BB8 Lights?

So I have this amazing dome from Rocketeer, and I was wondering if anybody knew how to add lights onto BB8 head? I have a few ideas on how to, but as I am no professional, I was wondering if anybody made a step by step tutorial? It doesn't need to be fancy, even fixed lights wouldn't be a problem, as long it's easy to make haha x)... I have been looking on the forum for this, and I don't seem to find anything about it! Thanks!

There probably are some threads over at the BB-8 builders club....

I'm not clear of the issue here?

Is it how to mount the leds or something?

Unless you want to use a microcontroller (ie: arduino or similar)... then it should just be a straight forward install..

battery of choice (stay away form the +9v rectangle batteries)..

some leds, and some resistors.

(oh and of course a switch)..


if you wanted to do more.. such as make it bluetooth or wi-fi controllable .. then you'd need a microcontroller. (which still is fairly easy)

xl97 said:

I'm not clear of the issue here?

Is it how to mount the leds or something?

Unless you want to use a microcontroller (ie: arduino or similar)... then it should just be a straight forward install..

battery of choice (stay away form the +9v rectangle batteries)..

some leds, and some resistors.

(oh and of course a switch)..


if you wanted to do more.. such as make it bluetooth or wi-fi controllable .. then you'd need a microcontroller. (which still is fairly easy)

Click to expand...

Well, I don't really know electronics, I do have a solder, but I'm not really literate enough to figure these out, so that's why I wanted a step by step tutorial, i'm a bit a newbie with this..

It's just to install the lights, like what components I'd need, and what I have to do to do it either static or wifi controllable..

ahh.. I see.

Well "it depends"..

I'm not sure what LED you want to use..(where?.. nor how many?)

but possibly just the '1' red led? (from looking at the pic)

Most red accent leds run off of +1.7-+2.1 volts.. and need roughly 20mA at full brightness.

What resistor value you need to use depends on the battery source *(and of course the leds specs..but we'll use whats note above)

Use the led resistor calculator found here:
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

you can enter in the details of the components you wish to use.

ie:

Supply Voltage: (batter source) +3.0 volts (assuming 2 x AA batteries)

Diode Forward Voltage: (voltage required for your led of choice).. for this I just use +2.0v assuming red and between +1.7v - +2.1v)

Diode Forward Current: (mA) (the current the led needs to light up nice and bright) 20mA

Calculator says you need roughly 56 Ohms of resistance.. (ie: 56Ohm 1/8watt resistor)

So:

battery (2 x AA)
switch
wires
red accent led (roughly +2.0v/20mA specs)
1 x 56 Ohm resistor

If you want to do more advanced.. I can help but you have some reading and homework ahead of you! lol

I finished a BB -8 with LEDs (no programming or soldering). You can take a look here and see if this design would work.

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=263478