LEGO Flip Light

Posted: November 13th, 2009 | Author: andy | Filed under: Hardware | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments »

I thought I’d share one of my little lego creations today. I wanted a simple night light to use in the bedroom, especially for when the baby wakes for a feed and being a Lego junky I had to do it with a little style.

My main objective was for an elegant look, that had no buttons or obvious moving parts. What I ended up with was this:

How its made

I wanted a fairly small shell for this light so its a 4×4 column that is 11 bricks high. Working from the top is a 2 brick solid layer. Below that a 4 brick high hollow column of the translucent yellow blocks. This is the really simple part of the design.

The next 1 brick layer is solid again, but making sure a 2×4 brick runs through the middle. In the centre of this brick make a hole big enough to fit the terminals of the LED through. The great thing is the bell-bottom of the LED is tight enough to fit snug within the four surrounding brick dimples – holding it tight.

Lego Flip Light - LED exposed

On the underside place the tilt switch head inside the brick. The ones I used again fit nice and snug without any glue. Now, join a terminal from the led and tilt switch. I used a little bit of solder, then covered with insulating tape like so:

Lego Flip Light - Tilt switch

You now have two terminals left, that simple require a battery. I’ve used a CR2032 for space restrictions, fitting between the terminals with more insulation tape, ending up with this beast:

Lego Flip Light - Battery in place

That’s all the electrical parts complete with the final 4 brick layer constructed as a hollow sleeve to fit over the battery and switch, with the very bottom row being a solid layer:

Lego Flip Light - Base

There you have it a Lego Flip Light.

Parts used