Kitchen Under the Counter Lighting

[dat2zip]

Our kitchen does not have a window by the sink and the only available lighting is a couple of Florescent tubes in the middle of the kitchen. When working at the sink your body basically blocks direct lighting where you are working.

I decided to use some of the older LEDs since I have gobs of them. Some old Lux3 on stars underdriven at around 150mA runs them at a point where they put out good light and don't get too hot and do not need additional neat sinking requirements. The star is sufficient to dissipate the heat at this drive level.

SMT resistors were used to bias each string of 4 to the desired current.

On the large panels one Luxeon Rebel 100 was mounted and wired to a photo sensor circuit that turns on the two LEDs when the ambient gets dark for night lighting.



DIffused white plastic sheet stock with holes drilled for LEDs and mounting screw holes countersunk for flat heat wood screws.
Under the counter there is a 1/2" trim. The two main panels sit flush on the trim smaller panels sit recessed inside the trim.

DC Power is a Solid State high efficiency Wall wart 15V 1A module with 2.1mm DC power jack connector.
A female 2.1mm Jack is mounted to the main panel along with the rocker power switch.

Close up of the Single Rebel 100lm.

 

[dat2zip]

Some additional photos.
Kitchen area with no lights on.

Same with lights on.

Kitchen pictures taken with Iphone. Others taken with a Canon Rebel XTI with 17-85 EF-S lens.

You can view all these pictures and more at:
http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd291/dat2zip/under counter project/

Wayne

 

[kethd]

Thank you for all those pictures!!!

I have kitchen cabinets just like yours -- I never thought of making a fitted flush light-compartment cover underneath like that -- very neat!

For those of us new around here, could you give us more complete parts numbers for the LEDs and the starboards?

Your night-light LED etc are a separate circuit powered from same wallwart PS? Could we have a pic of this mode in operation? The wallwart is always-on? Do you know the overhead power consumption?

Those are pieces of copper foil? How is it mounted?

You drilled little holes for the LEDs to poke their heads out, left bare? Could we have some close-up exterior pics of one of these, on and off?

If you are able to measure any temps, esp with the unit in place and buttoned up, would be very interesting, to know just how well you are doing in such an enclosed space, no ventilation or metal conduction out, hardly any heatsinks...

 

[dat2zip]

Thank you for all those pictures!!!

I have kitchen cabinets just like yours -- I never thought of making a fitted flush light-compartment cover underneath like that -- very neat!

For those of us new around here, could you give us more complete parts numbers for the LEDs and the starboards?

Your night-light LED etc are a separate circuit powered from same wallwart PS? Could we have a pic of this mode in operation? The wallwart is always-on? Do you know the overhead power consumption?

Those are pieces of copper foil? How is it mounted?

You drilled little holes for the LEDs to poke their heads out, left bare? Could we have some close-up exterior pics of one of these, on and off?

If you are able to measure any temps, esp with the unit in place and buttoned up, would be very interesting, to know just how well you are doing in such an enclosed space, no ventilation or metal conduction out, hardly any heatsinks...

The LEDs as I believe stated earlier are generic obsolate Luxeon III on mounted on stars or MCPCBs. The MCPCB is the same common star that you can get Cree, Luxeon, Seoul emitters mounted.

The LED holes were made to fit the dome portion of the LED to poke into. The height of the dome was less than the 1/8" plastic and do not protrude out the bottom.

Copper foil or copper tape is sold at the hardware store where pesticides, ant bait, slug bait is sold. It is an barrier for slugs and snails. Snails crawling onto copper generate some bad taste or something when they try to cross copper and will not pass over it.

Since the LUX3 emitters are no longer available if you had to buy the LEDs I would recommend Cree XRE mounted on stars in place of the ones I used as they will be more efficient for the same drive current.

Also, if you should think about getting neutral white or warm white LEDs as these will help render food products like green veggies better than cool white LEDs.

Off the top of my head component list:
LEDs mounted on stars
Wall wart: V-Infinity 15V 1A Energy star IV rating (0.3W standby)
(digikey PN T992-P5P-ND)
DC snap in Panel Mount 2.1mm DC jack (Mouser 163-1060-EX)
Rocker Power Switch CWS series or equivalent.
http://www.nkkswitches.com/pdf/CWS.pdf
Copper Foil tape (from hardware store)
1206 SMT resistors (Values TBD) 10-30 ohm
Plastic Sheeting (Delvies Plastic) 2447 translucent white
Wire
two conductor or three conductor cable 22AWG
Scotchlok AY2 and AR2 connectors.

I set the LED current around 150mA and the LEDs get warm to slightly warm over time. Approximately (hand calibrated) 140F or so.

I used a power supply current limited to 150mA and measured the Vf of each string.

Using the following formula I computed the necessary resistance.
(15V - Vf) / 150mA = resistance.

From the calculated resistance I broke the resistance down into series parallel combinations of 1206 resistors to spread the heat load out among many SMT resistors keeping power dissipation to 1/10W or so per resistor.

The Copper foil was used to help wick away heat from the SMT resistors and spread it out over a larger area.

The hole patterns were drawn up in Corel Draw and then cut out on a laser engraver. Additional pieces were cut out of the main to make the holder for the snap mount 2.1mm DC power connector.

Wood spacers were 1/2" and 3/8" wood stock.

#6 wood screws were used. #6X1/2", #6X3/8", #6X3/4" and #6X1"

All screw holes were countersunk manually using a drill press.

Wayne

 

[dat2zip]

I need to redo the night light sensor to provide a output high version instead of a Open collector to GND.

This is needed for the 3rd wire in the 3 wire cable. It connects between the two large panels night light LEDs and wires them in series.

The return on the far side is either Switched power or GND.

Since the night needs to run all the time it can not use the switched power as the return. The far side needs to be wired to GND and the photo sensor needs to supply power.

Wayne

 

[kethd]

"laser engraver" !

Can it also cut copper foil? Extruded aluminum?

"Copper foil or copper tape is sold at the hardware store where pesticides, ant bait, slug bait is sold. It is an barrier for slugs and snails."
Very strange and helpful information -- what widths and copper thickness are typical of this product?

 

[dat2zip]

"laser engraver" !

Can it also cut copper foil? Extruded aluminum?

"Copper foil or copper tape is sold at the hardware store where pesticides, ant bait, slug bait is sold. It is an barrier for slugs and snails."
Very strange and helpful information -- what widths and copper thickness are typical of this product?

The laser engraver I have will cut plastic, wood and other materials. It will not cut metals like copper or aluminum.

I've only seen one model of copper tape at the hardware store. ~2" wide. I don't know how thick it is. I'd guess 1-2mil.

The two large panels were 12" X 24" and the smaller ones were cut from a 12"X24" panel.

Oh, and the glue is my favorite E6000 hobby RTV along with some syringes to dispense the glue.

Wayne

 

[Data]

Very nice project!

I too have lots of old emitters . . . hmm.