Communicating with a beam of light

Last weekend, ARRL, the national association of amateur radio, held a contest called, “10 GHz and up” with the goal of communicating via radio or microwaves over long distances. [KA7OEI] and a few friends decided to capitalize on the “and up” portion of the ’10 GHz and up” contest by setting up a full-duplex voice link over a distance of Read the rest

Another eerily similar high power LED driver hack

[Maximilian Güntner] dropped us a comment in last week’s globe writeup linking to his own project, which involves a similar high power LED driver mod. This looks like the exact same mod we came up with, and [Güntner] even used the mod to connect a bunch of high power LEDs to a PCA9685 LED driver [pdf]. It’s … Read the rest

Disco Planet, a massive RGBW LED array in a 6′ globe

About half a year ago [John] over at Frank’s Kitchens came to me with an idea for a giant lighting project. He had this 6ft diameter aluminum frame globe rescued from the Philadelphia Theater Company and wanted it to be an interactive display of sorts. After a few discussions we got together and somehow managed to order 800 3 watt … Read the rest

Building a driver for absurdly high power LEDs

A few years ago, the highest power LEDs you could buy capped out around three watts. Now, LED manufacturers are taking things to ridiculous power ratings with 30, 40, and even 90 watt LEDs. Getting these high-power LEDs are no longer a problem, but powering them certainly is. [Thomas] built a LED driver capable of powering these gigantic LEDs and … Read the rest

Keeping an old 8mm projector alive with high-power LEDs

There’s a certain mystique about old home movies and 8mm film; whether it’s footage from a family gathering from 40 years ago or a stop-motion animation you made when you were 12, there’s an immediacy for film that the VHS tapes from your family’s first camcorder can’t match. [Teslas Moustache] has been getting into 8mm cameras and projectors, so when … Read the rest