Ping pong ball LED diffuser

Note to self: ping pong balls make nice LED diffusers.

I tried sitting the ball on top of an LED, that did work but the brightness was greatly reduced. Next I tried drilling a small hole, just big enough for the LED. This works very well. There is a noticeable bright spot on the ball but in general the entire ball lights up well.

A reader of the uC Hobby Blog writes:

Try stuffing the ball with crushed paper napkins(the cheaper you can get), they get rid of the “halo” on top of the ball.

Link (Via MAKE)

[#1 posted by Takuan , February 21, 2008 3:28 PM]

sand the top of the LED

[#2 posted by Rob Cockerham , February 21, 2008 3:48 PM]

Will this help or harm the effectiveness of my CCD camera-masking UV LED necklace?

[#3 posted by Takuan , February 21, 2008 3:51 PM]

get back on that cross!

[#4 posted by celestialcereal , February 21, 2008 4:30 PM]

i bought some lights at ikea that are basically the same thing, just all strung together.

http://flickr.com/photos/katetomlinson/2151286584/

[#5 posted by gigarizel , February 21, 2008 5:13 PM]

There have been some killer burningman installations using the same idea over the last 3 or 4 years. One of the coolest was the cubatron! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqexlHt1Mw0

[#6 posted by gigarizel , February 21, 2008 5:18 PM]

here is a better cubatron link http://www.nw.com/nw/projects/brc/

[#7 posted by mr crunky , February 21, 2008 5:23 PM]

here's a nice big photo i took of cubatron in '06.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onetinyatom/1436166781/sizes/l/in/set-72157602143412224/

[#8 posted by Plurr , February 21, 2008 5:58 PM]

I second the sanding, if you take the round tip off of the LED it really helps disperse the light off the tip less directly.

[#9 posted by MadMolecule , February 21, 2008 8:04 PM]

Is there any problem with heat buildup?

[#10 posted by Takuan , February 21, 2008 8:12 PM]

depends on the LED, what's the wattage?

[#11 posted by iamh2o , February 21, 2008 10:24 PM]

Someone at Burning Man has brought out a large installation of LED's diffused by ping pong balls, and controlled to create the most amazing effects.

This set up is a circle, where columns of LED's make up the radii of the circle. Video does no justice, but gives an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqexlHt1Mw0

[#12 posted by misterchinaski , February 21, 2008 11:20 PM]

ping pong balls look like hot air balloonz.

[#13 posted by Buttermaker , February 22, 2008 1:01 AM]

If you want to save yourself some time and effort...
Can't find them on their website, but Ikea has entire frickin' chandeliers make out of LEDs in ping pong-like balls. They have strings of them to (like xmas lights).

[#14 posted by digitaltribes , February 22, 2008 1:07 AM]

LED Ping Pong Porn from the 23C3.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitaltribes/sets/72157594470327257/

[#15 posted by minimalniemand , February 22, 2008 1:54 AM]

I see an array of 1920 x 1080 ping pong balls, each with a red, green and blue LED in it giving me a 76,8 meter wide and 43,2 meter high FullHD Display.

[#16 posted by JPen , February 22, 2008 2:03 AM]

Huge 3D display made from LED illuminated ping pong balls. I work with the chap who designed this for Zurich's main train station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIp2wFGVdw

[#17 posted by Julian Bond , February 22, 2008 2:24 AM]

Ping-Pong throwies?

[#18 posted by karlklar , February 22, 2008 3:57 AM]

I did basically the same, but with plastic fishes (including the battery inside the fish)

http://www.karlklar.at/lichtfischen/lang/en/

=)

[#19 posted by Jack Caesar , February 22, 2008 5:28 AM]

Those pictures can only make me think of The Invisibles.

Barbelith is go.

[#20 posted by niro5 , February 22, 2008 5:36 AM]

Finally, a way to diffuse my LEDs AND use my Captain Kangaroo-esque collection of ping-pong balls.

[#21 posted by Jeff , February 22, 2008 7:48 AM]

There will be no heat issues. They do make these things for holidays.

[#22 posted by adrianv , February 22, 2008 12:14 PM]

i did something similar a few months ago. i used white on the tip of the LED to diffuse the bright spot.

http://flickr.com/photos/adrianv/2067330937/