Howdy folks. Here is my latest project that I just finished (the epoxy is barely dry).
A friend at work has a solar panel and charge controller attached to a 12 Volt battery, and uses 12 Volt bulbs for lighting his front porch at his country property. He wanted an LED 'lightbulb', and I suggested that I could do it - using some left-over 1-Watt Amber Luxeon Stars.
Here is the result...
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20215a.jpg)
This photo shows the Edison base that I recycled from a burnt-out CFL bulb. I have soldered my Constant-Current Driver onto the two leads. NOTE: This is meant to be used ONLY for 12 Volt systems - NOT 120VAC.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20220a.jpg)
This shows the V8 juice can that I recycled - epoxying 4 1-Watt Amber LEDs on the sides. NOTE: I have punched vent holes in the top of the can for air to circulate and exit the can here.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20224a.jpg)
This shows the various bits laid out on the table. You may notice that the top has a trio of LEDs mounted on it. I didn't go with this for the final 'bulb', and instead used a single LED on the top of the can.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20235a.jpg)
Here is a photo of the single 1-Watt LED epoxied onth the aluminum disc. A heatsink is epoxied to the bottom of the disc.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20239a.jpg)
Here is the whole 'bulb' in its' finished form.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20240a.jpg)
A view of the end of the 'bulb'.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20242a.jpg)
The 'bulb' ready to be lit up.
![](http://joj.home.texas.net/solar/Picture%20244a.jpg)
The 'bulb' lit up.
This LED lamp uses 350mA of current - plus 50mA for the fan for a total of 400-mA.
The LEDs are rated at about 25 Lumens each - for a total of 125 Lumens of Amber light.
I chose Amber - because this is an outside light - and bugs do not seem to be attracted to amber light.
The can gets a bit warm - but not too warm... I think that I measured 43-degrees C as the hottest that it gets - after about 30 minutes of operation.
Regards,
James Jackson