advice on making a led bar for my hutch on my tool box.

Ok I hope this is in the right section.
Im tring to build a ledlight bar for my hutch on my tool box its 73 in wide, it dont have to look great because it would be out of site im tring to figerout what to use for a housing how many leds, what kind of leds and drivers and a power suply.
Anybody want to point me in the right direction?

How bright do you want it to be?
What power source are you planning to use?

could you provide a picture of what you want to mount it on? that might help as well

This is not my box but it looks like this to give you an ideal, asfar as power supply it would be 120ac to i guess what ever dc would work im tring not to spent too much. Brightness unsure but its a work space so I would atleast want to get what i would get with a floresent tube.

Get a 72 inch strip of cool white SMD LEDs, glue it where it will shine into the box, add either a manual or automatic switch (maybe both) and sit one of those little 12 volt batteries that they use for emergency lights down in the bottom. Wire it together, boom, you're done. Keep a second battery on a trickle charger over with your other rechargable tools, swap them once in a while.


****Update*** (just saw pic)

You want to light the top shelf, or every drawer? Does the box move around or always stay in one place?

Ken_McE said:

Get a 72 inch strip of cool white SMD LEDs, glue it where it will shine into the box, add either a manual or automatic switch (maybe both) and sit one of those little 12 volt batteries that they use for emergency lights down in the bottom. Wire it together, boom, you're done. Keep a second battery on a trickle charger over with your other rechargable tools, swap them once in a while.

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how bright would it be, where could i find them and can i use a plug in power supply?

I've set up a lighting strip that would work in that setup.
For power supply/LED driver, a cheap MeanWell constant current, about 700mA should do:
* Mean Well LPC-35-700 (about $18)
It runs off 120V fine, and can power anything from 3 to 14 or so Cree XP-G emitters.

For light:
Perhaps about 5 Cree XP-G, cool or warm, whichever you prefer. More or less, depending on how much light you need. (about $4.50-5.00 each, already each on an mcpcb star). Equally space them and wire them in series with the constant current power supply.
* 5 XP-G R5 LED's would give you about 1300 lumens running at 700mA. They would use 11.3W power, and because the LPC-35-700 is 85% efficient, the whole system would use about 13.4W. Which is pretty good for a 1300 lumen system.
You could thermal glue or screw the LED stars to a strip of aluminium or an aluminium heat sink.
Then attach the strip to the top of the hutch.
RapidLED have a 1.1" wide heatsink strip of alu that you can get in various lengths. They do a 72" length, or a 60" or 48".

I can't post sales links, but you could get everything you need for the full setup from rapidled, just google them.
I've had very good service purchasing from them, fast shipping and their prices are excellent..

ok im going to do some research but im sure i will back for questions. ken i just want to light ou the top hutch a lil brighter than it is now and light the whole hutch not just the center and it wont be moving so i will be plugging it in. thanks on the info sam ill be back with a few questions. here is my hutch now with a droplight for lighting lol.

EDIT: the hitsink bar is like & $66 any advice on cutting down on this projects price im guessing $45 for leds and power supply then i have to mount them on somthing it dont have to be pretty do I need a driver or just the power supply.

djjeffa said:

EDIT: the hitsink bar is like & $66 any advice on cutting down on this projects price im guessing $45 for leds and power supply then i have to mount them on somthing it dont have to be pretty do I need a driver or just the power supply.

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yeah, I just used some aluminium strip. For just 4 or 5 or 6 XPG's running at 700mA it's more than enough.
It's very cheap, or you might already have some lying around. Scrap aluminium.
My stuff is 3mm thick, and 40mm wide, and I have various lengths, went with just over a meter to run about 12XPGs and it seems to be fine.
They don't put out too much heat at lower current levels like 700mA.
If you go for XM-L's which are a bit more per emitter, and run them at a low current like 700mA, they put out very little heat indeed, and because they're more efficacious, you get more lumens per Watt.

Eg: this photo shows 5 XMLs on the metal strip, not heatsink material. A single strip of aluminium 3mm thick and 40 mm wide provides enough cooling when they are running using a 700mA supply, and at 700mA, the 5 XMLs here put out 1400 lumens at 137.9 lumens per Watt, and the LED system in total uses 10 Watts, or including the power supply @85% the system uses 12W in total.
In the picture though, I'm using a 1700mA power supply instead, which is why there is a stack of aluminium strips and the temp is getting up a bit.
But I've run the same system using a 700mA LPC-35-700, and there is barely any heat at all, it remains cool to touch.


