Home made DIY LED baby light

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zoomforce
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Re: Home made DIY LED baby light

Come on Walter dont be so quick to point fingers. We all have seen your garage. ;-) Besides having bought built and constantly used this exact light I can sit here and throw the specs out the window and tell you this. In the real world use of this light I've been able to see two story buildings from 100ft away and conducted properly exposed interviews from more than 20 ft. The real world spread of the light beam is just a hair less wide than the DVX at its widest lens setting. and its doesnt have a hot spot in the middle. The light fall off at the very edges it quick but not too fast that it feels like a spot light.

Generally speaking I agree with you about the "hammer and carpenter". I'd say my tinkering is both my greatest weakness/waste of time and yet at the same time my greatest strength and joy. Theres a fine line between the two and each person draws it in a different place. Besides the difference between a fool and a genius is often success.

I still like you Walter even though my toys are better than your toys ;-)

-Brett Erskine
 
Maybe a thin sheet of mylar on the circuit board to act as a reflector and somehow recess the board a bit so the LED's a flush with the housing to block the sidelight and you've got a winner!
 
Where the hell do I sign up to get one of these puppies? I looked as LED light systems at the WEVA Expo last year and was super impressed. But alas, they cost an arm and a leg... or two...
 
Any new updates on this project, from anyone?

Would love to see more DIY's and see success people are having with this?

Also, the detailed plans are VERY useful...kepp 'em coming!
 
Zoomforce,
I'm really interested in the furry windscreen you have on the DVX's onboard mic, as shown in your pictures. Where can I get one?
Thanks!
 
hopefully i aint repeating - but i didnt look thorugh 90% of the thread... and while i know there are bits and pieces scattered here and there - did anyone to a instructional? i dont want anything fancy just something like what i saw on the first page - mind u i am in Australia so hopefully i can get the parts here,...
 
where is a good place to buy LED's in bulk? Radio Shack sells them for 2 bucks for two of them!! Maybe I'll ask my old electronics teacher where he gets his supplies
 
Zoomforce said:
yeah I guess I shoulda took some picks when I made it lol.... but there is no schematics, no resistors or diods, You just need to wire a group of leds together, with 2 LED's in each chain ( normal LED voltage is 3.6volts, wiring 2 together makes a 7.2v LED).. you can put as many of these dual LED's in parallel together, and just hook it right up to the battery. I used a cheap charger I got from my battery source that cost $7... cut the back off of it and used it as the battery holder.

Used a project box and PC board from good old radioshack to hold the LED's and glue gunned it to the battery holder, on the bottom I drilled a hole and threaded in a 1/4" binding post --> hotshoe adapter that I had kicking around.
no resistors... my g-d man you are violating the rules of electrical engineering...
I think you should add a resitor to limit limit the current flow which would increase your overall battery life... anyway just a suggestion... all you need is one resitor in series with the battery before it goes to the parallel network of leds...
 
In order to control the characteristics of an LED, a constant current source is really the best approach. This has the advantage of keeping the illumination characteristics very similar over a large range of supply voltages and will also less the chance of damaging an LED due to excessive forward current. A constant current source can be as simple as a single bi-polar (either NPN or PNP) transistor, 2 diodes and 2 resistors.
 
bokser said:
no resistors... my g-d man you are violating the rules of electrical engineering...
I think you should add a resitor to limit limit the current flow which would increase your overall battery life... anyway just a suggestion... all you need is one resitor in series with the battery before it goes to the parallel network of leds...


nerd
 
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