Sphere Lamp
(special for my buddy @Jason_Coon )
https://youtu.be/oS2yHKVOr58
Beautiful! Is that concentric rings inside?
nope, just a plain 1m 144/m strip, You know I like it simple, hehehe
Hi @Juergen_Bruegl , looks like the lamp I just bought from IKEA (Fado ?) I’ve been struggling with how I will mount LEDs inside that sphere on and off for a couple weeks now and just can’t find the perfect way !
Only for @JP_Roy I lift the secret! Take a lamp like http://de-can2.ciao.com/can_de/12703255559.jpg and wrap a 1m strip with cable ties wildly around it - done ! Fado is a real good guess !!
Seriously I bought one a while back and figured I wanted the LEDS (WS2812 ) about 1 cm away from the surface mounted on the surface of an inner sphere but need to find an economical way to make a 8.5 cm inner sphere with about 500 WS2812.
Only way I can think of is getting my hands on a 3d printer and building custom parts but hesitate to spend the $$ for a decent 3d printer
well, get yourself some cable ties and an old bulb for a few cents and be happy. Bavarians and Scots supposedly tend to be frugal, what rhymes to Bruegal.
Anyway, I’m working on a E24 screw-in LED-strip-holder out of welding wire.
I clap a 1000 claps to you mate! well done!
@JP_Roy When my wife has pulled me into craft stores, I’ve noticed they have styrofoam spheres of all sizes. Would one of those work?
@allanGEE well, it works; however you will see clearly every little imperfection of the foam.
Loss of contrast and last but not least cleaning are issues too.
Fado from IKEA costs here about 10 bucks.
@Leon_Yuhanov Thank you, this is a big compliment from the creator of LED Sphere V2
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102639486677013343669/posts/dK9SqL2gxU7
@Juergen_Bruegl I meant having the foam ball on the inside of the Fado with the LEDs wrapped around it, facing outward towards the Fado surface.
Hi @allanGEE , small world, my wife also dragged me in to one of those craft shops and I was pleasantly surprised by the different materials, tools and accessories available and took quite a few notes for future reference.
I did spot that 8" styro ball but the price I saw (here in Montreal, Canada) was about $15 US that is more expensive than that IKEA Fado lamp !!
I may eventually get the thing if I do not find a better way as it is something that would work as I could cut the styro ball into wedges (like an orange) so they fit in that narrow base opening, mount / glue the LEDS on it’s surface and reassemble the wedges somehow inside the Fado lamp.
Thanks for the hint !
There’s a guy on the web that made a BB-8 shell with a balloon and paper mache. Might be hard to find a nice spherical balloon though. Maybe a dollar store beach ball? A pattern (pepakura?) for a soccer ball that you could scale to the correct size? Or if you like complicated projects… build up a one-centimeter layer of paster of paris inside the Fado… tack glue the LEDs in place… swirl a layer of epoxy to create a shell… then dissolve the plaster of paris in water! 
Maybe plastic strips arranged like the longitude lines on a globe… permanently fastened to a dowel at the “north pole”… on the “south” ends of the strips, punch a hole the same diameter as the dowel. The “southern” tips can be slid up the dowel – umbrella-like – to make a sphere shape, with the LED’s mounted to the strips. Then slide the “southern” ends down the dowel to collapse the sphere… insert it in the Fado… slide the tips back up to get your inner sphere back… glue them in place… then trim the excess dowel.
@allanGEE now I understand what you meant. As JP Roy mentioned the small opening at the base is a challenge. That’s why I used cable ties and wrapped the LED strip like a pretzel wildly around the bulb. That gives a nice random effect, and when single LEDs are traveling along the strip the path is mesmerizing.
Btw. I just saw that IKEA wants for the lamp $20 in the US
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70096377/
Check out Home Depot
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Alsy-8-in-Color-Changing-LED-Glow-Ball-Lamp-19237-000/205208125
or hanging style:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sea-Gull-Lighting-Hanging-Globe-1-Light-White-Pendant-6018-15/203832089
Hi @Juergen_Bruegl , I do like the way you did that lamp and the funky shadows that gets cast but I was going more for what +Leon Yuhanov built, the sphere V2.
In Canada, that lamp cost me $20 Cdn so that is about $15 US !
Hi @allanGEE , thanks for the detailed suggestions… here is another idea I was tossing around…
A soccer ball design that can be easily dimensioned to a 20 cm diameter. composed of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. I also would need to modify it to add various mounting tabs to screw the 32 separate pieces together inside the sphere. But that would either require me to spend $$ on my own 3d printer or get it built at a 3d printing shop. I checked a couple 3d printing shops and that would cost me around $200 to build !!!
For $200…
Mind you that’s US, so for a Canuck like me that would be closer to $270… plus whatever the government dings me with when it comes across. I’m still VERY tempted though. 
I’m a BIG fan of prototyping and building with cereal box cardboard. If you laminate 2 or 3 layers, it becomes very rigid. With hexagons and pentagons, should be do-able.
But I’m an over-thinker and half the fun for me is the planning stage!
Hi @allanGEE , I’m from Montreal so I also get ‘Canucked’ with excessive taxes, duties and shipping fees… 
That is a great looking kit. The price is really good. I also saw a few others around that same price.
Been digging around YouTube for 3D printer reviews, operating and upgrade hints and I am still very undecided.
I am only just starting to become a mediocre programmer after a slow learning curve and hesitate to take on yet another slow learning curve to start making mediocre 3d prints.
Totally agree with you that the planning stage is where most of the fun is !
Manitoban here. Just southeast of Winnipeg.