Argos Laser Sphere.

This unit has all the lasers in series and relies on the fact that red lasers are usually very easy to drive with little more than a resistor to limit current. Other colours could be added, but would require a power supply addition to make them work properly.

Big Clive

Hey Clive, sorry I'm late to the party. Haven't been on lately. I just saw this video. I own one (or two? Can't remember) laser motion doodads and I have 1 that runs year round for my dog who loves these things. It's a dual color one. I have a question for you. Could you replace two of the red lasers in this video with other colored lasers? If so, can you do a video on it?

Mr Train

I managed to get the last one. I have cut the tracks to the RGB LED'S and added a mix of fast and slow RGB stand alone LED's. That made it a lot more interesting. A fast changing RGB LED works very well on the outer lenses. Then I remembered a had a couple of naf cheapo green laser pointers in a draw. I was going to mount them near the three existing red ones but changed my mind at the last minute. I had a few tiny self adhesive mirror's and stuck them to the outer edges of the PCB then mounted the green laser diodes to the sides of the housing and aimed them at the stuck on mirror's on the PCB. Well the actual globe looks a total mess but the effect on the ceiling is great. The only side effect is a few beams shoot of at wider angles some of them as low as 60 to 70 degrees so watch your eyes !! Will try and get some video's of it. I may try putting in a tube with some more stick on the inside of the tube. It should look a lot better and I wonder what a few more mirrors round the inside of the tube will do. The sky is the limit with this. Its only limited by your imagination. The only problem I see is that its easy to go to mad and spoil it :-) Have fun.... Thanks for the heads up on this one clive. It's great fun to play about with but at this rate I think I am going to overload the PSU components :-D

I've just got one for £7.50 from the Argos in Sainsburys in Ashton-Under-Lyne. I'm very impressed with them, but thought that the Green and Blue LEDs overwhelmed the lasers somewhat, so I disconnected the emitter resistors from those channels, which just left the red LEDs coming on from time to time. I also found that the lasers were slightly more "intense" if I removed the clear inner plastic cover. There's a video of it in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwM5Nj1GI30

Gary Bleads

Well you inspired me to make a quick trip into Argos, now tripping out watching it on the ceiling 😂

Graham Eida

Though in the time it took me to type that, the first one failed and no longer rotates. ...and the power switch doesn't turn it off any more.

Andy Brown

Two delivered today, £7.50 each. Had to after seeing the start of that video. My children's bedroom ceilings will soon look like something from Ghostbusters. LED and laser changes planned already.

Andy Brown

They are on Ebay as I type range from $50 - $80 Aud

Richard Boyce

I'd probably use less LEDs, but higher power 1W units.

Big Clive

Many glaziers will cut you a disk of rippled toilet window glass to your requirements. I got quite a few different styles to experiment with a while ago.

Big Clive

You should make a new circuit board for it with more modern electronics and MORE LEDS

TomArnd

This is really cool. I have to get me one of those, and also create a replica of that "lense"

Andreas

You might be able to order one for delivery online.

Big Clive

That's about right at its current sale price. I paid about £12.50 for this one, but they've reduced the price further.

Big Clive

£7.50 but none left at all the stores within 14 miles of Milton Keynes.

Demolished Man

Wow that's a cool effect! These are neat!

Michael Thompson

The "clearance, 70% off" bit might have something to do with it :-)

Thanks Clive.

Nuts 'n' Proud

Geeze! These are all over the place on the net for €35 or so. The Argus store has them £8. I know that there is an exchange rate between the UK and Europe, but it isn't that much.

Rocco Rizzo

Nice little light. Can't seem to buy from USA though. :(

I would bypass that little COB in that case. The flicker of the outputs would reset the color changing back to red almost constantly I would imagine.

Dustin

How much did it cost you? I've one ordered from my local Argos for €8.99. Is there much of a difference in the exchange rate?

John Carr

Nice bit of kit. I would like to try replacing the LED's with individual slow color change LED"s

Charles Bruckner

That looks like a cool effect. It kinda makes me sad that stores where I live don't stock stuff like that...

Amos Bannister

I have a slightly different version of that. It's SWELL!

B3