A light bar can brighten your house through the use of ambient lighting. You can lighten up hallways, add a fading glow effect behind your entertainment center, create new patterns in light graffiti or simply add a light source to your house. There are endless possibilities for lighting with a light bar, it's all up to you!
The parts are fairly cheap and the project is fairly easy. You will need to strip wires, solder leds, and be able to use a power drill. With LEDs cheap and long-lasting this project will add a warm glow to your house.
Once you have purchased the parts you need (You likely have most of them already) actually putting the bar together should take about 3 hours (if you are inexperienced).
This instructable is designed to teach with pictures as well as words. Most of the pictures have notes added to them with tips and information.
*** I am not liable for any injury, property damage, or any other losses that happen within this project. You will be working with electricity and should be careful. Though the voltage and amperages I used in this project are not harmful (or even be felt), using a more powerful electricity source, and the use of hot objects (Soldering Iron & Hot Glue Gun) can cause damage. ***
The parts are fairly cheap and the project is fairly easy. You will need to strip wires, solder leds, and be able to use a power drill. With LEDs cheap and long-lasting this project will add a warm glow to your house.
Once you have purchased the parts you need (You likely have most of them already) actually putting the bar together should take about 3 hours (if you are inexperienced).
This instructable is designed to teach with pictures as well as words. Most of the pictures have notes added to them with tips and information.
*** I am not liable for any injury, property damage, or any other losses that happen within this project. You will be working with electricity and should be careful. Though the voltage and amperages I used in this project are not harmful (or even be felt), using a more powerful electricity source, and the use of hot objects (Soldering Iron & Hot Glue Gun) can cause damage. ***
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Signing UpStep 1: Parts & Tools
The pieces needed for a LED bar are reasonably cheap. Don't be alarmed at the amount of parts needed - nothing is expensive, all of them are pretty common and easy to use. You probably already have 3/4ths of this stuff right now.
Most of these parts were purchased at The Home Depot and Lowes.
Metal Wire Cover (Light Bar) $5.00 for (1) 5' bar. Used to keep people from tripping over wires in the home or office, I modified it to become my light bar. You could also use wood, PVC pipe, or another material. (Though I suggest something compact and tidy).
Rubber Insulated Clamps (3) $1.25 for 2 - These are used to mount the light bar to a surface.
Electrical Tape (1) $4.00 for 66' - Used to hold pieces together and insulate wires from bar.
Wet Rag - Any cloth or sponge will do, just soak it in water, its used to clean leftover solder off your soldering iron.
LEDs (18 for one light bar) $10 for 100- Pick whatever colors you want. I also suggest fading LEDS. You can use any voltage you want, though most colors fall in two categories, 1.9-2.1v(red, orange,yellow), and 3.0-3.4v (green,blue,white). Brightness is up to you, 10000mcd-18000mcd (Millicandelas) are plenty for night lighting, something like 25,000mcd may be too bright for night time, but good for accent lighting (glowing under furnitur, though 35,000mcd or higher can even be daytime lighting. Real life stores are far too expensive, so on EBay you can get them from Hong Kong for 1/20th the price. I suggest the sellers HKJE LED or LED-HK
Hot Glue Gun $5 - Get a lot of glue sticks, as they will hold things in place and insulate.
Power Supply (1) $1- Any source of power will do, though LEDs run on DC. Your voltage can be whatever you want, but you must choose your own resistors. (Supply Voltage should be higher than the LEDs Forward Voltage, around 300mA for one light bar (Milliamps are the max amount of LEDs you can have). I got three supplies for $3 at my local GoodWill charity.
Resistors (At Least 10) $3 for 100 on EBay, I suggest ResistorsPlus- These keep the LED from taking in too much electricity. It can change a 9 volt or 12 volt power supply into a 3.3 volt for an LED. For my 9 volt supply, I needed 150 Ohm resistors (9 Volts for 2 LEDs in Series). Calculate yours @ ledcalc.com A common rating is wattage, this simply means heat dissipation, you can always have the W number higher than recommended, but never lower. A higher wattage rating costs a tiny bit more, and is larger, for the most part 1/2 watt is fine, unless you begin using ultra-high power LEDs (like Luxeon Stars which can need 3-10W resistors).
