Introduction: Atmosphere Lighting Lamps From Waste Material.
What do you do with a broken lamp, throw away or ???
Step 1: What Do You Need
What do we need to make an atmospheric lighting lamp.
- a nice broken lamp
- a broken or old hard disk from a computer
- a old laptop battery
- a old power adapter
These materials are, if you do not already have them yourself, found in the environmental box or environmental street.
Furthermore new material,
- a number of 5mm Diffused RGB Rainbow Slow Flashing Flash Red Green Blue LED Leds
- a switch
- a TP4056 board with protection IC
Step 2: Design One.
For the first lamp I use a broken 90 millimeter halogen bulb lamp and the data plates of the hard disk.
The bulb of the lamp is melted closed from underneath and this must also remain intact. Therefore, proceed with caution. Solder a piece of wire at the bottom terminal and loosening the bottom connection. Then you can break out the black glass. There is room for the LEDs at the bottom of the lamp cap. Solder a resistor to the longest wire of the LED on each LED, this is the positive wire. Then solder the three LEDs with the short connection to the lamp cap, this is the negative wire. The protruding wires of the negative connection can be used as support in the motor housing. A little hot glue in the lamp cap for stability and insulation. In the motor house I drilled a hole so that the wire of the power adapter can pass through. Place the first two discs, separated by a ring, on the motor housing. Saw off a piece of a ring with the size of the drilled hole and insert the cable through it. Then the next disks and the lock plate. Then you solder the wires from the adapter to the lamp. Test whether the LEDs work and everything works then stick the lamp cap with mounting glue to the motor housing. Hot glue can not be used here because the metal absorbs a lot of heat and the glue does not stick. Ready is lamp number one.
Step 3: Design Two.
The second lamp is battery powered and is therefore easily to be transported.
Possibly a mood light in the garden this summer. For the second lamp I use a broken halogen lamp with reflector and the frame of the hard disk. Bend the front plate of the hard disk so that it can be used as an upright. The center of gravity must go backwards so that the lamp does not tip to the front. Carefully tap on the base of the lamp as long as needed until it releases. If the foot is off you will see that the glass is not completely open. I cut this open with a glass cutter so that the lamp could be removed. Solder three LEDs together with the resistor at the longest connection. The ceramic piece from the lamp can be used as a support. Stick this in place. Then secure the LEDs with hot glue. Then put the glass loosely over it and provide the LEDs with power so that they can be aligned slightly. Do some mounting kit around the ceramic piece and then put the glass on it. Waiting that it is stuck and then continue with the connections. Stick the switch and the TP4056 board to the housing. Mount the PCB in reverse. The screw holes do not all fit, but two screws are enough. Mount the stand, and secure the battery with double-sided adhesive tape on the stand. Ready is lamp number two.
Step 4: Power Supply and Schematics.
You can supply each lamp with power by means of a power adapter or through a battery power supply.
The LEDs require a voltage, which varies with change of color, between 2,8 and 3,1 volts. The current can be up to a maximum of 20 mA but we set it much lower, for it is also not a spotlight. If the current is too low, the LED goes off at a certain colors..
I use old laptop batteries with a charging circuit, see the scheme.
Use the same module as on the picture. So a module that has a TP4056 Li-Ion charge controller IC and a separate protection IC. There are two indicator LEDs. Red LED indicates charging, Blue (or green) LED indicates charge complete. You can configure externally the charge current with the Rprog resistor R3. The module uses a very small amount of current whenever it is connected to a battery, but if we recharge regularly, this is not a problem.
Warning use only a board with protection IC.
Instead of old laptop batteries you can also use a power bank. You do need a USB plug or cable.
You can set the current with the resistor, ((supply voltage - LED voltage) / resistor), and adjust the resistors to your power supply voltage. Example for 5 volts with 180 ohms resistance = (5-3) / 180 = 11 mA and for battery 4,2 volts with 150 ohms = (4,2 -3) / 150 = 8 mA
I used 100 ohm resistors for the battery but found it too much light. With a 47 ohm resistor in series, it was perfect. The current consumption of the three LEDs was between 25 and 35 mA and with the 47 ohm resistor in series between 15 and 18 mA. Batteries are between 2000 and 3000 mAh. The batteries I use here are 2600 mAh. Suppose the capacity is still three-quarters. With two cells parallel the capacity is still there 2 * 2600 * 3/4 = 3900 mAh. The lamp would then theoretically have to burn 3900/18 = 216 hours. As a charger you could use a telephone adapter. The power has to match a bit in terms of battery and charger and can be adjusted with R3 if necessary. If you want to use solar energy you have to connect a 6 volt solar cell.
Step 5: Disassembly of the Hard Disk.
Open the hard disk. Each disk is slightly different but see photos as an example.
This disk was very damaged but luckily I had a second one. What we need is the data plates and the corresponding part of the motor. A hard disk has one or more data plates, this one had four plates. The motor is pressed into one another together, so it must be disassembled with some force. Careful not deformed the motor housing, because it all fits exactly and in case of deformation you will no longer get it together.
Step 6: Disassembly of the Laptop Battery.
A laptop battery may no longer work the laptop, but that does not mean that it is not usable.
There can be an excessive imbalance between the cells or a cell may be defective. The casing of the laptop battery consists of two parts that are glued together. By pry this open in the glue joint with a small screwdriver you can release it. Note that when you are pry this open, the force always goes outside and does not goes inside, against the cells because they are damaged quickly. There are YouTube videos that show it, but my experience is that opening is possible but can never be put together again. In most packages, two batteries are parallel and that again three or four times in series. The voltage of the cells is usually 3,7 volts with a maximum of 4,2 volts. The capacity varies from 2000 to 3000 mAh. One set of two is sufficient for our purpose. Test the cells by measuring the voltage, to charge and to discharge. The cells should not become too hot when charging.
