Introduction: Display Cabinet LED Lighting

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About: Longtime DIYer liking the Instructable platform used mainly in the past for learning and ideas, but now hope to give back by sharing ideas I've found and developed myself.

Here is a gun cabinet packing some extra pop!!!

Planning: The idea was to shine single high-power LEDs down through each section of the cabinet too highlight the collection of guns! For aesthetics, a hole saw was used so that only the LED lens can be seen from inside the cabinet; the heatsink and power supply are hidden on top. Also, included on top of the cabinet is a turn knob for dimming - the LEDs are so bright that I personally prefer them run around half power.

Materials: The main components of this project were LEDs, optics, heatsinks, an LED driver and switching power supply. All the items were purchased for less than $100 from LEDSupply.com. Some of the product images i took right from their site and also I tried to link to each item page as well.

  1. The LEDs are made by Cree, but mounted to a metal core star board so that they can be connected easier. Cree has a bunch of different LEDs, I went with their XLamp XT-E in a warm-white color temperature.
  2. Optics were iffy; I got them because they are cheap and I wasn't sure if the light without them would reach the bottom of the cabinet. The LEDs are specified with a 120-degree viewing angle and it turned out I liked the light best with a medium angle lens.
  3. Heatsinks at the current I ran the LEDs aren't completely necessary, but definitely recommended and it made it easier to mount the LEDs anyway.
  4. The LED driver is made in the usa by LUXdrive and is called a BuckPuck. I picked the one with wires, dimming and a potentiometer. The output is 350mA, which is the lowest option available, but like I mentioned earlier was plenty bright. All seven of the LEDs are run in-series with a 24Vdc input to the BuckPuck. Each LED runs at approximately 1-watt (2.85Vf per LED X .350amps = .9975 Watts).
  5. A 24Vdc switching power supply is required to convert the 110Vdc to low voltage DC. I used a basic enclosed style power-supply (like you would see used with a laptop computer).
  6. Connectors & wire. To make the connection from the power-supply to the LED driver easier I used a screw-in terminal plug and for connections to the LEDs I used 24 gauge stranded wire.

Tools:

  1. 3/4" Hole Saw & Drill
  2. Arctic Silver Epoxy
  3. Solder Iron & Solder
  4. Wire 24 Gauge Stranded Wire

Step 1: Product Images & Links

The previous step I outlined the parts and components used, but here I copied over the product images for further clarification and used links for those that want to purchase the same items. The next step shows the set-up completed.

  1. LEDs: #CREEXTE-WW100
  2. Driver: #03023-D-E-350P
  3. Heatsink: #102-1488
  4. Power Supply: #24VDC17A
  5. Knob: #03021HEP-KNOB
  6. Epoxy: #AATA-5G
  7. Screw-In Terminal Plug: #DC-PA-2.5-F
  8. Wire: #24AWG

Step 2: How to Build It

Measure twice cut once!

I started by marking the LED locations on the cabinet and then measured the distance in between each LED; this gave me the length of wire I needed in between each LED.

  1. First I soldered wires between the LEDs (series connection positive to negative)
  2. Epoxy LEDs to heatsink and Optic Holder to MCPCB
  3. Drill Holes in cabinet
  4. Place LEDs down into each location
  5. Connect series circuit to driver output wires
  6. Connect Driver Input wires to screw-in terminal
  7. Plug in power supply
  8. Plug power supply output into screw-in terminal
  9. Clean-Up