led spotlight

[krypt]

i hope im posting in right spot ..........ok here goes is 4 6000mcd leds going to be bright enough in one flood......any pictures of what kind of light a 6000mcd leds put off.

thanks in advance

[Vlad]

What color?

[Coonce-Ewing]

Hello again. This last year I used 3 outdoor spotlights for lighting of our graveyard, and while the lighting was good (visible from down the street) it was also quite bright and could blind you as walked from the door back to the street.

I'm interesting in some more focuse "task" lighting and I'd like to learn more about smaller spotlights.

I saw a reference to LED spots but have been unable to find a how-to or such.

I know I'm behind most of you in getting started on this year, and a lot of our older props did not fair well last year so it looks like lots of rebuilding.

Thanks,
Chris

[Otaku]

Hi Chris,
I used LED spots in my display last year. The LEDs were typically 5000 mcd or greater with 20 degree angles (clear, not diffused cases). I buy LEDs from Digi-Key rather than R/S due to the better quality and way lower prices. All Electronics is also a good source. I posted some pics of the spotlight assembly here:
http://www.halloweengallery.com/thumbnails.php?album=277
The resistors I used were 150 ohm for 3 LEDs and 220 ohm for two LEDs. The spots worked really well for local lighting of corpses and grave markers. Let me know if you need any details on the assembly.

[Coonce-Ewing]

From your pictures I'm seeing two or three LED's wired to resistors and then put into a tube or some form, using a 9volt battery as the power source?

That looks fairly inexpensive and not to difficult to put together.

[Coonce-Ewing]

I'm looking at the LED's at All Electronics. Would a UV LED produced a "black light" effect?

They do have some good prices. It looks like I could buy enough material to make a 4 or 5 spotlights for less then $30 (possibly even cheaper).

How do I calculate what I need for resistors?

I had an electronics class back in 9th grade, but that was more than 20 years ago.:zombie:

[Zombie-F]

Yes, the UV LEDs will produce a black light effect.

As for designing the actual circuit and figuring out what size resistor you need, check out this awesome LED array designer:

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

For my LEDs, I get them directly from China on eBay from Best Hong Kong. Typically (and depending on color) you can get 50 LEDs for a little more than $10... .20 each!!!

http://stores.ebay.com/BestHongKong

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Coonce-Ewing,
Depend's on how you want your grave yard to look, I prefer as close to real.
In the past, I've used 100 watt blue lights put into black 5 gal. buckets straped 20 foot up into the trees. This cast a nice moon light effect and many shadows.
This also keep all of the extension cords off of the ground. They went from tree to tree.
Just a thought.

Jeff

[Otaku]

Jeff, I agree on the realistic lighting. Although I used the blue and amber LED spots for local prop lighting, I still used 50 watt blue floods for the wash lights. I tried to emulate the Skull and Bone lighting method, keeping the floods close to the ground. This year I'm going to try using a lantern or two for local lighting effects as well.

[heresjohnny]

http://www.allelectronics.com/is having a special:confused: on ultrabright LEDs, is this a good deal, and usable for LED spots?

Ultra bright white 5mm diameter LED. Brighter than most small incandescent lamps, more efficient, and now less expensive, it's time to start using white LEDs for all of the lighting projects that used to be the exclusive domain of incandescent lamps. We've got a great deal on these water-clear LEDs. Slightly less bright than our standard ultra-bright white led (CAT# LED-75), but still quite bright. They operate on 3.0-3.5Vdc, 20mA. 15-25 degree viewing angle.

[Otaku]

Yes, I'd say those will work for spots. Two bucks each is not bad for white LEDs, although you could probably find a lower price on Ebay. The best price I could find at Digi-Key was $2.49, and you have to buy 100 to get that price. Part number is CMD333UWC-ND. I used these for white spots (2 per) and at 2300 mcd brightness, they worked very well.

[krypt]

just a suggestion but if your looking for red .........partsexpress has them for .75 cents 6000mcd.........i used them i was happy with them

[Coonce-Ewing]

The issue I have with using trees is that the one tree I have to use is at the back of the graveyard so any lights in it would be shining into the faces of the ToTers.

