Glowing Mushroom Light

Bonjour de la France !

First of all, thanks to be indulgent. I'm a French little guy and I will give all of myself to be clear for everybody.

This is a very cool mushroom lamp with UV LEDs which will glow in the dark in your secret garden ! You can also use it in your restrooms : Simons says it attracts other mushrooms (that's a joke, please don't judge me).

Because this is a no-backup project where evereything you do is done, I will have to show you some steps with an other branch, not the definitive one for me. But as every branch are as differents, you will have to improvise, adapt, and overcome ! The project is full open to any ideas !

To make a pretty branch, you need :

• A pretty branch. Take one with maximum of straight parts, you will make some holes with a drill to make a way for wires : 2 per LEDs ! Jumpers for Arduino are about 1.5mm outside diameter. Please don't ask me about how I passed 22 jumpers in a 10mm hole
• Some round UV LEDs 3V : Amazon Link
• 2 jumpers per LEDs. Take great length : The more, the better. You will cut them at the end : Amazon Link
• A drill
• 4 to 12mm drill bits
• painter's tape : Amazon Link
• Gray paint in spray, this is for mushroom's bases : Use the color you prefere
• 1 resistor per LEDs. Follow step 4 to calculate the resistor value
• 1 ON/OFF button : Amazon Link
• 1 USB Wire going to be sacrificed
• A multimeter
• Just a little 3D printer. That's a detail
• Glow in the dark filament : SOVB3D Link
• A saw
• A soldering iron and tin

Optional :

• A mainboard to plug all resistor in parallel
• DB26 or something else able to connect all of your wires on the mainboard
• Sanding paper or something to sand down (you can use your drill but it can damage quickly the branch) : Amazon Link, Amazon Link

After months and months, you've finally found the perfect branch ! And for this first step, you have to... DESTROY HER !!!! Yes I'm French and I give gender to objects. She is your litlle baby now !

Take a saw and cut a base. Think about how you will dispose the lamp, about futur wires holes and the aesthetic. Wires will pass throught the base to go to the box under the light.

Now you can choose to sand down the wood or not. For myself, I prefered the clear wood color so I did it but let me tell you something : Drill is very helpfull but very dangerous (for the wood). You can do the bigger part with the drill but reserve the end with a sand paper ! It can take times to get the good color, so be patient.

You need to be very vigilant now. Make a "main" hole along the wood with a 10 or 12mm drill bit. You can start with 4mm, next 8mm, and then 12mm. That's where all of your wires will pass. You can make usefull hole in corners where you will put a mushroom. That can help for the main hole. DO NOT BREAK THE BRANCH or all of you previous work will be lost. If the wood is too thin, do not take risk. It's possible to use glue to stick wires outside, but it's better if you can pull all of them inside.

You can now make others holes going to the main one as many as you want mushrooms. Use 4mm drill bit for those ones.

You must see the light at the end of the tunnel if your holes are done well !

I think this is the hardest part of this project. I've been helped by a friend to do this.

Take wire one by one and pull them into your main hole to all of others holes : 2 per hole.

Some tips :

• Braided your wires at the beginning will help a lot.
• Start with the furthest holes from the base.
• Keep some length at the beginning and the end to strip and solder wires.

I think that there are other ways to do this, maybe with one wire per LED throught the main hole (for the +), and one other which "jump" from one hole to another one (for the -).

Try what you want and adopt your favorite practice.

Wait to solder wires on LEDs before stick wires outside of the wood if you got some, it will be easier.

To know the resistors value, you need to apply this formulation : (Upower - Uled) / Iled where Upower is the voltage of your power (5V), Uled is the voltage of the LED in the datasheet (should be 3.4V) and Iled is the current of the LED which you can find in the datasheet (should be about 20mA)

The value of the resistor should be 80 ohm approximately.

You can also measure your LED current value but powering LED without any resistor can damaged it (that's what I've done on pictures...)

This can be a little boring step :

1. Strip wire, side of 4mm holes
2. Put a heat-shrinkable sleeve (not sure about english translation, please see second picture)
3. Solder wire on the LED. Be smart and use logics colors. You will not be able to follow wires at the end to know which one is the + and which one is the -. The flat side of the LED correspond to the -
4. Use hot air to tight the sleeve to protect conductive part

Do it wire by wire to prevent of any damage on them. You can push and pull wires to help you and finally got the perfect length (about 2cm outside of the wood at the LEDs sides).

Now you got all of your LEDs, you can try to plug them with your 80 ohm resistor and USB wire to see if there is any issue. I don't show you picture because... It's impossible to take photo with a phone and UV LEDs (I let you try, enjoy !)

If you got wires outside of the wood for some LEDs, you can now use glue to stick them. I used clothespins to get the perfect way. If you find a good color, you can paint outside wires to make them invisible.

Find the cap1.stl file attached and print them : use your pretty glow in the dark filament ! You can use differents sizes to get something more "natural". I kept skirt on some caps because it gives a good effect. You can stick them by using glue gun inside caps and put them on LEDs.

Don't judge me for my 3D printer, it's an home made printer still in construction !

My prefere step : Put painter's tape on all of the branch and mushrooms caps, exept on wires which protrude. Then, take your gray painting and paint foots. I used spray painting because it's an easy way. Put your branch in a corner and wait as long time as you need to get a dry paint and remove all of the painter's tape.

It's time to plug it ! You can choose the bad way or the good way :

Bad way : Plug your USB wire + to all resistors. Plug one by one your resistors to your LEDs pin +. Plug all of your LEDs pin - together and to your ON/OFF button pin +. Plug your ON/OFF button pin - tu your USB wire -. Solder all of them, and put some scotch to protect conductive parts. Plug your USB wire to a power supply, and enjoy !!!

Good way : Create a "Gerber" file with Proteus or something similar and ask a society to build it. Solder your resistors on it, your ON/OFF button, your power supply and DB26 female connector. Solder your LEDs wires on DB26 male connector like you configured it on your gerber, and it's done ! Just plug, and play ! Put all of this in a perfect box you choosed and your job will be done !

Congratulations !

All projects are never done and can be improve. I'm thinking about connect an Arduino on the board to control current on each LEDs and make them breathing or other effects (but breathing should be very, very cool !). I'm also looking to print a pretty box but my printer need some adjustments, or I will may buy a French wine box (with the wine bottle of course) which will fit perfectly with my vine root ! The one I used for pictures previously is not mine but I really like it !

Thanks for your attention