LED Sport Disc Attachment

by codongolev in Circuits > LEDs

2220 Views, 8 Favorites, 0 Comments

LED Sport Disc Attachment

20130709_211134.jpg
20130709_211141.jpg
I've always wanted one of those flashflight discs; you know, the ones that light up so you can play at night. unfortunately, I really don't like the weighting of them; I can't for the life of me throw a flick with it, and they're a bit expensive. so I decided that I'd make an attachment for my current discraft ultra star that does a similar thing. it's removable, and the only modification you make to the disc is a small hole, which shouldn't make any difference to the aerodynamics. (you could glue a nut to the bottom of the disc, but it wouldn't be as secure.)

Get Stuff and Things

20130709_172237.jpg
you'll need:

a frisbee
a soldering iron
a CR2016 (or similar) coin cell
circular perfboard
white LEDs
a small bolt with corresponding nut
solder
propane torch
plastic (not pictured)
hot glue (not pictured)
hacksaw (not pictured)

Solder LEDs to Perfboard

20130709_172645.jpg
20130709_173332.jpg
20130709_173350.jpg
solder the LEDs as shown. make sure they're near the edge, and bend them to a 90 degree angle.

Drill Hole in Board

20130709_173757.jpg
this step probably should've preceded the soldering, but regardless, you need a hole in the board that's roughly the same diameter as the bolt. make it as centered as possible (I didn't do very good at this part).

Tin the Bolt Head

20130709_172833.jpg
20130709_173047.jpg
the bolt is going to become the positive contact for the battery. as such, it needs stuff soldered to it. however, it's pretty hard to get solder to stick to a bolt with a soldering iron. a torch does it nicely, though, so we will coat the entire head of the bolt with solder so we can use the soldering iron to solder wires to it later. make sure to use plenty of flux.

Solder Bolt Into the Board

20130709_174225.jpg
20130709_194837.jpg
now that the bolt is coated in solder, we can use the soldering iron to connect it to the board. first, solder as much of the bolt as you can to the contacts on the board to lock it in place. after that, solder all the positive leads from the LEDs to the bolt head.

Attach Plastic Shielding

20130709_203147.jpg
next, we'll attach a plastic ring to separate the positive leads from the negative. cut a piece of plastic (I used an old credit card) to the shape shown, and hot glue it into place (as shown). then spread a bit of glue into the crevices to secure it even more.

Create Battery Holder

20130709_204140.jpg
20130709_204152.jpg
this part could've been done better, and I may revisit it. but for the time being, I've bent the negative leads into the shape shown to hold the battery, and soldered the whole thing in place. you may need to do some creative bending to get the battery to make secure contact with both leads.

Cut Bolt and Affix to Disc

20130709_211050.jpg
20130709_211059.jpg
20130709_211108.jpg
20130709_211134.jpg
lastly, cut the bolt to an acceptable length so that it won't be preposterously long, but will still secure the device to the frisbee. make sure when you cut the bolt you put the nut on first, so the threads can realign as you unscrew the bolt. then, drill a hole as close to the center of the frisbee as possible, and put the bolt through it, securing it with the nut.

the LEDs cast light out from the center, which both puts light in the center and on the edge. the plastic is somewhat translucent, so the light makes it through the disc and illuminates it from the inside out. it's pretty bright in the dark, and the difference in weight isn't too noticeable.