Old CFL Light to LED Light

I had one old CFL emergency light which I replaced it with 12 volt LED light strips which I am going to share with you.

Step 1: Components and Tools

Components Needed

12V LED strip of required casing length

230V to 12V DC adaptor

Aluminium foil sheet

Suitable casing

Tools Needed

Screw drivers

soldering kit

single strand wires

Insulation and transparent tape

Step 2: Things to Be Done

1) Replace the old components with the 12v adapter and then solder the two male pins directly to wire. I won't recommend removing the adapter because the wires are so minute and once wire is cut it is hard to solder it since it was a china product

2) At some point in a continuous LED strip we will have provision to cut and solder. Find that point and solder with thing wire and attach positive and negative properly. Micro soldering will be fine but if you are experienced with normal soldering you can go ahead.

3) Connect the positive and negative terminals properly. Paste the tin foil paper for reflection. See that once the foil sheet is pasted you seal it entirely using transparent tape. If its not insulated correctly it will get short circuit since its a conductor

4) Paste the LED Strips check once and fix the case

Step 3: Plugin to Your AC Mains

Plugin to your AC mains and see that light is working. Since it was a mini light brightness was not too great. However by increasing LED strip length more intense the light will be and brighter the room. You can use similar LED strips to light up car dome light directly without adapter. Thank You

Step 4:

Comments

[JimTheSoundman]

I think many people have mentioned in other instructables that LED lights need not only a certain voltage, but also need constant current, or some sort of current limiting device, or the LED's will burn out prematurely. It doesn't appear there is any current limiting here, as it appears that the "wall wart" power supply is directly connected to the LED strip. So, from what I've read, these LED lights will probably burn out rather quickly.

[Treknology]

It's a 12V LED strip. The LEDs are arranged in groups along the strip with a dropper resistor for each group. That is why you must find the "right" place to cut it.

[raammv]

Oh really ? Actually i used this 12 v adaptor previously for same ceiling led light around 2 years which was working fine
. Current output was aroun 7mA.

[JimTheSoundman]

Well I'm not an expert, but I have been reading a lot about LED lights and the power supplies to drive them.

Looks like you lucked out and found a power supply whose max current is within the specifications of the LED lights you have attached to it. I'm glad it worked out so well for you.

But my point remains, I think it's important for other readers who will try to build one of their own to remember to take not only the voltage, but the current into account when choosing a power supply.

[raammv]

Thanks for your suggestion . I didn't focus much on that because I used randomly an adaptor that was available. I will go through this again.

[raammv]

Hello Jim,

After consulting few professors, I understood that the device will only draw the required current. Being clear, suppose if the power supply is 12 volt, and current is 1 Amps, it will draw only 500mA (Required). It will damage the component only if the voltage is higher than specified voltage. You could notice this specially while charging mobile phones with 1 A & 500 mA, with constant 5 Volts. I have tried my moto E charging with both 500mA & 1A charger its working fine and batteries are working well.

[DIY Hacks and How Tos]

Nice light mod. LEDs are so much better than CFLs.