Y.A. LED Flashlight

Intro: Y.A. LED Flashlight

So I titled this Y.A LED Flashlight(Yet another LED Flashlight). This was my first time actually using a PC-Board in a project, besides in kits. I am using 5 Blue LEDs, and 4 Green LEDs, making a cool light when turned on. So, just follow along and I hope you can do this properly. Please bear with me, as my digital camera's quality is horrible.

Thanks
Here we go!

STEP 1: Materials

Here is what you need:
Soldering Iron
Thin Solder
(1)Battery Clip
(9)LEDs *It is up to you how many you want to use*
(1)3 Volt Power Source
(1)PC-Board from Radioshack

Patience and anger management (both of which I do no have).

STEP 2: Study the Circuit

This picture of what the circuit should be was provided to me by TehMuffinator. This is the most vital piece of information you need for this project.

Each circle represents one LED. The positive (the longer lead) goes on the outside, and the smaller of the two leads (-) faces the inside.

Please note that the leads stay in a line. If you just randomly place the LEDs, the circuit will not work. (It's common sense), so just keep them in a perfect line.

For when there is the led facing diagonally, you just place the LED diagonally. The leads still stay in line with the others, except they are just facing a different way.

Go to the next step for a video, and more directions for the placement of the LEDs.

STEP 3: Placing LEDs on the Board

Here is a video of the way to put your LEDs on the board. I hope you like my sister playing the piano in the background.
(It wasn't planned)

It just basically is a video instead of me explaining it.

If you do not have any flash player installed, I will type out the diretions below:
Alright, as you can see by the drawing in the last step, the first LED is just horizontal. Pick a side on the board and just stick the first one in. You have all the freedom with this one.

Next, you must line up the second LED directly on the same line as the other LED. So, from the (+) lead, if I drew a line between the two, it will be perfectly straight. Eventually we will be connection these with either wires or solder. For now, just place them in.

Do this all the way around the board until you feel the need to stop putting LEDs on the board. You might get thrown off by the diagonal facing LED, but it is the EXACT same concept. Just keep the poles, (+ or -) in the same line as all of the others. It is pretty easy.

Next Step: Lets get ready to solder!

STEP 4: Wiring/Soldering It Up

This step can get frustrating and/or confusing. It certanily did for me at first.

What we wan't to do first, is to just solder all of the LEDs in place, so you don't have anything falling out. Make sure though, that the circuit is complete, meaning that the leads stay in a straight line and don't go askew.

In the second picture for this step, I just give an example of how we will wire up the circuit. The wire connects the two LED leads rather than connecting it with solder(which takes alot longer). To make it a little easier, you can fill in the hole next to one of the leads, and place the wire there, as long as the solder of the extra hole touches the solder of the LED lead.

At first, in my pictures, you might see that I filled in the gaps between the LEDs with solder, but that was my mistake for being a noob. Right blow it, you can see the wires.

For some reason my boxes to put on the pictures work off, and on, so just bear with me.

So, what you want to do, is do this all the way around the circuit, connecting all of the (-) leads together, and all of the (+) leads together.

As you could see in the video, I mentioned that you put the battery clip leads, one hole before the first LED leads. Just solder a connection to the hole behind it, and stick the leads in. Black goes on the inside, red goes on the outside.

STEP 5: Troubleshooting

We all have problems that go wrong with our projects, so here are some troubleshooting tips.

If the LEDs don't work:
1)Put a multimeter up to the power supply, to make sure that it reads the amount you wish to have put forward.

2)Go through each solder connection to make sure that there is no bridge of solder between the positive and negative solder points/wire points. In other words, if there is any solder that is in contact with both the (+) AND (-) circuit rows, then the LEDs won't work.

3)Make sure that the leads are cut. If the leads are touching eachother ( + touching -), then the leads won't light up.

4)Double check to make sure your circuit looks exactly like the picture in step 2.

5)Make sure that the battery clip is soldered BEFORE all of the LED leads. If it is in front of some, the LEDs behind it, will not work.

Comments

[Thegame995]

Please upload the video again, Youtube says you have removed it.

[T3h_Muffinator]

I don't understand what constitutes a negative rating on this... could someone explain why they gave it a negative rating?

[killrsheep]

I wouldnt go as far as negative rating this but i for one cant help but to be annoyed about 80% of the times i see a LED project on instructables... for some reason people dont care about how and why the project works as long as the LED lights up... only the ones who really know about electronics use Resistors with leds, and understand why it is necessary, and that Leds are our friends and not our Slaves (not to say B**ches cuz thats how everyone treats em) Anyway, thats not meant to bash the project, it looks cool, and those LEDS are most likely to survive bcuz the extra voltage they are getting isnt much, and the inner resistance of the batteries is also protecting them, (horray! for perfect ideal batteries dont exist)

[codongolev]

I just care if the led lights up.... but then again, I bother to do the math to figure out if it'll light up a few months/years from now, too.

and I prefer to not use a resistor, if need be. I mean, if you've got a 9 volt battery, why use an led and resistor if you can have three times the light without having to scrounge up the right resistor?

[Zyzzyan]

There is not such things as LED rights. P(eople) for the E(thical) T(reatment) of LEDs?

[T3h_Muffinator]

LEDs are your friends, but I don't get in trouble when I chew on them!

[Brennn10]

Muff, you chew on LEDs? That is dedication!

[T3h_Muffinator]

They're sooo tasty! Probably not too good for you, though ;) p.s. Check out the forums, my newest topic ;)

[killrsheep]

Lol , its been a while..., sorry about the rant, i c that you guys actually thought this through. I checked your POV topic, it looks really cool!, too bad they don't teach me much about electronics at school... only electric stuff, (110VAC and beyond), id like to do some projects that involve programming :)

[T3h_Muffinator]

mm!!

[Brennn10]

I love that idea! Hit me up with a PM, with parent permission I might be able to sent out some spare parts that I have not the clue to do with.

[Brennn10]

Well since it is only using 3Volts, the LEDs are getting minimal harm. If I was using 9V, then yes resistors would be highly reommended. Then again, I am not using my LEDs as my biatch.

[technopenguin]

What I say is that this project is great for introducing beginners to electronics, although you need to know how to solder.

[zachninme]

Well, this is a great project to learn.

[T3h_Muffinator]

By the way, the LEDs don't really need a resistor because they kind of are resistors by themselves , especially when you're running 9 of them off of 2 AA's If Nick was running them off of anything larger than 3V, I would have suggested to use a resistor, but in this case it doesn't really matter.

[Brennn10]

I see what you are saying. I didn't use a resistor because I didn't think that it was actually needed. I would DEFINITELY use a resistor if I knew my LEDs were going to waste. I agree that some people just want the lights to light up, but I like my LEDs to light up, but also have quality. -Brennn10

[killrsheep]

and im actually rating a plus on this cuz i want to see more LED projects here...

[heavy.metal.nguyen]

He should have made it a parallel circuit not a series circuit?

[Brennn10]

Thats exactly what I was wondering. It is 0 now, but a few days ago it was -1.

[James (pseudo-geek)]

probably haters (aka trolls)