DIY: USB Christmas Lights

[gobygoby]

USB CHRISTMAS LIGHT MOD!!

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06188.jpg

I sampled this mod from here. (http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/62/44/)

Here is his instructions:


1. Get a USB connector cable (preferably from cablesforless.com so you dont get ripped off http://www.cablesforless.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1146).

2. Get some batterry operated Christmas lights. These can be purchased at Ace Hardware, Walmart or even your local dollar store.
Get the ones that use a 5 volt powersupply. (2 batterry or 3 battery ones work nicely.)

3. Cut the batterry pack off of the Christmas lights.

4. Strip the USB connector cable and the red and black wires inside.

5. Solder the red (+) and black (-) USB wires to the positive and negative wires of the Christmas lights respectively. You may want to verify with a multimeter before you solder to insure you have the correct wires.

7. You now have a really cool set of USB christmas lights! Geektacular!

So I was at Walgreens and saw a battery powered light kit and decided to give it a go.

Here is a hardware list:
Battery power xmas lights: $5.99
Elmers gel instant glue: already had
Some type of USB cable: already had
---------------
total cost for me = ~$6.00

Glue
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06186.jpg

Christmas Lights
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06149.jpg

USB cable ( I used some weird USB to network jobby:confused: )
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06147.jpg

Christmas Lights un-boxed
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06150.jpg

Battery compartment opened
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06151.jpg

Wires stripped on the USB cable
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06152.jpg

Testing...........IT WORKS! I trusted the above instructions and used the red as + and the black as -. then I just read the inside of the battery compartment to see -/+ I just looked how the batteries were setup in there.
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06154.jpg

Testing w/lights off
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06155.jpg

Closer shot
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06156.jpg

Closer closer shot
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06157.jpg

[gobygoby]

So next I decided to keep the original container but only use a portion of it to make it less bulky. So I cut the front off the top and bottom and cut the back plate off as well.

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06158.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06160.jpg

Here I test fit the pieces together and drilled a hole in one end for the usb cord.

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06163.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06164.jpg

Next was to cut off the white and green wire since they are not needed.
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06165.jpg

I put some shink tubing over the end of the USB to protect any exposed from cutting the wires above
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06166.jpg

Now I am starting to strip the wires for connecting
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06168.jpg

got the wires connected and used the shrink tubing to protect the wires and keep them together ( after twisting them together) since they are such a small guage.
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06170.jpg

I added a zip tie to the USB cable so if its yanked on it wont rip apart from the light module.
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06171.jpg

glueing the top on
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06174.jpg

another shot of the top glued on
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06175.jpg

And finally glued the back on
http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06179.jpg

And now your all done. Sit back, relax and enjoy your new USB powered Christmas Light Awesomeness!:thumb:

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06180.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06181.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06182.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06183.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06184.jpg

http://www.kbellair.com/armor/DSC06185.jpg

Happy Holidays!

[AJ@PR]

Hahahah....!!!

I LIKE IT!!!! :D

I'm going to swing by Walgreens later today to see if they have them....
Thanks !!! I like! :)

[TheDingo]

ha nice holiday look

[Zephik]

That is a very innovative idea! I would of never thought of connecting Christmas lights to a USB. Looks like anyone with a basic knowledge of wiring would be able to do this?

I don't suppose you know how much juice they suck do you? I wouldn't mind lighting my entire office from a spare USB port on my computer! lol

-SnowFire

[Omega]

That is a very innovative idea! I would of never thought of connecting Christmas lights to a USB. Looks like anyone with a basic knowledge of wiring would be able to do this?

I don't suppose you know how much juice they suck do you? I wouldn't mind lighting my entire office from a spare USB port on my computer! lol

-SnowFire

Well, it depends on the amperage pull of the LEDs. I wouldn't suggest, however, putting more than one set per USB Cable. But you can still make more and just get a powered hub...

[cbelmo159]

WOW where did u get that light thing. HAPPY HOLIDAYS back to u too

[gobygoby]

Thanks guys. It is a very easy mod and you dont need to know any wiring knowledge...just be able to distinguish colors! :) red to green and black to blue!

If you do happen to find the exact same ones. You will see where I cut the battery box. I cut right through the grooves were the metal plates went to hold in the batteries. Its like a built in cutting guide :)

cbelmo159,
Not sure what you mean, I got the battery operated kit at walgreens. They also have a kit at walmart that is the standard bulbs, but it only has 10 on a string where as the ones I got have 20 mini LED's.

Good luck and if you build it post some pics here!

Kyle

[Omega]

I might do that for the hell of it =D

[gaz_the_chav]

Hmm do you think that you could make some sort of program on your computer to make them flash to your music or whatever. Or even a program to make your own flashing patterns?

-gaz

[ajmilton]

haha. that's awesome. i've got a mini-project for the weekend :P

[gobygoby]

Hmm do you think that you could make some sort of program on your computer to make them flash to your music or whatever. Or even a program to make your own flashing patterns?

-gaz

It might be possible...like regulate the voltage or on/off somehow...I have no idea where to even begin to look at how to do that though.

On a side note. I was just at Meijer, and they had a battery operated set. This was the normal style bulb, multi-color. But it only had 15 bulbs and only on/off. no blinking.

[ajmilton]

Hmm do you think that you could make some sort of program on your computer to make them flash to your music or whatever. Or even a program to make your own flashing patterns?

-gaz

dunno about a program, but you can definitely make the lights blink:

http://www.hobby.se/Rutger/1demo1.html

http://www.wenzel.com/pdffiles/xmasflsh.pdf

[gaz_the_chav]

M'kay cheers for that :up:

-gaz

[b4i7]

haha...i work at a walgreens...for now... i was lookin at these the other night and was thinkin of what i could do with these

[chedabob]

My dad has one of those candle arch things in teh car, thats power off the fag lighter. Might leech them off him and see if I can juice em up.

Just about anything that runs at 5v can run on usb. I have a cup warmer, and this bubble tower light thingy =\

[gobygoby]

My dad has one of those candle arch things in teh car, thats power off the fag lighter. Might leech them off him and see if I can juice em up.

Just about anything that runs at 5v can run on usb. I have a cup warmer, and this bubble tower light thingy =\

hehe...lol....Ya after I did this mod, I realized 5v was the magic number...SO I started brainstorming (with mad scientist look on face) of what else I could hook up via USB :)

[progbuddy]

:eek: OMG, case lighting idea! Just with green 5 volts, try wiring them together in a small tube, connecting to the 5 volt molex, and voila! Ghetto lighting :p.

[Short Modder]

Sweet! What a great idea! I wwonder how many you can string together. I have a USB jack but I think it's cut WAY too short soo I'll mod it a little.

[monoflap]

Thats a great little mod. Rep point for you!

[crenn]

I got a set of battery powered LED lights with multicoloured bear shades. I'll post up the results when I finish modding it. But the thing is, I'll need to change the resistors as this set runs off 3v instead of the 6v in the original mod. I need to do some calculations now.

[Cool1Net6]

Nice Mod. Short, sweet, and cool.

-Cool-