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.

Comments

[bas98]

Why do you need the 1 ohm resistor??

[panchavanparivendhan]

so that the led wo'nt burn

[asafche]

See this. it will explain way - http://led.linear1.org/why-do-i-need-a-resistor-with-an-led/

[claudiopolis]

Just to be on the safe side. The LED calculator reccomended it so I used it. It protects the LED from overdriving by reducing the voltage a bit. You might skip it but you'd better be sure of the voltage applied.

[dagob]

And what if I want to make it 220v?

[siamonsez]

I bought a packet of leds that came with 200 ohm resistors. The calculator says to use 1 82ohm resistor per led which is 3-3.2v @ 20mA with a 4.5v power source. After playing with the calculator a bit a can't find any instance which asks for 200ohm resistors, but using wolfram alpha to calculate 4.5v with 200 ohms of resistance, it says 22.5 mA which is near enough the proper current for the leds.
I don't know if i'm misunderstanding something but it seems to me that these are at odds, any help would be great.
Are the 200 ohm resistors meant to be used with a higher voltage? I'm assuming a 1x array because the pack came with the same amount of leds and resistors, is that wrong? can someone explain what will happen if I wire:
(4.5v) > (3vLED) > (200ohm resistor).

[ramhardikar]

Useful i'able.

where did you get halogen bulb with no glass cover on front?

[claudiopolis]

local chinese low quality store. You can use a glass-covered one too and follow the same guide until you get to the emptying phase when you just us the hammer to remove the inside of the bulb. Then when you have an access hole for a small screwdriver just slide that in until it reaches the glass from the inside. Use the hammer again to pop it out. I made this in my hand using protection gloves and the front glass popped out in one piece pretty easy.

[beehard44]

or you can also use a nail, place it on the socket side then break the glass cover. Works for me.

[beehard44]

very useful in my current project. I just don't know whether a joule thief can handle 10 LEDs attached to it...

[XOIIO]

You misspelt Fir as Ferm on the hammering part.

[claudiopolis]

sorry about that. But you got the idea, right? :-)

[XOIIO]

yeah, and I i missed the m, my keyboard was sticky lol

[abadfart]

how bright is it? do you think its bright enough for a projector?

[aamwalid]

Thanx 4 the idea, but please can you tell me how did you manage to cut the aluminum disk in a perfectly round shape that would fit into the reflector ???

[hirocaster]

Anyone knows if this bulb works with regular halogen bulb MR16 powersupply?

[mcastles]

Nice work! : )

[akinich]

nice!!!!!!!! can i do this with infra red leds? will its proformance be good? please reply akinich

[claudiopolis]

Yes, as long as you respect the forward voltage and current of those infrared LEDs. The performance depends on the leds used, there are lots of them, with different ratings.

[akinich]

thanks for replying akinich

[shooper3]

What are the best leds to use there are 1000's. I'm replacing a pool light and need very high brightness.

[hirocaster]

This led bulb equals to how many watts? I mean, it equals to incandescent bulb of...let's say...50w?

[oddysea682]

Im going to use this instructable to add leds to a fluval edge fish tank

[jm1820]

Just wondering, is "compund glue" the same as 2 part epoxy resin glue ?

[claudiopolis]

Yes, it's about the same. It's grey when mixed and dries. I chose it because of its higher viscosity, the clear epoxy is too liquid and it drips easily until it dries. But this thicker one stays put. You could use anything you like, there aren't that big forces on those legs, the only problem is the drying time and if it stays there or drips away until it dries.

[jm1820]

Thanks for that info.
Its just that I have never heard of compound glue before.
Just wondering, does the stuff you use, have a trade or brand name ?

[claudiopolis]

Yes, it does but it's a local band. You should go to a DIY store and ask someone to recommend you a cement-like glue. You are interested in something that has a bit more consistency. Anything will do.

[drhall]

Noticed the diff values for the 5% tolerance & placement for the resistors ... yep I know Bad Boys Only Ravish Young Girls But Violet Gives Willngly ... still mystery.

[joerice01]

 its ( bad boys raped our young girls but violet gave willingly)
e.g. 0=black 1=brown 2=red 3=orange 4=yellow 5=green 6=blue 7=purple  8=grey 9=white
 

[static]

Don't forget to append Get Some Now for the tolerance color band.
Gold 5% Silver 10% None 20%

[BytePilot]

Careful...

Bad Boys Ravish Only Young Girls But Violet Gives Willngly.

Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Violet, Grey, White.

Brown   Black         Red
1      .         0    x10^    3   =1000 =1k

[noname420]

Lmfao i love it how everyone has a different color code thing to go with it

mine is

Bad Booze Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well

[ledartist]

Love that one!

[noname420]

Oh and one for remembering Tera, Giga, Mega, Kilo, Milli, Micro,Nano, Pico

The Great Monkey King Makes Microwave Nacho Pizzas

[rsdandy]

What about "Why Run Backwards You'll Vomit.  (old phone wire colors for a 25 pair cable)  White Red Black Yellow Violet...

[knektek]

what about.... get a card with all of the values on it so you don't have to remember that...

[joerice01]

 whats the fun in that. and plus what happens if your dont have the card on you

[BytePilot]

But, but, what would happen if you were in an air crash, and all your luggage is scattered over the landscape but  you need to boost the power of the emergency radio transmitter by a factor of ten, but daren't use too low a resistor value for fear of burning out your one last hope for rescue.
The card that could save your life is at home, on your workbench.

I suppose you could always get a tattoo...


<small>Seriously though, remembering these things is _very_ handy. Like remembering ohm's law means you don't have to go look things up before you reach for the soldering iron</small>

[claudiopolis]

A little late but better late then never...
Tolerance is not a key factor here. I'm not that perfectionist.

[SinAmos]

Love it.  Will check it out later.