Help manufactur CREE LED for beer glass

Would it be possible to (in some form) mount a CREE LED to a beer glass?

I would love to have that glass enlightened from the bottom to highlight the beautiful color of beer.

There would have to be some stand for 1x 18650 Panasonic 3400 mAh + 1 CREE diode, such as:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10W-Cree-T6...cfa0e0c08:g:LusAAOSwGzlTsH5C&autorefresh=true

Any ideas?

Thank you all VERY MUCH

need a much more detailed explanation of what you want the end product to look like

ArminVanBuuren said:

Would it be possible to (in some form) mount a CREE LED to a beer glass?

I would love to have that glass enlightened from the bottom to highlight the beautiful color of beer.

There would have to be some stand for 1x 18650 Panasonic 3400 mAh + 1 CREE diode, such as:

Click to expand...

To hilight the beautiful color of the beer, I would recommend warmer tint than the 6000 K diode you linked will offer. I think you should look into something with 2700 - 3000 K. Search eBay with "Cree XM-L2 XML2 U3 bead warm". Also you may want to look for High CRI (color rendering index) led.

I assume you're planning to manufacture a coaster that is used under the beer glass. If you're planning to light the glass only when drinking the beer I think using an 18650 is a little bit overkill (unless you drink beer like days in a row). I'd go with 14500, which is much smaller and could be fit into the coaster.

Besides the battery and led you'll need a driver to control the current driven through the led. I'm not an expert in electronics, but I think an adjustable resistor will do. Add some wiring and connectors for the battery and you're almost ready to go.

Depending on how high current you want to run your led, consider if your LED needs a heat sink. Piece of copper with heat transfering gel under the emitter might be best.

I'm now travelling home where I have my father's tools, loads of wood and some electronics to play with. Your idea has inspired me and I'll see if I can produce a prototype. Unfortunately I don't have the LED though.

If you're shining it up through the bottom of a beer bottle then it might not matter much what led you use so long as it's "white", because the bottle is going to determine the hue.
If you're shining up through clear glass then go for high CRI neutral, I'm guessing.
One thought, don't install the light in a bottle, but install it flush mounted into a bar or a shelf, the glass or bottle is set on top of the light and there ya go.
Make it waterproof and easy to clean, no crevasses, flush mounted.
There's a million dollar idea for a bar right there.
Make the light come on from the weight of the full glass while you're at it, soft start, ramping up from off over like 10 seconds. ;-)

Edit: -the coaster idea is cool.

Here's my sketch. It's a bit messy because it's pretty hard to draw in a shaking bus.



I used these resources for the resistor calculation:
Stack exchange: Easy way to figure out a LED's Vf in order to pick an appropriate resistor and
Cree Product Characterization Tool

Vb is the nominal battery voltage, around 3.7 V
Vf is the forward voltage in XM-L2, around 2.7V @200 mA (actually I'm not sure if the led will glow if you go down below 2.77 V, cause smalle Vf reading weren't in the specs)
Vb - Vf = 1.0 V
R = U/I --> R = 1 V / 0.2 mA = 5 ohm. So I guess you'll be fine with a potentiometer (adjustable resistor) with range from 1 to 10 ohm.

I have no firsthand experience with LED driver design, so xtake the following with some caution.

You have to be careful with direct driving an LED from a liion. The lithium ion, charged, starts at 4.2v. If you set the resistor too low, you could burn the LED (and boil you beer, which nobody likes (brits aside maybe )).
A proper current regulating driver (like a buck driver) would be better (though more complex).
Otherwise, perhaps a 7135 linear regulator (not a buck driver) should do the trick, constant brigtness @ 350mA and reasonably simple, but no brightness configuration, which may be desirable.

Can anyone with more experience on LED drivers back me up (or correct me) on this?

You can also look at whether you want 1 single bright led in the center (with a diffuser perhaps) or use a larger number small leds for more even lighting.

As far as color advice goes, if you intent to put clear glass on it, go for warm white led. HiCRI if possible. You want the beer to look appetizing, not bluish.

Where have you been ? Already been done have two in my cupboard which was bought years ago and they change colour.

7135 driver might be good solution, but 350 mA will produce over 150 lm. I think it's overkill just to light your beer glass.


I made some new calculations to be safe with freshly charged li-ion


Wanna fry the emitter?


Vf = 3.43 V @3000 mA
Vb = 4.2 V


Vb -Vf = 0.77 V


R = U/I = 0.77 V / 3.0 A = 0.256 ohm


=============================================================


Binned at U3 the XM-L2 emitter will produce 83.4 lm at 150 mA


Vf = 2.77 V @150 mA
Vb = 4.2 V


Vb - Vf = 1.43 V


R = U/I = 1.43 V / 0.150 A = 9.53 ohm


So I guess you'll still be safe with potentiometer with the range from 0 - 10 ohm. Set it to 10 ohm and emitter will not(?) glow. Start decreasing the resistance until the led turns on and you're safe. When the battery voltage drops the led may turn off again. Decrese the resistance again and the led turns on. Repeat. Measure the voltage in battery every time and when it's 3.7 V leave the potentiometer there.


If you aim for 150 mA with 3.7 V (=Vb)
Vf = 2.77 V
Vb - Vf = 0.93 V
R = U/I = 0.93 V / 0.150 A = 6.2 ohm.


That's still far from frying the emitter when you insert freshly charged battery


Can someone confirm my calculations not crazy?

Everything is way overkill. Just get some 5mm standaard leds and some AAA batteries in serie's, put some resistors between the batteries and leds en you'll have light.

Unless you want to make the sun shine inside a beer glass, then you should go with a high power led.

You guys seem serious. Maybe I missed something, but they already make novelty lighted plastic beer mugs.

What about using a Nitecore Tube? You can disassemble it and adapt to your glass. It's also usb rechargeable. Only $10.

Can you refine your ideas on what you want to accomplish?

If you simply want to light a mug full of beer, it's been done. A lot.

If you want to highlight the beer from the base of a quality beer glass or mug to show off carbonation and the color of a high quality craft beer for art work, commercial photography, appreciation, etc., then that's something different.

Some problems/considerations to address:

- correct color rendition to show what it truly looks like.
- avoidance of heat (bad for the light, really bad for the beer).
- consider how long the light will be on and shining on the beer. No problem while drinking one but long term exposure to light is bad for beer.
- how complicated will battery replacement or charging connections be?
- remove battery to charge, use charging port, or attached cable (retractable, wound around base, etc.)?
- weight of the light, circuitry, battery (-ies), charging circuitry, etc.
- overall cost.
- do you intend to let the light, battery, and circuitry be visible or at least partially hidden?
- how to keep light and circuitry safe while getting the glass/mug clean and sanitized. (Cleaning and sanitizing requires getting it wet and either exposing it to heat or chemical sanitization, or both).
- and so on...

Easier to make these decisions now vs. "Uh oh. Now what do I do?"

I have a set of lotr mugs with an led base on them