I put two green spots on the ground facing into the graveyard last year and a red spot on the corner of the roof. They were effective in lighting the graveyard, but the red spot was in your face if you looked at the house and one of the green spots got you as you walked from the door back down the walk to the driveway.

That's why I'm interested in the LED spots, thinking that I could do better "task" lighting that wouldn't fry people's eyes.

[Otaku]

That's a problem with floods, they are difficult to position without catching someone in the face. I'm not sure that LED spots will replace floods for wash lighting, they're just not that bright or far-reaching. Here's some examples of LED spots (1 amber, 1 blue) used for individual corpses. The shot with the Bucky also shows urns with Spookyfire LED circuits in them. A static shot doesn't do them justice, the effect is more like a smoldering flame.
http://halloweengallery.com/displayimage.php?pos=-3240

[BobC]

I believe I have seen someone on this Forum post information in the past on LED SPOT LIGHTS I need a GREEN one can anyone tell me where I can buy them at a decent price? Thanks all :jol:

[Vlad]

Hi Bob. Look up the seller "Best Hong Kong" on ebay. That's where we get ours from.They come with free 12 volt resistors, or you can order the size resistor you need while you're ordering.

[Hellrazor]

I was just at the "source" , the old Radio Shacks, I dont know if you have them there, but I think you do. Anyway, They have green, blue, red, and other colours too. I saw about 5 different ones, just the bulbs that you can put in anything, They were definatly LED, cuz I kept calling them LEDS to my hubby and he kept saying L.E.D, but i knew that, was just bugging him...

[Otaku]

Hellrazor, I don't recommend R/S LEDs for a couple of reasons: they're very dim and they're way overpriced. To make a good spotlight, you need a high MCD rating (>1500) and a focused beam LED. A good source (besides eBay) is Digi-Key. Good prices, high output. I have some pics of how I assemble an LED spotlight, it's easy and cheap, about $3 each including a battery. Let me know if you're interested.

[BobC]

I am very interested can you please post the How-to or send it to my email? Vlad I was unable to find any lights under that company name you provided. I would like to accent all my characters as well as my grave yard with LED spots this year I would like to run them off a power supply so I dont have to worry about batterys. Thanks for the help I appreciate it. Later all. :jol:

bobcmagik@yahoo.com

[Vlad]

Whoa, I don't see them anymore either, it figures they're not in business anymore, great quantities dirt cheap. But here are some others..........

http://cgi.ebay.com/100x-Red-5mm-LED-5000mcd-Bulb-Lamp-Light-Free-Resistors_W0QQitemZ290003095931QQihZ019QQcategoryZ 26207QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/50-PCS-Mega-Bright-Amber-LED-10mm-50-000-mcd-F-R_W0QQitemZ7631824443QQihZ017QQcategoryZ66950QQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm glad I bought a ton before they went out of business. I'll do more research into another source.

[randyaz]

Ive bought from these guys...

http://www.modsthatglow.com/

[Coonce-Ewing]

I'm looking at some LED's in bulk, 60,000mcd (green), 40,000 mcd (blue) and 14,000 mcd (red). I assume I'd need to use more red to get the same light output as I would from fewer green or blue.

[Otaku]

Coonce-Ewing,
Just curious - are you sure about those mcd values? I've never heard of that kind of efficiency in an LED. Even those rated at 3K are difficult to look at directly. Seems to me that a 60K LED would blister one's retinas.

[Coonce-Ewing]

http://stores.ebay.com/BestHongKong_Loose-Super-Bright-LED_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ2QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Is the link for these on Ebay. Some of them are quite bright apparently.

[Zombie-F]

Ok, I see. Those are 10mm LEDs, which while brighter, also have a case size that's 2x as large as a "normal" 5mm LED. This makes these ones a little harder to work with if you're trying to mount them into a smallish sized case.

[Otaku]

Wow, you're right! That's a pretty good price, if I'm reading it right. Is the buy-it-now price $4.95 for 100 blue LEDs? I'm not too savvy about how eBay works.

[Coonce-Ewing]

That is the price, with an extra charge for shipping (some are $4.95, some are 9.95 depends on the item). Still, to pay $10ish for 100 leds is a pretty sweet deal.

