Homemade flashlight powered by water. DIY water lanterns: two manufacturing options Water lanterns

Yes, yes, despite the snow and frost outside the window, today we decided to arrange the launch of water lanterns. I think if the gnomes suddenly needed to travel on water, they would definitely choose something like our flashlights as their means of transportation.

It is not difficult to make such a flashlight. We need corrugated paper - green for leaves and any suitable for petals. And also something that sticks well on the water for the base of the flower. I use circles cut out of styrofoam food pads, but if you run your flashlights not at home, but in a real pond, I beg you - use something more eco-friendly! For example, cork coasters for mugs or wooden cuts, or even cones fastened together. Well, or tie strings to your lanterns so that after the end of the event you can fish them out of the water and dispose of them properly.

For one floating flashlight, you will need two foam circles, 5 green leaves and 9 petals. Each leaf and petal must be pulled with both hands along the middle so that the corrugated paper is slightly stretched and the petal acquires volume. This movement is difficult to explain, but if you once. Try it and you'll immediately understand what I mean.

We glue green leaves to the first foam mug, and glue the second circle on top. I use PVA glue.

Then we take the blue petals and glue the first five on the foam circle in the first row, and the remaining 4 in the second.

Hide the ugly middle of the flower smeared with glue by gluing a tea candle there. Our flower lantern is ready!

Literally in half an hour I built three such lanterns and hid them until the evening.

And in the evening she filled the bath and launched my flowers there. The only thing, be aware that such lanterns are very fire hazardous, so you can light the candles themselves only when the lantern is already floating in the water. Well, it’s unlikely that you will be able to swim in the bathtub where such lanterns floated, because. corrugated paper gradually inevitably gets wet and leaves such colorful stains in the water. By the way, I immediately thought. that we will definitely use this property in some game in the future.

In the meantime, I turned off the light and called my son to watch the surprise.

Magic! In such a flower-lantern, one immediately imagines floating, if not a dwarf, then just some kind of fairy or elf. And the son most of all liked blowing on the lanterns, which made the flowers on the water begin to spin, and the shadows on the walls dance intricate dances.

Relatively recently, you built a beautiful artificial reservoir in the country. It looks elegant, the guests are delighted, and you like everything. But there is always a feeling that something is missing. Some kind of zest, the last point or something.

You can improve the landscape miracle with additional lighting. It will take quite a bit of time and effort, but after installation, your pond will simply shine. We will talk about the correct arrangement of the backlight.

What can be the backlight for the pond

All light sources can be divided into 2 types:

• Surface.
• Underwater.

Surface lighting is considered the safest and relatively easy to organize. It is outside, and does not touch the water surface. True, it illuminates only the upper part of the reservoir. A type of surface lighting is considered to be a sealed lamp. It will float on the surface of the water.

The underwater lighting option is much more interesting. Together with it, the water acquires a mysterious glow, the volume of the pond visually increases. The effect will increase several times if plants are planted at the bottom, decorated with stones and other elements.

"Underwater" equipment for fountains and ponds is 100% hermetic, has a special waterproof coating. There are no strict requirements for the color of the lamps. It can be absolutely anything. Each lighting device is installed on the bottom or walls. Of course, if the pond is not very deep - up to one meter. Otherwise, the light coming from the depth will not be visible at all.

Which lamps to choose for surface lighting

For a better understanding of the situation, we propose to consider various options for lighting fixtures in the pond. And, of course, choose the best one.

• Incandescent lamps. The easiest and most affordable option. But with a small caveat. It is always necessary to place such a lamp in a special protected case. Due to accidental ingress of dirt or water, the device will quickly fail. Other disadvantages are obvious: fragility, a modest range of colors, fragility, high energy consumption. Even modern options fall short of setting really good lighting.
• Halogen bulbs or simply "halogens". The installation of halogen lamps can be recommended on the shore. They provide a sufficiently powerful stream of light and will be able to illuminate every detail in the pond. The use of filters will allow you to change the color scheme. Each device must have a sealed enclosure that can prevent any possible damage. Among the disadvantages is the high power consumption, especially compared to LEDs or fiber optics.
• LED lighting. The best choice for arranging lighting. Differs in simplicity of connection, profitability and safety. The backlight emits uniform light. Experts recommend installing LEDs even in irregularly shaped ponds, because the body of the lamps is very flexible. And if you additionally program the lighting, you can get an interval glow or bright colors of the rainbow in your area.
• Optical fiber. It consists of a searchlight or a lantern connected to dozens of translucent veins that transmit light. It also changes color easily and is not afraid of a humid environment.

