Fast, Quick, Cheap, Good looking LED room lighting (for anyone)

Welcome all :-) This is my first instructable so comments are welcome :-)

What i hope to show you is how to make quick LED lighting that is on a TINY buget.

What you need :

Cable
LEDs
Resistors (510Ohms for 12V)
Stapels
Soldering iron
Cutters and other basics
Hammer and a nail!

(NOTES FOR n00bs)

LEDs need about 30 milli amps (0.03 Amps) or they burn out
To work out your resiance use:

V=IR

Voltage (V) = 12
Amperage (I) = 0.03 (30*10^-3)
Resitance (R) = ?

SO :

V/I=R

12/0.03=400Ohms
or more...
i used 510 so my LEDs arent running at the brightest they could be

Step 1 Costs

Costs:

Cable : 8.51GBP high grade white cable per 50m ($13.99)

LEDs: 6.18GBP (Cheaper by the 1000) (the LEDs i used are 13,000 and 6,000 mcd with a angel of 25 degrees)

Resistors x100: for 0.99GBP

Staples: Well cheap...

Which works out at:
0.89 per metre!

Spacing of 1 LED per 10cm is enough (get the spacing right or it looks strange)

which isnt bad for really nice lightening that on average the leds will last 11+ Years!

I used a power adapter i had lying about but anything that is 12V and lying about will do fine :-)
Just as a general rule you need 30mA per LED. (this isnt strictly true, but it will keep you within tolerences)

so if you had 20 leds you need (30*10^{-3)*20=600mA or 0.6 A}

Comments

[Sky_line91]

can someone just really quick explain what type of cable to use b/c that threw me off a little bit. please and thank you

[gaby1st]

Hi there,
you can use any copper cable.

[gaby1st]

I don't understand if the average of the led's affect the voltage rating like 12v and if I need a transformer to prevent that.

[NikonDork]

 Great 'ible! I have a few rooms wired with a few LED's for mood/low level lighting. 

Ive been saving these babies from the trash at work for over a month and now I have over 30 feet of em. I think im gonna see if I can find some decent sized crown molding and go around my whole living room.

[justafew]

Are those surface mounted leds? Is there someplace you can buy the flat mounted and ready to go?

Cheers!

[usLEDsupply]

you can get them in any color or RGB with several types of silicone coating for $5-6/ft or even un-coated ones for just over $4/ft

[NikonDork]

Yes, they are surface mount warm white LEDs mounted to a thin, flexible PCB strip with the resistors already mounted. The circuit board is lightly coated with a varnish and is water resistant. Normally it comes in rolls, and can be cut at designated cut marks. It runs on 12v, no matter the length. You can order a roll of them (In colors too) on the internet. Just google "LED strip lighting"

[ap1922]

You could always send some my way :)

[NikonDork]

Heh, I have a whole box of them now! I think im saving most of them to go around my porch's railing for some nice low level lighting at night. Meanwhile im finding handy places around the house to put a few. I just finished refinishing my bathroom's medicine cabinet. It was old and rusty looking inside. After all the sanding and priming and painting, I figured what the hell, a few strips inside with a tiny reed switch mounted to the door would be pretty sweet. What do you think?

[mellink]

like it :-)

[Rockwell108]

Where do you work that they are throwing these things out?

[NikonDork]

I work for a company that builds arcade redemption games, the kind you win tickets from.

[Docholiday117]

I like Your heli :D

[meissler]

I'm a bit confused with the resistors here. Everything is in series, right? So you have a 12V battery, and let's say (just for a clear example) 10 LEDs that can have 1.5V across each. Why do you need a resistor, and why one resistor for each LED? Isn't the voltage across each LED going to be the same without a resistor or am I wrong? Thanks.

[junits15]

Each LED will be receiving 12V when they are wired in parallel. So each LED will need its own resistor in order to work with the higher voltage. It is important to note that the more LEDs that you use the more power they will draw from the battery.

[meissler]

oh crap it is in parallel cause of the 2 cables, didn't put that together. I'm a little confused about the cables though. You use 2 of them: one end of each of them gets hooked up to +/- of the power adapter, but what about the other ends of each wire?

[junits15]

they are left untouched and seald possibly with tape, if they were connected it would just create a short.

[Hycro]

I would just stick a female plug on the end, just to make it a little neater in appearance, plus, you could connect another string, assuming your power supply is capable of it.

[Electronics Blurred]

Actually , you could connect 3 (3.3V) LED's .
that would give you 12 - 9.9V = 2.1 V ( Instead , of a resistor , connect a smaller LED ) (and a small amount of resistance , usually )
It can be seen on http://www.LEDCalc.com/
What i did for my room lightning was 2 LEDs and 1 130 & 120 Ohm Resistor ( I Wanted more brightness , since it's my room , and i could replace led's quickly )
In each line .
Because it's 9V and 350ma From my wall-wart , i placed 17 lines of LED's , (34 LED's )

[rodriyrex]

Did you use only one voltage source for that many leds? (talking about the picture of your bedroom). And how many leds did you use in your bedroom?

[mellink]

LED's are super low amps. 30 milli amps But remember that you must ue resistors

[mellink]

I think about 100 in total and yes it was once source. I know use a computer as the source as the server in that room is always on i just pull the 12V form the PSU. But originally ye si just used a wall plug adapter.

[rodriyrex]

ohhh.. how much voltage and amps did the wall plug have? Everytihng is in parallel? I can't believe that a simple wall plug can turn on so many leds!

[cwignall]

so you basically just shove the led directly into the wires in the cable? id have thought this was a bit dangerous - may be wrong

[ichisato]

You aren't wrong but it isn't "dangerous" It is quite sloppy if you ask me. Overall great instructable. Needs a bit more detail as you skipped some steps but I approve of the final product (y).

[Kirbsome!]

Awesome, love it!

[neverplaywitfire]

ok so im planning to do this but with about 100 leds and im not real clear on how the amps work i did the formula thing yuou wrote down but it says i need 30 amps....is that right?

[mellink]

eh. 100 LEDS at i'm guessing 30mA (30*10^-3) << Depends on your LED's would give you 100 * 0.03 = 3 amps at 12V so power usage without reistor loss and transformer inefficency is 36W YOu need ot have resistors in. And

[neverplaywitfire]

i know i need resistors so 3 amps would be fine? what if i put more would it burn? or not

[QuackMasterDan]

Great guide, looks nice. Very simple, practical, flexible, and easy to understand instructions. Good luck in your future projects, this first effort is a success.

[mellink]

love the look well done, and thanks :-)

[Voltamps]

This looks really cool. I think I will try this for emergency lighting. You could save on the resistors by wiring 5 LEDs in series across the 12V supply. Each LED only gets 2.4V which is not enough to overdrive them so hey-presto no resistors. I built a 12V powered LED christmas tree like this with a 555 timer to flash them on and off. I might do an instructable on it one day when I'm not building wind turbines.

[killerjackalope]

Featured for being rather epic...

[fwjs28]

mega epic.....if they were diffused or color changing leds it would be uber Epic

[killerjackalope]

I think constant colour changing LEDs would be fairly annoying after any length of time.

[Jason Bourne]

i think that would cause a seizure....

[killerjackalope]

Especially if they were all out of sync...

[fwjs28]

defintely...

[fwjs28]

yes, constant flashing lights can cause sezuries in some people, but a slow change would be what im talking about

[fwjs28]

more like an arduino controlled type thing that changes every 5 mins (like a mood light) ...