sorry for shakyness. i'm not good with my left hand
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0111.JPG


nice and blue..... and sock in the corner
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0112.JPG


yes its wierd. and yes i do have time on my hands i still have a couple weeks before school!

i got the idea from a poster on another forum who was talking about how light diffuses nicely through even dead glowsticks and the electroglow sticks that i've seen @ the store here

[ 06 September 2002, 18:56: Message edited by: Ender ]

Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
and here's me playing with it later at night

the background is the inside of my room. those posters have been there for years (i used to play the final fantasy games a lot. now i don't have enough time for those long games)

just some of the normal madness:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0114.JPG


this is a move i think is called the buzzsaw? its blurred so u dont really see the "omfg im going to cut my nose off!" look on my face
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0122.JPG


wrapping my left arm a few times
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0124.JPG


non string:

some of the normal freehand madness:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0125.JPG


head wrap lol:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0127.JPG


stomach trace:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0128.JPG


a bit of tracing:
https://pages.sbcglobal.net/ajian/HPIM0126.JPG


everything was done with only 1 stick coz i haven't made the other yet!

[ 06 September 2002, 18:57: Message edited by: Ender ]

flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
those look pretty bright. Do you know the mcd (millicandela) values of the LEDs? I'm ordering mine in a couple of days, i plan to have 4 or 5 7000mcd LEDs per poi ( BRIGHT! ), and to punch them through holes in a 9v battery casing (which is almost as small as the battery inside), so it's completely self contained.

Mark PBRONZE Member
old hand
1,031 posts
Location: Bath, England


Posted:
Good work they are looking good

But are you mental - head wraps with glowsticks?? OUCH!!

Mark P

Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
flid: the blue ones i used were somewhere like 2800 mcd! and i only used TWO! 4 or 5 7000mcd ones would be CRAZY! post pics when ur done i hesistated to put batteries in the actual stick because then it may have gotten too heavy and broken easier at high speeds. right now its light as heck and i can bang it around and not do much damage

one of the problems I had was with voltages. these blue ones went as high as 4.5 so 2 would work w/ a 9v. how would u get them to have enough juice?

mark: that headwrap was done without strings. just me holding the stick in my hand. its something completely different

is there actually a head wrap move with poi?! i think that'd hurt with anything!

vaperloc...the mightylook @my member
466 posts
Location: Ft worth Texas


Posted:
Dude those are kickass*rushing to radio shack to make some* one question and I have wondered this for a while,how do yo uget the pictures to take all of the spinning not just a single frame,everytime I take one it just shows me standing and yo ucan see the strings and stick in suspended anomation.I wanna see the whole ring.

There are no obstacles only challenges.
Very funny scotty now beam down my pants.
[colour."green"}What would willie do?

AHH theres too many wee leprechauns i cannae squash them all


Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
vapor: well you need to change the exposure of the camera to a long one. sometimes u can do it manually. my camera cant. i turn off the flash and it will automatically change the exposure times. done in almost pure darkness. only other light than my stick was the computer monitor in facing me.

so i just turned off flash and used the timer mode and stuck the camera on top of my computer monitor

[ 07 September 2002, 08:59: Message edited by: Ender ]

vaperloc...the mightylook @my member
466 posts
Location: Ft worth Texas


Posted:
col I have a digicam so i dunno if it will work but I will try thanks.

There are no obstacles only challenges.
Very funny scotty now beam down my pants.
[colour."green"}What would willie do?

AHH theres too many wee leprechauns i cannae squash them all


flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
2800, nice, judging by your fotos mine should be getting on for fire brightness. I plan to order orange and red, and mix them together. I don't think the weight will be that much, i plan to wrap them in bubble pack (to difuse the light and provide padding against both their destruction and mine!). I will be sticking some pictures on my photo archive when i've made em.

As for voltage, I may have only gotten 13% in an electronics exam a few years ago, but i'm pretty sure putting them in parallel not series will give the same voltage over each.

As for head wraps, i've done a few of those today with poi (not lit), including a nice little move involving my face Thank god they were only tennis balls!

Vaperloc: what do you mean by digicam? I have a digital camera that I can manually set the exposure time on. I can only do upto 4 seconds on it thou, as opposed to my SLR (which i can't use anymore as film isn't vegan) where it was 100% manual. On a tripod pointed at the night sky you could set an 8 hour exposure time and get the trails of stars as the earth moves

vaperloc...the mightylook @my member
466 posts
Location: Ft worth Texas


Posted:
I figured it was self explanitory digicam as in short for digital camera.I cannot find anthting on it for changing shutter speed,or exposure time.
however it has an option to take several pics in an action sequence.

