Light of My Life 2

This one is called a Can of Light

It is a simple lamp to add mood lighting to a room or focused light on a table

The idea is to have a fixed source of light, with a reflector to direct the light on a table or a wall or let it hit the roof. this is in principle opposite to most lamps which throw the light down by default

the lamp is made from simple parts a few 10mm bright LED's, a Pringles can and a CD

Step 1: Bits and Pieces

the parts required to build the can of light are:

8-10 high bright 10mm LED's

general purpose PCB, berg strip connectors and some connecting wires

a 7805 voltage regulator and 220ohm trim-potentiometer

a pringles can or a similar cylindrical shape

a clead CD/DVD

a bicycle spoke

a small piece of pvc pipe

Some usefull tools:

soldering iron, solder wire, flux

cutter, scissors

pens, markers and scale

cable ties

adhesive tape

a dremel

Step 2: The Heart of the Light

Soldering the PCB with LED's and the Driver

Step1:

solder the LED's on the PCB in an approximately circular fashion

LED's can be connected in parallel or any combination depending to the power source available

i connected them in parallel because i intend to drive them with a constant current source

Step2:

solder the constant current source made as per the circuit diagram shown in the link below

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/19612/your-thoughts-on-connecting-multiple-leds-in-parallel-and-series

Step 3: The Soul of the Light

making the housing of the lamp

cut a 50 mm long piece from the base of the Pringles can

cut another 50 mm long piece; and then cut this piece legthwise

compress the small piece, insert it in the rest of the can and tape it in shape.

fix the PCB with the LED's sandwiched between the base of the can and the other cut piece with two or three cable ties

fix the LED driver on the bottom can or another suitable place

make the electrical connections and test the LED's once

Step 4: Means of Spreading the Light

adding the reflecting arrangement

fix a spoke on the can with the adhesive tape

make a hole in the PVC pipe, roughly at the centre lengthwise, to fit snugly on the spoke, add some masking tape on the spoke to make it rough

make a slit in the CD on one side and 4 holes for fixing the pipe to the CD

fix the PVC pipe to the CD using cable ties, aligning the hole with the slit

slide the pipe and CD on the spoke

Step 5: Filling the Can With Light

the completed lamp

Step 6: Bringing Light Where There Was None

the effects of the light

the CD reflects the light in different ways and creates multi-coloured effects

a more polished reflector will give cleaner light