Building My Own LED Flashlight
- Thread starter manhong
- Start date
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WildRice
Flashlight Enthusiast
depends, you want it from scratch, or you want to mod something, Dollar stores are great for bodies to start with.
Jeff
Jeff
PhotonBoy
Flashlight Enthusiast
greenLED
Flashaholic
We started with the simplest ones: two AA batts, some wire and a 5mm LED (watch the polarity).
Then we built a couple of these with my son. Uses an empty film canister, a 9V batt, a resistor and some wires. Don't even need to solder the thing. Got the empty film canister from a photo developing place (free), everything else at Radio Shack.
Here're slightly more sophisticated designs.
Then, of course, there are the top "make-em-yourself" lights where you need a lathe to make them...
Oh, search for "LED pro" to get jtice's awesome resistor calculator. Nevermind, click here.
Then we built a couple of these with my son. Uses an empty film canister, a 9V batt, a resistor and some wires. Don't even need to solder the thing. Got the empty film canister from a photo developing place (free), everything else at Radio Shack.
Here're slightly more sophisticated designs.
Then, of course, there are the top "make-em-yourself" lights where you need a lathe to make them...
Oh, search for "LED pro" to get jtice's awesome resistor calculator. Nevermind, click here.
gadget_lover
Flashaholic
Hi manhong. Welcome to CPF.
Like Greenled says, there are very simple designs and much more complex ones. You can get most of the simple parts at radios shack and need only basic electrical tools to solder cut plastic, etc.
For modifying and existing light or building from a kit, I like the sandwich shoppe. https://secure3.dnsaction.com/~anlighte/shop/login.php Some of the kits are very professional looking when assembled.
You'll want to cruise this site (CPF) for a while, learning about things like heatsinks and sandwiches and up converters and down converters.
To really build a professional looking light from scratch, you'll need a lathe, electrical tools, drill, dremel and other smaller metal working tools. It's fun and reqarding, but can get time consuming and expensive.
People have had fun using plumbing supplies (copper or PVC pipe) as body parts. This reduces the tools to simple hacksaws and pliers and such.
My most recent home made was documented here, the Slim 2 build.
Daniel
Like Greenled says, there are very simple designs and much more complex ones. You can get most of the simple parts at radios shack and need only basic electrical tools to solder cut plastic, etc.
For modifying and existing light or building from a kit, I like the sandwich shoppe. https://secure3.dnsaction.com/~anlighte/shop/login.php Some of the kits are very professional looking when assembled.
You'll want to cruise this site (CPF) for a while, learning about things like heatsinks and sandwiches and up converters and down converters.
To really build a professional looking light from scratch, you'll need a lathe, electrical tools, drill, dremel and other smaller metal working tools. It's fun and reqarding, but can get time consuming and expensive.
People have had fun using plumbing supplies (copper or PVC pipe) as body parts. This reduces the tools to simple hacksaws and pliers and such.
My most recent home made was documented here, the Slim 2 build.
Daniel
