The ShiftBrite Coffeetable: Flickering Lights For Any Ambiance

If you are looking for the perfect conversation starter piece, look no further. Once you start up this DIY LED table, people will just be stunned for a while before starting to talk about it. I've seen the video and it's amazing how beautiful this table is. What's even more amazing is how cheap this whole setup is. You'd expect a table like this to cost a lot of money.

Macetech used an Ikea Granas side table as a base, and proceeded to fit a 9x9 array of 81 ShiftBrite RGB LED modules. If you are wondering how the LEDs are controlled, macetech says that the table is currently running a simple sine plasma into HSV/RGB conversion over an Arduino. For us laypeople, this just means that a mathematical sine function is being run on the LED table via a small controller called an Arduino.

After looking through the numbers, we have to say that a table like this is still a bit expensive. It looks amazing, but you'll be surprised to find out that you'll have to spend at least $340 for ShiftBrite LEDs and an Arduino. This doesn't include the cost of the table that you are modifying. The Ikea Granas side table used in this build costs about $50. The ShiftBrite LEDs are the ones that cost the most since you have to get 81 of them! You could create a smaller grid, maybe a 6x6 or a 7x7. That would almost halve the cost in parts. Still, it's a really interesting project. I think that it looks amazing. The lights flicker through the visible spectrum and it's almost hypnotizing. [via Make, photos by Macetech]