Winter is in full swing outside - it's time to take up winter sports. And one of the most popular entertainments among both children and adults is ice skating. Have you ever had a desire to become more noticeable on the ice, among the masses of people? I decided to make a bright backlight for this, fortunately it is quite simple to do.
So, to make backlighting for the skates we need:
- 6-20 bright LEDs (preferably with a wide beam angle, 3mm diameter), the color is our taste. For the Reds LEDs You will need to buy additional 51 Ohm resistors, for the blue ones you can do without them, I’ll tell you why below.
- 2 holders for a pair of AA batteries with switches (optional, but easier to mount and looks more aesthetically pleasing)
- a meter of wires, you can use either a thin stranded insulated wire or an ordinary twisted-pair copper wire
- hot melt adhesive with a “gun”
- soldering iron
- 4 AA batteries, preferably alkaline
- double-sided tape (foamed, for mirrors), 2 screws with nuts and a washer.
- pliers, knife, side cutters (optional)
So. Let's look at the electrical circuit first.
Here I am powered by two AA batteries - the new alkaline ones give a voltage of 1.6 * 2 = 3.2 volts. On the outside there are only 5 blue LEDs, on the inside - 5 blue and 5 red. This amount LEDs even redundant, since the perception of light brightness by the human eye is described by an exponential law, and an increase in the amount LEDs even 2 times will not cause visually the same effect.
So most of you can get by with 6-10 LEDs per shoe. Remember, the more LEDs you install, the faster the batteries will run out. As for installing resistors, there is no need to solder them to blue LEDs, because Their operating voltage is usually within 3.2-3.4 V, everything is within normal limits. For red ones, this range is 2.2-2.8 V, and when we connect our batteries, the current will go beyond the permissible 20mA, and the LED will burn out. Therefore, I recommend soldering resistors with a nominal value of 51 Ohms; they are soldered to the long (positive) terminal of the LED.
Everything can be seen in the diagram above. Why did I make two different colors? First of all, in order to use batteries as efficiently as possible. On new batteries with such a circuit, a blue glow will predominate, and even when the batteries are almost completely discharged (this process is accelerated in the cold), the blue LEDs will go out, and the red ones will glow quite brightly for some time.
Let's get down to business. We solder the wires/resistors to the LEDs one by one; for the convenience of further placement, I did this by trying them on right away on skates.
Once the LED is soldered, you can immediately attach it to the shoe with hot glue.What is the advantage of hot-melt adhesive - even if something turns out sloppy, or you want to redo it, you can always heat it up with the same soldering iron and correct the necessary places. We bend the LED leads and wires as needed:
Apply and glue:
Next, I took an empty gel pen refill, onto which I attached 3 LEDs so that they lay on the same straight line and their light was directed in one direction. And I used the LED terminals themselves to connect them as conductors.
By the way, the rod can also be illuminated differently by filling it with non-freezing liquid and inserting LEDs into its ends, but I don’t really like this option, it gives little light, and the LEDs need a directional glow (20-30 degrees).
The places where the resistors are soldered did not turn out very nicely, but we can come up with a more reasonable arrangement for them. Or use SMD resistors, they are very small in size.
I decided to place the batteries on the back of the upper part of the boot. The space under the boot made it possible to install it there, but it was a very damp and cold place, and these are the most unfavorable conditions for batteries. And so they are at least slightly covered by the trouser leg and snow and ice do not fly there.
As for the switch and the battery compartment in general, there are ready-made products in radio stores, already with wires and a switch, so as not to rack your brains. Otherwise, you will have to connect the batteries, for example, with electrical tape, and instead of a switch, you will have to come up with some kind of closing contacts. All this is not very reliable, especially under such “harsh” operating conditions.
I secured the switch and battery holder with one screw, and put it all on double-sided tape, in my opinion it turned out quite firmly. Exterior view:
Inside view:
Then the whole thing is closed with a lid and tightened with a small screw so that the lid does not accidentally fall off while driving.
And this is what it looks like from below when assembled:
It is possible to make more miniature lighting options, using one small 23A 12 V battery, using only 4 LEDs. Here the decision is yours, use your imagination - and go ahead!
Actually that's all. The skate lighting is ready! Now your friends will easily find you among others at the skating rink!
