How to make your own LED lightbulbs

How to make your own LED lightbulbs

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Explore Community Submit How to make your own LED lightbulbs by claudiopolis on October 14, 2008 Table of Contents intro: How to make your own LED lightbulbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 step 1: You'll need the following stuff to start working: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 step 2: Step one - empty the bulb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 step 3: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 step 4: Step two - make your holding disc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 step 5: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 step 6: Assembling the LED plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 step 7: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 step 8: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 step 9: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 step 10: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Customized Instructable T-shirts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ intro: How to make your own LED lightbulbs a tutorial to making factory-made-look-a-like LED bulbs. After many attempts to make all sorts of LED-conversions I finnaly found one solution that is simple and efficient. Of course, you do need a great amount of patience in making this but when you consider the countless hours of pure light -low consumption you'll get, it's all worth it. This tutorial is about converting regular GU4(MR11) halogen bulbs to LED bulbs while maintaining full usability as 12V light bulbs that can be used in indoor task or accent lighting. step 1: You'll need the following stuff to start working: - one halogen bulb (burnt or new since they are really cheap) with no glass cover on front. - LED's - as many as you want. You may want to keep this number reasonable since more than 22 LED's will make you work painful. - online acces to http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz , a great LED array calculator you can use to figure out the resistors you'll need depending on your number of LED's and the supply voltage. - Super Glue & compound glue. You can use other glue as well but super glue sticks fast and I recomend it. - solder wire, moderate soldering skills, solder gun - one small piece of 0.2mm aluminium sheet (this is used in printing industry, I work in this field and there are a lot of aluminium plates around here). Any offset printing shop will be kind enough to give you a used one since they use hundreds each month. A cut-out Coca-Cola can will do, once you straighten it. - a paper perforator (office type, 2-hole punch) resistors (depending on your needs) - a few other common household items along with a good amount of patience. http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ step 2: Step one - empty the bulb. Start by taking a small screwdriver and twisting its tip on the white cement you'll see around the bulb's pins. This cement is very fine and will start crumbe as a fine powder as you keep twisting the screwdriver's tip. Proceed with this until you get enough cement out for the next phase. step 3: Patience is a virtue so take you time and be gentle since the bulbs can easily break if you force you way in with the screwdriver. Action time. Take a hammer and after you got out out as much white cement you could, put the bulb face-down on a flat surface. Hit the two pins with the hammer, in a easy but ferm manner. The bulb inside should fall on the table leaving the reflector empty. Some white cement will remain but that's OK, it's not so important and might even be useful later. step 4: Step two - make your holding disc. Put the empty reflector aside since it's time to get to another task. It's now time to make the LED support. You'll need a template so make yourself one OR download the attached PDF file featuring all the layouts you could use with this kind of bulb. I used graphic software to evenly distribute the 5mm holes on the disc. The disk size is up to you. More led's will require larger disks. Print the template on paper and cut it out with paper scissors. Place it on the aluminium sheet and light glue it on its surface. This will be useful to cut the disc properly. Take the aluminium sheet and cut out the holes using a office perforator. I found out mine cuts exactly 5mm holes in paper so for 5mm LED's it's perfect. Keeping it upside down, place the template along with the aluminium disc glued on it inside it. Cut out the holes after aligning the circles in the cutting hole. This should be easy and