Introduction: DIY Glowing Orb Balls With Arduino

Hello Guys:-)

In this instructable i am going to build an amazing Arduino LED project.I have used dragon balls made of glass,I stick a white LED with each dragon ball and programmed the Arduino with different pattern like breathing effect,stack by stack.....

You can hang this project on wall or curtains.

I have used Dragon Ball's but you can use any colored ball's,just don't buy too big,their size will cause problem.

Step 1: Collecting Thing's We'll Need

And most Important Thing! Our Magical Hands;)

Step 2: Soldering LED With Copper Wire

Now take 80-90 cm of copper wire and remove the insulation of the end's only,So that we can solder it with the LED.
To remove the Insulation you can use sand paper or just heat it up and then use sand paper.
When the end's are cleaned now cut a small piece of 3 mm hot shrink tube and put copper wire through it and now solder both the terminal of LED with copper wire of same length and then cover them with the heat-shrink tube.

In the same way solder all the LED carefully.

Step 3: Twisting the Copper Wire

Now what you have to do is twist copper wire connected with the LED so it seems like a single wire as in image


Why twisting of copper wire?

We twist the wire so that it can work as a single wire and provide strength. But make sure the copper wire is insulated from all other area rather than it's end's which are connected with LED and further connect's to Arduino.

To adjust the length of copper wire.Simply roll it on a pen and then remove the pen and a spring shape will be formed,Using this you can adjust the length of all seven ball and make different pattern's.

Step 4: Stick the LED With Ball

After twisting all the copper wire it's time to stick led with the orb ball.Use enough glue so that ball may not fall down.

Now when the glue is set heat it up a little with hot air and paste some foil on it so that the light only glow up within the orb ball not scatter from anywhere else.

Step 5: Starting With the Circuit

Okay Gathering everything we need now let's move on the Circuit.

First connect the 100 ohm resistor with each (short Leg) of LED and other end (Long Leg)is connected to Arduino according as stated below,Do the same with all the seven LED's.I have used a 9v batter power supply.You can use a continue supply like data cable to Arduino if you have a power socket nearby.

Now let's put all thing's on Breadboard and test or circuit and upload the code.ino to your Arduino board.I have added a Circuit simulation video so that you can watch the output or the led pattern.
Before Uploading the code Please check port number and Board Type!

LED connections with Arduino pins

LED 1-pin 2

LED 2-pin 3

LED 3-pin 4

LED 4-pin 5

LED 5-pin 6

LED 6-pin 7

LED 7-pin 8

If you wish to add more LED's then follow these Instruction and use the Table in above image.

Analog pins and its digital pin mapping for Arduino Uno/Nano/Pro Mini/Micro
A0 is equivalent to 14

A1 is equivalent to 15

A2 is equivalent to 16

A3 is equivalent to 17

A4 is equivalent to 18

A5 is equivalent to 19

Circuit Connections:
First, place all the LEDs on the breadboard. The Cathode terminal (Short Leg) should be connected to Ground (GND) via a Resistor(100 ohm) and the Anode terminal (Long Leg) of all LED will be connected to a sequence of Arduino Pins as shown in the Table Above.

I have used ThinkerCAD for Circuit Simulation

Step 6: Step 6:Testing the Circuit

Now put everything on breadboard and check everything is working fine.

Upload the code to the Arduino and test the pattern

To adjust the delay time follow these steps:-


case 1:

onrun(random(200,220)); //To adjust the delay time reset these (x,y) values to your preferable values

break;

case 2:
alternate(random(200,220));
//You can choose different values in each case

break;

case 3:
offrun(random(200,220));
//In every loop a random value between x and y is selected

break;

case 4:

stack(random(200,220)); //If you want to fix the value then just remove x,y and put your desired value

break;

Step 7: Arranging All the Ball's

Take all the Glass ball's and first ground all the wire end's connected with resistor's.After sorting all negative pins to ground,now connect a different color wire to each positive copper wire terminal and solder the connection's and cover them with heat shrink tube.

After doing this tie up all the wires with a plastic rope to give strength to it.
Now take few jumper wires male to female and remove the housing of male side and solder each jumper wire one by one with each end of the wire on the side A (see in image above).
Now connect all the wires to the Arduino And hang it some where and power it up.

Step 8: Finalizing the Pattern

You can adjust the length of copper wire by following step 3 and can create a lot of pattern's like few above.

Impress your friends and Enjoy the Light Show!

Sorry:( for the camera quality

Guys these link are shorten urls from which i collect few bucks which will help me to buy stuff for my hobby ;-)
Thanks for understanding


Arduino Code source

Make it Glow Contest 2018

Participated in the
Make it Glow Contest 2018