Crude little reading light (pics)

[TigerhawkT3]

I made this while I was away from CPF for those few months recently. The 10mm LEDs (four of them in series) are extremely warm white, almost yellow, and what looks like five emitters in parallel. The DC adapter is set to 12V, measured at around 12.2V or so IIRC. It gets a little warm and there's more than enough light, so I'll probably splice in a couple dozen ohms at some point.

Front view:

From below:

From above:

 

[bluecrow76]

Cardboard... awesome! :thumbsup:

 

[Illum]

From the way that toggle looks, it can take about 15-20 amps...was it a surplus switch sitting on your desk or were you thinking of expanding?:twothumbs

 

[M@elstrom]

OMG crude & ghetto... awesome!

 

[R@ndom]

From the way that toggle looks, it can take about 15-20 amps...was it a surplus switch sitting on your desk or were you thinking of expanding?:twothumbs

20 amps powering 5mm leds. Sounds like fun Soldering 1000 LEDs.. Not so.:nana:

 

[Illum]

20 amps powering 5mm leds. Sounds like fun Soldering 1000 LEDs.. Not so.:nana:

1000LEDs, two legs apiece

 

[JamisonM]

Neat. I did something similar, but I made a sort of lantern instead. Housed everything in a box I received an order in from the sandwich shoppe years back.
Box Light 01 Box Light 02

 

[lolzertank]

1000LEDs, two legs apiece

It might be easier for him to build a wave soldering machine first. One pool of molten solder, coming right up!

 

[camra88]

I knew a guy that worked in the engineering lab with me at school, and he built a backlight to an LCD monitor with I believe 1,000 5mm LEDs. He soldered them all by hand! (with the help of a soldering iron of course )

He used that super bright backlight to create a home-made wall-projector. It was very neat.

 

[TigerhawkT3]

That's an automotive switch I picked up at Kragen. It's very loud (CLACK) but it works fine.

 

[richardcpf]

That is one hardcore switch... I like the cardboard, makes it ecologic.

 

[TorchBoy]

Another grunge build... Is there a TigerhawkT3 fan club I can join?

 

[Illum]

I'm a fan of David's works
here's the man himself...from the show yourself thread


Hey, you still have that Remington SPR100 12 gauge?

 

[Sigman]

:thumbsup:

 

[edc3]

Very cool! I got some flat top, wide angle LEDs a while back and I'd like to do something similar with them. I think the wide angle LEDs would be nice for a reading light. Maybe I'll cut up an old hardboard clipboard for the backing...