Help with battery powered LEDS

[d12bn]

I'm building a coffee table to display my autographed guitar. I want to add some bling with 8 to 12 LED lights. Its not so much about lighting the guitar but more about a cool effect.
So since its a coffee table that won't be by a receptacle I don't want to power it with AC.
My question is what LED lights should I use and what batteries should I use? How long can I expect batteries to last before replacing?

I made a visit to Radio Shack and I can buy LEDs and battery holders and I'm sure I can put it together if I knew what to use. By the way RS was no help.

Thanks for your time

 

[Ken_McE]

Assuming you can hide it in the table somewhere, I'd like to suggest you make it a six volt system and run it off one of those square lantern batteries. They'll run half a dozen 5mm LEDs for months.

 

[eebowler]

Immediately, battery powered LED christmas lights came to mind. They may not be as bright as you'd like though. Just a thought...

 

[d12bn]

The batteries will be mounted under the table. I can go as big as D cells but I think a lantern battery would be to big. It would be great to get months of battery life.

Any more recommendations?

Here's a pic of the table

 

[snarfer]

or you could even use this wireless powered christmas tree:

http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=12210&k=ZZ50877

then you wouldn't need a battery any more at all.

and the lights would be included.

just chuck out the tree.

 

[spencer]

That cant put out a whole lot of light though. I saw an episode of mythbusters and they tried to do this. They ended up with about 50 feet of wire that needed to be straight and not all in a ball and they got not very much power. This might work but it also might be a waste of money.

 

[LukeA]

That cant put out a whole lot of light though. I saw an episode of mythbusters and they tried to do this. They ended up with about 50 feet of wire that needed to be straight and not all in a ball and they got not very much power. This might work but it also might be a waste of money.

What the heck are you talking about?

 

[spencer]

Nevermind.

 

[clg0159]

You could wire six 5mm leds parallel each having their own resistor and power with 3 Dcells in series. This should give you ~80hrs continuous light. This should be very cheap and give three weeks of power assuming 4hrs. per night. Check here for resistor values:
http://ledcalc.com/

 

[d12bn]

Thanks for the help

Ok I've changed to 20 5mm LEDs. I hope to be able to wire them in series and need some recommendations on battery configuration.

Thanks again