Any "fixed-led-holics" around?

[Stromberg]

Although I'm intrested of flashlights and portable lighting, I'm maybe even more intrested of fixed/home LED lighting, especially self made systems. I've previously done torchiere-Seoul mod and now I'm going for the remote controlled RGB-LED world that is completely new to me.

How about others? I know few, SafetyBob is building uplight mod, AndyTiedye has done his torchiere mod, VanIsleDSM has a ceiling Cree light project. Some CPF'er (whose name I don't remember) had even converted his whole house to use LEDs.

Anyone else? All are welcome to share projects and ideas!

 

[R33E8]

Home lighting and automotive lighting are pretty much the only reasons I'm here.. I haven't caught the flashlight bug yet.. I just ordered some Cree Q5's from DX to get started with a home lighting project :thumbsup:

 

[Stromberg]

Home lighting and automotive lighting are pretty much the only reasons I'm here.. I haven't caught the flashlight bug yet.. I just ordered some Cree Q5's from DX to get started with a home lighting project :thumbsup:

Interesting! Be sure to keep us updated of your projects.

I wasn't happy to the Solarox GU10 bulb(with warmwhite Cree) because of its tendency to go very warm in just few minutes, so I snagged the XR-E from the bulb and added it to my existing 2 * Rebel kitchen ceiling light:

Those two Rebels made enough light but since the XR-E was there to use, it made nice addition to the bit greenish tint of Rebels.

Yes, I know.. Rebels are attached by hex screws (+ thermal grease) and Cree with Arctic Silver adhesive, but I didn't have any AS5 when I originally attached those Rebels..

 

[jeffosborne]

Hey Stromberg,

I have 18 LED lights planted in my home, all connected to a single controller I built from scratch. But note that this is SECONDARY lighting, not primary. I am still 'on the grid'. They are all Rebel LEDs, some cool 50's and 100's, and several -0070 and -0080 neutral whites, which are very nice. They all run on a 12 volt system, 6 strings of 3 LEDs in series. Power is supplied by a 12v 3A power supply, but when the fuse blows, or the power goes out, a relay switches power over to a 7ah SLA battery.

4 strings of LEDs run at 270ma, about 3/4 watt. 2 other strings run at 100ma each. These lights replace night lights throughout the house. Two are mounted on 12"x3/4" aluminum bars over the two doors leading out to the deck, and two just like that are over the driveway. The rest are in the house proper.

A photo cell in the attic turns off 5 of the 6 strings during the day, and on at dusk. The one string that is on 24/7 is the bathrooms, as they have no windows.

I hope to compile photos of my work and provide them soon.

When a tree limb fell and took out our power recently, it was very sweet to have a house full of light.

Jeff O.

 

[Stromberg]

I have 18 LED lights planted in my home, all connected to a single controller I built from scratch...

WOW!Your setup sounds very innovative with DIY controller, relay switches, photo cell and all. BTW have you chosen the drive current because of power save reason or..? I'm just curious because those two Rebels in my kitchen light are 0080's and when driven @700mA they give plenty of light in small kitchen. Originally I planned to drive them @350mA but the tint was too green so I switched to 700mA.

Waiting for your pictures!

 

[SafetyBob]

Jeff O, you have to put some pics up. And I guess I do to. I have night lights too in the hallway. Used some premade stuff from LEDSupply I believe....Northstar something or other. Nice white (to go with ceiling) plastic case with very ordinary white leds with built in resistors so they run off 12 volts. Unless you know they are there, or you look specifically up at the ceiling, nobody knows they are there until they come on.

I used a 4 amp 12 power supply in the attic that is controlled by home automation (ok, X10) but also has battery backup and comes on in anytime power goes off. Using a Zane dimmer for controlling exact brightness of them in the hallway.


Working on the undercounter stuff and normal home lighting now. Which reminds me I need to upload some pictures (yes they are horrible) of the completed uplighting that was first installed in the house using flourescents. Less bright than the flourescents were originally, but more appropriate level of lighting now that it should of been in the first place. May add dimming capability later, but for now, wife happy, I happy!!

OK, she is just happy about the lights.....

Bob E.

 

[Ken_McE]

Anyone else? All are welcome to share projects and ideas!

0.) Green LED nightlight made from defunct emergency light. Circuit board simply lies atop the molding over a door. Long string of 3 mm LEDs hardwired to wallwort, runs 24/7, lights hall nicely for dark adapted person.

1.) Three 10 mm LEDs for toilet light. One red, one blue, one "ultraviolet". Hardwired to wall wart, runs 24/7, too cheap to bother switching.

2.) Amber LED ropelight for previously dim staircase. Thought the amber would highlight the wood, it doesn't, but it works so I leave it. Warm white would look better, but then it would be a $600 (US) project. hard wired to a run time meter so I can see if it lasts that 100,000 hours the manufacturer claims.

3.) motion switched amber Luxeon flood board for porch light. After it got knocked down by the truck I added a second board in red because the amber looked a little too much like a sodium light.

4.) Misc LED/fiber optic nightlights.

 

[LukeA]

Nitelight in the bathroom is a warm white Cree running at 350mA from a Microdriver4. Takes two weeks of nights to cost a penny in electricity and puts out enough light to comfortably read by for dark-adapted eyes.

