I Need These Cordless, Battery-Free LED Lego Bricks For My Next Build
Adding task lighting is a fun way to take Lego creation to the next level. And the company even includes lighting features in some of its sets. including a glowing Christmas tree. But this clever trick makes integrating lighting into a design incredibly easy, thanks to the same technology that makes wireless charging possible.
Lego’s
Lego’s approach to light elements includes a battery-powered brick with an LED inside that is bright enough to glow through other transparent elements. In a recent Holiday set “Santa’s visit”, the LED block is inside the Christmas tree. But its glow can be seen from the outside through the transparent tiles that act as Christmas lights. There are non-original lighting solutions for Lego. But they use transparent elements, complemented by tiny LEDs that are connected to a power source through very thin wires. With proper planning, these wires can be mostly hidden. But not completely, and they can be fragile. So taking a Lego Batmobile with working headlights might not be the best idea.
Cultural Guttural
YouTuber Cultural Guttural came up with a potentially better way to light. A Lego build that minimizes wires and building restrictions. And the hardware is cheap and easily available online. Inside the cordless phone. The charger is a coil of wire that, when energized, can induce a current in an adjacent coil without touching it. This is what allows smartphones and wireless headphones to charge wirelessly. And why this technology is also often referred to as inductive charging. It doesn’t provide enough power to power a device like a smartphone without a battery. But it can easily power smaller electronics like low-power LEDs.
This $20 Bundle ($28) on AliExpress includes wireless powered LEDs that are small enough to fit into clear Lego bricks (not flat panels) and when placed next to a thin power coil they will glow on their own. As a cultural-gutural demonstrates in this video, glow bricks can be mixed with other bricks. And even stacked eight bricks high while still glowing. The farther away the tiny LEDs are from the powered coil, the less intense they become. But multiple coils can be integrated into the base of the display or even into the larger model itself, extending the range of wireless power delivery.
Lego Ideas platform
Unfortunately, while the idea was submitted to the Lego Ideas platform. Where builders can share their creations with the possibility of the company turning them into actual sets if there was enough fan support, Lego ultimately rejected the application, citing the platform’s strict rules. Banning non-existent Lego bricks and pieces. This may well inspire Lego to come up with its own take on LEDO (as this manufacturer calls them). But until that time, thankfully, it’s a fairly simple and straightforward upgrade that’s cheaper than most Lego sets.
This article is reprinted from Kotaku Australia. Read original articlee.
