Comments on: Lite Brite Graffitti

Lite Brite Graffitti

zardoz — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:11:37 -0800

Night Writer (embedded .mov). "The night writer extends the functionality of LED throwies by allowing a writer to catch a tag in lights. It's cheap, easy to make and writes 12-inch glowing letters 25-feet in the air on any iron or steel surface." From the Graffitti Research Lab.

By: alteredcarbon

alteredcarbon — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:28:04 -0800

That looks fun and mischievous and something I...huh...WOULDN'T do, yeah, nope, not me.

By: pwb503

pwb503 — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:34:53 -0800

Here's a link to a previous thread regarding another project of theirs, the LED Throwies.

By: pkingdesign

pkingdesign — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:41:07 -0800

Previously (and with correctly spelled tags). Same granola loving tree-hugger comment applies...

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:48:32 -0800

Why don't they just throw in a small computer chip and maybe a wifi chip. That way the sign could scroll/change message and might be remotely programmable.

By: xammerboy

xammerboy — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:17:23 -0800

The remotely programmable thing sounds cool. As it is - I like the idea but not how it was applied, which seems a little lame.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:11:20 -0800

Far be it from me to suggest that the signs could be used in political campaigns - or when icky people tied up traffic with their motorcades.

By: omarr

omarr — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:22:19 -0800

I don't imagine it'd be very cheap to add in wifi and a controller, but it would be cool. It's probably not worth it for something that'll end up being removed and thrown away though. Another thing that'd be neat is using a solar panel and a photovoltaic sensor to allow it to charge during the day and light up at night. If it's at all possible to do it cheaply, I'm sure someone will get around to it...

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 02:24:13 -0800

Fuck LED Throwies! Dude! A magnet, a battery, and an LED... stick a bunch of them to a wall all at once with a pole... OMG WALL HACK! Approaching the lameness that was anagramed subway maps...

By: Drexen

Drexen — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 05:49:13 -0800

I think they're pretty awesome. I'm sure I'd get some letters the wrong way round though..

By: eriko

eriko — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 07:50:09 -0800

I'm sure I'd get some letters the wrong way round though Testing. Try it on a low wall, fix the problem letters, repeat until fixed. Then, once it is fixed, block the holes that don't get LEDs, and you'll have a tag that works. Of course, this means you'll have a fixed tag, rather than being able to change on the fly, but if you're worried about looking all L33T, that's the way. Now, if you want to do something like this, the way to reduce the costs is volume. An example -- an LED that costs $.62 in single pieces cost $.35 in 100 piece lots, and $.20 in 1000 piece lots. For big orders, surplus sites often aren't as cheap as the regular component distributors, since they tend not to make up lots from bulk. When they do have large-lots to sell, it is because that's the way they got them, and they're willing to move the whole bag or reel of LEDs cheaper to keep from having to count them out. For really big orders -- 25K lots and above, the big distributors are the place to go. Then again, sometimes you get lucky, like this bag of 200 bright red LEDs for $5.00, less than three cents an LED. No specs, though.

By: Richard Daly

Richard Daly — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:37:20 -0800

"On average it takes about 50 throwies to write a four-letter word (Fig 3)." Anyone got 50 throwies? I wanna write a four-letter word. META!

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:41:01 -0800

anything that involves something called "throwies" can stay on boing boing.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:14:23 -0800

Again, like the last time, I'm disgusted at something that by its nature involves single-use, disposable, environmentally lethal materials that will inevitably be thrown into the garbage without being properly disposed of. This is much worse because of the >100x multiplier (if it takes 50 throwies to write a four-letter word, it's gotta take over 100 to write "resistor"). Note also the poverty of the actual message, so characteristic of a lot of graffiti (but not all) -- this man has the ability to write any message he wants in glowing red letters that everyone will see, and what does he write? His tag, over and over.

By: killThisKid

killThisKid — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:59:27 -0800

Specs for above mentioned cheap LEDs mentioned by erico: Power Dissipation - Pd - 100 Forward Current - IF - 50 Peak Forward Current - IFM - 300 Reverse Voltage - VR - 4 Operating Temp. - Topr - -30~+85 Storage Temp. - Tstg - -30~+100 Derating * - ΔIF - 0.67

By: phaedon

phaedon — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 11:31:05 -0800

so where can you buy these little led bulbs in bulk?

By: foozleface

foozleface — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:11:32 -0800

Too bad they're so ephemeral - what if the throwies had a tiny photovoltaic cell to rechange 'em?

By: phaedon

phaedon — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 15:37:33 -0800

ekk. sorry, danke erico.

By: mendel

mendel — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:02:24 -0800

I don't mind the idea of throwies -- I like the idea of walking along the street and finding a couple glowing points of light that someone's left for me. I get the impression from throwies that the person left them there to make me happy when I see them. But words? That turns it around completely. I'd get the impression that someone left them there to satisfy their own ego.

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:08:16 -0800

i remember seeing cory get all hyper-bonerfied about this on boingboing a while ago. how long do the led throwies live? i can't remember.

By: jrochest

jrochest — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:46:56 -0800

According to the website, about 2 weeks. This strikes me as less graffiti and more performance art.

By: quite unimportant

quite unimportant — Mon, 01 May 2006 09:38:38 -0800

This strikes me as less graffiti and more performance art. Funny...it strikes me as littering.