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7 Color Light Penby depotdevoid on November 21, 2008

Table of Contents

Author: depotdevoid ...........................................................................................................

License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) .............................................................................

Intro: 7 Color Light Pen ........................................................................................................

step 1: Gather parts ...........................................................................................................

step 2: Wiring ...............................................................................................................

step 3: Wrap it up ............................................................................................................

step 4: Draw something! .......................................................................................................

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................... 1

Advertisements ............................................................................................................... 1

Comments ................................................................................................................... 1

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u t h o r: d o t d v o id

Author: depotdevoid The Depot Devoid of Thought

Depotdevoid is short for The Depot Devoid of Thought, the place where you go when you lose your train of thought and you're waiting for the next thoughttrain to pick you up. The depot represents a fairly high level of absent mindedness and ease of being distracted, as well as a love of seeing what will piquemy interest next, and where that idea will take me.

I am a ball bearing salesman by day and a mad scientist by night (and on the weekends). I love making and learning about all sorts of things, and while I'llnever be the best at any one thing, I am reasonably competent in many areas.

I hope you enjoy my instructables, please take a moment to subscribe!

License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Intro: 7 Color Light PenThis is my first instructable in a while. I've been busy busy busy with all sorts of things, some of which probably would have made good instructables, but few of whichdocumented very thoroughly. This instructable has been floating around half completed for a long time, and I figured it was time to just bite the bullet and post it.

I owe a debt to unklstuart for this instructable, which inspired me. I thought of making some of these light pens a while ago, but I am unfortunately not much of an artisStill, the pens were awesome and I thought I'd like to have a set, if just to play around with. However, my camera only takes a maximum of 16 seconds per exposure,which really limits the ammount of drawing you can do. Then I hit upon the idea of making one pen that can do many colors!

So, I built the pen, and had my suspicions that I am a very poor artist--especially at high speeds--confirmed. Ever since, I've been trying to find someone who is an art(like my brother) who could draw me a few nice looking pictures with this doohickey. I got impatient, and a while back I posted this instructable. It wasn't very popular,probably because it seemed a bit half baked, which it was. I wanted to post something about this light pen, but I was still having trouble finding someone to draw somepretty pictures to illustrate this intructable.

Well, all that is behind me now. I've finally decided it's time to post this thing and get it over with, even if all I have to show are my low quality 16 second scribbles.

Here it is in all of it's glory, the 7 Color Light Pen!

***UPDATE 5/4/10: If you post your own light pen drawings in the comments below, I'll send you a patch!***

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step 1:Gather partsFirst and foremost, you're going to need an RGB LED with 3 anodes and a common cathode (or vice versa). You can either buy one, or make one from materials youprobably already have on hand. Here's my RGB LED instructable if you want to make one of your own.

Also, you will need:3 pushbutton switches1 9-volt battery and connectorSome sort of case for the pen (I used the housing for an old microphone)3 resistors (I used 2.2k for blue, 1k for green, and 330 for red)A little extra wireHot glueFoam rubber (for padding)Electrical tape

step 2:WiringThe first step is to solder the resistors to the anodes of the RGB LED. Next, you'll need to install the LED in the end of the pen.

Since I used an old microphone for the casing, I discovered the battery fit nicely in the actual microphone part. I wired the positive end of the battery holder to thecommon cathode of the RGB LED and added a little extra wire to the negative end, which I shoved up through the point of the microphone casing. Then I hot glued thLED into the end of the casing, leaving the three anodes with their resistors and the extra wire attached to the negative end of the battery holder exposed.

Next I held the pen and marked the places where the tips of my first three fingers rested. Those are the places where the buttons will go. I hot glued the buttons in placand then soldered one of each of the resistors to each of the buttons, and attached the extra wire from the negative battery lead to the other end of each button.

The last thing is to hot glue all the wires and stuff to the casing so nothing is sticking out and getting in the way.

Image Notes1. Negative battery wire2. Anode3. Anode4. Anode5. LED

Image Notes1. Buttons in comfortable positions

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Image Notes1. 9-Volt2. Everything all wired up

step 3:Wrap it up

To finish it up, I added a bunch of foam to make the grip comfortable (see pictures). It's held in place with hot glue of course. Finally, I wrapped up the whole thing inelectrical tape.

I discovered the battery rattled around a bit, so I inserted a couple of pieces of foam in the battery area to hold it still.

Voila, you're done! The first time I showed it to someone, they thought it was some sort of demented sex toy.

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step 4:Draw something!Grab your camera and find a dark room. Set the camera on a tripod and set it to it's longest exposure time. Hopefully your camera will do a little better than sixteenseconds, because that passes by WAY too fast!

****Edit 6/10: sjs229 has pointed out that I forgot to mention how this actually works! The three buttons when pressed down turn on one of the LED elements, red, bluand green. When you mix these, you get different colors since they're so close together:Red+Green: YellowGreen+Blue: CyanBlue+Red: PurpleRed+Green+Blue: White

It takes a little practice to know what colors you're going to be getting, but you get used to it pretty quick.

Thanks to sjs229 for pointing this out! ****

Below are some examples of drawings and doodles my daughter and I have made. If you post your own light pen drawings, I'll send you a DIYpatch!

Please take a moment to leave a comment and a rating! I'd like to hear what you think, and I would especially like to see any projects you've made that were inspired ohelped along by my instructable!

Once again, many thanks to unklstuart for this instructable for providing me with the inspiration!

Finally, please vote for me in the "Get the LED Out" contest! I really want those wheel l ights!

