SPIRAL LED CHANDELIER

INTRO

This is a “SPIRAL LED CHANDELIER” with 240 LED’s working on AC current.

It looks very decent when you switch off all the room lights at night.

Gives a soft light throughout the room and you can use it while watching TV.

Hang it in the Dining room and have a candle light dinner.

This is a sister model of my instructables “LED CHANDELIER” posted earlier.

Step 1 STEP-1

STEP-1
Take a piece of Mild Steel wire of 1/8 inch diameter and 12 to 14 feet long.

Wind the wire into a spiral with a hook at the top.

This is used as a support for the LED Necklace and the Transformer.

See the Photograph for guidance.

Comments

[agis68]

wow...this is really epic....my wife gonna love it for the dinning room....if I ever have the patience to make something like this....

[TOCO]

This thing is epic. But I dont think my parents would let me put this up anywhere if I built it. Well, my mom was looking for a new lighting fixture for our dining room. Nah, she still wouldnt.

[Dipankar]

Hi TOCO,
Tell your parents that this is a VERY SAFE Project as it runs on only 12 volts.
Getting Shocked Dose not arise.

[TOCO]

Oh, Im not worried about that. I just dont know where to put it if I built it. I have worked on plenty of dangerous things before. I dont have anywhere close to an outlet either. for some reason my house has a lack of electrical outlets by my standards. Im sure that it probably has more than most houses.

[siddhanth]

 yaar deepankar how have you joined the leds in zigzag motion?

kucch aur use kiya hain kya uske saath or bas directly 2 leds ko unke connectors ko ek saath solder kar dia hain?

chandelier accha hain.. but din me utna hi bhadda hain :) well how uses it during the day anyways.. accha project hain.. will be making soon as i finish up with my aieee... but usme ill put alternate color leds :)

[Dipankar]

Step 3 ka photo dekho,
Hum ne perforated hardboard ka use keya hai jo LED ka support deiya hai soldering ke leya.
LED ko hole me dal do, phir uska legs ko bend karo aur solder karo.

[handyman333]

haaaa haaaa haaaaa
L..D ko hole me dal do, phir uska legs ko bend karo aur solder karo.
lolzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Dipankar]

Hole mein dalna is very easy nahain?

[siddhanth]

 samajh gaya.. accha hain.. dhanyawaad.. sab log spanish etc me baat kar rahe the.. toh maine socha kyoun na main bi apni matra bhasha ka prayog karu idhar :-)

[Dipankar]

Tum ne bedi samajdari ke baat ke.
Main Bangla, Hindi aur Oriya ma bhe baat kar sakta huin.

[siddhanth]

 aami o baangla bujhte paari :-) aami aulpo aulpo kore bolte o pari..

[Dipankar]

WELL DONE.

[daleme1]

Nice project and just keep having fun.

[tantai]

nice spiral...

but i am not understand in step-2
1.4 come from ?

“....16 volts transformer without load shows 18 volts output.

So 18 x 1.4 =25.2volts...“

[Dipankar]

See my answer to maxwelltub where I have explained  the 1.4 puzzle.

[DAG1030]

 Fantastic project! I am going to make something similar with my own flair! One question...Have you considered using a capacitor for current limiting and omitting the transformer? Put enough LED's in series to divide up the voltage. This could add to your creative possibilities.

[Dipankar]

Dear DAG 1030,
Capacitor will not work on AC and I want it to work on AC.

[DAG1030]

Try looking up capacitive reactance. In an AC circuit, capacitors and inductors will limit current. You can then divide your voltage between the LEDs to an acceptable level.

An excellent tutorial: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_4/2.html

[Dipankar]

Dear DAG1030,
Thank you for the link, will go through it.

[electrosam]

Well you should say " Conduction Proof" not Insulation Proof.

[Dipankar]

Thanks for the correction.
English is not my mother toungue, mistakes are bound to happen.

[drzcyy]

LEDs have an inherent death-wish. They are supposed to be connected to a FIXED-CURRENT circuit, not a fixed-voltage circuit.  What happens is, in a fixed-voltage circuit, the LED will produce some heat when lighted. When its temperature increases, the LED's internal resistance will reduce, therefore the current (ampere) will increase. (remember this simple formula?:voltage=current x resistance). When the current increases, the temperature will increase more, reducing the internal resistance further, therefore increasing the current further. And so forth.
So, what you will see is, when you switch on your circuit, all will be fine at first. After a while, the LEDs will burn brighter. Further on, your white LEDs will change color, usually yellow, or greenish. And if you still dont switch it off, it will burn out very soon.
With all due respect, sir, what you need are "LED drivers", which are actually circuits which produces fixed currents, therefore eliminating excessive current in your LED circuits. You can actually build these "LED drivers" yourself. Maybe write an instructable on it? :)
Thank you, Good instructable anyway!

