How-to Convert Mortein Power Booster Machine Into LED Night Lamp

by ramhardikar

6.6K85

Intro: How-to Convert Mortein Power Booster Machine Into LED Night Lamp


For a long time now I have been seeing this machine lying around in my house. The vaporizer cartridge got over sometime back and I never bought a new refill.

I then thought of using it for a different purpose. First thing that came to my mind was to turn it into a night lamp since I felt its cartridge can be a very good light diffuser.

Finished lamp can be powered directly through the mains [220-240 volts]


For those of you who are not very familiar with this machine, it is used as a mosquito repellant!

STEP 1: Things Needed


• Mortein Vaporizer Machine & Cartridge
• 3 White LEDs
• 8mm clear pipe [length 2 inches]
• Sand Paper [Fine]
• Solder Gun
• Solder Wire
• Pliers
• Screwdriver
• Insulating Tape

STEP 2: Clean the Cartridge


Caution: Vaporizer contains Prallethrin [insecticide]

Even if the refill cartridge looks to be empty, actually it may not be. There could be few drops remaining behind in it. So, it is important that the cartridge is thoroughly cleaned

- Remove the cap from the cartridge. Wick should come along with it
- Pull out the wick from the cap and discard
- Clean the cap and the cartridge with soap water thoroughly
- Remove the sticker and leave it to dry
- Remember to wash your hands thoroughly with soap water


STEP 3: Prepare the Vaporizer Machine


Here we disconnect the power supply to the wick heating unit and then remove the LED that comes with the machine to make room for the white LEDs

- Open the top lid of this machine by removing the screw from the base
- Cut-off the wires that connect the wick heating unit and the leads to the plug. After this, the plug will get detached from the unit holding wick heating unit
- Cut-off the LED
- Cut-off few millimeters of the heat sink sleeve to expose the metal leads

STEP 4: Prepare the 3-LED Unit


- Solder the 3 LEDs in series. Note, you may need to adjust the length of the LEDs by chopping the legs and bending then slightly

This link might come handy  for connecting the LEDs in series – www.instructables.com/id/LEDs-for-Beginners/step7/Wiring-up-multiple-LEDs-in-series/

- Solder some insulated wires to this 3-LED unit
- Wrap some insulating tape around the exposed wires
- Connect the LED unit to a 9V battery to check if connections are OK

I picked 3 LEDs since there was just enough room for them!

STEP 5: Connecting LED Unit to the Plug


Here we bring all the disconnected units together and re-assemble the vaporizing machine – plug, wick heating unit, the LEDs and the top lid

- Pick the cap of the cartridge and pass the wires coming out from the LED unit through it
- Further pass these wires through the wick heating unit
- Solder these wires to the exposed wires from the heat sink sleeves of the plug. Inside the heat sink sleeves there are already resistors on each ends to handle the voltage from the mains. So don’t worry about 220v !
- Wrap some insulating tape around the exposed wires
- Attach the plug to the wick heating unit
- Attach the top lid of the machine and fix the screws back

STEP 6: Attach the Cartridge to the Machine


- Pass the LEDs through the pipe piece and attach this pipe to the cap
- Insert the cartridge in a clockwise direction into the machine till firmly locked

STEP 7: Test


I plugged the finished lamp into the mains and the lamp came into action! However, I noticed that the amount of light given out was less, possible the diffusion was less I thought .

I then used a fine sandpaper on the plastic cartridge to give a hazy look. To my surprise the light diffusion was much better in this case, which made me feel quite happy!

5 Comments

sheetalmekhale 12 years ago

Nice one Ram,
really innovative

The circuit from http://hobbycircuits.blogspot.com/2008/03/220v-line-powered-led-lamp.html will be good

the 0.22U capacitor will provide around 14.8K impedance at a frequency of 50Hz+ the series resistor of 1k added to it will provide around 15 to 16 milliamp thru the LED, at 230VAC , 50 Hz ,
assuming the forward voltage of the LED to be around 4 to 5 volt , the power in the LED would be around .075 watt, so a series string of 3 LEDs will consume around 0.225 watt, which is really Green.

The power thru the LEDs can be increased to around 25 ma by using a capacitor value of 0.33u/600, but be carefull to check that the LED is rated for the higher current, else you will end with burned LEDs

If this has to work from a 110 VAC , 60 Hz input, the Value of the capacitor
should be increased to 0.33u/600 or to 0.47u/600 , to keep the same amount of current thru the LEDs

And by using the Capacitive drop technique there is no power loss, a series resistor of 14.8K would have dissipated around 2.75 watt, (R1 will still dissipate around 0.3 watt)

AND AS THE NEUTRAL IS COMMON , DO NOT TOUCH, RISK OF ELECTROCUTION

ramhardikar 12 years ago

Thanks for sharing this info, this definitely helps me building my knowledge

lemonie 12 years ago


I'm quite sure I haven't seen anyone do this before, nice job - I like it.

Do I understand correctly that you're using the heating element as something like an ~8KOhm resistor?

L

ramhardikar 12 years ago

To be honest, I have no idea what resistor is being used there. I tried to open one of the heat sink sleeves but it was so tight around the resistor that while removing all the color codes came along with it. so there was nothing for me to look at! Some articles on the internet say that the minimum need are a series a high voltage capacitor and a resistor. A diode also in parallel with the LED in reverse polarity connection.

http://hobbycircuits.blogspot.com/2008/03/220v-line-powered-led-lamp.html