The extra-safe USB crystal lamp.

<a href="https://youtu.be/uFadwQojmjU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uFadwQojmjU</a> my first attempt at this light. It's recorded in daylight so the LEDs can't be seen, for whatever reason, 5 mins of filming was compressed into 14 seconds. Took forever to get the water/salt ratio just right. Please let me know what you think.

Neil Tonks

I wonder how fun/dangerous this would be with an array of cheap laser diodes in the base. Although I understand they have an even worse lifetime than knockoff leds.

Btw, I totally cheated with your music quiz. Downloaded the youtube video, stripped out the audio, loaded it into Audacity, time shrunk it 8x using Audacity's granular synthesis ("Change Tempo") plugin then let Soundhound on my phone identify it. But this *is* a tech blog after all..

Gordo

Brian Eno

Demolished Man

The music sounds like Vangelis ;-)

Gordo

Wow that's cool. Thank you, Clive!

Michael Thompson

Hi Clive, When you mentioned the component leader bender not being popular I thought that would be down to 3d printing, the way I do it may be handy for some of your projects. The first job is to go to thingiverse and look for designs that you can download, I found the component lead bender here: <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1467855," rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1467855,</a> or create your own or modify an existing design. Then I use www.3dhubs.com to find someone to print it and send it to me, the component lead bender comes in as low as £4.58 depending on the type of plastic you choose. I've got a few handy little things this way for just a few quid at at time without needing to spend hundreds of pounds on a 3d printer.

I've never thought about a Northern Ireland meet-up, but I could take a ferry across at some point.

Big Clive

Now I know you're talking to me (old timer here).. I ordered one of those lead formers off eBay and it's great - I have a fold+crop hand tool and this is a lot handier.. Btw, I'm a huge fan of your Poundland plastic shot "glasses" - these suckers are great, not just for mixing epoxy, but for keeping screws of equipment under repair together, small parts for part-complete projects etc. Nice! Btw, any plans for a meet-up in Northern Ireland?

Gordo

Clive, I haven't made pcbs for yonks (a yonk is 10 years). I ordered some etch-resist film and got an old light-box off eBay - also Mega Electronics but the lights are in the base, I notice yours has the lights in the lid (never seen that before). You said that you were surprised an exposure of 60s was adequate, as you were giving it much longer. I'm wondering, what difference did that make. I assume if you underexpose it, the resist hasn't hardened enough and washes away. What happens if you overexpose it??

Gordo

Music is a bit Pink Floyd - Shine On you Crazy Diamond-ish.

Brendan Perkins

Alas no, despite one of my favourite anbient entrance tracks being the captain EO one.

Big Clive

These lamps are great! You mention that you use salt water solution for the liquid - what sort of strength would you recommend? Also, what is your source for the plastic diamonds? Thanks.

I the musicis from 2001 space... But I not sure.

Okay, could you utalise the space left in the base to provide audio? Say a 5 min loop of that track?

Ian James

No idea of the music, but the build and the video of the crystals have left me so relaxed I'm now useless for anything :)

Phil Collins

I've had good luck buying LEDs on AliExpress. It's best to find a seller that only sells LEDs (generally true of any that hyper specialize like that) and give them a try. I'm gonna have to make an SMD version of this for my next PCB order. There's even enough space on a board that size for an ESP8266 wifi microcontroller and a pwm chip on the back... Tempting...

Kadah

My God Clive! ...I must admit that I'm a little stoned, and that lamp is just mesmerizing... 😶😶😶 That's another project to the collection... 😏 Keep inspiring Mr.! 👌

I see there's already a winner in the YouTube comments but do I get a bonus prize for pointing out that although it's on the soundtrack album, it's not actually used in the film. 🙂

Dang I was going to say 2001 a space odyssey 😢 or is it from the move abyss

2001: A Space Odyssey

James Horner?

Charles

Vangelis?

Howard Shore

David Glover-Aoki