[Dipankar]

Hi drzcyy,
Please read my answer to verence's comments and you will know the theory behind this Instructable.

[drzcyy]

Yes, I fully understand your theory. Basically, you are merely halving the current by utilising an alternating current, and the the diode properties of the LED, ie one cycle of the alternating current drives this line of LEDs, then the other cycle drives the other line of LEDs.
And yes, you are right, halving the current, halves the heat production. But that doesnt mean that the temperature doesnt increase. And when an LED heats up, it draws more current, therefore heating it up further. Maybe a good heatsink will alleviate this problem. Or an inclusion of a capacitor in your circuit will cap off the voltage peaks found in the AC.
Take a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_power_sources
under the topic "Power Sources".
There's a topic on "Lighting LEDs on mains" too. Good day.

[Dipankar]

Dear drzcyy,
I like to do things differently which is hard for the learned people to digest, but if it works for a long time without any problem then my work is sucessful though it may not be what the BOOK says.
I have read all about LED;s in Wikipedia. Thanks for the link.
I had posted my LED chandelier about a year back with the same circuit and to this day it is working very nicely without any LED blowing off, so I made this on the same principal and circuit in a bigger scale.
Maybe my methods is unorthodox but I can garentee you that it woirks perfectly.

[texasclodhopper]

Dipankar, I think you have your polarities screwed up in your diagram.

I can see how to make this work, but you've got LEDs wired "+" to "+", and that doesn't make a bit of sense to me.

Perhaps I missed something?  Maybe if you drew a SCHEMATIC it would look right.

[Dipankar]

Sorry texasclodhopper,
NO my polarities are not screwed up.
I am not an engineer and know nothing of SCHEMATIC drawing but I have tried to explain this with another diagram in step 2.
All the LED's are interconnected in the middle.
Both the Rows of +8 and-8 are opposite to one another.
As AC current flows in both directions alternatively so all the LED's are not glowing at the same time but alternately.
Hope you understand my point.

[texasclodhopper]

Dipankar, now that I see your SCHEMATIC (and you drew a very good one), I can tell you that there is no electronic reason to connect those two rows of 8 LEDs together except at the ends where the power is applied. Through your innocence of electronics you have built something that works fine, but is wired "incorrectly".

Unless there is a mechanical reason to wire the individual LEDs in parallel to each other, it probably isn't a good idea to do it. For instance, if an LED were to fail in a shorted condition (a rare condition) it would short out the LED wired in parallel to it. That LED wouldn't be lit. So, by wiring it that way you create a possible failure mode where it doesn't need to be.

You circuit will operate in the same manner without those connections.

[Dipankar]

Hi texasclodhopper,
Please read my answer to verence's comments and you will know the theory behind this Instructable.

[texasclodhopper]

Well, I was being "nice", not argumentative, since your project is just a decoration in your house. Your "magic" electronic math has nothing to do with proper electronic construction.

I suppose the end justifies the means in this forum called "Instructables" and electronic knowledge has little place in the process of discovery or presentation.

I have been sufficiently dismissed that I feel the need to not bang my head against a wall.

[Dipankar]

Dear texasclodhopper,
I am really very sorry if I have in any way offended you though I did not mean to.
Many people do the same thing in many different ways, but the outcome is important.
I had posted my LED chandelier about a year back with the same circuit and to this day it is working very nicely without any LED blowing off, so I made this on the same principal and circuit in a bigger scale.
Maybe my methods is unorthodox but I can garentee you that it woirks perfectly.
This design was inspired by my friend qs who has posted many such Instructable in this site, before making any judgement I request you to go through them.
THANKS.

[ghoru]

 perhaps wrapping ricepaper around the whole thing like a paper lantern could be a good way of hiding the transformer etc as i think during the day it looks somewhat unfinished.
merely a suggestion

[Dipankar]

Could do that but the light will get dim.

[wozlaser]

This would look rad with a semi-transparent t-shirt on it.

[KoenB]

looks sweet when turned on in the dark but a bit dodgy during the day. Maybe you could try covering up the wiring a bit more.

[unibomb bk]

this was pretty cool. i might keep it as a project idea. but its true that its more professional to do parallel n safer. but a great project.  

[mdog93]

how come you only drew the red (+) wire going to the first led, surely both need to be connected to the first led in the circuit.

Is there something I don't know or what?

[rogueleadr]

dude these are wired so 8 LED's act as one "light bulb". So the black wire going into the last negative end feeds into the first as well. So these are groups of 8 LEDs wired in series and the 15 groups of 8 are wired in parallel.

[Dipankar]

Groups of 8+8=16 -------(+8 & -8 )
16 LED one set
16 x 15 sets
= 240 LED's.
15 sets connected in parallel.
RIGHT.

[mdog93]

k, i think i know, i don't fullt know what you are referring to at times, but i get the series thing, just doesn't lok like it's wired in series cus its no layed out how i imagine it to be in a circuit diagram