LED Madness
Contest Winner Details
Nuts & Volts recently hosted a contest on Facebook in which participants uploaded videos of their best LED
projects and the public voted for who they liked the best. Prizes were awarded for the top three winners.
These included the grand prize which was a 3D LED Matrix Cube kit (valued at $59.95); second prize
which was a magazine CD-ROM (valued at $24.95); and third prize which was a Nuts & Volts hat (valued at
$14.59). You’ll find descriptions of our top winners here. Be sure to check out the Nuts & Volts Facebook
page for upcoming contests! You might just find yourself in print too!
1st Place: My Little Cube Creation
Michael Uylaki
I came up with this idea because my son had an LED sword and had broken the plastic,
and he was very upset about it. So, I decided to cut some Plexiglass into squares, and then I
super-glued three of the squares together. I left one side open so I could put the LEDs in. With
the last Plexiglass piece, I drilled a small hole out of it so there would be access to press the
button to turn it on and off. I took the LED sword apart, and super-glued the battery
compartment down on the Plexiglass that was left over. I then took the light string and stuffed
it into the three squares that were previously glued together. I attached the last piece on and
then I cut out duct tape to make the design on the square. It’s a really easy build and only took about a half hour to
build. Unfortunately, my kids broke it within a day of me making it, but you can view the video at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfsm746fR8.
2nd Place: LED Cube With Arduino
Josue Rojas
I built this for fun and to
improve my ability to solder — it
involves a lot of soldering.
I also built it because it was
very mesmerizing. There’s a
guide you can follow at
www.instructables.com
/id/The-4x4x4-LED-cube-
Arduino/?ALLSTEPS. Instead of
wood, I used cardboard with the
dotted pictured pasted on it, then
I just cut out the holes.
Parts List:
64 LEDs (I used white 5 mm
LEDs); piece of cardboard; 16
100 ohm resistors; printed circuit
board, soldering iron, and solder.
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November 2011