Spinning Ball Of LED Awesomeness

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO2-tqoyGik]

Take a few moments and watch this 3 axis rotating LED light display fire up.  The final effect of being an RGB glowing ball is nice, but we’re fascinated with the structure. There are tons of great detailed pictures of the assembly on the forum thread to feast your eyes on. Just getting power to the LEDs was a feat, he passes their power through 6 slip contacts. Parts were pulled from an old VCR and some old fans.

[via HackedGadgets]

63 thoughts on “Spinning Ball Of LED Awesomeness

  1. Muhahahahahahahhhaaaaa now to expand it and build my man sized frame inside, add the flux capacitor and YES!!! My plan for world domination via flashy lights and time travel will be complete!!!! ahahahahhahahaa ahhhhahahahahahah aahhhhhaahah ermmm did I just say that out loud? Bugger! back to the drawing board:D

    But seriously thats awesome:)

  2. @M4CGYV3R:
    I believe he had the two inner-most axis turned off at that point, and just caught it. There is no combination of speeds that would like a LED pointing in one direction, the axis are all at right-angle to each other..

  3. Actually it was the (lousy IMO) music that finally stop the video. The copy right issue will never resolve itself in favor of those who include another’s work within there own, without the decency of attributing the other work. Leave copyrighted material out of your own work if you desire it to been seen unhampered. What chaps my butt, is the photobucket bandwidth limit that prevents me from seeing the construction details. Also I’m curious why so many seem to feel that brushes and slip rings are so unreliable, because in the real world they have proven to be very reliable, and trouble free.

  4. conductive thread + LED’s :)

    that could work..

    for bonus points make a stack of laminated sheets with embedded thread and attach LEDs to the ends, for 3-D sphere on the cheap.

    works well.

  5. This thing is great, i would love to try and build one of my own, can you post a list of parts and some schematics for the circuits. Also maybe some basic dimensions of the mounts as well.

  6. Hello, I’m working through my school in a foster child out reach program with our robotics club and was wondering if you would be willing to help us out. Our group saw your Spinning LED-Ball (RGB) project and thought that this might be something cool for the kids to try. You would of course be given all due credit but we would like your help. What parts did you use and could you help us break it down into schematics or some sort of instruction set?

  7. i’d like to see a large scale one of these, say 6 feet diameter or better yet 30 feet. Obviously it would cost a hell of a lot more, but it could be fucking awesome. and perhaps Burning Man would grant funds for such a creation. just a thought, the project is wonderful as it is too. Great work!

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