What to buy for underwater lighting

All of the above types of lamps can be installed under water. The only condition is that they must be enclosed in an airtight casing.

• Discharge lamps or tubes. They are divided into three types. They consume a minimum amount of electricity, last much longer than other incandescent lamps, give a soft, pleasant glow. However, there are also disadvantages. These are relatively large dimensions, the need to purchase additional control gear, the presence of toxic elements. Far from the best choice for a pond.
• Solar lamps. There are surface and floating.

Thus, we can conclude that the best choice for organizing lighting will be LED lamps, fiber optics.

Video review of the lamp

Floating lights - popular models on the market

From a safety point of view, it is best to organize a floating backlight. There are many models and dozens of manufacturers on the market. Below we will tell you about the most popular and in demand.

1. Pond in a classic style. It is better to buy the same strict flashlights here. Small children's ponds are equipped with various kinds of figures of animals, characters of favorite fairy tales. The Russian company Diorit XXI produces lamps that are original. They float gracefully on the water, powered by solar panels. In addition, such floating lights are very economical.
2. RemiLing, Stone lamps. They also run on solar panels. In addition to realistic stone imitation, they are characterized by democratic value. They are used to illuminate the pond on the shore, and are also suitable for organizing underwater lighting.
3. Floating lighting by Aquael. A unique lighting option from a Polish company. Thanks to him, in the country you can create truly extraordinary beauty. Imagine a device of three lamps, the body of which is made in the form of a large water lily. Lamps are three flowers. They are made so precisely and professionally that no one will be able to distinguish them from a living water lily.

As you can see, there is no need to make water lanterns with your own hands. They are sold ready-made and look amazing.

Pond illumination example (video)

Illumination of a pond with a fountain

What to do if a fountain is installed in the country, and you want to diversify it with some kind of lighting? Let's figure it out.

So, when organizing the lighting of modern fountains in artificial reservoirs, traditional and specific lighting options can be used. For example, you can install a backlight with a rotation function, which will consist of several lamps of different colors. Fasteners are carried out under water.

You can also find lighting for mini-fountains in stores. With its help, organizing a fountain with lighting is very simple. The backlight is installed on the nozzle, and then illuminates the fountain from below.

Illumination for fountains and ponds can be organized using the following spotlights:

• Underwater. They emit a flood of light, attached directly to the bowl.
• With reflected light. They allow you to direct the flow of light to specific details.
• With divergent beam. Use them when you need to illuminate individual streams, cascades.
• With a parabolic beam. Allows you to design a fountain with composite water jets.
• With parallel beams. It not only illuminates the jets of your fountain, but also paints them in a variety of colors.

Of course, there are situations when, for some reason, it is not possible to install a pump in a reservoir, to equip a fountain. For example, your pond is too deep. In this case, floating pond fountains come to the rescue. Advanced models have a fog generator.

The Chinese Jebao FLD -36 looks very unusual. Has the following characteristics:

• Diameter 36 cm.
• Height 17 cm.

If the fountain imitates a volcano, the water will rise to a height of about 2 meters, the fountain in the form of a bell - 60 cm. Equipped with a beautiful, mysterious mist-smoke generator, LED backlight. Its power is 3 watts.

When it comes to illuminating the coastline, bollards come to the rescue. This is the name of the lanterns-columns 1 meter high. The distance between them varies from one to four meters and depends on the power of the light.

findings

We hope that after reading our article you will be able to organize lighting that will perfectly match the design of a pond, garden plot. Illumination gives unforgettable emotions, truly fabulous sensations. Therefore, you will definitely like it!

Today we will make a flashlight powered by water with our own hands. This flashlight does not require batteries, accumulators or a dynamo at all. It works immediately after ordinary tap water is poured into it.

Now you will not have such a situation that the light was suddenly turned off, and you either don’t have batteries to insert into the flashlight, or the battery in the flashlight has run out due to its long lying in the closet idle and, of course, no one remembered that his need to be charged. And here everything is simple - just pour water 🙂 and everything will work right away! 🙂 Of course, this is not an eternal flashlight, unfortunately, since some of its important parts still lose their properties over time during operation, but since the parts are not scarce, they are easy to replace and it will be cheaper than buying batteries, and water is an inexhaustible source which can be easily found nearby. Well, the plus of this homemade product is that we will create this interesting flashlight that works on water with our own hands. And you can also amuse and surprise your friends by showing them a homemade flashlight that will work before their eyes by pouring ordinary water into it. I think that such a flashlight, powered by plain water or other liquid, is the best fit for an “alarm suitcase” in case of emergencies, when it can lie for years and in case of urgent need, you just need to pour liquid into it and it immediately starts working .

