(Hoping I've gotten the right forum for this kind of question...)
Hello all... as the subject says, I'm fairly new to LED lighting, and VERY new to the idea of making my own, so please bear with me. I got started in all this when I became fascinated with an EternaLight from Technology Associates, in case any one wonders.
In any case -- I have a problem that does kinda run counter to the projects people seem to be working on here; if this sort of thing is old news, please point me to the relevant old threads... I've tried searching, but I suspect I don't have the right vocabulary in this area to find what I need.
What I want to do is to build some inexpensive (OK, *CHEAP*) LED lights to use on a club camping trip. I'd like to make a bunch of single-AA models for marking/illuminating trails, and a couple larger units of 2 to 4 LEDs (whether single-D or multiple-AA powered) for lighting the outhouses.
The reason for this is that the club currently uses candles in glass containers for this, which I consider to be (a) painfully low-tech and (b) a fairly significant fire hazard, and (c) high maintenance, as someone has to go around and light the blasted things. What I'm aiming for here is something that will run non-stop for about 96 hours. This way, they could be set up the first evening and not bothered with until we leave.
I first got the idea looking at the "Joule Thief" circuit at http://www.emanator.demon.co.uk/bigclive/joule.htm but quite frankly the idea of having to wind those ferrite beads by hand just doesn't appeal to me, especially considering how many of these I'd like to build.
So; here are my priorities. The units need to be cheap, almost disposable. They need to be reasonably easy to make, preferably on perfboard, as I've never gotten into etching PCBs. And of course, they need to run for (at least) 96 hours. (Some extra run-time would be nice, but not at the sacrifice of a lot of brightness during the main period.)
Any assistance is welcome, and I offer my thanks in advance.
George
Hello all... as the subject says, I'm fairly new to LED lighting, and VERY new to the idea of making my own, so please bear with me. I got started in all this when I became fascinated with an EternaLight from Technology Associates, in case any one wonders.
In any case -- I have a problem that does kinda run counter to the projects people seem to be working on here; if this sort of thing is old news, please point me to the relevant old threads... I've tried searching, but I suspect I don't have the right vocabulary in this area to find what I need.
What I want to do is to build some inexpensive (OK, *CHEAP*) LED lights to use on a club camping trip. I'd like to make a bunch of single-AA models for marking/illuminating trails, and a couple larger units of 2 to 4 LEDs (whether single-D or multiple-AA powered) for lighting the outhouses.
The reason for this is that the club currently uses candles in glass containers for this, which I consider to be (a) painfully low-tech and (b) a fairly significant fire hazard, and (c) high maintenance, as someone has to go around and light the blasted things. What I'm aiming for here is something that will run non-stop for about 96 hours. This way, they could be set up the first evening and not bothered with until we leave.
I first got the idea looking at the "Joule Thief" circuit at http://www.emanator.demon.co.uk/bigclive/joule.htm but quite frankly the idea of having to wind those ferrite beads by hand just doesn't appeal to me, especially considering how many of these I'd like to build.
So; here are my priorities. The units need to be cheap, almost disposable. They need to be reasonably easy to make, preferably on perfboard, as I've never gotten into etching PCBs. And of course, they need to run for (at least) 96 hours. (Some extra run-time would be nice, but not at the sacrifice of a lot of brightness during the main period.)
Any assistance is welcome, and I offer my thanks in advance.
George