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Step 3The juice box
Use a big Altoids box. There are a couple of reasons I used this. First of all I saw the same application on the original ring light page. Secondly two 9V battery fits comfortably inside and even leaves space for the sockets and the voltage regulator. Thirdly it was very easy to mount the sockets in them.
I drilled 3 holes for the 3.5 mm jack sockets on the short side and one bigger hole for the 2.5 mm DC socket on the long side under the hinge. Just push the components through from the inside and fix them with the screw. Now the electronics.
Take the two battery clips and solder them in series: solder the red wire from one for the clip to the black wire of the other clip. Now you will have 9+9 volts between the free red and black wires. Now connect the free black wire, the ground terminal of the DC socket, all 3 ground terminals of the 3.5 mm sockets (pin closest to the box in the middle in my case) and the middle terminal of the voltage regulator together (black wires on my picture). Connect the free red wire from the clip, the positive terminal of the DC socket and the left pin of the voltage regulator (letters on the regulator facing you) together. Now connect the right pin of the voltage regulator and all 3 positive pins of the 3.5 mm sockets (pin on the right in my case) together.
Note that there is roughly 2 V drop on the voltage regulator. So you need at least 14 V from your external adapter for full light. If you happen to have a 12 V adapter, you need to connect the positive DC socket terminals to the “out pin” of the voltage regulator – to bypass it.
That’s it, it should work now. Put the batteries in and connect plug the rings in. Don’t use the batteries when the external adapter is connected. Either use batteries or the external adapter. Just to repeat what I said earlier. The screws on the DC and the 3.5 mm socket are connected to one of the terminals. If these terminals are not both ground you can create a short circuit. I also put a tape around the battery clips to make sure that they don’t touch the box from the inside which again can cause short circuit if used with the external adapter.
I drilled 3 holes for the 3.5 mm jack sockets on the short side and one bigger hole for the 2.5 mm DC socket on the long side under the hinge. Just push the components through from the inside and fix them with the screw. Now the electronics.
Take the two battery clips and solder them in series: solder the red wire from one for the clip to the black wire of the other clip. Now you will have 9+9 volts between the free red and black wires. Now connect the free black wire, the ground terminal of the DC socket, all 3 ground terminals of the 3.5 mm sockets (pin closest to the box in the middle in my case) and the middle terminal of the voltage regulator together (black wires on my picture). Connect the free red wire from the clip, the positive terminal of the DC socket and the left pin of the voltage regulator (letters on the regulator facing you) together. Now connect the right pin of the voltage regulator and all 3 positive pins of the 3.5 mm sockets (pin on the right in my case) together.
Note that there is roughly 2 V drop on the voltage regulator. So you need at least 14 V from your external adapter for full light. If you happen to have a 12 V adapter, you need to connect the positive DC socket terminals to the “out pin” of the voltage regulator – to bypass it.
That’s it, it should work now. Put the batteries in and connect plug the rings in. Don’t use the batteries when the external adapter is connected. Either use batteries or the external adapter. Just to repeat what I said earlier. The screws on the DC and the 3.5 mm socket are connected to one of the terminals. If these terminals are not both ground you can create a short circuit. I also put a tape around the battery clips to make sure that they don’t touch the box from the inside which again can cause short circuit if used with the external adapter.
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