Introduction There are many tutorials available on how to make your own LED spotlights. I’ve looked at quite a few and the one I like best was found on HauntForum, kudos to Niblique71 for his excellent design. I’ve amended his basic construction techniques just a bit. The spotlights in this tutorial have one primary change from the original, the ability to run from either a 9v internal battery or an external 12v supply. My haunt has a few places where running wiring is either not feasible or not aesthetically pleasing, so running the spotlight from a 9v battery is advantageous. The other change is the addition of an on-off switch for turning the spotlight on/off in order to conserve battery life. Parts List Each of the items below is “per spotlight” One 5 inch long section of 1" thin wall PVC pipe Be sure to get the thin wall and not the thicker Schedule 40 PVC. In Denver, I found the thin wall PVC at Lowes but Home Depot did not have it. Two Plastic bottle caps Either Coke or Pepsi products work fine and it doesn’t matter whether you buy 2 liter, 1 liter or 20 oz bottle, the caps are all the same size. Additionally, even the black bottle caps come with advertising these days so I paint them all… as a result color doesn’t matter. Three 5 mm LED (Light Emitting Diodes) There is a universe of choices for LEDs these days, colors, sizes, intensity, view angle, etc. I’ve limited my builds to 3 LED spots but you can fit at least 5 five mm LEDs on a bottle cap and
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Transcript
Introduction
There are many tutorials available on how to make your own LED spotlights. I’ve looked at quite a few
and the one I like best was found on HauntForum, kudos to Niblique71 for his excellent design. I’ve
amended his basic construction techniques just a bit. The spotlights
in this tutorial have one primary change from the original, the ability
to run from either a 9v internal battery or an external 12v supply.
My haunt has a few places where running wiring is either not
feasible or not aesthetically pleasing, so running the spotlight from a
9v battery is advantageous. The other change is the addition of an
on-off switch for turning the spotlight on/off in order to conserve
battery life.
Parts List
Each of the items below is “per
spotlight”
One 5 inch long section of 1"
thin wall PVC pipe
Be sure to get the thin
wall and not the thicker
Schedule 40 PVC. In
Denver, I found the thin
wall PVC at Lowes but
Home Depot did not have
it.
Two Plastic bottle caps
Either Coke or Pepsi
products work fine and it
doesn’t matter whether
you buy 2 liter, 1 liter or
20 oz bottle, the caps are
all the same size.
Additionally, even the black bottle caps come with advertising these days so I paint them all… as
a result color doesn’t matter.
Three 5 mm LED (Light Emitting Diodes)
There is a universe of choices for LEDs these days, colors, sizes, intensity, view angle, etc. I’ve
limited my builds to 3 LED spots but you can fit at least 5 five mm LEDs on a bottle cap and
maybe even 7. I ordered my LEDs from superbrightleds.com in four different colors: Blue (RL5-
B4630), Red (RL5-R8030), White (RL5-W8045) and Ultraviolet (RL5-UV0430-400).
Two Resistors (one for the 9v battery and the other for the 12 v power supply)
Resistor size is based on number of LEDs, LED parameters (required current) and LED
configuration. I bought mine at Radio Shack. More on this later.
Small slide switch
I used a SPDT submini slide switch from Radio Shack (275-0409). This was a pricey item (about
$1.60 per switch) and you can probably find them less expensive on the Web.
One 9v battery connector
One 2.1mm female plug for the 12v power supply
Another pricey item, about $2.00 per plug. If you plan to run a 12v power supply, you will also
need the male jack to match (not included in the kit) but 2.1mm is a very common size. Many
wall wart power supply plugs will fit.
One #10 ¾” round head machine screw
Two #10 flat washers
One #10 wing nut
Two #2 round head wood screws (optional)
These little screws can be difficult to find. Don’t even bother with the big box hardware stores
(Home Depot, Lowe’s). I had the best luck at Ace hardware in their specialty screw cabinet. In
any case, these screws are not mandatory. They are used to attach the switch to PVC pipe and a
good shot of Super Glue will do just as well.
One ¼” by 3” Eye Lag Screw (aka Ceiling Hanger)
When I asked the Home Depot guy to show me the eye lag screws, I was met with a blank stare.
However, when I asked for the ceiling hangers, he knew exactly what I needed.
Gel Super Glue
I used Super Glue to not only hold components in place to also to fill any little holes or gaps. The
best product for this is the Control Gel super glue by Loctite. Regular super glue will just run into
the hole.
Three 6” lengths of 22 Gauge Solid Hookup Wire
Jacket color doesn’t really matter. I bought mine at Radio Shack in a package that contained
three 30 foot rolls in red, black and green jacket color.
