Light on a string?

My sister would like to use a light on the end of a string, and I was
wondering how that could be made. I was thinking of putting a bright
LED, and resistor, and some hook-up wire in a clear, plastic ball or
even in some Saran Wrap with a battery to power the circuit. This may
be completely implausible, I don't know.

 

[Bob Monsen]

<chesemonkyloma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:786a05af-57b3-44b8-80f8-e408f04cdeb7@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

My sister would like to use a light on the end of a string, and I was
wondering how that could be made. I was thinking of putting a bright
LED, and resistor, and some hook-up wire in a clear, plastic ball or
even in some Saran Wrap with a battery to power the circuit. This may
be completely implausible, I don't know.

9V battery + ------- 1k ohm RESISTOR ---- LED ---- 9V battery -

Wrap it in saran wrap, and you have a light on a string...

The long lead coming out of the LED should connect to the resistor, not
the - side of the battery. The resistor doesn't care.

You can get LEDs and resistors at radio shack, frys, or online at
www.goldmine-elec.com, www.digikey.com, www.mouser.com, www.futurlec.com,
www.arrow.com, etc.

Regards,
Bob Monsen

 

[Skrapasor]

On Apr 16, 10:00 pm, "Bob Monsen" <rcmon...@gmail.com> wrote:

chesemonkyl...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:786a05af-57b3-44b8-80f8-e408f04cdeb7@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

My sister would like to use a light on the end of a string, and I was
wondering how that could be made. I was thinking of putting a bright
LED, and resistor, and some hook-up wire in a clear, plastic ball or
even in some Saran Wrap with a battery to power the circuit. This may
be completely implausible, I don't know.

9V battery + ------- 1k ohm RESISTOR ---- LED ---- 9V battery -

Wrap it in saran wrap, and you have a light on a string...

The long lead coming out of the LED should connect to the resistor, not
the - side of the battery. The resistor doesn't care.

You can get LEDs and resistors at radio shack, frys, or online atwww.goldmine-elec.com,www.digikey.com,www.mouser.com,www.futurlec.com,www.arrow.com, etc.

Regards,
Bob Monsen

Wait, how do you connect the battery then? Negative terminal-wire-
resistor-LED-wire-positive?

 

[Skrapasor]

Or would one lead of the LED go to the resistor and the other lead to
the battery? Also, how do you hook-up a lead or wire to a battery? I
am really new at this.

 

[Allen Bong]

On Apr 17, 10:13 am, Skrapasor <chesemonkyl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Or would one lead of the LED go to the resistor and the other lead to
the battery? Also, how do you hook-up a lead or wire to a battery? I
am really new at this.

Hook it up like this. I hope this is clear enough.


1K resistor
.-----------. ___ long lead of LED
| | +-|___|----------------------+
| +||-+ | __
|9V battery | +--------| \ LED
| -||------+ | )
'-----------' | +-----|__/
+--------------------------+
shorter lead of LED



(view in fixed text or courier)

(created by AACircuit v1.28.6 beta 04/19/05 www.tech-chat.de)

Allen

 

[Bob Monsen]

"Bob Eld" <nsmontassoc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dIANj.5301$GO4.2306@newssvr19.news.prodigy.net...

chesemonkyloma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:786a05af-57b3-44b8-80f8-e408f04cdeb7@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
My sister would like to use a light on the end of a string, and I was
wondering how that could be made. I was thinking of putting a bright
LED, and resistor, and some hook-up wire in a clear, plastic ball or
even in some Saran Wrap with a battery to power the circuit. This may
be completely implausible, I don't know.

When I was in College one of the guys in the dorm hung a bare 60 watt
incandescent light bulb, 120Volts, from the concrete ceiling of his room
on
a piece of string. The bulb would just hang there lit, fully bright, but
looking at it you couldn't figure out how it was powered. It was a great
conversation piece and kept a lot of people guessing. A bare bulb just
hanging there on a sting without a socket or apparent wires burning away,
it
was great.

What he had done is twisted some very thin magnet wire, like 36 Ga. into
the
string and soldered the ends to the bulb base where the string was tied.
The
wires went up the string then across the concrete ceiling hidden in the
natural cracks and roughness of the painted concrete. The string was taped
to the ceiling. You could not see the wires without climbing up and very
closely inspecting the situation. The wires came down one wall to a wall
plug where other stuff was plugged in concealing the termination.

I wouldn't recommend this as it could be a fire hazard but it sure would
be
a hell of a lot more impressive than an LED. It takes a clever artistic
person to weave and conceal the thin wires. If not carefully done it would
be a dead giveaway if wires can be seen. If you try it be sure to never
leave this kind of thing plugged in unattended.

Is it safe?

36 ga wire has 418 ohms/1000 ft. Your friend's display probably used 6 feet
of wire. That is about 2.5 ohms. A 60W bulb uses 500mA at 120VAC, so your
friend was dissipating about 5/8 of a watt in the wire. Enough to get it
toasty, but probably not enough to start a fire. However, it exceeds the
maximum current allowed by the American wire gauge guys by 1400%...!

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

When the bulb first turns on, it'll be alot more power, but only for a
second or so. Just don't hold the wire when you turn it on or you'll get
burned.

Regards,
Bob Monsen