Light Up Staff

this staff will light up when you grab it using light sensors and a simple arduino circuit.

you'll need

1. arduino uno
2. led strip
3. light sensor
4. wires
5. 9 volt battery plugin
6. a big stick
7. decoration

i started by writing and testing the code of the leds. i used the adafruit neopixel library as a basis. make sure to decide what light level will work best for your project.

here is a picture of the circuit.

after soldering all my wires, I went on to attach the arduino to the staff. my goal here was to keep the arduino accessible yet still cover up the wiring. I started out by marking how i wanted the led lights to travel up the staff, and then tried to lay my wires flat against the staff, securing them with some glue to keep it all in place. make sure to keep the placement of the light sensor in mind as you do this. then hide your arduino in the little bag. if you're happy with your led light placement, stick em to the staff

now you can do anything you want to decorate your staff, but I'll quickly describe what I did to spice up my project. First off i wanted my staff to resemble a Chinese lantern flower, so i made a paper lantern. i did this by making a metal framework, then wrapping a pantyhose around it to form a nice base to apply my paper to. i just slatered it in glue and applied the paper.

to cover up all the ugly bits i used a lot of fake moss and fake plants. above you'll see some of the fake foliage i bought as decor. i also wrapped some fabric around the handle to hide the wiring, and made a small hole in the fabric for the light sensor