20 Gauge Speaker Wire (Around 8-10 feet) - Used to connect the LEDs to the power supply.
Soldering Iron $10 (1) - Cheap, everyone should have one around. A 15 Watt iron from Radioshack works fine.
Solder (1) $3 at Radioshack- Solder with flux. I recommend silver solder at 0.022" thickness and a rosin core, it's easier to flow and more durable. Used to connect LEDs to the Speaker Wire.
Needle-nose Pliers - Used to bend LED legs.
Insulated Quick Disconnects (Optional) $2 for 12- This is used to easily plug the power supply into the light bar. You could just solder the power supply wires straight to the speaker wire, but then you always have the cord attached. (***Update, I now recommend using 2.5mm DC barrel plug connectors, they are much more durable, easier to plug in, and make a stronger connection. Buying them online is semi-random, try eBay as always**
Power Drill (1) - If you don't have one, ask a friend.
13/64" Drill Bit (2) - $1.50 for one. Used to drill the holes in the light bar. 13/64th" is the perfect size for a 5mm LED, it keeps them from going through the hole and holds them in place.
Wire Clippers - Used to cut the legs of LEDs. You can use some small scissors as well.
Awl - Something sharp with a fine point. I'm sure you can find something.
Scissors - Used to cut speaker wire and electrical tape.
Wire Stripper or Knife - Used to strip plastic insulation from the speaker wire.
If you are new to LEDs or soldering, I suggest viewing this guide @ llamma.com
Most of these parts were purchased at The Home Depot and Lowes.
Metal Wire Cover (Light Bar) $5.00 for (1) 5' bar. Used to keep people from tripping over wires in the home or office, I modified it to become my light bar. You could also use wood, PVC pipe, or another material. (Though I suggest something compact and tidy).
Rubber Insulated Clamps (3) $1.25 for 2 - These are used to mount the light bar to a surface.
Electrical Tape (1) $4.00 for 66' - Used to hold pieces together and insulate wires from bar.
Wet Rag - Any cloth or sponge will do, just soak it in water, its used to clean leftover solder off your soldering iron.
LEDs (18 for one light bar) $10 for 100- Pick whatever colors you want. I also suggest fading LEDS. You can use any voltage you want, though most colors fall in two categories, 1.9-2.1v(red, orange,yellow), and 3.0-3.4v (green,blue,white). Brightness is up to you, 10000mcd-18000mcd (Millicandelas) are plenty for night lighting, something like 25,000mcd may be too bright for night time, but good for accent lighting (glowing under furnitur, though 35,000mcd or higher can even be daytime lighting. Real life stores are far too expensive, so on EBay you can get them from Hong Kong for 1/20th the price. I suggest the sellers HKJE LED or LED-HK
Hot Glue Gun $5 - Get a lot of glue sticks, as they will hold things in place and insulate.
Power Supply (1) $1- Any source of power will do, though LEDs run on DC. Your voltage can be whatever you want, but you must choose your own resistors. (Supply Voltage should be higher than the LEDs Forward Voltage, around 300mA for one light bar (Milliamps are the max amount of LEDs you can have). I got three supplies for $3 at my local GoodWill charity.
Resistors (At Least 10) $3 for 100 on EBay, I suggest ResistorsPlus- These keep the LED from taking in too much electricity. It can change a 9 volt or 12 volt power supply into a 3.3 volt for an LED. For my 9 volt supply, I needed 150 Ohm resistors (9 Volts for 2 LEDs in Series). Calculate yours @ ledcalc.com A common rating is wattage, this simply means heat dissipation, you can always have the W number higher than recommended, but never lower. A higher wattage rating costs a tiny bit more, and is larger, for the most part 1/2 watt is fine, unless you begin using ultra-high power LEDs (like Luxeon Stars which can need 3-10W resistors).
20 Gauge Speaker Wire (Around 8-10 feet) - Used to connect the LEDs to the power supply.
Soldering Iron $10 (1) - Cheap, everyone should have one around. A 15 Watt iron from Radioshack works fine.
Solder (1) $3 at Radioshack- Solder with flux. I recommend silver solder at 0.022" thickness and a rosin core, it's easier to flow and more durable. Used to connect LEDs to the Speaker Wire.
