CD case illuminART

Re-purpose unwanted CD cases (which are commonly dumped) to make illuminated art that can hang on your wall, be used as a nightlight, grouped with others to make a mosaic, and even hooked up to a micro-controller to create a multimedia installation.

You will need:

  • CD case
  • Coloured markers or felt pens
  • Insulated wire (35-45cm)
  • 3V coin battery e.g. CR2032
  • White LED
  • Cellotape
  • (Optional) Soft foam & Copper or metal tape, or tin foil

1. Check the LED and battery work

Put the LED legs on either side of the coin battery. Make sure the longest leg is on the smooth side which has a + sign (positive). If it’s not working, try switching them around. Why does this work? What’s going on? What are electrons? How does the LED make light?

2. Make a conductivity tester

Bend your LED legs so they do the splits! If you bend them too often they will break off.


Place the longest leg on the smooth side of the battery and tape it down (use a big bit of tape so you can wrap it right around the battery in the next step)

The smooth side has a plus sign (+) which means "positive".

Now flip over the battery, get your wire and put the metal end of the wire on the bumpy side and tape that down .

The bumpy side is the "negative" side. Positive and negative attract, like with two magnets.

Touch the other end of the wire to the free LED leg - does it light up? If not, try switching the legs around, or make sure the wire and the leg are touching the battery. If it lights up, congratulations!

The Science

The Positive (+) and Negative (-) sides of the battery attract, so when you connect them with wire, tiny particles called electrons start moving through the wire and LED light, around in a circle/circuit.

Now you can test which materials electrons can race through (conductors) and which ones slow them down (insulators)!

The Science

Some atoms hold onto their electrons tightly (insulators), while others have a few free electrons which can jump to other atoms (conductors).

3. Create paper INSERT for your art

White paper helps to illuminate the whole drawing better by diffusing the light (spreading it out). Trace around the closed CD onto white paper.


4. Get creative with your DRAWING

Now it’s time to draw your masterpiece.

You can draw something that’s important to you, something that someone you know might like, something related to your inquiry, or it could be part of a mosaic with a friend or your class.

When you're done, open up the CD case, take out the plastic middle bit which holds the CD.

Cut out your drawing and test the size - it needs to fit in the biggest side. You might need to trim the width so that it fits.


5. Add your conductivity tester

Place your battery+LED on the side you haven’t drawn on, so that the LED is in the centre of that side. Tape down the battery, then thread the wire through a side-hole then back through the other side-hole so the wire looks like this:


Tape down the wire so that the free end is connected to the free leg of the LED.

6. Test out your artwork in the dark!

Using the wire as a handle, hold it up against a wall - it should create a nice glow around it!

7. Create a switch (optional)

It’s a good idea to create a switch to turn your LED on and off, so that you don’t waste energy. You can do this by moving the wire end away from the LED or by making a switch which turns the light on when the CD case is shut. Read on to make this.

First move the free wire end and LED leg apart about 0.5cm. Bend a ~4cm x 2cm bit of foam packaging in half, place it on the paper so that when the lid is closed it connects the free wire to the free leg, without touching the LED head or battery. Tape the bent foam down (not too tightly), and close the lid to check that it still touches the metal wire and leg. Reposition if needed. Cut and apply metal tape or foil on top of the foam, and tape down the sides if needed.


Test that your switch works by closing the lid - the LED should light up. If not, check where the break in the circuit is, and fix.


Challenge!

  1. Think of how you could connect a micro:bit, Arduino, or other micro-controller and use it to make your artwork more interesting or useful.
  2. Use a micro:bit, Arduino, or other micro-controller to turn on the LED when it is dark.
  3. Group challenge: create a story with your artwork, with each CD case showing a different part of the story. Control the LEDs with your micro:bit, makey-makey, or Arduino, and connect to Scratch to programme the different CD cases to light up as the story is told.