I was inspired by these flashlights that I found online. I loved the cleanness of this design and I thought it was interesting because it is different from most of the flashlight designs we see everyday. I also really liked atmosphere lights instead of focused light source so I wanted to create a flashlight that creates a more friendly light.
I sketched both the inside and outside look that I wanted first.
Materials
• Cardboards - bought in Blick Art Materials
• Transparent acrylic sticks - found on the trash shelf
• Wires
• LED Light
• Button
• AAA batteries
• 10 ohms resistor
I first began with soldering all the parts in the circuit together. At first, I only directly connected the batteries to the lightbulb and button. After a few minutes of trials, the batteries became really hot. Therefore I added a 10 ohms resistor in between the button and the batteries to lower the concentration.
I made the handle with cardboards. I cut them into four equal pieces of rectangles and glued them together. The hole in the middle is for the button. However, I forgot that I had to stick the button out later. The closed space made it extremely hard to take the button out or even have it face upwards. I had no room to tape it onto the wall as well. In the process of rearranging and trying, some parts fell off so I had to solder again. Overall, this step was painful.
I utilized both superglue and tape to keep the upper part stable on the handle. I also sliced the cardboard of the upper part of the handle to make them more flexible so they could wrap around and stick better.
In bright space
In the dark
It is green because I only have green LED at home. All the other lightbulbs that I have access to are too dim to spread through the entire stick. I really like the glowing effect as it really creates an ambience instead of lighting up only. I feel like this kind of flashlights can have multiple usage. For example, they could be placed anywhere as a small light, or used on a party.
List of tools I used.
• Solder
• Conductive tape
• Wire cutters
• Superglue
• Exacto knife
• Plier
Conclusions
There were many troubles throughout the process. A few things that I thought was important includes planning the steps of my procedure to avoid any irreparable mistakes. I should of planned out that I needed it stick the circuit in first before closing the handle walls. I will definitely be more careful on these other smaller failures that I've made such as unable to cut straight, broken soldered parts, hot batteries are. To improved this flashlight, I would first make sure that the button is where it's supposed to be. Then I would polish the connecting part of the acrylic stick and the handle to make it look better, as well as the corners of the handle.