Check it:
So inexpensive, hard to imagine how we could make our own for less.
Unless you have a unique design, the hardware is too cheap to make it worth it at home, seems like.
You are correct, with most anything, if you want one exactly like this, just buy it. Now if you have your own ideas…
This on’es $3 cheaper, and comes with a remote.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6VKOQS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
4 Likes
you’ve hit the nail on the head.
If you are bootlegging, there is always gonna be another bootlegger who will undercut you.
7 Likes
Nothing is worth making unless you have a unique design. Except sandwiches. But dont assume everyone wants the cheapest thing they can find; they absolutely don’t. Especially when you’re talking about an electronic device they’re going to put in their house. Or their kid’s bedroom or nursery. Perceived value is real, but so is actual value. Make the exact same one out of UL listed components, and you might be surprised at how many people are willing to pay more. Theyre a different market for the same product. Like parents who buy delicious fruit snacks and parents who spend way more for the expensive, organic, healthy, just-made-with-strawberries fruit snacks. They’re both fruit snacks, but the one is never going to buy the other.
7 Likes
That’s a good perspective, especially when it comes to safety.
1 Like
Hehe, I looked at the auctions on eBay and bid $5 on a bunch of those that you show in the first post. I won 2 of them for $3 each with free shipping. I ended up getting the hulk and the millennium falcon. I eventually plan on making these bases myself… but for $3… I’m just going to take off the acrylic that comes with them and add my own for now.
2 Likes
I’m going to make them out of Adafruit trinket controllers. The controller is $7 each, the lights are $20 for 4 meters and I’ll need a switch to turn it on and switch colors. I’m making a bunch, so the 4 meters of lights are a good deal for me. I’ll only use 2" of lights at a time.
That black base doesn’t fit the acrylic securely and I’ve been taking them apart to make my own wood bases anyway.
Shipment will be here tomorrow, should be a fun little project.
4 Likes
Trinket’s a nice little board, but if I were you I’d look closely at the Arduino Nano. Lots more flexibility (more pins, better processor – the trinket uses the attiny85, which is nice, but pretty limited on all fronts), not much larger, but far cheaper – check ebay or dx.com, you can get them for $2-$3. The Arduino pro mini is even cheaper (1.50-2), and gets there by sacrificing an onboard USB port. You’d need an FTDI programmer to load your code onto it. I use both, and always reach for the nanos first.
I can’t wait to see what you make!
5 Likes
Thank you very much for the info. I was just looking for a small 5v board with a couple outputs. If I can do it even less expensive, count me in.
I want to use the USB port for power, so the Nano might do fine.
$17 is about $13 more than I think an LED base is worth.
3 Likes
So, forgive me if this is stuff you already know, but:
Be careful of powering LEDs off the board itself. Almost all arduino boards have very lean power supply ability. Typical draw on a WS2812B is 60 mA at full brightness white color,** which is too much for the nano to supply with a data pin (which are specced to 40mA max). You can get away with it using the +5v pin, usually, but I would test the voltage coming off to be sure it’s right around +5. Something the regulators are sketchy on those boards.
The 100% way to be sure is to have a 5v power supply in to a barrel connector, then split that to the arduino’s +5 pin and the +5 pin on the strip, and tie everything back to the same ground. This way you never run the power for your lights through your arduino at all, it’s in parallel.
That way you can get a cheap wall wart with a 2.1mm barrel jack, and you’re good to go. it’s easy to get 2.1mm female plugs and whatnot, much easier than wrangling a USB jack in your case.
** you almost never run it at full white. These things are actually 3 little leds (sometimes 4, depending on which led module you have), so 60 mA reflects 3 leds [red green and blue] at about 20mA apiece. A more typical power draw is about 1/3 of that. So for 2 leds, you’ll be right around 40 mA for most colors at full brightness. You’re really close to the safe limit with a data pin, so I wouldn’t recommend it. Parallel power rails are the way to go, says me.
7 Likes
These are the ones I got.
They seem to work just fine.
I don’t have the time to get an arduino setup going just yet. we are still in flux from the move.
However, once I get moved in and my shop operational I FINALLY, will get to make cool stuff. 
a question: is it legal to produce and sell a millenium falcon?
3 Likes
Yes. Provided you have Disney’s permission.
1 Like
i doubt that any of that lamps on amazon has this
What’s your point?
3D printing has been asking this question for years.
Way it works is to ask if it is practical. So hinges, boxes, etc, have no copyrights.
Even if pure art, if making for personal usage you will be ok.
When you put a price tag on it, now you are infringing on someone.
Music ran into the same issues. You could make a mix tape for yourself. If you made them to sell, then you have crossed the line.
Even with all that known, I have seen a metric ton of Disney items all across the spectrum, so I have to assume they do not go after the small mom/pop enterprises selling them.
BUT, try to make some NFL rip off items for sales.
1 Like
If someone reports the mom/pop small businesses to Disney, they’ll get a C&D letter. I knew some prop makers (2 people make up the biz) that make some really neat replicas of Avengers stuff. At a comic con, they gave Stan Lee a mashup prop they made that was a combo of a few characters. They got a C&D letter from the Marvel lawyers in under a week.
1 Like
From what I understand, Disney (and companies of their ilk - Nickelodeon, Hasbro, etc) will also go after even small sellers for making anything potentially dangerous, like children’s toys, baby clothing, etc. Because, presumably, the last thing they would want would be a news story reporting that a baby choked on an eyeball that fell off of a “Disney” product.
1 Like