Favorite uses for LED light bulbs Favorite uses for LED light bulbs We get emails and phone calls all the time asking us the best places to use LED light bulbs. Here is a list of some of the places we think LED bulbs are especially useful: Lamps: Lamps are a great place to use LED light bulbs. The lamp shade will help deflect the light trumping the directness of LED lights. Plus when the lamp gets knocked over, your bulb will survive the crash. Bathroom: Most likely the most used light switch in the house will be the bathroom light switch. Incandescent and CFL light bulbs don't like being turned on and off very often. This is why an LED light bulb is the perfect solution for your bathroom lighting needs. Line up a few bulbs in your vanity and fill the can lights with LED bulbs as well. It will take years before you have to worry about changing out the bulbs again! Motion Lights: A lot of homes and business have motion sensors on their outdoor lights. They turn on and off when someone walks by or drives by and even when the wind blows!
Not only will a LED light bulb save energy in this situation, it will take the abuse of being turned on and off all the time! Always On: This happens mostly in businesses, where there is a safety light on all the time. The fastest way to recoup the cost of a LED light bulb is to have it turned on all the time! This makes LED bulbs the perfect solution for those lighting applications that are turned on all the time! Mood Lighting: Mood lighting tends to be hidden in tight places making them a pain to change when they burn out. LED light bulbs have a super long life making them the perfect replacement for those tough to reach places! Kid and Pet Proof: Not only do LED light bulbs last a really long time, they also are made out of plastic instead of glass. That makes them the perfect light bulb in areas where kids and pets play. You never have to worry about little Jonny smashing the basements lights while playing ping pong! Plus LED bulbs don't release mercury when they are broken!
Landscape Lighting: Not only are landscape lights on all night, they also are prone to getting kicked around and stomped on. By changing your landscape light bulbs to LED light bulbs you will save energy and save the hassle of changing broken bulbs! Galleries: Art galleries always have spot lights focused on their displays. Why not use a LED light bulb to light up the next Mona Lisa? LED par lights are very focused, cool running and UV free light sources. Display Cases: LED light bulbs are perfect for display cases for your home or store. They emit hardly any damaging UV light and the cool running bulb won't burn your hand or melt you products! Hobbyist Lights: If you are a stamp collector a LED bulbs is for you! A cool white LED light bulb will show off the true beauty of your collection. They are also very cool running so they won't damage your precious collection. Garage Door Openers: Also known as light bulb destroyers, garage door openers are very tough on light bulbs due to their vibrating nature.
By using LED light bulbs in your opener you may never have to change the bulbs again! LED's are very good at taking a beating from vibrating sources. Flashlight Upgrades and Accessories Weapon Lights and Mounts Christmas Light Recycling Program Favorite Uses for LED Light BulbsRaspberry Pi, the credit-card sized, $35 Linux computer, has been on the market for under a year, but excited hackers are using the platform for dozens of new, cool projects and accessory products every month. Since our last Raspberry Pi roundup we've found 10 more amazing projects that show how versatile this diminutive PCB is. From voice-activated coffeemakers to wall-hanging plotters, the Raspberry Pi is proving to be a fruitful addition to the maker's toolbox. Above: Black Stripes V-Plotter A design drone with a Raspberry Pi brain, developed to turn full-color photographs into huge black-and-white murals. It's an evolution of the popular "V-Plotter" style artbot; the on-board RPi turns bitmap data into vectors that can be drawn with a robotically controlled marker.
While the frame and plotter have a distinct Home Depot vibe, the output of the Black Stripes drawing robot is gallery worthy. The code for the project is closed source, but the team does accept commissions for murals starting at 149 euros (~$200). Photos: Black StripesDeviantArt Picture Frame Digital picture frames have a lot of potential, but aside from a few Instagram-themed efforts, they haven't kept pace with the amazing stuff being developed and shared on the internet. Hacker Cameron Wiebe thought there was room to reinvent this tired category and put a Raspberry Pi and his DeviantArt account to work. , one of the most popular illustration communities on the web, onto his RPi and dynamically displays the artwork as a slideshow on a digital screen housed in a wall-mounted picture frame. The source code is available on his site and with a little tweaking, pop art lovers could customize it to gather only the finest homages to He-Man or portraits of Pokemon, depending on particular pop-culture preferences.
