Simple USB LED Light

This project should take less than 30 minutes. It is a simple, good, beginner project for soldering and using resistors. This is a basic outline of how you can use a USB to pull power to another use, such as an LED. You can use this USB LED as a nightlight or for any other project you come up with. You can also incorporate a coat hanger or wire to make it bend and keep shape if you may choose.

SUPPLIES:

1) Resistors (220 ohm for this case, may vary based on output/input)

2) 5mm red LED lights 20mA 2-2.2V (used one for this example but can use more)

3) USB Cable (used or old cables work great!)

4) Cable cutters/strippers

5) electrical tape

7) Soldering iron/solder

8) Heat Shrink/coat hanger (optional)

6) Third hand for soldering (optional)

STEP 1 consists of finding a USB cable (used cables are great for this) and cutting the cable to the length that you desire. *cutting longer than shorter is always smart*

Once the USB cable is snipped to your length, strip the outside casing of the cable to show the inner cables. In my case, there were 4 cables (green, white, black and red). Some USB cables may only have a red and black, or positive and negative wire since the green and white wires are used for transferring information, that's okay.

Again, if you have any other wires in your cable other than a positive and negative, you can snip them or fold electrical tape on top of them to get them out of your way. You will only be using the positive and negative wires for this project. You can also strip the positive and negative wires in this step so it becomes easier for soldering later.

Going to LED and resistor. I set it up on my third-hand to make it convenient for soldering. In this step, I soldered my negative side of the LED (the shorter leg) to the resistor I was using.

In this step, you will be soldering your resistor to the negative wire on your USB cable and you positive led of the LED (the longer leg of the LED) to the positive wire (might be red) of the USB. You can also feel free to use heat shrink, electrical tape, or coat hanger/wires in this step to customize the looks and function of your LED here. I used some heat shrink to help wires from touching and to make it look somewhat nice. You can also add in a coat hanger or wire to allow it to flex and hold shape.

Once everything is soldered up and the way you want it, plug it in and make sure it works. Hopefully it glows. If it glows, IT WORKED!

This project is very simple, but feel free to incorporate this into any other uses.