Flat CRT Flowers

color leds and dark garden are all what is required to make magic

with some plastic bottles this magic takes form of tall flowers that look like flat CRT screens

leds
power supply
resistors
wires
plastic bottles
aluminium foil
plastic sticks (thin pipe or rail preferred) 0.5 M long few MM thick

common tools
hot glue gun

cut the cone top from a bottle in a size you'd like

cut the side (the part with the label) from a bottle. use bottle with clear and flat side

i recommend using round objects as guides. for the cone part a roll of duct tape is a guide

cut below the line you marked or wipe it with alcohol so it wont remain there

hold together of the cone and the stretched top. catch in 2 - 4 points with a bit of hot glue. try to make the top as flat as possible. its better to let it bow a bit out than in - so it does not catch rain water

go over the entire edge and seal it with thin line of hot glue

the first few attempts dont look very well - uneven amounts of glue and sometimes it also warps from the heat. but after them youll make it great

i dont have hot glue (and did it after school) so i tried to weld it with soldering tool instead. it is way harder and is not very strong - the covers pop off if you press it from the side. its also not sealed at all

cut a piece of aluminium foil

roll it loosely (so it wont remember that it was rolled) and get it into the CRT thru the neck

push to the corners inside

the easiest shape to make that performs well is square with cut corners

if the reflector falls down inside dont worry - you can push the led or a piece of wire against it later

make holes in the caps and insert them on the sticks

stick 'em in the ground

go to the online led wizard and design your circuit

each series link can go thru several flowers. the resistor can be installed in one of them

lay wires in the ground appropriately

connect leds and resistors

connect the power supply and see if everything works

close the flowers

if a reflector is falling inside then support it from below with the led itself or a free wire

yay !

the blue led is quite powerfull. it lights the ground clearly up to 2 M distance despite the tall grass

i tried to direct it to a specific location. the result are quite bright

bend the isolated wires up a bit so the reflector cant fall on the led wires and short them

i tried to make a flower with 4 white leds

their light is very bright. you can clearly see in several meters from it

i tried to direct it. its light could be seen on the ground and walls of up to 2 homes away

(but if you really want to see the power of one small white led go to the desert. youll see its light spot 2 mountain away and a sky full of stars. youll want to shut down every single streetlamp near your home)

here are all the shots together