GregMS Universe

I picked up a LoL Shield from Jimmie Rodgers this summer during the KC Makers Faire. The LoL in LoL Shield stands for Lots of LEDs as there are 126 LEDs in this project. I began soldering earlier this week and finished up this weekend.

After you finish soldering all of the LEDs on the board, it needs to be connected to an Arduino which I previously purchased for other projects.

Above is my finished LoL Shield connected to my Arduino. My MintyBoost in photoed next to it as that can be used to power it when I’m mobile or I can use a USB cable to wall-charger to power it while I’m at work. My current plan is to leave this on my desk at work.

It did not take as long as I though to do the project. It can easily be done in a weekend plus it gives a person excellent practice at soldering small areas. I did manage to bridge a few solder points but it was easy to fix and I got much better the more I did. If you would like a kit, it can be purchased straight from Jimmie’s website although it looks like only red and green LEDs are currently available. Instructions to make the LoL Sheild can also be found on his website here.
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The Cowntown Computer Congress held a workshop a few weeks ago where I was able to create my very own battery-powered USB charger. If your not familiar with this, there is a project called MintyBoost that turns an ordinary Altoids can into a USB charger. The kit can be placed in many different kind of devices, but the Altoids container seems to be a perfect fit for the charging hardware and the 2-AA batteries.

Below are pictures of my finished charger. This was the first sodering I have done since I modded my PS2 several years ago.