Inspired by science fiction movies, this DIYer created a doomsday device prop complete with pull-pin, epic LED lighting, and countdown timer.  When his microwave broke, he salvaged its innards to build this device.  Overall, this project is a great way to improve your electrical, mechanical, and creative design skills.

Inside the device is an Arduino which coordinates the communication between the push buttons, clock timer and lighting effects.  The bulky mass of electronics seen at the bottom of the device are high power hardware from the guts of the microwave.

Additionally, an old garden light was used for the “core” of the device and ancient tape recorder buttons were resurrected for pushbuttons.  When you’re ready to build your own apocalypse device (or perhaps just an epic looking alarm clock), check out the project guide to get started.

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Every night at Disneyland, an Electrical Light Parade illuminates the darkness by featuring vehicles draped in a fantastic array of multicolored lights.  One enthusiastic fan (who had already created a mini replica of Disney’s Main Street) created a replica of the famous light parade using dozens of RGB LEDs.  The result is a stunny array of craftsmanship.  Check out how the entire system was created:

The miniature parade floats are moved along a series of gears.  Using an Arduino, you can easily control the RGB LEDs used in this project.  Obviously, the average DIYer isn’t going to build something of this magnitude, but we hope you find it inspirational nonetheless!  For additional details, check out the artist’s project website.

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We’ve seen our fair share of LED light cubes before, but what makes this one different is its incredibly detailed, step-by-step tutorial.   The creator of this light show previously made a one color LED light cube and shared the trials, tribulations and instructions.  He has since decided to go multi-color, again while challenging himself and learning some new tricks along the way.

The project requires 512, 10mm RGB LEDs and an Arduino compatible microcomputer. The creator used wooden strips to create vertical panels of LEDs rather than horizontal layers for ease of building. The building and soldering took about one weekend and the software took about 70 hours. The author saves you time by providing most of the code for you.  Learn how to  fbuild your own RGB LED cube!

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The friend of a performer created this optical light display of 256 LEDs that can be programmed to create some fascinating displays.  The ball has 16 panels, which are not only the circuit boards, but the structural support of the ball as well. The central brain is provided by an Arduino powered by two AA batteries.  For more information, see the full project details (the site may be temporarily down).

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With this POV light painter, you can paint the town red or any other color that suits your fancy. The LightScythe is a 2-meter long POV tube made up of multi-color LED strips.  POV stands for Persistence of Vision which describes how our eyes see motion blur when an object is moving quickly.  In this case, it enables us to see a message written with light.

An image is loaded onto a laptop which converts it to serial data, then sends it to an Arduino which controls the lightbar. A camera is set for 10 to 15 seconds of exposure, during which time the user walks across the frame, painting the image to be caught by the camera.   Check out the full build instructions.

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