Needle-nose Pliers - Used to bend LED legs.
Insulated Quick Disconnects (Optional) $2 for 12- This is used to easily plug the power supply into the light bar. You could just solder the power supply wires straight to the speaker wire, but then you always have the cord attached. (***Update, I now recommend using 2.5mm DC barrel plug connectors, they are much more durable, easier to plug in, and make a stronger connection. Buying them online is semi-random, try eBay as always**
Power Drill (1) - If you don't have one, ask a friend.
13/64" Drill Bit (2) - $1.50 for one. Used to drill the holes in the light bar. 13/64th" is the perfect size for a 5mm LED, it keeps them from going through the hole and holds them in place.
Wire Clippers - Used to cut the legs of LEDs. You can use some small scissors as well.
Awl - Something sharp with a fine point. I'm sure you can find something.
Scissors - Used to cut speaker wire and electrical tape.
Wire Stripper or Knife - Used to strip plastic insulation from the speaker wire.
If you are new to LEDs or soldering, I suggest viewing this guide @ llamma.com
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Also, funny you mention this guide, I am writing the sequel to this at this very moment. The guide should be completed in about a week, and I must say, it is turning out pretty dang awesome.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
As far as combining the light bars with water, unless there is something moving within the water, it will just look like a light is passing through your body of liquid, no different than a light-bulb or fluorescent tube. Electronics don't work well with water, and making a submersible light bar water-tight would be a lesson in failure.
There are however applications that involve LEDs and water. One of my favorites is rapidly pulsing LEDs that shine indirectly (meaning you don't see the LEDs themselves) into falling water droplets. The LEDs of red, green, and blue change color very rapidly, on par of 20-30 different colors a second. Depending on a water droplet, if it falls into the path of a LED as it is a certain color, it looks as though you are seeing falling jewels. Bigclives.com RGB microcontroller kit has pre-programmed patterns, including one for water droplets. That's a rather advanced project for a complete beginner (more advanced on the water droplets than the lighting), but if you are interested I use his controller for lighting my apartment. Here is a link to my instructable which is currently unpublished. http://www.instructables.com/id/ESTRWXVFYTCLJ5J/
You would need to be a bit more specific by "water feature", there are a million different ways to interpret a water LED project, whatever you decide to create, make an instructable and send me a link when you are done.
Lastly, this instructable I consider to be a great beginners project, it's one of the first things I ever made electronically, explains the basics of LEDs, resistors, amperage, and voltage, and doesn't need to be precisely done. I say, go for it!
I have a similar question about water. I was thinking about making this to put outside behind a small glass block wall so at night the LEDs will light up the wall, but I'm afraid it will not last long once it rains. Any advice? I was thinking maybe using hot glue around the LEDs and any openings to try and make it water tight.
Also, I'm very new to electrical work, with a 9V power supply and the LEDs only needing 3ish would I be able to double the size of this and make a 10 foot bar?
Thanks.
If your 9v power supply pumps out 340mA, it would be able to supply 9v * 0.34A = 3.06 Watts.
Even though the LEDs run at 3.0v, it's easier when doing a chain of them to have the supply have a higher voltage. If you want a ten foot bar, calculate how many LEDs it would be, then add up the Watts. I imagine that would be something like 40-50 LEDs for ten feet. 5mm and 10mm LEDs run at 20mA. so 0.02A * 3.0v * 40LEDs = 2.4 Watts. Pick whatever number you want, whether it be 50 or 100 LEDs, just calculate by the watts.
Don't try waterproofing the light-bar, you will be let down and become frustrated, especially at the electrical connector (though you could just stick the wire directly in and hot glue it). By this I mean, do not try to waterproof your light bar to the point you can submerge it in water. If you're just adding extra hot glue to keep out moisture, it's better than nothing I suppose.
I've seen an installation where someone used LEDs to light up their glass block wall. First off, he didn't use dinky dim 14kmcd 5mm LEDs, but 10mm 70kmcd LEDs (kilo millicandela, a measure of brightness), and around 40 of them (three per block). The lights were placed on top of the glass wall facing downward. He had to make little risers to keep the LEDs from bumping into the glass so they could face straight down.