fairly quick. For this tutorial, I'll use 22 LEDs and a disk diameter of 4 cm. In this picture you can see another disk I made for 15 LEDs. It's easy and if you practice a little you can make this in minutes. Just to avoid any errors, this IS NOT a heatsink! This kind of LED bulb will not heat at all! That's because the dissipated power is VERY small. http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ File Downloads LED LAYOUT2.pdf ((595x842) 288 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'LED LAYOUT2.pdf'] step 5: The aluminium sheet will serve as a light reflector and a holder for LEDs in the same time so take care not to bend it. After cutting out the holes its time to see how the led's should be connected. Go to http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz and fill in the fields with your parameters. Here's a screenshot of what the wizard reccomended for my 22 LEDs 12V array. So now I know how to connect them. step 6: Assembling the LED plate Place the aluminium disc in some holding device (I have one like the one in the photo and it's great). Be creative with this, basically you have to hold the disc by its outer rims. For example, a pipe section with proper diameter will do. Insert the Leds into the holes with the legs up and arranged in such a manner that one cathode is next to another anode. This will make soldering easy. Don't forget this or you will have great difficulties soldering them according to the scheme. Put one tiny drop of Super Glue on each led margin and continue arranging the other ones. WARNING! Take care not to accidentally apply super glue on the LED legs. When you'll have to solder the legs, these will be heated and the glue will give off a little colourless smoke with major effects on your eyes! I know, i've done that and couldn't stopped crying for one hour. I think that's how they make that tear gas after all http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ step 7: After all LED's are placed and glued, put compound glue around each LED for a solid result. It is necessary to glue them firmly since the legs will have to be bended and you'll risk some leds to come off otherwise. (that's experience speaking) Now let the glue to harden before proceeding. In my case this meant 24 hours but the result was worth it. Step three - making connections Take one nailclipper and cut out the LED legs, keeping in mind that one anode will have to be bent over to the next cathode and so on. Also take care not to confuse the two of them. You can check that with one multimeter set to diodes. As the scheme advises, I'll have to make 5 strings of 4 LEDs each and one string of two. Since I arranged the leds in such a fashion that one cathode is next to another anode, this operation is much easier. After soldering one string, keep the end legs at different lenghts to easily identify the + and the - end. Take the nailclipper and cut the LED legs and bend them to the next leg. The + goes to a - and so on until you complete a string of four. Then start a new string. step 8: When you're done making all the strings according to the scheme, you should have six + legs longer than the six - ones. It's time to solder the resistors. But first bend the longer legs toward each other and solder them to have all the + legs connected together. This should be done over the other connections keeping some distance to prevent short-circuits. The resistors should be soldered vertically to the - legs. When soldering, try to be as quick as possible sice you'll be heating the LED legs close to their base and too much heat will damage them. Now solder the resistors legs to each other in order to get a single - that goes to all the strings. Try to keep a low profile so that the whole thing will fit the bulb. Now solder the final legs. Use copper wire (thicker) and keep in mind that one (-) has to be shorter. The whole thing should now be pretty rigid since so many solderings were made. But for your peace of mind, use a hot glue gun to fill the gaps so that no wire accidentally touches another. This is optional. http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ step 9: Now take the empty bulb and put the LED disc inside. The space should be enough if you maintained a low profile when soldering. It should fit perfectly. Push the LEDs until the disc touches the inner reflector. Hold it still and get the compound glue now. I used some bicomponent glue but any glue with increased consistency should do. Just make sure it's strong enough since it will be the only thing that holds the bulb in one piece. Fill the space around the legs coming out of the bulb with as much glue it will