Franken'can LED Kaleidoscope

Most of us growing up we have all played with a kaleidoscope at least once in our lives. I've decided that I wanted to take it about 15 steps further than the dollar store variety that we all know and love. Eventually, I want to turn these into a pair of glasses in order to distort reality and give each person their own particular take on what you would perceive. The code is written when the tilt ball switch is activated (1) it would provide the person with a strobe light in the reflection with various colors. But if you move your head ever so slightly you would deactivate(0) said switch and there you would get a stream of colors of the rainbow. To me, this is amusing because not everybody would see the same things at the same time and there used to be a song called blinded by the light, and I kind of thought this was appropriate to embody that song.

-One Pringles can

-3 Pringles lids

- at least 7 wires to attach the switch and LEDs. I used 12.

-Arduino Uno

-NeoPixel Ring - 12 x 5050 RGB LED (I used) but any LED's you like will do

-reflective tape/ paper (I used both)

-Hot glue gun and at least 2 sticks of glue (more if you're like me)

-A small ribbed mason jar (12 oz fits like a glove)

-something sharp to cut with (I used an Exacto knife)

-1 Seazoon 470 ohm Resistors 1/2w (0.5 Watt)

-1 McIgIcM 1000uf 25V Capacitor, Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor

-1 breadboard

-1 pc cable

Heat up that hot glue gun you're gonna need it. So, first, eat all your Pringles.

Now, go ahead and just cut off the bottom of your small can.

Then remember all those lids of Pringles you have? We're going to need those. What you're gonna wanna do is glue the bottom of your 12 ounce Mason jar 2 the underside of one of your lids. Make sure that it still will close tight and leave it for gravity to hold in place until dry.

Now that your top is dry go ahead and put that on the lipped side of your can.

take your leads and place them on one of the other lids and mark where you are going to cut for the wires. This doesn't have to be a big opening just large enough to fit all your wires in comfortably.

Then take your wonderful reflective paper and trace out your leads and where they're going to sit. Be sure to cut just enough for the LEDs only. This is important so you don't have an excess amount of light coming in and taking away from your LEDs.

just remember that this will actually be going on the top side of the lid holding your Mason jar. Be sure to also trace the top so it fits nicely in place.

Next, you're going to want to take that lid with a slit and glue with the hot glue gun your LEDs in place. this is an important step not just to keep them in place and not shifting about but also to prevent it from not lining up with your pre-marked holes that they shine through. Once again, we are trying to get as much light from the leads into the kaleidoscope without outside light shining through.

You would think you were on Pinterest with how much hot glue we are using for this project. Hot glue your two lids together with the LEDs facing the inside and they are lined up with your holes.

So, this is the magical time that we start making sure that none of our wires will cross and short out. To ensure this I secured each of my wires with hot glue. By this point, you should have had your leads secured 2 the inside of the lid with and nick for your wires to escape. I found the best thing to do is glue them to the side of my can with enough slack so they can move at least 20 degrees without too much trouble.

Now you're going to want to take and connect 2 long wires, for me I used female to male jumper wires to connect my tilt switch to the top of the lid that the opposite side has leads glued to it. I want to note that I glued the wire connectors and not my switch to the lid. This is important not to do in case you need to move it you don't run the chance of harming your switch.

Do Not glue the lid combo to the can. You want it to rotate.

And now for the last and final Pringles can lid. For this one, it's very simple, pick a shape you want in the center for your eye to look through, trace out the lid on your shiny paper, cut out both the shape in the center and your outside to fit in the lid. Place shiny paper inside the lid and note that it does not fit snugly due to the lack of lip on that side. This is easily overcome by the magic of hot glue. place your lid on your can put the can upside down so that the non-lip side is now on your table. Place hot glue inside slash in between the plastic lead and your Pringles can. This will prevent it from moving and also secure it to the Pringles can.

Ooooohhhh aaaahhhh , you are done with your can. Now, for the hard part.

Wiring and coding this Franken'can.

I don't know if my code will work but here it is