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Step 4Building the LED "Bulb"
The Triple Quad LED Bulb!!!!"'
If you want, you can skip this step and use a single LED to test your circuit. You can come back to this when you have the circuit confirmed and working. Also, I used white LEDs because I did not have any more high brightness blues left. I've heard blue helps better with the SAD.
I went to the dollar store to pick up a cheap flashlight because I needed a reflector to direct the LEDs light. The flashlight I purchased contained three LEDs. I decided to Stuff four LEDs into each hole and I needed a way to wire them all up. I came up with this process that solders four LEDs together and then connect three of these "quad LEDs" together. All LEDs are in parallel, keeping the voltage the same as one LED and raises the current. This is what the LED driver circuit provides.
Protip: Small needle nose pliers help
Step1: Hold two LEDs together with the ground leads touching. The flat edges of the LEDs should sit next to each other. Load up the tip of your soldering iron with some solder so there is a liquid solder drop on the tip. Quickly touch the two ground leads with your soldering iron as close to the LED as you can. If you leave the tip on there long, the leads will heat up and it won't feel to great.
Step2: Using a dremel tool, file, or course sand paper, sand the edges of one side of a pair flat so they will sit next to another pair flush. I sanded the LEDs to help diffuse the light a little bit. Now, bend the leads as shown. Kinda of hard to take pictures of the process but basically bend the positive leads outward. Bend the negative leads towards the flattened sides and the straight up so that when you put two pairs together, the four negative leads come all together as one big lead. Taking two pairs, hold them together. The negative pins will all be in the center. Touch them with your soldering iron to fuse them all together.
Step3: Now that the four negative leads are soldered together, clip three of them, leaving just one. Now, bend one of the positive leads around the outside of the quad LED, soldering at each connection. Clip all but one of the positive leads leaving one positive and one negative lead.
You're done! Now make two more :]
Once you have three quad LEDs, it's time to fit them into the flashlight reflector. I bought this flashlight for $3 at the dollar store. It's a dorcey and all of the parts twist apart, so it's easy to access all the parts. I use the silver reflector and the black cone back. The black cone can be stripped of it's metal parts leaving just the plastic piece. It's used later to fasten the bulb to the adjustable neck. Depending on the flashlight you find, you may have to fit your LEDs on the adjustable neck differently. I tried to find a generic flashlight that would be available in a lot of place.
Step4: I used a dremel took to widen the three holes in the reflector. I then pushed each of the four quad LEDs into their holes with the negative leads towards the inside. Bend and solder the negative and positive leads together completing the TRIPLE QUAD LED BULB!
I then soldered on two long, thin wires that will later be fed down the adjustable neck and soldered to the main circuit board. I also put some glue on each quad LED package to make sure they would stay in place.
If you want, you can skip this step and use a single LED to test your circuit. You can come back to this when you have the circuit confirmed and working. Also, I used white LEDs because I did not have any more high brightness blues left. I've heard blue helps better with the SAD.
I went to the dollar store to pick up a cheap flashlight because I needed a reflector to direct the LEDs light. The flashlight I purchased contained three LEDs. I decided to Stuff four LEDs into each hole and I needed a way to wire them all up. I came up with this process that solders four LEDs together and then connect three of these "quad LEDs" together. All LEDs are in parallel, keeping the voltage the same as one LED and raises the current. This is what the LED driver circuit provides.
Protip: Small needle nose pliers help
Step1: Hold two LEDs together with the ground leads touching. The flat edges of the LEDs should sit next to each other. Load up the tip of your soldering iron with some solder so there is a liquid solder drop on the tip. Quickly touch the two ground leads with your soldering iron as close to the LED as you can. If you leave the tip on there long, the leads will heat up and it won't feel to great.
Step2: Using a dremel tool, file, or course sand paper, sand the edges of one side of a pair flat so they will sit next to another pair flush. I sanded the LEDs to help diffuse the light a little bit. Now, bend the leads as shown. Kinda of hard to take pictures of the process but basically bend the positive leads outward. Bend the negative leads towards the flattened sides and the straight up so that when you put two pairs together, the four negative leads come all together as one big lead. Taking two pairs, hold them together. The negative pins will all be in the center. Touch them with your soldering iron to fuse them all together.
Step3: Now that the four negative leads are soldered together, clip three of them, leaving just one. Now, bend one of the positive leads around the outside of the quad LED, soldering at each connection. Clip all but one of the positive leads leaving one positive and one negative lead.
You're done! Now make two more :]
Once you have three quad LEDs, it's time to fit them into the flashlight reflector. I bought this flashlight for $3 at the dollar store. It's a dorcey and all of the parts twist apart, so it's easy to access all the parts. I use the silver reflector and the black cone back. The black cone can be stripped of it's metal parts leaving just the plastic piece. It's used later to fasten the bulb to the adjustable neck. Depending on the flashlight you find, you may have to fit your LEDs on the adjustable neck differently. I tried to find a generic flashlight that would be available in a lot of place.
Step4: I used a dremel took to widen the three holes in the reflector. I then pushed each of the four quad LEDs into their holes with the negative leads towards the inside. Bend and solder the negative and positive leads together completing the TRIPLE QUAD LED BULB!
I then soldered on two long, thin wires that will later be fed down the adjustable neck and soldered to the main circuit board. I also put some glue on each quad LED package to make sure they would stay in place.
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