take. Wait until the glue hardens. In my case it took 10 min. and I held the LEDs pressed in the whole time. After it hardened, use a permanent marker to write on the base the + and - legs as well as the voltage it will use. http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ step 10: Now cut the legs so that it matches the original bulb legs, equal in lenght. Job done! It's time for a test. Connect the bulb to a 12V battery (car or anything else providing that voltage). Hold your breath and It's working! The photo actually does not display the amount of light generated as it's blinding if you stare into it directly. I had to seriously under-expose to make this visible. You can use any type of 5mm LED to make ledbulbs just make sure you know the forward voltage and current since it will be necessary when calculating resistors. I made blue, red, yellow and white ones, with successful results. I also made 6V LED bulbs I use in flashlights, replacing the entire flashlight mirror with one of this bulbs. In this case, the current consumption should be ( according to the scheme ) 220mA. It actually uses only 200 mA, or at least that's what my multimeter says. Here are some LED bulbs I made, 12V and 6V ones. They generate virtually no heat and the most powerful one I made takes 12V@200mA and has 6 pcs. of 0,5W LED's. These LEDs were pretty expensive but the light output is great. The type of LED's you use is important since a more dispersed light will be better than a concentrated one. You could also file the LEDs prior to making the bulb so as to have a more uniform light. These LED bulbs can also be used in 12V AC spot lamps if you don't mind the 50Hz flicker. But the best results will come out from 12V DC. Related Instructables RGB Color Controllable High Power LED Room + Spot Lighting by dan Very simple PWM with 555 Modulate every thing by shams Replacement for surgical lamp bulbs using LED circuit by dukezae2 Practical LED Lighting for Fun and Profit by jmengel Wind up radio solar mod using LED garden lights by guinness0001 Circuits for using High Power LED's by dan Electric Candle by Tool Using Animal Ultimate Night Vision Headlamp - 500+ lumens with only 8 watts by dan Advertisements Customized Instructable T-shirts http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ Comments 50 comments Add Comment view all 115 comments thermoelectric says: Oct 26, 2008. 1:13 AM REPLY Why did you take all the pic's for this 'ible off this site? Instead of giving them no credit, just give a link to the site claudiopolis says: Nov 13, 2008. 10:20 PM REPLY I am the same person that posted on fieldlines. The one year gap between the two posts is partly because of the late discovery of this site along with a good amount of lazyness :-)) junits15 says: Nov 28, 2008. 1:18 PM REPLY you state in that post, that you made other colored bulbs, which color is brightest and which is best on the eyes? claudiopolis says: Dec 18, 2008. 2:28 AM REPLY I made white, blue and a yellow one. The brightness depends on the leds you use. There are high-brigthness ones but have a narrower focus. The best for the eyes should be warm white LEDs. The color temperature is more pleasant to the eyes as it's closer to incandescent bulb light. thermoelectric says: Nov 13, 2008. 11:16 PM REPLY Oh, Okay Sorry for saying it like an accusition yokozuna says: Oct 29, 2008. 9:35 PM REPLY That guy's name is Claude and this poster's username is claudiopolis my guess is this is the original poster, and he just placed the how to on both sites. thermoelectric says: Oct 29, 2008. 10:08 PM REPLY Could be, Or it is just a coincidence, The were posted about 1 year apart too so ReCreate says: Dec 12, 2008. 2:08 PM REPLY can i buy one from you? claudiopolis says: Dec 18, 2008. 2:25 AM REPLY Is it so hard to make one? I never sold any of these bulbs. I live in Romania so I figure the shipping costs will greatly overcome any production costs I may or may not spare you. uberdum05 says: Dec 14, 2008. 4:00 AM REPLY If you saved the glass you could possibly stick it back on? claudiopolis says: Dec 18, 2008. 2:21 AM REPLY Sure, provided you don't use too many leds. The only thing you must take care is not to come out with the leds too much as the glass won't fit in anymore. The more leds you use, the bigger the supporting circle hence the closer the the bulb's outer rim. hubi says: Nov 17, 2008. 6:15 AM REPLY Very nice, but it is only for DC. If yo wire the LED chains in atiparallel, like in that instructable, you can use it at 12V AC, but it wil flicker a bit. 11010010110 says: Nov 23, 2008. 