Giving my Vacuum a "Laser" Upgrade
Tags: making, diy
Published: 2021-06-28 03:43:57

---
title: Giving my Vacuum a "Laser" Upgrade
published: true
date: 2021-06-28 03:21:09 UTC
tags: Making, DIY
canonical_url: https://chaijiaxun.com/laser-vacuum/
cover_image: https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/thumbnail.jpg
---

Dyson just announced the v15, an upgrade to their vacuum series, and one of the most notable additions was a new laser feature that would help you see all the dust that you were too lazy to vacuum up. Honestly this would have seemed like a really cool idea and somewhat magical to me. Except that a previous cheap vacuum I owned achieved this same effect by placing some LEDs on the front of the device and it worked pretty well too.

Now I do own a Dyson v7, and I believe it’s possible to [upgrade just the head](https://www.dyson.com/support/journey/spare-details.971360-01.368340-01) without having to fork over 700 bucks to Dyson for a completely new vacuum. It would only be 120, but that is still an expense that I wasn’t willing to pay for what was effectively a green LED. (Also it's sold out right now.) So I figured I’d do it myself. After all, if I insist that all it is is an LED, what’s stopping me from sticking an LED strip to my current vacuum?

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/thumbnail-1.jpg)<figcaption>Left: official v15, Right: "v15" at home</figcaption>

## The planning process

Step 1: LED strip, batteries and wires I reckon.  
Step 2: Hot glue  
Step 3: ???  
Step 4: Profit

## Build process

Not that I really needed to test this, but I threw some LEDs I had lying around onto a breadboard and wired them up in parallel. Then I found a spare battery housing I had lying around the house. Finally I stuck 4 rechargeable AA batteries in it and turned it on.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/pic1.jpg)<figcaption>yep, electricity still works</figcaption>

Next I needed to find a way to make a strip of LEDs. I could have just gotten a cheap 5050 5v LED strip off eBay or Aliexpress, but I was not in a spending money sort of mood today. Instead, I had this perfboard lying around which happened to be just about the right size for my vacuum head. The next step was just soldering the bits together. I used the excess of the LED legs as wires.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/pic2.jpg)<figcaption>LEDs, Resistors and Soldering</figcaption>

Next up is to cut the perfboard to size and put some masking tape on the front of my dyson so that I don’t actually damage it by sticking this abomination to it.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/pic3.jpg)

Finally, we test the light and see how well it illuminates the dust.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/pic4.jpg)<figcaption>It works surprisingly well!</figcaption>

**Step ???, Hot glue gun**

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/pic5.jpg)

Luckily for me, the battery holder had a built in switch, so I didn't need to install a switch, but that would have been pretty easy to fix as well.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/vacuum.gif)<figcaption>And here's a gif of it in action</figcaption>

## Conclusion

**Cost** : effectively $0 and 1 hour.

This works just as well as the $120 version that Dyson provides on their website. I guess I get to keep my money.

![Giving my Vacuum a](https://chaijiaxun.com/content/images/2021/06/image.png)<figcaption>Seems like it's pretty popular too</figcaption>