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The Weekend Projects Podcast Reruns continue with the Rodent Powered Nightlight! This was a project inspired by the writing of William Gurstelle. I’ve done a lot of his projects and they’re always awesome!
Make sure to check out the PDF for more detailed instructions!
6 thoughts on “Rodent Powered Nightlight – Best of Weekend Projects”
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two leds in parallel wired with opposing polarity could get you more light from the same amount of mouse work … Bre mentioned as the wheel turns, the AC current generated makes the led blink. a second led wired opposite to the first led would blink opposite the first, using the other ‘half’ of the ac current. combined light from the leds would be more or less constantly, assuming the mouse was having a good run! a 2 leg bi-color led would be useful, combining two diodes in one package.
Or just use a AC to DC converter. What would be interseting though is adding a circuit to this in which you had a capacitor and a photoswitch. That way it would just be on during the night. But then again, that takes the fun out of seeing when the mouse is running. Although you could install a small laser in place of the led and have it shine across the room which would be funny.
You could indeed use an AC to DC converter — a rectifier, in fact. But such a rectifier would include diodes, probably four of them. There’d be two diode voltage drops in series with the LED — 1.4V in all, roughly. That’s 1.4V less voltage available to light the LED (red LEDs need about 1.5 to 2V to light up, white ones nearer 3.5 to 4V). Using two LEDs back-to-back would not have the disadvantage of the voltage loss.