LED Enterprise

posted May 12th 2009 10:22am by
filed under: led hacks

ledenterprise

[Wolf] built this LED Enterprise model. It’s a ‘sparebot‘ assembled from leftover LEDs and resistors. Unlike most sparebot sculptural oddities, this one actually works. If you place it near a magnet, a reed switch closes to turn on the LEDs. A mechanical switch would have just caused more stress on the model. The part count is very low, but took some forethought. Two resistors are used to raise the resistance of the red LEDs to match the white LED. A quite clever and simple model.



19 Responses to LED Enterprise

  • ino says:
    May 12, 2009 at 10:26 am

    ahah ! that’s cute :)

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  • Chronos says:
    May 12, 2009 at 10:27 am

    The deathstar could take it…

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  • Finger says:
    May 12, 2009 at 10:50 am

    I don’t know about that, chronos, this little Enterprise could definitely make it past the big guns to the exhaust port. :P

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  • anon says:
    May 12, 2009 at 11:10 am

    Nice.

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  • sellout says:
    May 12, 2009 at 11:43 am

    @finger: Possibly, but they wouldn’t have had the intel to know about the exhaust port. Many Bothans died bringing the plans to the Alliance. :p

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  • ragnar says:
    May 12, 2009 at 11:49 am

    Nice one!

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  • darkore says:
    May 12, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Simple, yet very impressive. Excellent work.

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  • sansan says:
    May 12, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    Very cute. :)

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  • Ed says:
    May 12, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Something not quite right here. Need to raise the resistance to match the resistance of the white?

    Or the voltage drop across the white LED? Might just be semantics… But there is a difference.

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  • PocketBrain says:
    May 12, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    No, the resistors are not used to “raise the resistance of the red LEDs to match the white LED,” they are used to limit current. Yes, there is some internal resistance in LEDs (and he relies on such to limit current in the ~3V white LED), but there is a majority non-linear (therefore non-resistive) voltage drop in the operating range. You want on the order of 1-20mA for a typical LED; you get around 1.9mA if his reds drop 1.7V (a typical value).
    Just a little EE 101.

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  • zigzagjoe says:
    May 12, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    This is win.

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  • kabukicho2001 says:
    May 12, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    With smd component(led,resistor and watch batteries) it could be smaller one!

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  • stunmonkey says:
    May 12, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    Made with geek and win.

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  • GCL says:
    May 12, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    Ahem!!
    The Bothans got involved with the Alliance after the first Deathstar was destroyed. And well after the group went and hid on a series of bases.

    Indeed these Bothans did indeed supply the Alliance with the location of the second one, and many were killed.

    But it has nothing at all to do with the Federation and Star Trek. The universe of the second oldest completely active series is ours.

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  • Squeakyneb says:
    May 13, 2009 at 4:47 am

    This wins. No discussion.

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  • Wolf says:
    May 13, 2009 at 11:19 am

    I should probably have picked a more complex alias…

    (This is the Wolf that posts comments here occasionally, not the author of this hack)

    Reply Report comment
  • Shadow says:
    May 13, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    I’ll buy 10, awesome because they spent the time.

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  • strider_mt2k says:
    May 14, 2009 at 11:15 am

    I might have to build one of these for myself.

    The fun appears to be making the model appear aesthetically appropriate while also operating and providing good enough mechanical stability to support itself.

    Cool.

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  • jonny rocket says:
    June 15, 2011 at 11:57 am

    resistance is futile!

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