5:42 PM REPLY antiparallel is made to reduce flicker you can place bridge and filtering capacitor inside to eliminate flicker almost completely you can use 4 of the leds as the bridge diodes (bridge of its own for each series line) and no capacitor. the 4 leds that form the bridge will be dim and flicker and all the rest will be 2X brighter and flicker at 100 HZ which is invisible http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_your_own_LED_lightbulbs/ benin says: Nov 22, 2008. 8:05 AM REPLY one of the best i have ever been thru keep rocking i am ur fan l ets go green Lego man says: Nov 19, 2008. 8:30 PM REPLY Any way to make this fit into a normal 120v or 220v light socket? kadris3 says: Nov 2, 2008. 8:11 AM REPLY nice instructable. most commercially available lights use 3 LEDs and a resistor. white LEDs have a forward dc voltage of 3.4 vdc and a series string is 10.2 vdc. 100 ohms takes you to 12 vdc and 180 ohms is used for 13.8 vdc. the 5mm bulbs are in the 13,000 to 15,000 mcd area. they are also available in 55,000 mcd and these suckers are bright. also available now are 10mm bulbs with 5 separate LEDs in one housing. these are in a parallel in configuration so the bulb is 3.4 vdc at 100 ma. these are 280,000 mcd and about a bright as they come( the luxor/ lexon bulbs accepted). three of these and 39 ohms (all series) work on 13.8 vdc. someone asked about 117 vac lights so here goes: .5 mfd cap series to the ac line, next the bridge rect, a parallel 200 mfd cap(ripple filter) and a 100 k bleeder resistor(any hi value works here). the .5 mfd series cap limits the current to 30 ma, the bridge rectifies the ac, and the 200(any hi value) cap smooths out the pulsating ac ripple. the resistor just bleads off the cap when the power is turned off. next comes your string of 33 series leds, a series resistor of 340 ohms for current limiting, and a switch if you want it. all components need to be rated at 300 volts or greater. (the caps) . the 340 ohm resistor is for 117vac on the ac supply. if yours is higher a larger resistor is needed. lines in the country fluctuate as do those on a generator. it would be good to measure yours to see what it is. people commonly call ac line voltage about anything. it is common the use 120vac or even 130vac. the standard from the power company is 117vac. likewise 220 and 240 as they are sometimes called is 208vac. that's how the delta wye transformers are wound. the reason i don't build up a board and sell them as i don't think they would pass UL muster; however, that's how they make 117 vac led lightsthat are commercially available.they won't cost you $49 to make either. if u want an Edison base bulb, caefully clean out a broken light bulb and save the base. all the usual cautions apply. if you don't know what you are doing don't mess with 117vac good luck to all. Uncle Cy the LED Guy. claudiopolis says: Nov 13, 2008. 10:23 PM REPLY Uncle Cy, would you care to post a schematic? I am interested and I guess others too. 220V bulbs should be also featured. Please kadris3 says: Nov 19, 2008. 2:25 PM REPLY hi Claud ok but be warned: there is nothing but a .5mfd between you and 117 vac. that's why i didn't make a board and have a kit avasilable. just got back fm Ft Wayne, ind. lost my shirt. did less than 1/3 of what i usually do. thank god for Dayton, and Orlando. i'm also B.T.S. so it will be a day or two. will have to work up a 208 vac one. i realise half the world is 208 vac 50 cycle. see what i can come up with. i already have 21 led boards that have room fr current limiting and work on 12vdc. they draw 140 ma and can be configured for 12 vdc or 13.8vdc(charging circuit involved). gotta go . more later. dainsane1 says: Nov 12, 2008. 7:54 PM REPLY nice build far cleaner than what i came up with (single 3w) to kill the flicker i put a capacitor across the circuit can't remember how big tho (~47 uf) junits15 says: Nov 6, 2008. 12:22 PM REPLY where did u buy that battery i need one for another project but they are all sooooo expensive! TFrosty says: Nov 11, 2008. 8:58 AM REPLY The cheapest 12V batteries I've found are on http://www.allelectronics.com Just search 12V battery. junits15 says: Nov 11, 2008. 11:06 AM REPLY awsome!, is that where you got the one in the pictures? and mabey you might know, if I want to charge a 12v lead acid battery by solar power do I use a 20v panel or a 12v panel? (this is generally speaking, I can calculate the exact voltage later, what im trying to say is would I double the voltage or keep it the voltage of the battery, what is the best voltage to charge it with?)I've been reading around and have found sites saying alot of diffrent things, so i dont know who to believe. plz reply as soon as you can so i can buy the parts! :D [...]