• 1
    Central structure

    I bent two hexagons out of 1mm wire and used three 1N4148 in three corners of the hexagon to have the two hexagons at a defined distance from one another. I saw this trick in one of the other contest submissions (Hypno Butt).

  • 2
    LEDs

    First I prepared  the transparent white LEDs by griding off a bit of the tip and by slightly rougheing the outside of the remaining housing to improve the emission to all directions. Then I soldered them to the two hexagons. One of the hexagons connects all the anodes. The other one connects all the cathodes and is also common ground. I soldered three LEDs to each corner. A central one with long wires and two with shortened wires.

  • 3
    The circuit

    Although there is at least one other breathing 555 circuit in the contest (555 timer LED heart beat) I looked for a simpler solution with only a single 555. I found one on solderpad.com. I used the circuit described there but modified the values of C to 33uF and R to 27k. Mostly because I had them lying around. For the LEDs I used a 100R as common anode resistor. I should have taken a lower one to make it a bit brighter. Maybe 10R would be nice.