MAKE A CYBER PUSSY LIGHT.
Although cats have a visual sensitivity about seven times greater than humans, they still need a small amount of light to see in the dark. This project is for a stylish battery operated LED light that is perfect for letting kitties and humans see where they are going at night.
The cyber pussy is best built with red LEDs because they have a forward voltage of about two volts. Because the design only uses two AA cells for power it is less suited to LED colours like blue, green or white since they require about three volts. Another advantage of using red LEDs is that they tend to have a very consistent forward voltage, which means all the LEDs can be run in parallel without significant intensity difference between them.
Click here to buy a cyber pussy kit.
The cyber pussy in action. Attractive illuminated ornament by day, glowing nightlight at night.
We start off by soldering in a 10 ohm pussy power limitation resistor. I chose to mount it on the back of the PCB, but you can mount it on the front if you wish. It's function is to limit the maximum current through the LEDs to protect them from damage. There's a small rectangle printed on the PCB to show it's position.
The resistor was mounted first so that it's leads could be cropped flush with the front of the PCB before the LEDs were inserted.
Now we insert and solder the LEDs noting that the long lead is the anode (positive) and is marked with a small "+" symbol for each LED. I deliberately made all the anodes point in towards the middle of the cyber pussy to make assembly easier.
After inserting each LED, solder just one of the leads and then check the LED is sitting roughly flush to the surface of the PCB, then solder the other and crop the leads with a pair of snips.
There are 12 LEDs in total.
Now insert the pussy power regulation device. This is actually a 100 ohm variable resistor. I was originally going to make this the type with a small knob for finger adjustment, but the knob was tall enough to obstruct the LEDs visually so I decided to go with the standard screwdriver adjustment type.
There are three pins and the regulator mounts right in the middle of the cyber pussy.
The battery holders mount on the back and their orientation is shown with a graphical representation of the spring at one end. The two battery holders are mounted in opposite directions and will cover up the Cyber Pussy text. Once inserted the leads are soldered on the FRONT of the PCB and then cropped.
Now insert two alkaline AA cells firmly into your pussy to turn it on.
I recommend alkaline cells or rechargeable NiMh cells. I do not recommend zinc chloride cells due to their low capacity and tendency to leak.
To adjust the intensity of your cyber pussy just insert a suitable small screwdriver tip into the regulator to adjust the pussy power. Do NOT force an oversized screwdriver or other unsuitable object into your cyber pussy as you may damage it.
And there you have it. A lovely glowing red cyber pussy for your table. There's no on/off switch because the cyber pussy draws so little power and is designed to be left on all the time.
These make really nice night lights. What could be better than waking up in the middle of the night to the warm comforting glow of a cyber pussy.
Your cyber pussy is rated "A" for awesome.