... there are dimming http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ techniques that will further lower the power used This LED bulb is not the most efficient Some energy gets wasted in resistors The calculator link in my tutorial shows the exact amount It's better to use a LED driver, current-regulated and this way you can discard the resistors And the list of further options could go... indicators I put six LEDs and connect six different NTC resistor values huck up the battery heat The first LED to light up will be the one connected to a NTC resistor the lowest value, and the last to light up will be whit the highest value of resistance right??? Thanks! view all 115 comments http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ ... REPLY Good stuff man How much does it cost for the 22 or so leds you go there? claudiopolis says: Oct 21, 2008 2:16 AM REPLY It depends how cheap are LEDs in your area In my town Leds are way overpriced (few people buy them) so I could go up to 10 USD for a DIY 22 LED bulb But they sell the same thing for 20+ USD myyellowshoe says: Oct 22, 2008 5:07 AM REPLY Cool, nice to know if I try to take a stab at... be able to make one bright enough to replace a projector bulb instead of a halogen one that gets verry hot claudiopolis says: Oct 21, 2008 2:23 AM REPLY Yes and No You need high power Leds for that Several of them And those High-power leds heat a lot too And you also need LED drivers for those LEDS Bottom line one (very determined guy) could make such a replacement bulb (provided it has access to the... for using regular 127V instead of 12V, and how to fit everything on the same light bulb would be great!! http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ claudiopolis says: Oct 21, 2008 2:28 AM REPLY Get the smallest transformer you can find@12V, (broken table clock with radio?)one bridge rectifier to get DC current and fit them all into a burnt CFL base along with the bulb described... you know your way around electronic, can I ask you a question! (If the answer is Yes continue to read) :) NTC resistors! In a way heat resistor, correct me if I am wrong, but do I correctly understand them? The higher the resistance of the NTC resistor, the higher the heat temperature is needed to lower the resistance Lets say that I am working on a thermomiter, LEDs as indicators I put six LEDs and... operating the projector but the heat will still be there comodore says: Oct 14, 2008 12:42 PM REPLY Great job! You did something I was just working on! Energy-efficient LED lightbulbs! I love the idea, I am crazy about LEDs! Great Instructable! I can see doing this! I am working on a circuit, for LEDs to run on AC current The schematic for the AC adapter for the LEDs exsists, but I want to make it more energy... a couple of switches to a couple of those strings, and have a multi-brightness LED light thud says: Oct 22, 2008 12:11 PM REPLY Very cool stuff Thanks for taking the time to post this I had a question for you, and the group Any idea on how to adapt these for use in standard lamps/sockets (in USA)? (Edison medium based bulb) I know you can buy them ready to use, but knowing how to do it for spots/floods... on and on comodore says: Oct 14, 2008 3:17 PM REPLY Yes I tottaly agree! Also Boost drivers like PR4401 or 4402 that lower the voltage needed, from 3,6V to amazing 0,9V!!! I can't find these anywhere, I want to buy a ton of them to make my life a big step more effitient You can get more info about the booster HERE In my opinion, in the future LEDs will be a part of every home! The don't produce heat... groovy claudiopolis says: Oct 24, 2008 12:24 AM REPLY See my reply to vortix below I imagine you too want a 120V bulb The best way to do it is by using a burnt CFL bulb base to hide the transformer inside These CFL bulbs came in almost any sockets sizes But do not expect to get the same amount of light unless you use A LOT of powerful 5mm leds vortix says: Oct 17, 2008 8:00 PM REPLY I've been looking for . 9 http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ intro: How to make your own LED lightbulbs a tutorial to making factory-made-look-a-like LED bulbs. After many attempts to make all sorts of LED- conversions. http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ Home Sign Up! Explore Community Submit How to make your own LED lightbulbs by claudiopolis on October 14, 2008 Table of Contents intro: How to make your own. optional. http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ http://www.instructables.com/id /How_ to_ make_ your_ own_ LED_ lightbulbs/ step 9: Now take the empty bulb and put the LED disc inside. The