Introduction: 13W LED Wake Up Light, My Version

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I was first introduced to the idea by " Blue LED light box by ewilhelm " and was very interested. the bedroom of my last apartment received direct sunlight as the sun was rising, so i used to wake up very easily at around 6am all on my on, always.

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I love waking up with the sun. you feel energized the rest of the day simply because you woke up the natural way. you can start here to learn more about this topic, there are hundreds of other sources online. now i really miss it and already can feel the adverse effects. in the winter time the angle of the sun is more curved so I actually do end up getting some sun into the room but at around 10am the earliest. that's way too late to wake up for me.. !

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This morning I realized that now I have enough material gathered at home from my previous light bar / grow light projects that I should be able to put one together very fast.

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If you have all the materials at hand and laid out, you can be finished in just 1 hour.!

Step 1: Easy Math & Materials

first we need to figure out how many led's you want to use. depending on this answer we will calculate the required voltage and get the correct led driver.

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search on ebay for 1W cool white & 1W 430 or 470 or 455nm. you will get many results from many trusted sellers. get as many as you want. these are all sold in bulk. usually $9 for 20, or sometimes much cheaper.

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in my case;

1x warm white 2800K // 3.2/3.6Veach = 3.2/3.6V for 1

3x 430nm // 3.4/3.6Veach = 10.2/10.8V for 3

6x cool white 5000K // 3.2/3.6Veach = 19.2/21.6V for 6

totaling;

32.6V minimum, 36V maximum - this is the number we need. all the voltage specs above are always mentioned by the seller so you can calculate all of this before buying anything, very important ! and one more thing to look for under the specs is the mA rating. i believe that all 1W high power leds are 350mA and there are hundres of drivers on ebay for this setting.

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now search on ebay; " 350ma led driver " as the results show up you will see the voltage rating, look for something that is able to provide 36V or more but @350mA. they have voltage regulators so you can use a higher voltage driver, it is the mA that matters.

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that was the hardest part to this entire project.

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parts list;

1x led driver ( learn above )

10x 1W high power LEDs

1x aluminium bar

1x AC plug

1x timer outlet

1x metal epoxy & thermal adhesive

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1x 3W LED bulb ( optional, but highly recommended because it is just $2.99 ) if so;

1x AC to light bulb socket adapter is also needed, which can be found at your local hardware store.

Step 2: LED Light Bar

let's get going, the fun part begins. SOLDERING! but before bend each leg of the raw led's so that they are facing up and not touching the aluminium bar.

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you can now lay out your led beads in any order you wish. I chose to follow;

CW - 430 - CW - CW - WW - 430 - CW - CW - 430 - CW

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try to distance them evenly for better heat transfer. apply some metal epoxy and thermal adhesive under each led. wait at least 15 minutes before doing any more work. I have many more instructables on how to make these lights. please check them out to get different ideas.

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you can now solder your led's together, always in series. coming in from the led driver's positive cable, in to the first led's positive, going out from the negative to the next led's positive and so on until the very end. where you will be left with the last negative side of the last led, connect that to the negative from the led driver.

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now solder the ac plug on the other end of the led driver. and the light bar is alive.

Step 3: 3W Optional Boost

I have purchased this incredible light from dx.com. extremely cheap, small and bright. this is listed under the parts with the link.

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I have it attached to a AC to light socket adapter and then into the AC timer outlet.

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how small are they going to get ??? - in this picture you can see a cool comparison

first we have last year's favourite, the big savings CFL light bulb. rated at 23W (100W incandescent equal) for about 10$ for a 4 pack. easy to break, large size. but cool to touch

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second is the 3W LED light bulb I am using. I have seen people successfully growing plants with a single 3W bulb side by side a 23W bulb, same plant, same results. so do not under estimate the future of lighting because next we have the ultimate of all

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this tiny device is a 100W smd chip LED, it should equal around 900W incandescent bulbs. it can go upto 9000 lumens sizing at about your thumb's finger nail. 36V light machine. this thing needs some serious cooling however. which i believe will eventually not be an issue, and hopefully we won't be needing AC/DC converters as new homes are being built with a main DC converter. can you imagine running your refrigerator from a usb wall plug ? well it's about to happen

Step 4: Conclusion & Upgrades

I will be waking up with it for the first time tomorrow morning. I chose to hide the led light bar on the existing little edge of the ceiling. with a couple of nails it is sitting there nicely. the advantage is that it shines to the white background, focusing it's output, which benefits me in return. it is also by the windows where the sun would come from. and not shining directly in to the room but more like an ambient light. I will upload night time images later on tonight.

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this light does come on automatically but it does not fade in slowly. this is not natural and it is something I need to fix. you can do this with an arduino and a relay or by making an analog circuit board, which i am not so capable of yet.. there are lots of cool designs on here;

1. Wake Up Light 10+ Watt LED by The Freak

2. Wake-up light (no arduino) by Giedow

3. Blue LED light box by ewilhelm

4. Waking Up on the Right Side of the Bed Light by kahht

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remember to check out my other instructable and subscribe !

love & peace

akin,

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