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Step 4Putting in the LEDs
Alright almost to the fun part of soldering! Maybe its just me but I enjoy soldering, it always seems to be one of the final steps so when you are doing it the project is almost complete!
SO, start putting all the led leads through the holes in the poster board so all the LEDs are sticking out of one side of the board and all the leads are out of the other.
Next grab your sheet metal and set it on top of the LEDs and start putting all the LEDs through the underside of the sheet metal. If you are doing this right the little ridge of the LEDs are being pinched in between the Poster board and the sheet metal.
Once you get all of those through and all LEDs in their places, grab the bolts and nuts and slide those through the holes that you made at the corners of the board, this will hold the Poster board to the sheet metal and keep all those LEDs in their correct positions.
Now flip the board over so you can see all of the leads sticking out of the back, at this time you need to rotate the LEDs so the negative leads are facing one direction and all of the positive leads are facing the other direction. Bend out the leads a bit so it is a little easier to keep track of them in case the rotate around a bit you can fix them before they do a 180 and are then soldered in backwards.
After that you are able to take a quick look at what the final project will look like!
SO, start putting all the led leads through the holes in the poster board so all the LEDs are sticking out of one side of the board and all the leads are out of the other.
Next grab your sheet metal and set it on top of the LEDs and start putting all the LEDs through the underside of the sheet metal. If you are doing this right the little ridge of the LEDs are being pinched in between the Poster board and the sheet metal.
Once you get all of those through and all LEDs in their places, grab the bolts and nuts and slide those through the holes that you made at the corners of the board, this will hold the Poster board to the sheet metal and keep all those LEDs in their correct positions.
Now flip the board over so you can see all of the leads sticking out of the back, at this time you need to rotate the LEDs so the negative leads are facing one direction and all of the positive leads are facing the other direction. Bend out the leads a bit so it is a little easier to keep track of them in case the rotate around a bit you can fix them before they do a 180 and are then soldered in backwards.
After that you are able to take a quick look at what the final project will look like!
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Sep 15, 2009. 2:59 PMmightyhogan
says:
hi i'm building this at home (great instructable btw), i'm new to elec. and led and had kinda a lame question, how can i tell which is positive and which is neg? sorry i just dont want to do it backwards and have non working lights.
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Sep 15, 2009. 5:37 PM
seligtobiason (author)
says:
seligtobiason (author)
says:
Well the two leads/wires, coming out of the LED's are positive and negative. In general they make the longer of the two leads the positive and the shorter one negative, so just think on Positive as longer, and negative as shorter. But most definitely test your LED's and make sure they work before soldering them all into place, it is not fun to have to rip it apart to replace an LED. If you have any more questions please let me know! OH and when its done I would love to see some pictures and/or video!
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