Color Changing LED Lava Lamp

[Dr. WHAT?!]

 I was able to convert my heritage century into a LED color changing lamp for fairly cheap! roughly $25!!

This was the first part I purchased, its a 50w ceramic heater. It gets hot so a dimmer is a must use. You can see the size comparison with the standard bulb. It wont fit in the standard 32oz or 52oz "premier" bases, I tried. The century has a larger bulb opening allowing you to screw it fully in. Ebay Link

Next purchase was the LED rings. They are 70mm halo rings made for car custom headlights. Cost about $19 for a set of 4 rings that come with a remote 24 buttons and IR remote box and some adhesive pads. I did purchase new IR remote boxes with 44 button remotes that have more color phasing options and dyi options cost under $5.00.  Ebay Link

Here's how it looks with the globe off. The ring fits on the base inner rim perfectly. You can see the ceramic heater is showing its red hotness!  The one thing I was worried about is the LED ring wiring being so close to the heater so I took some tin foil and rolled it around heater so it keeps the heat down for the wiring and flowing upward toward the globe. Speaking of wiring, the only modification I made to the base was that I pulled off the cord plug and then feed the led wiring thru the hole. Then pulled out all the slack of the led wires and tied it off to keep the wiring away from the heater.

Here are a couple pics of the 3 main colors look and a couple videos of the color changing.

[MichaelN77]

You had no more lamps explode on you doing this? 

[Claude J]

NO! as long as a heat shield is not used, they worked fine

It was too much heat intensity on a concentrated surface 

[VintageLavaLamps]

Id love to do this with one of my Grande's Just need to find a heating bulb in the uk

[Steven Wong]

I just bought a 100w ceramic heater for my grande, anyone still have a led ring and controller available or can recommend one off ebay? Looking to mod my purple liquid, yellow wax grande. Maybe even white gookit in the future if it doesnt clear up with running.

[Claude J]

I have just purchased enough to make 4 kits GRANDE sized kits including proper wattage heating elements

I have 2 of them spoken for

Everything needed to do the conversion is $100 + shipping

Includes instructions

Email: [e-mail]

[Steven Wong]

Thanks for the reply, emailed

[Autumn]

Claude when you were doing these experiments did you ever measure the heat put off from the ceramic heating elements? How hot does a 100 watt heating element get compared to a 100 watt light bulb? I'm considering doing this for my colossus, but I'm hesitant due to the risks involved. These run at 250 watts and I fully expect a 250 watt ceramic heating element to blow up the globe.

[Steven Russell]

Wow, I'm so glad I found this forum, I am literally in the process of figuring out how to do exactly what you have done. amazing idea to use that little heater bulb, didn't even know they existed. I was thinking of drilling into the bottle and putting a heating probe in the bottom and a heat sensor that was app controlled so i could adjust the heat/flow from my app. I'm definitely going to try your way first. I'm a fan of alexa so i tend to use dimmers and LEDs solutions that can be connected to wifi so i can tell alexa to "make the lava lamp green" etc. Congrats on a beautiful lamp though. I'm determined to build my own Smart Astro as I cannot get hold of one anywhere. 

[Claude J]

Actually the heat transfer is less

I run a 150 watt in a Grandes with a set distance from the globe for safety

You can only find a max of 250 watts in these 

I bought one for my colossus but never got around to using it (It was for glitter anyway)

Autumn said:

Claude when you were doing these experiments did you ever measure the heat put off from the ceramic heating elements? How hot does a 100 watt heating element get compared to a 100 watt light bulb? I'm considering doing this for my colossus, but I'm hesitant due to the risks involved. These run at 250 watts and I fully expect a 250 watt ceramic heating element to blow up the globe.

[Claude J]

it's all in the controller for the LEDs

I've experimented with over a dozen of them and found the RF one i use to be the most reliable considering the heat it is subjected to

There are app-based ones that use your phone to control color and function

You can also get them that are music-sensitive and will change to the bass beat

I did a few of them in the smaller size,

The issue is room for the components increased heat factor, etc

I supposed if you made a module (like I did for my LUNAR) to work for smaller lamps?

you could make it a base that it sits on and run the wiring in the backside for the led and heater

I used a 16ga 8 conductor cable to accomplish that

Steven Russell said:

Wow, I'm so glad I found this forum, I am literally in the process of figuring out how to do exactly what you have done. amazing idea to use that little heater bulb, didn't even know they existed. I was thinking of drilling into the bottle and putting a heating probe in the bottom and a heat sensor that was app controlled so i could adjust the heat/flow from my app. I'm definitely going to try your way first. I'm a fan of alexa so i tend to use dimmers and LEDs solutions that can be connected to wifi so i can tell alexa to "make the lava lamp green" etc. Congrats on a beautiful lamp though. I'm determined to build my own Smart Astro as I cannot get hold of one anywhere. 

[Claude J]

its a 150 watt heater

ou will find 100 watt not enough to get flow if you space it properly

Steven Wong said:

I just bought a 100w ceramic heater for my grande, anyone still have a led ring and controller available or can recommend one off ebay? Looking to mod my purple liquid, yellow wax grande. Maybe even white gookit in the future if it doesnt clear up with running.

[andy ross]

I've used a 250w (and a specially-ordered 300w) ceramic heater in Colossus, no problems

Will try to dig out photos if interested?

Claude J said:

Actually the heat transfer is less

I run a 150 watt in a Grandes with a set distance from the globe for safety

You can only find a max of 250 watts in these 

I bought one for my colossus but never got around to using it (It was for glitter anyway)

Autumn said:

Claude when you were doing these experiments did you ever measure the heat put off from the ceramic heating elements? How hot does a 100 watt heating element get compared to a 100 watt light bulb? I'm considering doing this for my colossus, but I'm hesitant due to the risks involved. These run at 250 watts and I fully expect a 250 watt ceramic heating element to blow up the globe.