Anywhere Nightlight With Chibitronics

My dog, Jasmine, is getting a little old. I've had her for 15 years and she was grown when I got her. We have a dog door set up for her but one night she peed in front of the shower instead of outside--we suspect she just couldn't find the dog door because she's mostly blind.

Of course, we didn't have any night lights and even if we did it wouldn't have been in the right location to help her see the dog door. Luckily I had recently been to a Build Night at Techshop Chandler and had an idea; I'd use my chibitronics to light up the dog door. With chibitronics I can quickly set up a nightlight and don't need to plug it in--it could go anywhere!

I built a quick circuit using the conductive tape. The key is to use two pieces of conductive tape that are close together so that one of the led sticker lights can connect across the circuit.

Then put a few of the sticker led lights on your conductive tape tracks. Make sure that they all go from positive to negative.

And then connect your battery. Put one end of the conductive tape on the positive side and the other on the negative side. If the lights don't work you have it backwards--switch the sides. I didn't want to drain the batteries during the day so I just used a piece of masking tape to keep the battery connected and then I could easily use the tape to turn the nightlight off (put it between the battery and once side of the conductive tape).

I set this up about two weeks ago and Jasmine hasn't had any more accidents in the house. Problem solved!

If I have some more time to work on it, I may combine it with a light sensor so that it turns off when the light is on in the room or when the sun comes up. Or I could create a more solid switch. I'll post when I make any improvements.

This could be a fun project to do with kids that want to make their own nightlight. You could do it directly on the wall. If you child is young and you are worried that they might eat the battery (my dad was worried about this when I was playing with my niece and nephew with chibitronics) you could even put it into a picture frame so that they couldn't get to the battery. You could set up a nightlight in a tent or even make a headlamp by using chibitronics with a hat or visor. You could really have a nightlight just about anywhere. The possibilities are endless! Be creative and post pictures of anything cool that you come up with.