LED Thread

[Snytbaggen]

True

Would still be expensive as hell though, as my room has 9 grooves @ around 3,6m = 33m. Just speculating, if I used only the 5m wire, the cost would be 11 213 SEK!

If I split the wire and put the lights 10 cm apart, the cost would be 4 156 SEK. A bit cheaper, but still. I guess this will just remain as an idea :/

 

[Snytbaggen]

Okay, so I did some small calculations. If I use LED's with 10cm space between them I would need around 330pcs. I don't know about the brightness though, I would probably need some very strong diodes to get a good, even light.

 

[FireMyLaser]

330pcs (5mm warm-white's from k&c) will do more than fine I think. I you use the LED lightbulb and harvest the LEDs you'll keep the costs down but it takes more work. The light will be somewhat focused (30 degrees), if you want more spread you can file/cut the lens down to make it flat. You can also experiment with using clusters of LEDs (3 * something) to make more powerful spotlights etc. Fun fun fun!

You'll need a psu that can put out >2.2A at 12V and 110pcs of 120 ohm resistors. Or you can design it after another voltage like 18 or 24V, the key is to connect as many LEDs in series as possible to make it efficient. I think a 12V system is the best though.

I'd say buy one of the lightbulbs at k&c to get an idea of the brightness. They are pretty bright.

 

[styropyro]

FML, you have inspired me to play with some LEDs. I might build a small array just because I can, we got snowed in yesterday so I have nothing else to do. ;D

 

[pseudolobster]

FML:  I found a few high powered LEDs that look like the ones in this pic:

(the ones in the top middle with the lens assemblies on them)

What's a good current to drive these at, and how would you heatsink them? I was playing with one and a couple AA batteries and its aluminum base heated up within seconds and burnt my fingers.. It sizzled and smelled of burning flesh when I did. I'm assuming they might like some better heatsinking

 

[FireMyLaser]

Do you know their rated power, manufacturer? 1W, 3W? The big LED in the pic is 6W, 1.5A and run warm after a few minutes.

1W is 350mA, 3W is 1000mA, 5W is 700/1400mA.

 

[pseudolobster]

I'm not really sure, I found them in a ditch!

Around here some bus stops in the middle of nowhere have a button you can press for a light to come on... It's three of these big LEDs with lenses on them, powered by 2x 2v 8000mAh lead acid batteries, charged by a solar panel... Some kids had vandalized this bus stop and knocked the box off the top of it that contains all these goodies... The city had already replaced the light, but they just left the old one in the ditch.

When I get home I'll try looking up the part numbers on the LEDs themselves to see if I can figure out their power rating... They look identical to the top two middle ones in your pic though.

 

[FireMyLaser]

Lol awesome find. ;D

I'd guess it's 3x 1W.

 

[pseudolobster]

I backlit another broken laptop LCD using LEDs over the last couple days...

You can't really see, but each LED has its cathode removed and replaced with a 0805 surface mount resistor...

Works pretty good... at least as bright as the original backlight.. now I just have to glue over the wires and seal it to cover the blinding light leakage...

I'm building another portable gaming tablet.. this one will have a touchscreen, bluetooth, a mediocre integrated radeon chip, and (hopefully, eventually) a stylish custom aluminum case.

The LEDs really do a lot for battery life... This thing used to only get 30-40min on a charge when it had a normal florescent backlight, now it's lasting over 2 hours!  

 

[pseudolobster]

A word of advice for anyone who decides to try this:

Don't use really tiny resistors, it'll piss you off and take forever.

If you do end up using surface mount resistors, for the love of god glue over them as soon as you've hooked everything up correctly.
As I handled this, even the slightest bump against the wires at the bottom was enough to break the resistors.. Within an hour of hooking everything up and gluing it in place I'd broken at least half of the connections. Good thing I had a lot more resistors and patience or I'd have tossed the thing right there and then.

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Awesome thread! I'm really into LEDs
Here's some of my stuff:

Some homemade LED-arrays and LED-guy.

Two homemade joule-thief flashlights, even the boost-circuit is homemade. The LED has it's own socket so it can be removed and replaced with another colour.

Homemade RGB lights.

Video of it in action
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk149/FML_01/?action=view&current=LED2043.flv


Santa's LED-lantern. 16 candle-white LEDs.

My LED-matrix. 240 sockets with it's own resistor. Powered by an ATX PSU at 5V.

The LED collection!
Some random ones.

Moars.

Harvested LEDs from all kinds of electronics, with their leads extended. Each one in the picture is unique.

The main collection. All store bought and unique, spanning though the visible spectrum, 385 to 700nm + white, warm-white, pink, multi-colour, etc..

Other harvested and recycled LEDs.

A few of the high-power emitters (it's such a mess right now, I couldn't find them all). Seoul, Luxeon, Osram's Golden Dragon and other brands. + an adjustable LM317-based test driver.

The homemade RGB+V light-system.
This is my largest project made of ~400 LEDs. Everything is made by hand! It used to be red, green, blue and violet lights, but sadly the violet LEDs where very short lived and only lasted for a few weeks :'(. Now it's only RGB outside but inside I've in stalled some better violets. Ones I get some good spare time I'm gonna try to restore the the rest of the violets too.

The kitchen cabinet. RGB+V.

Front side of the house, not all lights are visible from this angle tho.

Three glass bottles with LEDs are sealed and buried in the ground, shooting beams up in the sky and illuminate the flagpole. It looks really nice in fog or falling snow.

The RGB controller, four channels, three have PWM and dims the red, green and blue LEDs for colour mixing. The fourth channel is for the violet LEDs.

Warmwhite LEDs in the stairs, totally 78 LEDs

LED Kinetic Sculpture
http://se.youtube.com/watch?v=uOPQzrA2OZ8

The end. Sorry for all the pics!

K-shell, that 100Watt LED is the sexiest thing!

Great Ceaser's Ghost!!! You go all out with those things!!! Very impressive....

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

I occasionally have use for LEDs in some of my work - mostly the Halloween-type stuff.  Here are some examples:

Werewolf /w/ yellow LED eyes:

Werewolf with red eyes:

Werewolf with near-UV (not sure what approx. nm, but they do make things fluoresce) eyes:

This is what these guys look like in the light:

Cyborg coyote mount (a real coyote that I mounted - sort of like imagine if the Terminator had a dog....):

Sometimes I also mount them inside animal skulls, but I don't have any pics of those.

 

[jonrobertd]

Thats just trippin. I love werewolves (lycanthrope). What are they for, did you make them, and do you sell them. ;D

And Fire, thats just balls to the wall.

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Thats just trippin. I love werewolves (lycanthrope). What are they for, did you make them, and do you sell them. ;D

And Fire, thats just balls to the wall.

Oh yeah - I sell a ton of these on Ebay in the months before Halloween - and on my website year-round. I make and sell haunted house props, among other things.

 

[FireMyLaser]

Look at those... they're awesome!

I like the coyote most.

 

[FireMyLaser]

I made a USB-light just because I can.

Smart design with diffuser/spotlight.

(Please note that the camera doesn't make justice in these pictures, it looks much warmer)

The lego-stand is just for now, I need to find some sort of flexible tube for a neck.


8 LEDs is a total overkill, 2-3 will do an awesome job. A dimmer would be nice.