Design idea: 400 LED light wand/bar

Tell me what you think of a idea from a CPF newbie. A piece of alum extrusion approx 1.5 x 4 x 12 with the emitter arrays from 4 100 LED lights mounted in the side in the upper half, 4 NiMH D cells, endcaps fashioned from wood or plastic, lens of plexiglass/tempered glass runs the length inside the extrusion, switch from a computer power supply or automotive rocker. Or a two way toggle, one for 1 array and all 4 the other direction. Cost - under $200. Reaction of people when you push the button - priceless.

(Then again, why stop at 4 arrays? Anyone know what 4 NiMH D's will support without damage?)

+------+
| LLLLL |
| LLLLL |
| LLLLL |
| LLLLL |
| K
| DD |
| DD |
+------+

I'll check in tomorrow.

HaPPI

Just use luxeons on the aluminum, easier than soldering hundres of 5mm leds! and probably brighter!

Or even better... why not just plug it into the Molex connector of a computer's PSU? Then you wouldn't be tied to battery life, and it'd be where you're most likely to use it anyway. Forget the glass or plexiglass window -- you'll lose too much light from it, and it's unnecessary.

As IssacHayes noted, it would be a PITA to solder them all.

btw, I'm not sure I understand your ASCII art.

Welcome to CPF!

you could probably do it for a lot cheaper and brighter if you were willing to do the soldering of all the LEDs yourself... On ebay you can buy packs of 100 JELEDs for pretty cheap, the high output white bright ones are similar to nichia types, but seem to be cheaper.

i've thought about doing a similar thing to my thor- buying a big piece of chipboard and cutting it round to fit in place of the lense, drive LEDs in sets of 4 in series, probably use 10mm type, could easily fit 100 or more on there.

Then again, why stop at 4 arrays? Anyone know what 4 NiMH D's will support without damage?

Click to expand...

I have some powerizor 10,000mah D NIMH cells... people around here consider them "less than premium" cells, but I have no complaints so far. I was breaking them with a few discharge/charge cycles, and to speed things up, I did a large chunk of the discharge by running 4 in series into a dead short accross about 60 feet of 14ga wire. I measured current, started around 22 amps, and slowly deminished to about 18 amps over ~30 minuts. continued till amps were below 12 (at around 40 minuts), then did them individually untill cell voltage dropped to 0.9V per cell under a load, then put them in the charger to slow discharge them the rest of the way.... They didn't even break a sweat at these current rates, didn't even start to warm up a bit till after 20 minuts. never got hot, only slightly warm to the touch.

I'd be willing to bet that any decent ~10AH D NIMH cell could be used regularly at 20-30A with no problems.

Sorry my design isn't more clear. This is a flashlight, not a PC accessory, except instead of a cylidrical shape held horizontally, it's held upright. The emitter arrays are from 100 LED flashlights. I drew a better illustration but I haven't figured how to insert it in the post yet. It's not on the web, it's just a bmp file.

Yup, could use Luxeon instead and more lux and longer throw would fit in the same space with small diameter reflectors.

I set up a temporary website. A better 2 view drawing is at

http://happi.freeservers.com/

This resolves the strange saucer-on-a-stick shape of very powerful flashlights. Extrusion is way easier and cheaper than turning a cylindrical shape from stock. Especially if you work for a company that manufactures a product using said extrusion and recycles a ton of it a month. :^)

HaPPI

So you're going for a "shop light" type form factor like the florecent ones you use to work on cars /etc with sorta. If it's signaling/shop light then that form factor would work..

But if it's to be used like a typical flashlight, but yet you still want large reflectors & several luxeons, or TONS of 5mm LEDs, then you should perhaps consider a lantern style form factor. It would be more ergonimical. Have a handle, batteries underneath, and then the front could be a couple of the bars with as many LEDs as you want. I think it would be more ballanced that way. Don't forget to have a lens of some sort, plexi with stand off bolts would work...

The lantern form factor is fine but I was looking to do something different. I didn't think of the similarity of a shoplight - thanks. Shoplights are unfocused area light, no directionality and I was thinking of... Oooo! With all that real estate you'd have plenty of room to mix Luxeons in reflectors for spot with a wholotta 5mm for medium flood, like the using the 100 LED array from a flashlight, plus add a few pointing out diagonally for spill. Multiple switches to select either or both. No reason you couldn't do it in a lantern format also. Cool!

Thanks to all for your comments and the welcome. No doubt I'll be here reg'lar.

HaPPI

>I set up a temporary website. A better 2 view drawing is at
> http://happi.freeservers.com/


It needs a handle at one end. The handle might double as a stand.

See this? 60 LED's, 240 Lumens, cordless - with rechargeable battery &AC/DC adpater/chargers. $37.95 LINK