For working out lumens and watts etc, if you go with Cree emitters, check out http://pct.cree.com

samgab said:

yeah, I just used some aluminium strip. For just 4 or 5 or 6 XPG's running at 700mA it's more than enough.
It's very cheap, or you might already have some lying around. Scrap aluminium.
My stuff is 3mm thick, and 40mm wide, and I have various lengths, went with just over a meter to run about 12XPGs and it seems to be fine.
They don't put out too much heat at lower current levels like 700mA.
If you go for XM-L's which are a bit more per emitter, and run them at a low current like 700mA, they put out very little heat indeed, and because they're more efficacious, you get more lumens per Watt.

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thanks alot sam
ill probly do xpg's because of the price i dont need lens do I ? and I just hook the LPC-35-700 to it directly no resisters or anything? just got to find smthing nice to mount it to for the heat.

Lets see:
Mean Well LPC-35-700, $18.00
5 x XPG neutral white, R3 bin, $25.00
Berquist thermal pads x10 (5 spares) $5.00

Bit of scrap aluminium strip... source some yourself, should be able to pick up for a couple of bucks if that.
(If the top of the toolbox is metal, you could just stick the emitter MCPCB stars directly onto the metal cabinet on the inside facing down?)
Wire, solder, switch, power plug etc... Hopefully you have some around. No cost.
I took a cheap lamp and scavenged the plug and inline switch from that to connect up to the LED driver.

Total: About $50. (+shipping?)

You'll have an 1140 lumen strip light that uses about 12 Watts, and has a very nice neutral white colour. That's very efficient light.
Don't worry about using any optics for the emitters, as long as they're placed pointing down towards the work surface, with the emitters themselves not visible,
the spread will be very nice.

So there's one possible suggestion.

If you go for Cool white XPG's it will be a tad cheaper, and brighter. They are R5 bin for $4.50 each.
But I thought you might prefer Neutral white. Personally, I quite like cool white, so I went for them.

thats great so i could just mount it to the top of the hutch? its painted metal ? and how would i secure them?

djjeffa said:

thanks alot sam
ill probly do xpg's because of the price i dont need lens do I ?

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Nah, just the bare emitter has a nice even spread, so long as the emitter is mounted so you don't directly look at the emitter.

djjeffa said:

and I just hook the LPC-35-700 to it directly no resisters or anything?

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That's right, the LPC takes care of all of that, and supplies just the right amount of current for the leds. One thing; be careful to have the whole system wired up before you power it up. I made the mistake in testing, of accidentally turning the LPC on just before connecting it up when I was using a DMM to measure the current, and all 8 emitters I had in that series blew at once and instantly. Expensive mistake! That won't happen as long as you have it wired up before powering up. Just something to be aware of.

djjeffa said:

just got to find smthing nice to mount it to for the heat.

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Yeah, any smooth strip of alu with suitable dimensions will do the trick, for the low current you'll be using, they don't really require that much cooling.
Definitely don't need an active (fan) cooling system.

djjeffa said:

thats great so i could just mount it to the top of the hutch? its painted metal ? and how would i secure them?

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Those "Berquist Thermal Pads" that rapidled sell are perfect. they are sticky on both sides, and provide thermal conductivity, and are the perfect size for the stars that the emitters are mounted on.
Makes it as simple as sticking the emitters on where you want them.

samgab said:

I made the mistake in testing, of accidentally turning the LPC on just before connecting it up when I was using a DMM to measure the current, and all 8 emitters I had in that series blew at once and instantly. Expensive mistake! That won't happen as long as you have it wired up before powering up. Just something to be aware of.

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So I hook them in series? and how did you fry them did you only have one side hooked up?

Yes, you hook the whole lot in series.
I fried them by breaking the circuit, getting the DMM ready to connect in the break in the circuit, but I got mixed up, it was late at night, and I flicked the switch on before completing the circuit with the DMM.
If you solder up the circuit before turning on the power you'll be fine.
It's not something to worry about, just to be aware of.
The power supply won't go frying LEDs when you switch it on in normal use, just have it connected to the LED circuit, then power it up.
I've used a couple of Mean Well LED LPC drivers a lot since then, and never had any issues since. It was my own silly mistake.

Awesome thread!

Btw how would one connect this to a power outlet? I assume the driver does not have a plug on the end?

IcantC said:

...how would one connect this to a power outlet? I assume the driver does not have a plug on the end?

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You simply wire on a plug, ideally with an inline switch.
Of course, always exercise due caution when working with mains AC voltage.
I've used the cable and inline switch taken from a bedside lamp.
Also have used a PC power cable and a bought inline switch.
It was NZD$20 for the inline switch. It was only NZD$10 for a brand new bedside lamp with the plug, power cable, and inline switch all included.
Threw away the lamp and kept the wire/switch assembly, and it's a more elegant solution than the inline switch by itself.

Also handy: Some heatshrink tubing, and some 3M Scotchlok or similar crimp connectors or splice joiners.