# very, very, very, inexpensive (not cheap) led lights



## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

So i hood out of a black entertainment center that my parents where getting rid of. I made the hood 4.5 inches tall and have the top cover on a hinge so the whole thing can lift up and mounted a double socket to house my 2 6700k cfl bulbs. The bulbs are nice and white but i wanted something for the night time that wasnt to bright but gave off a nice look. Well im heavy in to cars and have an electronics background so i decided to see if i could make an led strip.What i wanted to do is make the led strip and then get at a craft store plastic, acrylic or whatever colored sheets so i could change the color of the tank depending what i was in the mood for (this im still lookin into)
Ok so to what i did and how easy it was.
Things you need
-solder iron
-solder
-wire cutters
-razor blade
-wire strippes
-resistors (more on this in a bit)
-leds 
-perfoboard
-18-22 gg wire
-an old cell phone charger not being used any more

I dont have pics as i thought of the write up this morning and di the work last night but i get finished pics up later tonight

SO what you want to do first is see if you have and old cell phone charger. I had and old LG that coverted to 5.1 DC volts and .7 A's. You are gonna want to do the leds in parrallel as most chargers dont give off enogh power to wire in series. Next you want to go on ebay and look at the leds they sell. NOw i had some left over from a car project that are white, 3.2v, 24ma volts, and have a flat head. They came in a pack of 100. Also while on ebay you are gonna wann pic up some perfboard and resistors. All this can be had for well under $20. 
Ok so now on to what numbers for all these resistors and leds you'll need.
Ill use mine as an example
Source voltage- lg charger-5.1V
LEDS i had - 3.2 forward voltage
Diode (LED) foward current(Ma)- my leds are rated at 24MA 

Take these numbers you know your gonna use and plug them in to this site.
LED series parallel array wizard

So from the numbers i had, and i am using 10 leds (we'll see if its bright enough tonight) the calc stated i would need to use 120 ohm resistors, at a 1/4 watt. Now i have had experience with resistors blowing out from to much power being applied so used some caution and used some 220 ohm resistors i had. 

Ok so now you have ordered your leds and resitors and aquired all the tools needed. First thing you wanna do is take the cord of the cell charger and cut the end that goes to the phone. Strip about 1.5 inches of the thick black covering. You will see the wire wrapped in ths tin foil type protector, take the tinfoil covering and take it off. Now you will see the 4 wire- white, green, red and black. Cut the green and white down so they are out of your way as you will only use red and black. 
Now take your perfoard, leds and resitors and lets get then in. Leds only work one way, wire the + to the - and no lights. On and led there is a flat spot on one side, this is the - side. It doesnt matter what side you put the resistor but it does for power. 
Now go and put you leds in ot the perfboard how you like and insert a resistor for each led besides that resistors. What you want it to look like is the (example) + wire lead laying down with one end of the resistor laying besides the - lead. So power will come in on the +, go thru the led, exit the - lead and the thru the resistor. Now wire up as many of these as you want (i did 10)
Schematic wise it would look like this http://letsmakerobots.com/files/userpics/u1533/parallel_leds2.jpg
A pic of my actual perfboard solder is in my pic gallery.

Once you wire the leds and resistors you will want to take the wire (i used red adn black for - and +). Take the wire and strip it at each end. Then you will take your razor blade and make 4 voids for each of the positive and neg leads (refer to pic in my gallery). Solder these as well to the eands of the - and + leads. So now the board should be all wired and soldered. It will t ake some time, just to solder 5 of mine it took about 1/2 hour wit hcutting soldering and stripping. Now take the charger wire and solder the red + wire to the + wire of the perfboard and the - wire to the - wire of the perfboard. 
Depending on how many you do you can add more down the lin if the brightness is not what you are looking for. Pics up tonight. 
First thing you do is take


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## joeyhatch11 (Jul 27, 2011)

Pics?


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

You might want to put this in the DIY section, seems like it would fit better there.


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## tobyyc (Nov 27, 2010)

purchase the RGB LED Strip and controller. Then choose the color by your mood. Simple


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## jeff5347 (Aug 15, 2011)

ok so i tried last night to take pics of it with my drid but the qality stinks. My real camera has no batts so i gotta get some today and ill take some pics. I did ad 10 more and it looks pretty nice. Ill get them up tonight


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