[ 07 September 2002, 10:43: Message edited by: vaperloc ]

There are no obstacles only challenges.
Very funny scotty now beam down my pants.
[colour."green"}What would willie do?

AHH theres too many wee leprechauns i cannae squash them all


Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
vaper, if u cant seem to control the flash or the shutter speed try taping the flash light over with something heavy completely blocking it. that will either 1. make pictures come out black 2. force the camera to automatically have a longer exposure time.

mine's a digicam too ;P it auto-exposes (which is a good and bad thing) and it can go up to 12 seconds

flid: my other 2 red LED's that i'm going to use are 3000 but use less voltage, i wonder why.

also, yeah i was thinking about the parrallel thing too but i had taken my class like 3 years ago. i barely remember anything!

flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
lower voltage doesn't matter, its the ampage they draw which effects the battery life. If you know the current and the amp-hour rating of the batter you can work out the battery life. I don't expect my battery will last long at all, but i'll just use decent rechargables.

I made a point of getting a digital camera good enough to have fully manual mode aswell as automatic. If it is expensive enough thou to do lots of photos in quick succession, there's a chance you can adjust exposure manually. I got myself one of these: Olympus c3020 . If you want to do proper photos of firepoi/staff, you should be able to pick up a decent make (eg pentax) fully manual second hand slr for a hundred bucks. The one i learnt on (pentax k1000) goes on ebay for about $100 to $150

As for remembering, technically speaking I am doing an electronic engineering degree at uni. I can however count the amount of morning lectures i attended last term with 2 hands, and the number i was wide awake for on one

vaperloc...the mightylook @my member
466 posts
Location: Ft worth Texas


Posted:
Damn you would think a 600$ sony mavica would have that option.the multi pic just shows 9 pics in semi action (doesnt show animated as I expected)I need the newer model to take video.

There are no obstacles only challenges.
Very funny scotty now beam down my pants.
[colour."green"}What would willie do?

AHH theres too many wee leprechauns i cannae squash them all


rexmember
263 posts
Location: Holiday, FL, USA


Posted:
have you guys checked out the big sticky bowl of knowledge starting here?

flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
I hadn't no, which shows how observant i am

My idea is roughly the same, but i think i will go the whole hog and use a soldering iron

trintekmember
107 posts
Location: San Antonio, TX


Posted:
Just a quick note, in the way of LEDs, etc... Instead of radio shack, you may want to try this place https://www.goldmine-elec.com/

The prices are great, and they carry loads of surplus stuff, i used to use about 20 of their old moving light sign strips as a wall display for the peaks on one of my stereos.. But either way, the prices are way lower than radio shack, and they also sell grab bags of misc colored LEDs for projects, so.. 10 bux and you could have all the leds for blue, green, yellow, red, etc poi, plus some of the duals (red/green polarity reversed leds)

We bleed the same blood, We cry the same tears, We have the same fears, We pass the same years, We see the same stars, Under the same skies, We pass the same time, We all live and die


flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
If you want cheapness, you're best off ordering from companies which normally deal with companies not the general public, but will do. Such as (in the Uk) RS, Rapid, Farnell etc. What's even better is being a uni student, because universities order such items by the thousand and sell them onto students at no profit (I buy duracell batteries through my uni for at least half what you pay in shops).

I put in my component order last thursday, so fingers crossed they'll be in the mail tommorrow morning and they'll be some pictures posted here

Endermember
68 posts

Posted:
thanks for the advice guys. i checked out that website. i saw the blue 3k mcd (about 200 mcd more than what i got) are about 20cents less than what i bought at radio shack i'll settle with going to radio shack for those.

on the other hand, i saw there were like 3 yellow ones for 1.50 which is a VERY nice price.

and the bulk deals are nice, although i really don't need so many

actually, i looked at the prices again, everything except the blue are nice

flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
just a little word of warning: USE RESISTORS!

If the leds you are using as toshiba (TLRH) then they are VERY voltage sensitive. They are rated 2v.

I had planned to use 5 in series on a 9v battery (1.8v across each), but the brightness was really really crap.

Using 4 (2.25v each) the brightness is awesome. Normal LEDs have no problem at this voltage. So I made up a poi using four, which worked great. Sadely it blew about 20 minutes later.

I now don't have enough LEDs to make 2 poi, so i'm gonna hafta make another order. This time i think i'll plan it a bit better and use resistors


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