Though his installation was inside of a wall for a bathroom, it sounds like yours is standing outside in your back yard. To protect it from the rain, get a small piece of flexible waterproof plastic (heck, I bet scissors and a cheapy rainjacket would do), and just throw it over the light bar so the rain doesn't land on it. It shouldn't need to be very wide, just enough to cover the light-bar and touch whatever surface it is sitting on. I made a quick picture to show you what I mean. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
So, what I was thinking was placing it behind the wall and allowing it to shine up along the back of the wall, similar to what you did with the lights behind the couch. With the blocks being clear and diffused it should light the blocks up as a fade from the bottom to the top, the bottom blocks being the brightest. The issue with this is that the lights sine directly up, and thus could not be covered. Maybe if I fill the track with silicone after all the wiring is done to ensure no water can touch the wires that might elevate much risk. I don't know. I am thinking of making one just for the hell of it and seeing how long it lasts.
Thanks again for the response
You know, random dimming if selected LEDs? Thx.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/.
and would any modifications be nessasary?
Thanks :)
Denno
Thank you for your input.
if so then totally it will be 5000 mah but just as the capacity is lessened,it shud still remain 2500 mAH,right?
I threw together a quick picture in photoshop to illustrate how it works.
Parallel =current divider in ratio of resistances
wat about that?
I am not pointing out anything wrong but trying to learn something.
not arguing but trying to turn this into an informative debate.
Sorry If I hurt you in any way
:P
As far as series being a voltage divider, and parallel being a current divider, yes, that is accurate in both terms of supplying power from a power source (generally that refers to batteries), and the wiring of resistors. It works both ways, not simply reducing as in division. If you add power sources (batteries) in series, the voltage *multiplies* (or you could say, divides by a ratio below 1:1) If you add power sources in parallel, the capacity for amperage *adds* while voltage remains the same. This is very useful when trying to get extended battery life from your power sources. Here is an example.
Let's say you have a Luxeon LED Star that runs at 3.0v and 700mA. You have two AA batteries, each which puts out 1.5v and has a capacity of 2,500mAh (milliamp hours). If you were to add the two batteries in series, you would double the voltage at the cost of halving the capacity. So you would get 3.0v but now only 1,250mAh. If you have four AA batteries, you can have the the benefits of both, at the cost of greater physical size. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
With 12 V DC u connect 4 LEDs in series,right?
so they share the same 20mA
So technically every 4 LEDs share 20mA.
SO u could run about 18*4=76 LEDs on that thing.
Correct me if I am wrong
The hard limit for how many LEDs are allowed is calculated in watts. To calculate watts, it's simply amps times volts. So if your power supply pumps out 350mA at 12v, you have 0.35A * 12v = a 4.2W power supply.
Let's count the drain for one LED, a green 5mm running at 3.2v and 20mA. So 0.02A * 3.2v = 0.064W. Now, let's divide the drain of an LED into the capacity of the power supply, which is 4.2W / 0.064W = 65 LEDs. 65 is the ideal limit, in reality, due to heat and resistance and other inefficiencies, power supplies need a bit of buffer room, so let's just cut off a few LEDs, and say the realistic limit is 60 LEDs.
I hope that makes sense, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
i was wondering if a 12v 1amp dc plug would work if im hooking up 5 bars together
So if you have 18 LEDs on your light bar, with each LED running at 20mA (milliamps) and 3.2 volts.
18 LEDs * 20mA = 360 mA.
Then let's turn that into Watts
3.2v * 0.36A = 4.32 W.
For five light bars
4.32 W * 5 Light Bars = 21.6 W
Realistically, we want some buffer power since real electrical drain isn't perfect, let's just add 5 Watts to be safe. Thus, 26.6 Watts is our power drain.
Now for what your power supply can put out,
12v * 1 Amp = 12 Watts.
Sadly, that power supply cannot provide enough juice to five light bars. It will realistically be able to light three at full brightness, and at three, it will become extremely hot (like, burn your finger hot, which is bad). So the safe amount for that power supply is two light bars.
If you want a cheap power supply that can handle a ton of light bars, go find a laptop power supply, They are usually in the range of 50-75 Watts, and can be found for a couple dollars at a Goodwill, or bought on eBay for $13 including s/h.
Good luck.