Magic Glowing Ice Orb - PK ring triggered
April 28th, 2008 | by admin |Sorry for the lack of posts. I had to take a spur of the moment adventure. But I am back to reality now (i think) and with a title like “Magic Glowing Ice Orb” you can tell we are desperate for new material around here. So heres a shot in the dark.
I came across this old video at metacafe that shows you how to implant a superbright LED into a water balloon and freeze the balloon for a sweet glowing orb. However, the wires are hanging out. That just won’t do. An “LED Throwie” is in order here. If you have never heard or seen and LED Throwie, you must check out the video above. Its basically just an LED with a 3v coin battery rigged to it thus eliminating the wires. Instructions here. “But then the thing will always be on and my battery will die” you say? There may be a solution. Hanzablast over at meta cafe has a great video in which he uses a reed switch for a door alarm. Hanzablast makes great detailed tutorials and you can also check his instructables page where I am almost certian he will have a plethora of reed switch projects and information on how to use them. Basically the reed switch is just a switch triggered by a magnet. When the magnet is near, the switch is activated. Rig the reed in, tie a string going from reed to throwie to out the inlet of the balloon, fill er up, and I imagine you would have a pretty fly lil glowing orb triggered only by you and your PK ring, or strong earth magnet. The idea is to suspend the reed as close as possible to the bottom wall. I am not sure of the sensitivity of the switches but I would try to get at least within 3/4″ of the wall for start. Also keep the throwie as close to the center as possible. If I can dig out the materials in some free time I will give this a go and report results. In the meantime we invite our viewers to do the same and if desired, show us what you came up with at admin@phatus.com
NOTE: You may need to waterproof the battery first. Check out this instructable that telittleone found on this subject.
Tags: illusion, iphone, iphone magic, iphone pranks, iphone tricks, magic, magic trick, pranks, street magic, tech tricks
By telittleone on Apr 28, 2008
For the switch, another person did a similar thing. Instead, it was an alarm. http://www.instructables.com/id/%22Last-Day%22-magnetic-sonic-cube-landmine/
It sounds like a really cool idea.
The problem is, that ball melts so it would require constant refreezing. I imagine the effect from melted water drops would add a very cool look to the ice orb.
BTW, i saw the ice orb instructable a long time ago but was too lazy to try it out.
By Pyro222 on Apr 28, 2008
yeah, the melting could be a problem however I imagine it would be fun to keep them in a cooler for parties and bust them out when you need some light to see the drinks. They would probably last quite a bit longer in the cooler. There is also the possibility that the battery will not work if its frozen.
By telittleone on Apr 29, 2008
The battery probably won’t work without it being waterproofed. Theres an instructables on how to water proof it: http://www.instructables.com/id/Waterproof-your-Batteries-in-seconds!/
An alternative is the Navy Seal’s method. I won’t post the method due to… subjects having to do with FLE (dreaded by tweens.. I should know cause I am one.)
By Pyro222 on Apr 29, 2008
Cool, Ill append the link to the post.
Thanks.
By telittleone on Apr 29, 2008
about the instructables, If you are going to recharge the battery, when sealing the battery, make sure you use a thin flexible liquid. When a battery gets recharged, it heats up and vents heat through vents (surprise surprise. Make sure you use a thin, flexible waterproofing material that will not prevent the vents from doing their job. Do not use epoxy. Read the comments below the instructables for more info about venting.
By telittleone on Apr 29, 2008
I was just thinking about the ice orb, and how much cooler a clear one could be. It would however, reveal the circuitry. You could cover that up somehow though, maybe with a balloon. Well anyways, these are the directions to make clear ice: http://www.instructables.com/id/make-crystal-clear-ice!/?ALLSTEPS
The problem is that by doing this, you can’t fill up the balloon or you will just add air bubbles to the water which will result in cloudy ice. So instead, pour it into a spherical mold. I don’t know where to get any, but I did a quick google search and people say you can get them at wallmart. This would cause the “orb” to be much cooler. Also, if you do not have color LEDS, you could use food coloring on the water. I personally think this would be better, because if you hold it up to a normal light, its the same color as if the LED inside were on.