Smart Century

[LampHead]

 I kept messing around with the idea of a Smart based lamp with heating elements and LEDs like Mathmos Smart. My first step was to find a suitable heat source that could power a lava lamp. After thinking of different things to use I think I have found the perfect thing, a potpourri heater aka vaporizer :) I started with the one I had but I would recommend using a older style with a basic dial instead of the electronics mine has.

 

   My first thought was to set it up on a Grande but I decided to start small and work my way up so I used a Century lamp I had. Easy enough to mount the heating element which is just a ceramic element inside a metal tube. I used a hose clamp to mount it to the original socket stem. I left the LEDs off for the trial run just so it would be easier to tweak if I had to....well no tweaking needed, I just found the perfect temp and let it run over 48 hours non stop. It flowed with no issues at all besides its weird seeing a lamp run with no light under it. These are the parts I started with..

 

 

 

 

 

 

       The toughest part was getting the parts out, as you can see the electronic controller is much to big for the Century base but this was a trial run to see if it would even work. The older style units have a simple dial to adjust the temp which should fit in any lamp without problems. My next step is to install the LEDs back in and see how it looks although there is no color switching, its just a red, green, blue and white LED. I will have to upgrade on that soon if I find something.

 

  My chosen running temp is by chance :) . The room temp was about 67 so it was on the cooler side, the best part is you can dial the temp right where you need it to be and it keeps that temp.

 It may look crude but it gets the job done for now :)

 

[Keith]

AWESOME!!!

[Jim]

I bow down to your greatness Lamphead!

[Dr. WHAT?!]

Wow dude!

[Erin]

Looks great Jim. Can't wait to see what it looks like with the LEDs in it. Odd that it's a temp of 420 to heat this lamp. LOL

[Dr. WHAT?!]

lol I think it's appropriate considering what the heating element came from lol!

[LampHead]

Well I finally finished and got the LED UV blacklight button. I had it running over 14 hours straight without any issues. I was worried the heat would affect the LED button but it had no affect at all. All I need to do is finish wire everything so it looks neat and proper.

 

[Dr. WHAT?!]

that's just wicked looking! does it not change color?

[Da9L]

S.I.C.K

 

That is so awesome!

[Erin]

THAT is sweet. I love it! Great work Jim.

[Jim]

Thanks I guess. 

Erin said:

THAT is sweet. I love it! Great work Jim.

[LampHead]

No its just one solid color, I would have to figure out a whole different set up for color changing. The LED button it came with was 4 lights R,G,B, Clear, this button has 9 LED UV blacklight bulbs on it. The guy did have many other colors in LEDs so different ones are possible. This is the one I used 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-LIGHT-DISK-UV-12-VOLT-1-INCH-DIA-CIRCUI...

 

Dr. WHAT?! said:

that's just wicked looking! does it not change color?                                                                                            

[LampHead]

 LOL

Jim said:

Thanks I guess. 

Erin said:

THAT is sweet. I love it! Great work Jim.