Quite accidentally came up with another decoration for the party at D*C. In order to make it happen, I’ve had to learn to waterproof the Arduino.

The idea here is that the light strip I’ve been playing with (which has its own waterproof seal, once you seal the ends) will go under a load of ice or cold water. It can then illuminate the ice with whatever swirling color scheme comes to mind. But to avoid having wires hanging out of the bucket/cooler/empty skull/whatever, the Arduino is going to have to go underneath as well. Simple enough: I’ve stuck it in a one of those disposable ziploc-tupperware dish things.

With a small hole in the side of it for the light strip, and plenty of hot glue to re-seal it, there’s just enough room for the Arduino and a common 9v battery pack. When all sealed up, it works fine. Shortly I’ll go and test its waterproofness when empty. I don’t anticipate any problems in that regard. Condensation may be an issue but I’ll stick it in the freezer to test and wrap the Ardie in a small rag or something if need be.

When it’s live at the party it should only need to run for a few hours, in which case the battery becomes the larger concern. That light strip sucks down a lot of juice. I’ll have to test that as well.

UPDATE- Well, it’s not waterproof. The flexible cover of the LED strip is too flexy, and can’t maintain a sufficient seal with the glue I was using. Oh well, no harm done and i think I can mitigate the problem somewhat. Also stuck it in the freezer, as a live system for a while. After a couple of hours the LEDs went red and stopped. Looks like the battery died. Condensation was a complete non-issue, and with a fresh battery it works fine. So we should be set to go.