nOOOOOOOds! 

I finally had a chance to work on a project with LED "nOOds" - a product named by Adafruit (that is too fun to not say,) but they also go by "Flexible LED Filament." It's the stuff that's inside all those fun "Edison LED bulbs" that come in all shapes and sizes. 

We needed to create a specific length of nOOd to match the circumference of the case it would be installed in, so we had to combine two lengths together. Connecting the two led to one being super bright and the other super dim, so I had to figure out a resistor value that would balance the two. 

My strategy here was to randomly pick resistors from my bin of random resistors and try them. To my amazement I found one that worked on the third try! What luck!

To give the LED nOOds the brightness they needed, I combined two 6V CR2032 battery packs to create a 12V pack that had a small, flat footprint. I even clipped off one of the switches to make it easier to turn the whole thing on at once. 

But then we ended up adding a big rocker switch to the exterior of the build so that you could turn it on from the edge. 

The LED nOOds shone through the 3D printed case elegantly illuminating the edge. 

This was part of a larger build with animated NeoPixel LEDs that I'll share another time. For now, I can't wait to find another excuse to use nOODS - did I mention they also come in PINK?!?!? I'm actually proud that I haven't splurged on them yet - I'm trying to be better about buying things before I have a project and execution plan. (patting myself on the back)

:)

That's where I am, here I go!