 

[LEDninja]

Battery powered lights do not usually have enough power to start a fire and burn down your house.
Mains power is plenty enough to start a fire and burn down your house.

In Canada it is illegal to plug anything in that is not CSA approved.
In the US there is no such law but your insurance company won't pay if the fire is started by non UL listed equipment. They will probably give you lots of grief if they find non UL listed equipment plugged in even if that is not the cause of the fire.

So unless you are familiar with the NEC (CEC in Canada) and the testing required to get UL listing or CSA approval I do not recommend DIY home lighting. Even if you do not apply for the approvals, you should make sure the design and construction meet code.

That being said, I do have a bunch of fixed LED lights.

Andytiedye had a big listing of older fixed lighting threads, before fixed lighting got it's own subforum:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=149183

 

[SafetyBob]

Stromberg, there may be quite a bit of utility we do-it-yourself people could adapt from the RGB world. Using our computers to interface with a DMX controller to those RGB lights (unless you make your own of course) could be really, really neat. Complicated, yes, cool......absolutely.

A cool example would be in the kitchen. You have a cool blue night light that turns into very dim white as you press a minimum illumination button for getting a drink of water at 2am, then at 6am when you get up for breakfast the lights go to a nice cool white to try and wake you up.

Dinner time, how about a nice warm coolered scene to let you enjoy your TV dinner......

Anyway, lots of cool things here to learn with color combinations that those RGB leds can give off.

Bob E.

 

[Stromberg]

Stromberg, there may be quite a bit of utility we do-it-yourself people could adapt from the RGB world.

Bob E.

Yep! I just finished my first remote controllable(IR) RGB fixture, and I must say that I'm quite stunned. I almost jumped around from sheer joy when I saw how cool and also practical it was.

If I manage to find some time, I may create new topic. But since I got new job and don't have as much free time, I think I'll first just enjoy my new RGB discovery.

 

[blasterman]

I'm currently in the process of trying to design some LED accent lights for my family's busy restaurant and nightclub and give the place a general lighting over-haul.

I'm shocked at the honest lack of diversity in terms of LED fixtures because I'm finding wattage is not the problem. With 10/20 degree light spread 3watt LEDs do what I want. It's just....the lack of fixtures and trusting commercial power supplies.

So, I'm building my own stuff.

The over-all focus of this forum on building flashlights and light sabres --vs- practical uses for LEDs disturbs me though.

 

[jeffosborne]

Blasterman - Wow, we do light sabers?
I must have missed that one.
Can you give us a link?


Seriously, let me ask, are you a do-it-yourselfer to begin with?
Great things can be accomplished in this not yet settled world of LED lighting. What is the capacity of the restaurant? And, are there good, existing window sources of light, or do we light it all internally?

Cheers,
Jeff O.

 

[Stromberg]

I'm shocked at the honest lack of diversity in terms of LED fixtures because I'm finding wattage is not the problem. With 10/20 degree light spread 3watt LEDs do what I want. It's just....the lack of fixtures and trusting commercial power supplies.

So, I'm building my own stuff.

I've also noticed the lack of decent highpower led fixtures. It seems that the majority of light manufacturers are merely stucking those pathetic 5mm leds in some more or less fancy host and tagging ridiculously high price on them.

I've found some quite interesting highpower led fixtures from here:
http://www.dotlight.de/shop/

..but they are usually way too pricey and often use some never-heard nameless, past generation leds.
All in all it seems that if you want a good led fixture, you have to build it yourself, which is just fine for DIY people like me.

Ps.blasterman:
Remember to keep us posted of your project. Allways interested to hear what kind of highpower led fixtures people are building.

 

[blasterman]

Great things can be accomplished in this not yet settled world of LED lighting

Rant = on.

As long as 99% of the market is driven by chinese fabricators that are also doing most of the fixture design while Western markets do nothing more than act as distributors I'm not holding my breath. Or, we need to start powering our houses by AA batteries because it seems the only source of energy that most of the members of this site understand.

Rather than rate flashlights on the basis of how brightly you can illuminate your neighbor's garage at night, how about we base them on how few landfills we populate with discarded batteries used to power these things. Or, who can build the most efficient and cost effective AC circuit given that driving a high tech LED with such a low tech device as a chemical battery is the biggest oxymoron I can think of.

If I choose halogen or CFL for interiour lighting I can choose exacting specs such as beam angle, CRI, color temp, and reliable power source. LED rarely provides the same, and if it does, you can rarely trust it.

With fixed LED lights I can choose either line voltage, and deal with a questionable power filter that will likely flicker at a maddening 30/60hz. Or, go with 12volt, and have to become an expert on picking and wiring my own 12volt custom supply.

Rant = off.

For my own designs I've settled on a rather innovative approach - I mount the bare LCD to a 1" x 3" piece of copper pipe with a bolt or steel bearing sitting inside it, and set the assembly on a mounted Neodymium magnet. Instant, 360degree swivel that also serves as a great heatsink.

Another fixture I'm working on is mounting the LED and lens inside a capped piece of 3/4x4 piece of copper tubing. I then hang it like a pendant using very thin gauge, black wire, and paint it black. In a darkened room, it nearly vanishes, and the light source looks like it coming from thin air.

I plan on using these designs for my own solutions, and given I have little ambient light to work with it's going to be challenge. It's just I wish there was more of a base of commercial solutions to pick and choose from for reference.