good beginner projects?

Hi All, First time post. Can anyone suggest any source for good beginner LED projects? I don't have any practical experience with electronics, and would like to bootstrap my way up.

Thanks in advance.

Here's some notes I've collected.

Thanks. To be honest, I don't yet understand many of the details of the notes you've collected.

Can anyone offer suggestions for basic level information? Any good books? (I did some simple circuit analysis with my Phys. degree, but have no practical experience.)

Icthy,

Sorry, I have no good suggestions for material that starts you off on learning about how circuits work. I got a EE degree, but then discovered it didn't help with analysis of circuits. I had to learn from others around me at work. I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions for books from others here.

But I do want to welcome you to CPF and thank you for starting this thread. I'll be watching it to see what shows up. I hope you'll come to enjoy CPF as much as I do.

Jeff,

That's a nice collection of projects. Thanks for posting.

Paul

Please tell us what you want to do. Buy components or kits? Is this to convert a flashlight? For some of the easier jobs, you only have to have an understanding of Ohms law.
More details, please.

Sorry for the ambiguity, it's based on my ignorance. I'm primarily interested in little LED-based projects that I can make to get experience, along the lines of sticking a couple resisters/capacitors/diodes in a breadboard and doing the appropriate sodering...perhaps there are some commercially avialable kits out there?

One thing I'd like to do is to make a simple nightlight that turns on when the ambient light is low.

Another thought would be an LED that turns on when motion is sensed.

By the way, is there any commercially available mount for LEDs, like a reflector that is designed to take an LED?

Thanks for your patience and thoughts...

Icthy,

I see you live in my neck of the woods. You might like to visit Mark Electronics in Beltsville, MD. It's located Northeast of Powder Mill Rd. and US1 down by the railroad tracks. They're close to me, and I sometimes drop by to see what's available. I can learn and get ideas just from handling the electronic components they have.

I think they have some projects and some books there as I recall. You could call and ask.

Paul

Buy an LED from R/S, cut the leads to match the bulb leads from a MiniMag or Brinkmann Legend, and plug it in. If you want brighter, use a Brinkmann 3AA Legend.

First mod done...!

Paul,

Thanks for the friendly welcome to CPF. Actually, I first registered for the forums when we lived in DC. We've since moved to Laramie, WY, which is quite the opposite of DC, in just about every way. Got a radio shack out here, and I think that's it.

MR Bulk,

Thanks for the "mod". I'll give it a try. Need to practice my soldering too, so maybe I can solder the led into the lightbulb socket someway.

In the meantime, I've found a British Magazine: Everyday Practical Electronics, (http://www.epemag.com), which seems to offer projects at my level. Don't know if they have any LED projects, but if any come up, I'll post a note to this forum, in case there are any newbies like me.

Icthy,

Yeah, I guess it would be a long trip to Beltsville. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Earlier today I wandered into a list of beginner through advanced projects with instructions. It's at theLIGHTsite. Some interesting flashlight mods there.

Paul