LED torch

[AbyssUnderground]

I finished this LED torch a few days ago as a little project to do on a rainy day. (It was actually just very windy but it was a good enough excuse to make it!)

It was supposed to be a low power desk light to replace a CCFL im using which is using 0.5A, and thats excessive for my battery bank in the winter. This new light only uses 180mA. Unfortunately it turned out to make a spot rather than spread out light like I hoped. Never-the-less, it will make a great torch instead. The spot is pretty powerful.

It uses 21x10mm white LED's. I got 50 of them off ebay for £10. Bargain!

As you can probably see from the picture its just a bit of tracked PCB and some black insulating tape. I didnt come up with any ideas on how to put it in a box so this will do for now.

Thanks for reading! Comments anyone?

Click for a larger view.

[ghurd]

Looks great!

It might be worth a try to 'texture' the LEDs. (Sand them)

It won't work miracles, but the percieved light output is a bit less harsh and a bit more spread out.

You may not like the effect... Just a thought.

Break a bulb, solder the wires into the base, connect the LED assembly to the bulb base with a squirt of hot glue and a piece of wood... then it can be screwed into a lamp like like any bulb.

G-

[Bruce S]

Very nice;

   Next one you try, use longer legs on the outside LEDS and angle them out at say 5 10 degrees either way , should help throw the light out around.

Then put a frosted lense around the whole thing and you should see a much larger light area.

Hope this helps

Bruce S

[willib]

AbyssUnderground , how did you do that ?

" click to enlarge"?

that was cool

sanding the LEDs sounds like a good idea "to diffuse the light"

just make sure its Fine sand paper

400 to 600 grit should work

[Treehouse]

Get an old lens from a fluorescent light fixture and put it in front of the LED's works good as a diffuser

[jimjjnn]

Really love that "Click to enlarge".

Real handy for us "Weak eyed Yocums"

[stephent]

turn the "pointy" things to outside on the piece of florescent lens material....makes the light diffuse properly.

[AbyssUnderground]

Thanks for the comments so far. I don't think Ill sand it. It works great as a powerful torch so I might keep it like that for now. Ill keep the idea of sanding it mind though incase I decide to try it.

For thos who want to know how to do the "click to enlarge" thing, you do this:

1. - upload two images, one small 450px width image and one larger image
   
2. - insert the image into the article as normal with the drop down list and button
   
3. - now copy the URL from the [img] tag you just inserted changing it to the large image
   
4. - add [a href="url_to_large_image.jpg"] infront of the [img] tag
   
5. - add [/a] after the [img] tag
   
   

You should end up with this:

[a href="url_to_large_image.jpg"][img src="url_to_small_image"][/a]

Replace [ with < and ] with >.

[Tom in NH]

Nice.

Bruce S.'s idea of bending the LEDs out has worked for others too. Here's a link to a photo on one of my blog pages of what a fellow named John Thomas did when lighting his RV trailer using LEDs.    

http://files.blog-city.com/files/M05/102402/p/f/img_1026a.jpg

--tom

[AbyssUnderground]

That looks really nice. I might try something like that some time but ill stick with the one I have for now. Maybe a translucent cover for it would work just as well as sanding?

[Bruce S]

Tom;

  How COOL !!! This is the very one that I got the idea from!!

Are you the owner of the kits?

If so let me know, I thought the "owner's name" looked familiar.

I tried this with some old phenolic boards and was VERY happy with the idea.

Went on the build a few with stuff from the "junk draw" and of course Ghurd guinding me on.

If indeed that is your projct stuff let me know, I'm all about ordering like 10 of the kits:--)

Cheers

Bruce S

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

What are you using for a current-control?

[AbyssUnderground]

A resistor on each set of 3 LED's.

[Tom in NH]

Yes, Bruce, that's me. I'm running a sale for December. If you're interested, check out  www.altenergyweb.com

--tom