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Comments

25 comments Add Comment

platinum97 says: Sep 22, 2009. 2:58 PM REP

Is there a way I can make this reeeaaallly simple without paying 4 it. And can I make it so that I don't need a camera to show my drawings with the pen. It w just show in mid air and a way I can make it with no soldering?

depotdevoid says: Sep 22, 2009. 4:53 PM REP

platinum, I suppose if you could find all of the parts you could probably make this for free, it would just be a matter of finding electronics to harvest fromyou just twisted all the leads together and used a lot of tape you could probably make this without soldering, but it would be pretty flimsy. However, youhave to have a camera. What you are asking for here is magic, which unfortunately isn't real. Light does not just hang in midair, and if i t did you wouldn

be able to see it since the light wouldn't be entering your eyes. Light has to be emitted from something, it doesn't stay put. Don't they teach this stuff inscience class?

platinum97 says: Sep 22, 2009. 5:21 PM REP

Well...um they do...but u know... people think of so many things these days, wow that was a dumb question I asked >=( err. Well thank u for your he

depotdevoid says: Sep 23, 2009. 10:21 AM REP

Sorry if I came across a little grumpy there, I've been reading a lot about the declining standards of science education and l iteracy in America. Dyou know that 40% of Americans think dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time? And 55% of them think that atoms are smaller thanelectrons? Man, that's depressing.

Murf says: Nov 20, 2009. 11:22 AM REP

WOW.. that is depressing! As a Ph.D. student in the sciences who is a teaching assistant and does outreach programs with 5th graders and11th and 12th graders, Ihave definately seen a decline, but didn't realize it was getting that bad!!

depotdevoid says: Nov 20, 2009. 12:29 PM REP

Yeah, it's ugly. I don't recall the exact stats off the top of my head, but the numbers for how many people believe the Earth is 6000 yearold and how many don't know how long it takes the Earth to orbit the sun are pretty scary, too. Hell, even 30% of high school scienceteachers thing creationism should be taught alongside the theory of evolution.

I don't know what to do about it. The only person I know who doesn't laugh at me when get upset about this sort of thing is my girlfriendand I think she's just humoring me.

platinum97 says: Sep 23, 2009. 1:13 PM REP

O its ok. The declining standards of science education is correct, they have. I've noticed we learned a lot of things last year that were prettyinteresting and more than what the class expected. This year is deeper thinking of what happens when we throw trash away in the garbageWe think its the end of it when we throw it away, but its really not, going through all these cycles. Now I watch wat I do, and how I can help tenviroment

platinum97 says: Sep 22, 2009. 2:59 PM REP

Sorry I guess I like this so much that I want it easy >=(

rewena says: Aug 3, 2009. 1:46 PM REP

this is a cool idea i know i wouldn't be patient either. i want too try doining this but i dont know were to get a RGB LED from i cant make one cause i donthave these materials. can u tell me were to buy one on your instructable?

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depotdevoid says: Aug 4, 2009. 7:21 PM REP

Well, a quick google search for "RGB LED" came up with these results:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=105http://www.superbrightleds.com/TriColor%20LED.htmhttp://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16706&variation=

But you could make one with parts from the dollar store . . .

rewena says: Aug 9, 2009. 6:55 PM REP

thanks for all the help and research i will try your ideas. thanks im sort of new so thanks for helping

depotdevoid says: Aug 9, 2009. 8:32 PM REP

No prob Rewena, good luck on it, and I'd love to see some pictures if you end up making one of these!

rewena says: Aug 9, 2009. 6:53 PM REP

thanks for the help i will try that

makerfaker1 says: Jun 9, 2009. 2:06 PM REP

if i give u my address will u make me one so i have reference to go by i would pay u but i don't have any money right now and if u do i really will apreachatu never know i mi ht make somethin for u in return but if u don't that will be fine to thank u

Ronanoke says: Jun 30, 2009. 10:46 AM REP

u rly got 2 use ur brain b4 u make a post because if u can't offer compensashun and/or r 2 lazy 2 do it urself then its ur prob. My txtspk is reallydeteriorating. Not sure if that's a bad thing.

depotdevoid says: Jun 30, 2009. 11:02 PM REP

Oh, that's good. I never responded to this guy, since I'm a bit of a grammar nazi and can't stand txtspk. I don't go so far as to correct people on"There, their, and they're," but I feel that if you can't take the time to type "You," then I don't have the time to respond. Thanks for the laugh, andreplying to makerfaker1 in the language he speaks!

Ronanoke says: Jul 1, 2009. 11:11 AM REP

No problem! :)

Ronanoke says: Jun 30, 2009. 10:47 AM REP

This is really interesting, apart from the horrible enclosure (although that's hardly a technical part of it). Hypothetically, how hard would it be to run this on,

say, AA batteries, or a watch battery?

depotdevoid says: Jun 30, 2009. 11:51 AM REP

Oh, it should work fine with AA's or watch batteries. I use 9-volts where I can because they're more compact than the 3 AA's you'd need and they lastlonger than watch batteries.

Ronanoke says: Jun 30, 2009. 12:07 PM REP

Cool! Thanks!

sjs229 says: Jun 9, 2009. 10:25 PM REP

how do you switch colors?

depotdevoid says: Jun 10, 2009. 7:46 AM REP

Oh wow, how did i forget that? Thanks sjs229, I've added that to step 4!

sjs229 says: Jun 10, 2009. 9:06 PM REP

good!

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frollard says: Jun 8, 2009. 8:08 AM REP

Great little project!

depotdevoid says: Jun 8, 2009. 8:59 AM REP

Thanks frollard, I'm glad you liked it!