Photo: Cameron Wiebe Raspberry Pi "Beet Box" A Raspberry Pi, an innovative UI, music, and puns – what more could one ask for in a project? Maker Scott Garner has developed a musical instrument that is as awesome as it is bizarre. Designed for the discriminating techie who loves hip hop and horticulture in equal measure, this instrument wires up real beets to the Raspberry Pi via a capacitive-touch sensor and turns each vegetable into a key to be played. Beets and raspberries would make for a horrible smoothie, but prove to be a fantastic recipe for this tech/art mashup. The materials list is available on Garner's website and the plans are on GitHub. Photos: Scott GarnerVoice-Activated Coffee Machine Voice-activated garage door openers that combine Siri and Raspberry Pi are great for those who have homes with garages, but what of the public-transit urban dwellers? Without cars, their fuel of choice is coffee, and its "garage" is the coffeemaker. Sascha Wolter has modified his coffee machine with a Raspberry Pi, running Java, of course, to respond to voice cues from under-caffeinated creative types.
Voice commands awaken his Barista Bot, but sadly, the only options on this proof of concept so far are "on" and "off." Hopefully, an upgrade that unlocks soy lattes isn't far off. While not quite as cool as the Replicator from Star Trek, this demo shows the days of being able to bark "Earl Grey, hot" and have a fresh cup materialize before your eyes are not that far off. Raspberry Pi Medical Device Input Shield Innovation in healthcare is happening at a rapid clip. Between funding sources like incubator Rock Health and open APIs from companies like Nike, there has never been a better time to serve hypochondriacs. However, it's still difficult for engineers to collect biometric data like blood pressure, galvanic skin response and respiration rates. Enter Libelium, a Spanish wireless hardware manufacturer, that has created a Raspberry Pi/Arduino shield that gives health hackers easy access to these measurements. This shield can collect data from a host of connected peripherals and transmit it to apps via ZigBee, WiFi, or hardwired connections.
The resulting products can't be used in real healthcare settings, but this kind of tool could be incredibly helpful in rapidly prototyping new device ideas or testing out innovative concepts before dealing with the regulations the FDA and international authorities require. Photo: LibeliumPixelated Mario Brothers This mod feels like something you might find if GameStop opened up a gift store in the lobby of the Guggenheim Museum. In reality, it's the collaboration between two members of a hackerspace who combined a DIY matrix of LED lights with custom software (called "Retina Tattoo") that can stream data to it through a network. Using a laptop running a NES emulator, data is fed to a Raspberry Pi, which sends it in real time to the light matrix, and ultimately lands in Bowser's castle. The iconic 8-bit classic retains its visual charm, but will take some calibration for experienced players. Mario is now represented by just two pixels, a magenta block as the body and an orange box as a head.
He still jumps through levels, but can easily meet his end by colliding with an abstract Koopa shell that would make Ad Reinhardt proud. Photo: KallaballaRPi Media Center Case Mod A relatively powerful and quiet microprocessor, Raspberry Pi's low cost and plug-and-play design make it a favorite of media-center modders. There are plenty of resources to help with the technical aspects of building an entertainment computer, but this Instructable explains how to turn a humble case mod into a glowy set-top box from the future. While we all wait for Apple to release its fabled TV, the Raspberry Pi's glowing geek icon will be the next best option. Photo: InstructablesRaspberry Pi Light Show The new Hue Wireless LED lights from Phillips are amazing and expensive. This project can help achieve similar effects using a Raspberry Pi and much more affordable "DMX" light fixtures. "DMX" is shorthand for an ANSI standard called "Entertainment Technology—USITT DMX512-A—Asynchronous Serial Digital Data Transmission Standard for Controlling Lighting Equipment and Accessories."
DMX lighting setups are favorites of DJs and interior decorators. The lights are relatively affordable, but typically require large, expensive, specialized hardware to control. Until Mike Engeldinger, an engineer and lighting enthusiast figured out how to turn a $200 DMX controller device into just another app for the Raspberry Pi. Now Broadway-caliber lighting can be brought to the most humble of abodes. Photo: InstructablesRotary VOIP Phone Smartphones are de rigueur these days so what's a geek to do to maintain their early adopter cred? Hack a rotary phone with a Raspberry Pi, of course. Stuart Johnson, a hardware hacker from the UK bought a classic 1970's rotary phone and updated its innards with a new RPi board and upgraded software for VOIP calling. The phone replicates the classic shrill ring perfectly, and the fact that it looks just like the red phone in the BatCave only adds to its coolness. Unfortunately, however, it yet can't make VOIP calls, yet. Johnson is waiting on special permission to use the Skype API for his project, has tried lesser known protocols with limited success, and invites like minded hackers to connect on his virtual switchboard.