Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
At a thrift store, a 16-foot 3xAA LED strip was found for about $3. Nothing exceptional, older, uses 5mm white LEDs spaced 4" apart; no light effects, just on/off and timer.
Strip was spiral-wound around a 3-foot cardboard shipping tube about 4" diameter, for about two feet. Effect is quite nice especially in the dark, as tube circumference is slightly more than a foot, so position of LEDs for each turn are slight offset from the last, creating three gentle spirals.
It also runs for a very long time (days) on alkalines or zinc-carbon down to 1v and below, albeit at lower intensity; cells are essentially "free".
Initial prototype was wound in about 20 minutes using tape. I may rewind to fill the whole 3 feet. Calculation for diameter/pitch of spiral versus length could have been used, I skipped over for now.
I may try this with a piece of 3-4" plastic pipe, PVC or ABS, black or white (grey doesn't sound great); possibly using RGB strip; have already done this using thin 3/4" PVC with good results. A pipe flange on bottom could provide support.
Dave
Strip was spiral-wound around a 3-foot cardboard shipping tube about 4" diameter, for about two feet. Effect is quite nice especially in the dark, as tube circumference is slightly more than a foot, so position of LEDs for each turn are slight offset from the last, creating three gentle spirals.
It also runs for a very long time (days) on alkalines or zinc-carbon down to 1v and below, albeit at lower intensity; cells are essentially "free".
Initial prototype was wound in about 20 minutes using tape. I may rewind to fill the whole 3 feet. Calculation for diameter/pitch of spiral versus length could have been used, I skipped over for now.
I may try this with a piece of 3-4" plastic pipe, PVC or ABS, black or white (grey doesn't sound great); possibly using RGB strip; have already done this using thin 3/4" PVC with good results. A pipe flange on bottom could provide support.
Dave
