Introduction: Domo Kun Night Lamp
Domo Kun is a funny character from a TV station from Japan.
I personally think it's a funny character. Thats why I thought I would build a night lamp of it with some stuff I had lying around.
It's actually pretty simple to make this. And I think it would make a nice night lamp for little children who like to have a light in their room when going to sleep.
In this insctructable i'll try to explain as easy as possible how to build one yourself.
The photos will help you understand it even better.
If you decide to make one yourself, show everyone your finished result :)
Step 1: Tools & Materials
I had the stuff lying around so I was able to use it. Other materials and tools can be used aswell.
1. Cardboard
2. White paper (for the teeth)
3. Black paper (for the eyes)
4. Red thin plastic (or paper, doesn't matter. As long as it will let through light from the LED).
5. LED (I used a 10mm white LED)
6. Electrical wire
7. Glue Gun (hot glue)
8. Button cell battery (CR2032 3v)
9. Button cell battery holder (not necessary)
10. On/Off toggle switch (not necessary, you can make your own switch if you like)
11. Scissors
12. Pencil
As you can see you can replease some of the stuff lister above if you use your imagination :)
Step 2: Drawing & Cutting
It doesn't matter what size you make your Domo Kun. But try to keep the ratio of 3:4.
I made mine 6cm whide and 8cm in length.
(See first photo)
2. Next cut out the Domo Kun. Try to do this as precise as possible.
(See second photo)
3. Wonder why the cutting needed to be precise? You're going to fold it now. And if the cutting wasn't precise, you'll see that the ends won't fit together that well. You'll end up with a crooked Domo Kun. And that's not what we want.
(See third photo)
Tip: Before you're going to fold the cardboard. Make a light cut over the folding lines. Just gently move your scissors over the folding lines. Once you've going to fold it, you'll notice it will fold exactly on the line you went over with the scissors.
Step 3: Details on Domo Kun
1. Cut out the details we need to the Domo Kun
- Teeth (use the white paper)
- Red mouth (I used a red part of a plastic bag)
- Eyes (use black paper for this one, I got this from a magazine)
2. Tape the white teeth and red part on the back (inside) of the Domo Kun.
Then glue the eyes on.
3. Once the glue is dry you can make a hole in the back piece of the Domo Kun.
I made this hole so my On/Off toggle switch can fit through there.
This step is not necessary if you use or make your own switch.
A toggle switch will just make it easier to switch the light on and off. But any switch or home made switch will do.
4. Next thing you want to do is close the Domo Kun by folding the edges together and hot glue it so it will stay that way.
Don't glue the bottom side. This need to stay open so we can put the electronics in.
I used hot glue (glue gun) for glueing so it will stay nice and tight and won't be noticeable from the outside.
If you don't have a glue gun. You can also tape the inside with duct tape or another strong tape.
You should now have the same as I have in my last photo below.
Step 4: Electronics
This one is very simple for everyone to understand.
The LED i'm using is a 10mm LED working at 3v. Since the button cell (CR2032) is giving 3v there is no need to change anything. Just attaching the LED to the battery will be enough for it to light up.
1. The LED I had was a 'water clear' LED (like most LED's are).
But we need a 'diffused' LED. This will give way better light for this project.
To transform a 'water clear' LED to a 'diffused' LED is very simple. Just get real fine sand paper (I used 400) and sand the whole LED. If you've sanded it enough you will see the LED is 'diffused'.
You can check the photos below to see the difference.
2. Make 3 small electrical wires so we can attach all the components together.
3. Now attach all the components together. As you can see on the photo it's really simple.
It's just a triangle with the components in it.
Be sure to connect the positive side of the LED (the longer leg) to the positive side of the battery.
Step 5: Finishing Up
All we need to do now is putting those 2 together.
1. Mount the toggle switch through the hole of the backside of the Domo Kun.
I've used some extra wide rings on the toggle switch. This to enforce the strength while switching on and off.
2. Once the switch is attachted you can put the rest of the electronics inside the Domo Kun and close up the bottom.
The finished result is show below in the photos.
Sorry for the crappy photo in the dark. But my camera can't capture the light difference very well.
Just trust my word that it looks pretty awesome :)