I decided to light this part up inside, to make it a little easier to see way back in there. I started looking at different ways to do it because I dont want the lights on all the time, only when its open. After looking at the back I thought a switch would be easy enough, but I had a relay with a burnt coil, and decided that would be a fun way to go.
The door has an arm that connects to a spring to give tension so it snaps open and closed. I dremeled out a small circle on the end of the arm and glued in 2 rare earth magnets.
When the door is closed, the arm is up at the top
I cut apart the broken relay, and put it into a 69 kind of position with itself, so I would not have to remove as much plastic from the box. The door is open and the relay is making contact with the top.
When the door is closed, the magnet pulls the relay armdown away from the upper contact, breaking the circuit and turning off the lights
I would rather make a lens of some kind, but for not this works ok, I have to add a few more rows of leds though.
2 of the leds are not deep enough, but it works, I will work out the actual lighting later, the hard part is done!
I added more leds, 15 total, 1 row of 5 along the front, a circle and 2 in the middle, lots of glue to keep things solid and protect from shorts
here they are lit up from the top
from the front, showing the inside and the top
Last one, from the front, it looks kind of crazy, but I like it!
What do you think? (dont be to judgmental about the light quality, thx!) Maybe this will give some one an idea for another use of magnets and relays.