Let's first understand how our battery works on water. This type of battery is called a "galvanic cell", which has 2 different types of metals, in this embodiment, zinc and copper plates are used, interconnected by an electrolyte, which is water with salt impurities, tap water is also suitable for this. So a flashlight on water actually does not work from the water itself, but due to the redox reaction occurring between two different metals in the electrolyte. The output voltage of such a galvanic cell is rather weak and not enough to drive even one LED. To increase the voltage, we need a simple home-made voltage converter that will increase it to the level we need and the LEDs will glow even when the battery voltage is low.

So, to create a homemade flashlight on the water, we need:

• PVC pipe, 10 cm long and 20 mm (3/4 inch) outside diameter;
• PVC adapter from 3/4 inch (20 mm) to 1 inch (25 mm);
• LEDs (3 pcs.) with a mirror reflector from an old flashlight;
• Ferrite ring (can be taken from the board from an old energy-saving fluorescent lamp (CFL));
• Transistor 2N3904 (suitable for 2N2222, 2N4401, S8050, 2SC945, BC546, BC547, MPSA06 or other low power NPN structure);
• 1 kΩ resistor (0.25W);
• Copper and zinc strips (zinc can be made from the outer cups of salt batteries (but not alkaline!), the batteries must not be dead, otherwise there will be little left of the zinc);
• Copper single-core wire;
• 4 pieces of toilet paper but do not tear them apart (but not gray, but such as for napkins, such paper is usually divided into cuts for tearing into pieces);
• a piece of Plexiglas or other clear plastic.

We will also need the following tools:

• Multitool (universal set of tools all in one);
• soldering iron;
• Glue gun;
• Super glue.

Step 1: Assemble the battery.

The battery is the main source of energy for our flashlight. It consists of two strips of metal, one for the anode, the second for the cathode. "Copper strip" is a plus of the battery while "zinc strip" is its minus.

Assembling the water battery
1) Roll the toilet paper around the copper strip until you reach the 3rd piece of paper.

2) After you have reached the third piece, put the zinc strip on and roll the roll to the end.

3) Now twist this created battery with a piece of copper wire on top, this will protect the paper from tearing when wet with water.

4) Now pick up a plastic cover of a suitable diameter (or any piece of plastic) and make holes in it for the electrodes.

5) Pass the electrodes through these holes and fix them well with superglue, epoxy or hot glue so that no water flows through this part.

Step 2: Assemble the boost converter.

Since our battery produces a very low voltage, we need a step-up voltage converter. This converter circuit makes it so that the LEDs can glow even when the battery voltage is low. This circuit is very compact and contains a small number of parts, and everything can be done by surface mounting around the board with LEDs.

But first you need to solder all the elements together and connect it to a regular 1.5V battery to check its performance.

After that, these elements are already soldered on the LED board, also according to the above diagram, and for greater rigidity, I glued the ferrite ring to the board.

The winding of the transformer is done as follows, we take 2 copper wires in varnish or PVC insulation, about 20 centimeters each, expose their ends with a scalpel and twist the ends together on one side of the wires. And with these twisted ends we pass through the ferrite ring so that most of the wire goes through the ring, leaving about one centimeter of wires, then we thread these wires through the ring in this way up to 22 times, cut off the excess remaining wire. We connect the beginning of one wire to the end of the second and solder them together, there should be 2 free ends of the wire. Next, solder it according to the scheme. More detailed assembly instructions for such a Joule Thief boost converter are located.

Step 3: Combining the Battery Part and Boost Converter with LEDs.

Now we solder two wires to the ends of our homemade battery and then the other ends to the board with the converter and LEDs. Then glue the cover with the battery attached to it with superglue to the PVC adapter (sleeve) in the middle part of this adapter. You can solder a switch with fixation into the gap of one of the power conductors, drill a hole in the side wall of the coupling for it, insert it there and fix it with hot glue, while it is better not to feel sorry for the glue. After that, glue a mirror reflector to the adapter, covering the insides of the electronics.

Step 4: Preparing the water tank.