One 3” length of 2x4
This is for the spotlight base
Black (or other desired color) spray paint
Heat shrink tubing – ¼” and smaller diameter
Tools List
Safety glasses
Hand drill
Drill bits - 1/16”,1/8”
Soldering iron, Solder and damp sponge (for keeping the soldering iron tip clean)
Wood Saw – For cutting wood base
Hack Saw – for cutting PVC
Wire Clippers
Needle nose pliers
Regular pliers
Dremel tool – Optional but makes the
job easier.
Hot air gun – Required - This is
important in order to make the bottle
caps fit inside the PVC and to shrink the
heat shrink tubing around the soldered
joints.
Wire strippers
Multi Meter (not necessary but helpful)
Sandpaper
LED Tutorial
LEDs are amazing little devices and are becoming the light source of choice in many applications
including brake lights for cars, traffic lights and even home lighting. They can be manufactured to
produce many shades of light and LEDs of different colors can be combined and controlled to produce
nearly any color.
There are a few things that you should know about
LEDs before you begin working with them. The first is
that LEDs we are using are DC powered devices and
have a definite polarity, a positive and negative
connector. It’s important that they be hooked up
correctly in order to properly function. Our LEDs have
two wires coming out of the base. The names of these
wires follow the old tube convention (you have to be
over 40 to even remember vacuum tubes!), one is
called the anode, the other the cathode. For our
purposes it’s easier to think in terms of positive
(anode) and negative (cathode). Fortunately, LED
manufacturers have made it easy for us to determine
which is which… The anode (wire on the positive side)
of the LED is usually about 1/4” longer than the cathode (wire on the negative side).
There a number of ways to define the operation of an LED depending on what you need to do. The
example sheet below shows the parameters for the red LEDs that we are using. Don’t let all of the
numbers throw you off. In our case we are most concerned about color, power requirements and
viewing angle.
Part Number: RL5-R8030 - Super-Red LED (AlGalnP)
absolute maximum ratings: (TA=25°C)
PARAMETER SYMBOL RATING UNIT
Power Dissipation PD 80 mW
Continuous Forward Current IF 20 mA
Peak Forward Current (1/10th duty cycle, 0.1ms pulse width) IFM 50 mA
Reverse Voltage VR 5.0 V
Operating Temperature TA -40~+85 °C
Storage Temperature TSTG -40~+85 °C
Reverse Current (VR=5V) IR 10 µa
Lead Soldering Temperature (3mm from body) 260C (for 3 seconds)
optoelectric characteristics: PARAMETER SYMBOL MAX TYP UNIT TEST
View Angle of Half Power 2ø1/2 30 Degree
Forward Voltage VF 2.6 2.2 V IF=20mA
Peak Emission Wavelength ÿ P 630 nm IF=20mA
Luminous Intensity IV 8000 mcd IF=20mA
Dimensions in millimeters (inches)
Spectral Graph
Note: photo is to show beam pattern, digital camera and monitor cannot accurately
reproduce the pure colors emitted from LEDs - see emission wavelength
Color is obvious (pink isn’t usually a great Halloween color!) but what about power? Looking at the
parameter sheet, you will see that the forward current is 20 mA (milli-amperes or .002 amp) and the
peak current is 50 mA. This means that the normal current required for this LED is 20 mA and the peak
current is 50 mA. You won’t want to power your LED at more than 50 mA for very long unless you like
burned out LEDs! Just think of current like the water flow through a pipe. In this case, the LED requires
just a tiny trickle of electrical “water” to make it work, at least compared to those old AC spotlights you
used to use. The other interesting power parameter is Forward Voltage. This is the voltage drop across
the LED. You can think of voltage as the water pressure required to provide the water current through
the LED. If you don’t have enough pressure (voltage) the required water current won’t be sufficient to
water the plants (power the device). Alternatively, too much pressure and, poof! The LED goes up in
smoke. In our case, the forward voltage for the red LED is 2.2v. There’s a trick for making sure that you
keep the electrical current and voltage in the right range based on the power supply that you are using.
This is done by using a resistor in line between the power source and the LED. The resistor size depends
on two things, the voltage that you will use to provide the required electrical current and the average
current needed to power the LED. Rather than get into the mathematics, look instead at this website:
http://www.hebeiltd.com.cn/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator . This site allows you to input the parameters
for your LED application and calculates the correct resistance value to use to limit the current to the LED
device.
For example: Our LED spotlight will use three LEDs connected in parallel, each with a forward current of