Most compact lighting

[anothergol]

How frigging cool is this?

Years ago I had posted about "fishing LEDs" that are pretty much 3mm LEGO-bar-sized batteries with a LED attached. And I've used them a bit but they're still a bit too long.

Here I needed something for the eyes of my T-800, but didn't really wanna have to pass wires through everything until a large box, so I checked out for other options.
Remember i-Brix? Well Ali is filled with induction LED kits now. I loved the idea, but it really seems that the range isn't great at all, and the lights themselves are quite big.

So I found these. It's pretty much the size of the battery, + the wires that the seller cuts on demand, and the second tiniest LEDs out there. Pretty amazing.
Wires are still thick and I had to cut through my support part, but well it's that or it's wonky on the stud, it will always be a problem I guess.
And the switch is frigging magnetic, you just swipe a magnet over the head and the eyes light up!

Not gonna change anything in the world of modular lighting, but it's pretty amazing for mechs & vehicles.

[MAB]

It is a shame they are using such thick wires. You can get very fine, almost hair thin, wires that are perfectly suitable for the low currents needed for LEDs. They are so thin, you can run them between bricks and you don't even notice they are there.

[Feuer Zug]

Way cool setup, lighting the eyes of the T-800 from a self contained setup in the head. I've seen the hair thin wires as @MAB mentioned. They would work, but might not be necessary here.

[anothergol]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

It is a shame they are using such thick wires. You can get very fine, almost hair thin, wires that are perfectly suitable for the low currents needed for LEDs. They are so thin, you can run them between bricks and you don't even notice they are there.

The sleeve is a bit thick but the wires inside are pretty thin. Also they were naked half a cm before the LED, making it even easier.
But still not hair-thin like what you're talking about, I've seen those yeah.

I'd be worried though, I accidentally unsoldered another LED pressing the stud too much.

[MAB]

2 hours ago, anothergol said:

The sleeve is a bit thick but the wires inside are pretty thin. Also they were naked half a cm before the LED, making it even easier.
But still not hair-thin like what you're talking about, I've seen those yeah.

I'd be worried though, I accidentally unsoldered another LED pressing the stud too much.

The hair wires are also difficult to solder, as unskilled people like me tend to have the soldering iron too hot and the thin wires melt. I tend instead to wrap them around contacts, then cover the lot in hot glue to act as both a fixer and as insulation.

[Lego Tom]

On 8/1/2023 at 12:23 PM, MAB said:

The hair wires are also difficult to solder, as unskilled people like me tend to have the soldering iron too hot and the thin wires melt. I tend instead to wrap them around contacts, then cover the lot in hot glue to act as both a fixer and as insulation.

You might look into hot air soldering, used on surface mount electronics.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Lego Tom said:

You might look into hot air soldering, used on surface mount electronics.

It's not worth it for the amount I do.