My wife got me a USB Lavalamp (you know one of those rinky-dink things we geeks like to plug into our laptops). Well, about a year after she got it for me, the it went dark.

I finally got around to looking at it yesterday, and found that the bulb was burnt out. I looked at it and found it to be a 5V 1Watt bulb-- now, maybe you're like me and you say to yourself "Now, why on earth would they need an entire Watt to light this thing?". It's not the thermal "lava," either. Just glitter suspended in a clear solution letting them turn in the eddies and currents.

Tonight I fixed it.

1 LED (3.2V @ 18mA)
1 100 Ohm Resistor

Working USB Lava Lamp:  PRICELESS.

I know, it seems stupendously simple (and is).... yet, it's working again, and it only consumes a FRACTION of the original power (90mW). And I made it so that I can switch the LED out easily by simply unplugging ti and plugging a new one in.

BM

Pics or it didn't happen.

My apologies, I had not had a chance to take a picture and figure out how to get it on here. I will post as soon as I can. Would be really nice if this site simply had a section to upload images to.

BM

Here's the photo (Hoping this works as it's the first time I've posted a photo):

Enjoy.

Third Try (sigh): usb_lavalamp.jpg

Fourth Try:

BM

Okay, I've tried the 'Supported Markup' and still can't get an image to appear inline... what am I doing wrong? I mean seriously. I'm calculating Q-points for transistors, frequency cutoffs for filters, laser and robotic control systems, and doing stuff well out there...

... but I'm stumped I getting an inline image here.... sighs.

BM

here's the picture

you need to copy the direct link on the page, not the HTML page with the picture on it. The syntax is

![alt image text](path to photo)

nothing works fine for the alt text

pbfy0-

Today, YOU are my HERO!

BM

My post above was intended to be a silly joke, but thank you for the pic!

Hey, I had to learn how to get images in here, anyway, right? So, thank YOU.... :D

BM

Nice!

May I make a suggestion on an improvement?

Perhaps multicolor timed with the timer on the 168..