Zombie-F - for spotlights wouldn't using 2 10mm be easier than using say 3 5mm? Or should I just go with 100 5mm in a group and call it a day?

[Zombie-F]

Well Coonce, it all depends on how small you want your housing to be. I like to use 1/2" PVC for mine, so to fit 10mm LEDs in that may make it difficult to work with.

At $4.95, it's sure worth a try. Even if you don't like how they turn out, you're still only down by $5.

[Coonce-Ewing]

For your spotlights (I don't believe I've seen pictures of them) do you put any sort of "cover" over the light end? (clear plastic or such)

Also do you just wedge the other end of the pvc into the ground or do you have some kind of mounting setup?

I was thinking of using a length of pvc that would hold my LEDs and batteries and then using a 45degree collar to another piece of pvc which I would stick in the ground, then again maybe I've over engineering this. I've also been saving clear plastic from packages (you know that fairly rigid plastic that covers pretty much everything these days) and I'm thinking of cutting circles out of that to glue to the end of the spotlight to keep water out of it.

How do you attach the LEDs inside the tube?

[Otaku]

Here are some pix of the spotlights I made last year. They're easy to make and positioning is done by bending the wire stand.
http://halloweengallery.com/displayimage.php?pos=-3392

[Sickie Ickie]

Can anyone post a How-to link for battery powered led spots?

Or if you did already, could you please repost it? Thanks!

[krypt]

i have a how to site but i have not got the wiring and leds pics yet just for spotlight case if ya still wanna see?

[Sickie Ickie]

Sounds good. Post it?

[krypt]

ok ignore the typos http://home.earthlink.net/~kryptonoff/LEDS.htm

[Sickie Ickie]

Thanks. What kind of resister is needed? I'll be glad when you have the rest of the pics up. :-)

[heresjohnny]

Otaku, I like that idea of using wire to hold the spots, I'm gonna finish my LED spots like that. Sickie Ickie, here is a more involved link on LED spots http://www.cindybob.com/halloween/ledlighting/ledspotlights/ There is also a calculator for resistor values I have the link on my computer at home, if no one else has posted it by tonight I will.

[krypt]

i know ill get rest of pics....hang in there....... and resistor depends on number of resistors and voltage heres link for what resistor http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

[heresjohnny]

Yep, thats the calculator I was thinking of, thanks krypt!

i know ill get rest of pics....hang in there....... and resistor depends on number of resistors and voltage heres link for what resistor http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

[Otaku]

HJ,
The wire I use is 10 ga. solid copper, insulated. Here's what it looks like w/o the spotlight in it.
http://halloweengallery.com/displayimage.php?pos=-3393

[Sickie Ickie]

HJ- Great how-to on that site. :-)

I understand now, and will prob build several for this year's haunt.

Thanks!

[heresjohnny]

http://stores.ebay.com/BestHongKong_Loose-Super-Bright-LED_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ2QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Is the link for these on Ebay. Some of them are quite bright apparently.

I just bought 150 from them, including 50 of the 10mm red ones. I want to try them in a flicker circuit and a spot light.

[Bone Dancer]

just a side thought. First off the cindybod.com link is a good how to with pictures and all and the build price of about $2 each plus power supply is very do-able. But if you need to use batteries for power and only need three or four lights you may want to think about useing surplus led flashlights for a few dollars more. And any colored cello material could be used as a filter. It may be a few more dollars but the job is done and ready to go. For what it may be worth before you go out and buy those leds.

[Bone Dancer]

http://www.sciplus.com/printedcatalog.cfm

forgot this link for the flashlights, prices range from $2 to $8

[Sickie Ickie]

But then ya don't get to do the projects. :-)

[DeathTouch]

ok ignore the typos http://home.earthlink.net/~kryptonoff/LEDS.htm

Hey I have a few questions. Krypt, on your how-to how is the middle piece made. It looks like foam in the middle. And what size LEDs did you get and where did you get them?

Wait, the middle piece is the coupler, isn't it?

[krypt]

the middle piece is just a short piece of pvc ...so can attach coupler and endcap.....cut at correct lengh so end cap and coupler meet together looks smoother that way ...and for the leds i used 4 6000mcd leds last time but i want brighter so im gonna try 20,000 mcd leds this time should be better