LED Spinning Pen for Microlights

Last crawled date: 4 years, 3 months ago

I'm not very good at pen spinning, but I really like it and I always thought I'd like it more with LEDs. This is a "spinning pen" that's big on the spinning, notably less so on the pen, and is essentially just a mini baton. It's sized to fit standard nano size microlights in silicone cases, theoretically it may support that chip size in general but it's worth noting that I only have Futuristic Lights LEDs so that's all I used for sizing and testing; YMMV when using chips other than the Ions and Atoms. These microlights can be purchased at a variety of places around the internet, but I would naturally recommend their official site to support them directly, and if you're into gloving or orbits there's a chance you already have some lying around!
As far as the specs are concerned, at 100% scale it should be 210mm long with a 10mm diameter throughout most of the body. I kept the LED housing as small and simple as possible, and the chips can be set in facing out for visible bulbs (not quite exposed, though a sliver of the bulb does hang out) or facing in to illuminate the body. The balance seems to be maintained regardless of direction, so you can even do asymmetrical directions for a really cool look! I will mention that due to size constraints it will be a particularly tight fit to get the chip in with the casing on, but with just a little patience it'll fit and it'll stay super tight so it doesn't fly out while spinning!
I thought about selling these myself, but honestly it just seems at odds with the DIY spirit of the pen spinning community and I can't get the production worked out, so I figured I'd release it to the community instead. Feel free to remix and have fun with it, but I ask that you please not use it for profit!