LED dog collar with keyboard keys

I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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October 8th, 2009 6

With the days getting darker earlier, I’ve been on the search for collar visibility options for my canine companion. Instructables user sheepishlion posted a clever DIY for making an LED dog collar with the extra bling of old keyboard keys. They used the keys to spell out the dog’s name, along with the “return” and “help” keys, and they also suggest using your phone number as an alternate safety feature. An Altoids tin and 9V battery were used for the power supply, which could be a bit big for a little dog, though my 65-pound Samoyed mix should be fine with it (and I’m certain she’ll appreciate the geek cred as much as I do).