Cut a 10-centimeter piece from the PVC tube, it will serve as a container for water, then glue a small piece of transparent plastic with superglue on one side, through it we will see if the water has dried up in the flashlight.

Step 5: Fill it up!

Just fill this container with tap water, twist and beat the flashlight a little and you're done!

Because their launch is considered a mass event, which has recently been held regularly and gathers an increasing number of people who want to plunge into the world of mysterious rituals of making love wishes. There is a beautiful legend that water lanterns - either in the form of a paper lotus flower, or in the form of a white cube with a lit candle inside - help to fulfill the most secret dreams and desires.

Workshop on creating a fabric water lantern

To make such a flashlight, you will need to use light fabric (tulle or organza), glue, scissors, marker, thin wire, substrate. Even a beginner can handle the work on the product.

Sample

First you need to cut out 8 petals according to the template for each of the lanterns.

Then cut the wire also into 8 petals with a length of at least 30 cm. Then it should be shaped into a petal and glued to the fabric part.

Using a substrate, it is necessary to cut a blank in the shape of a square so that the flowers are floating and float on the water. Then, starting from the top, it is necessary to form a couple of rows, in which there will be 4 petals.

Then in the middle you need to glue a circle of cardboard - this will be a support for the candle.

Finally, all that remains is to light the fire and test the flashlight by putting it on the water in the bathroom.

Making lanterns from corrugated paper

This method is similar to the previous one. Water lanterns made from corrugated paper have the most realistic and magical look.

For the manufacture of this product, it will be necessary to use corrugated paper of different shades, foam, glue, scissors.

Execution process

From a piece of thin foam, cut a couple of small circles that will be needed to create one flashlight.

Then, from corrugated paper, using a ready-made template, make petals in the amount of 9 pieces and five green leaves. After harvesting, you need to twist a little, thereby giving them the desired realistic volume.

On the shores of Lake Khanki, a tribe lived in which there were girls of unearthly beauty. One of them was called Lota, and she was distinguished from all by her white skin tone. However, she was sad all the time, as she was unrequitedly in love with the young man Entoy, and he, in turn, loved the impregnable Eine.

One day, Eine sent Entoy to get a gift that no one had seen before. But a year later, the young man never returned. And Lot committed suicide in the waters of the lake, as she could not stand parting with her lover. But still, Entoy returned, having not found the right gift, and saw the flower that Lota turned into after her death. Having plucked it, the young man gave it to his beloved, and they began to live together happily ever after. The flower later got its name in honor of the deceased girl - Lotus.

This legend has become the basis of the water lantern festival, which takes place in many countries of the world. In Sochi, everyone will be able to see a colorful spectacle and make a cherished wish this year on July 20 on the beach of the Mandarin shopping center. But in order to count on the realization of your dream, you need to make a water lantern yourself. You can make it from various improvised materials in the following ways:

In the shape of a lotus flower made of fabric

For the product you will need:

• light material (tulle, organza, etc.)
• scissors
• marker
• thin wire
• cardboard backing

We draw 8 petals on the fabric and cut them out, take the wire also for 8 petals with a length of at least 30 cm, give it the shape of a petal and glue it onto the fabric petal.

We glue the petals and form them in the form of a flower to a cardboard substrate (it should be in the shape of a square). In the middle we glue a circle of cardboard (support for a candle). This flashlight is suitable for making romantic and spiritual dreams come true.

You can use multi-colored corrugated paper instead of fabric, and foam plastic instead of wire (cut 2 pieces in the shape of a circle). Glue 5 paper petals to one circle of foam, glue the second circle and 9 more petals on top. Glue a candle in the middle.

in the shape of a cube

For the product you will need:

• scissors
• cardboard backing
• paper

We take a square-shaped cardboard substrate (preferably colored), the size of the square comes from your desire, you want to make a large or small flashlight. Glue the cardboard to the foam. Cut out 4 rectangles from any paper and glue them on each side of the substrate.

You can make cardboard blanks and glue paper or fabric to them.

It turns out the shape of a box, inside which we put a candle. Such a flashlight is suitable for the fulfillment of material or ordinary desires.

Water lanterns come in a variety of shapes and materials. It all depends on your imagination and skill.

The ritual with a water lantern should be carried out as follows: light a candle in the middle of a water lantern, then stand with it, holding it in your palms and make a wish, and then lower the lantern into the water.

Believe in miracles and may all your wishes come true!