In my previous post, I talked about how cool integrating LEDs on your table pieces can be.
In this post I'll walk in a more detailed fashion on making a secret message crystal, using an UV LED.
Parts List
- Plastic fancy champagne glass (plastic)
- Cutoff Acrylic crystal (from the craft shop)
- 2x Neodymium magnet (6x1mm from Dealextreme, ignore the one in the pic)
- 1x 33 Ohm resistor
- 1x UV LED from LighthouseLeds
- A socket mount (optional, but I wanted the circuit to be reusable for other LEDs)
- Some wiring
- A CR2032 battery
The Mounting
Tip: Use needle pliers to make a loop on both ends, and then solder them
Measure roughly the length of each wire by dry mounting the battery, then cut accordingly and solder them to the magnets.
The tricky part here is knowing where to solder the connections, I opted for soldering at the side of the magnets, so I can mount the battery with the magnets off-center with the connections going up at the center.
Tip: Tin the magnets before trying to solder the wiring
I glued the crystal with just some drops of regular white glue (not a very strong bond on plastic-plastic, but it's enough).
Using a drill, I also hollowed out the midsection of the plastic cup, with enough room for the whole mount to pass through, while hiding the battery at the bottom.
Having a low profile and easy to remove circuit is amazing for reusability.
Et Voila!
The pic is a bit unimpressive... my lighting is too bright.
But now comes the fun part =)
A Secret Message
Remember I said at the beginning that there would be a secret message?
Thirdhand finds a sacred scroll.
Legend has it that only the power of the Crystal can shed light into its mysteries...
Well the cool thing about UV lights is fluorescence, some materials emit visible light when hit by UV, so you can encode a secret message for your players!
To write the message, either use one of those secret message pens or go the DIY route and dissolve some highlighter ink into water and use a toothpick as a "brush".
I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did building it.
See you in part III of Fun with LEDs =)
The message is revealed!
How long did this take you?
Looking at the timestamp on the pics, from the first (parts list) to the last (secret message), took about 4 hours.
But I had to run some errands inbetween, and I was going for a mount with the bigger magnet + washer (that's why they are in the first pic), but that didn't work well so I had to de-solder them and change to 2x thin magnets, add in time to pose Thirdhand for the camera...
So I'd say about 1 hour actual work if I wasn't changing my mind all the time and with minimal soldering skill.
If you're an electronics pro you could probably do it in 5 minutes lol
LED interesting topic
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