[edwood saucer]

Well, I got the LED's today - from Hong Kong vis ebay... and before I go to the next step of creating tiny little LED clusters - I really need basic advice.

What do I need in relation to a soldering iron? I need that and flux and soldering wire - anything else?

And more importantly - what advice does anyone have when doing this? As you can tell I haven't done anything like it.

On my light's & resistors it says "Observe Precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices."

Unlike a computer where I touch the chasis - these are small little things - what precautions should I take?

Thanks'!

 

[Otaku]

Don't worry about handling the resistors or LEDs, you can't really harm them. The precaution is probably on all their packaging. What is a "tiny little LED cluster"? Is this like a SpookyFire blob with flashing LEDs, or are you making LED spotlights? Also, what voltage will your battery or power supply be for the LEDs?

 

[edwood saucer]

LED Spotlights is what I mean...

 

[edwood saucer]

Haven't determined the voltage - figured I could find that out before I start building... I really want them to be battery powered as I don't want to mess with electricity.

 

[Zombie-F]

Well, in order to determine what size resistor you need to use, you need to know what voltage you'll be using. For the sake of convenience, I find 9V batteries to be an excellent choice. They take up little space and one battery can drive an LED spotlight for literally days.

 

[edwood saucer]

Oh - I figured that the resistors they sent with them would work.

If I attached one resistor per light - then attached them to a 12v - could it trigger the apocalypse?
: ^)

I would like - probably a 10 led bundle.

 

[Brad Green]

You'll probably find this link a big help in designing your LED array. It will give you the resistor size as well as design the layout you need. http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

 

[edwood saucer]

ah yes - I have more questions than answers - but let me soak it in and see if I can't figure some of it out - thanks!

 

[mrklaw]

Oh - I figured that the resistors they sent with them would work.

If I attached one resistor per light - then attached them to a 12v - could it trigger the apocalypse?
: ^)

I would like - probably a 10 led bundle.

All the LEDs that I have bought on eBay included resistors for a 12 volt power supply so no apocalypse should occur. If you are worried though, use the online LED calculators to figure out the resistance for the power supply you want to use.

If you aren't going to use up the LEDs all at once, it might be a good idea to look back at that auction and write down the LED's specs including the forward voltage and forward current.

 

[Zombie-F]

All the LEDs that I have bought on eBay included resistors for a 12 volt power supply so no apocalypse should occur. If you are worried though, use the online LED calculators to figure out the resistance for the power supply you want to use.

If you aren't going to use up the LEDs all at once, it might be a good idea to look back at that auction and write down the LED's specs including the forward voltage and forward current.

For almost every LED listed on those ebay auctions, the forward voltage is usually 3.4 VDC and the forward current is 20 ma. If you can't find the specs on your LEDs, those specs should be ok to use. Build one based on those numbers, and as long as nothing goes "pop" you're a-ok.

 

[edwood saucer]

Gre*pop*at...

I will find those specs - they have ongoing auctions - won't be too hard.

 

[edwood saucer]

All sorts of stats

Reverse Voltage: 5.0 V
DC Forward Voltage: Typical: 3.2 V Max: 3.6 V
Wavelength: 390-395nm
DC Forward Current: 20mA
Viewing Angle: 20±5degree
Lead Soldering Temp: 260oC for 5 seconds
Intensely Bright

50 PCS 5mm UV LED LAMP <395nm

WINNING BIDDER WILL RECEIVE THE

SAME QUANTITY OF

RESISTORS IN 510ohm FOR 12V DC!

 

[Daughter of Darkness]

Does anyone know how to make the LED's blink? Not the standard constant blink but in a pattern like blinking eyes? I see some on ebay but they are a little pricey especially if you need alot of them. I need LED's for dummies book. I've read a few different tutorials but none of them I read gave inrstructins on how to do this specifically.

Any ideas or steer in the right direction would be most appreciated!

 

[mrklaw]

heresjohnny has a great webpage about that
http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=1858&highlight=LED+flicker

The spookyblue method (spookyfire) is probably the easiest for a beginner.

 

[heresjohnny]

Darkness you would probably need a timer circuit so the leds would be on several seconds, then shut off .5 seconds or so, then back on. I have several flicker circuits that make an led look like a flickering candle. A quick google on 'blinking eyes circuit' gives several hits, this tend to be based on a 555 chip and require soldering. You can buy blinking eyes http://www.cowlacious.com/CaveEyes.htm for xample, and you can also build mechanical blinkers like http://www.frightfx.com/projects/rats_eyes/index.htm. Hope this helps.

 

[Otaku]

Terror By Design also has a Blinking Eye circuit, the EyeFX 13.

http://www.terrorbydesign.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?category=Lighting_Effects

 

[DeathTouch]

Does anyone know how to make the LED's blink? Not the standard constant blink but in a pattern like blinking eyes? I see some on ebay but they are a little pricey especially if you need alot of them. I need LED's for dummies book. I've read a few different tutorials but none of them I read gave inrstructins on how to do this specifically.

Any ideas or steer in the right direction would be most appreciated!

if i remember right, you can buy them that way. I see them all the time like that. But I don't remember for the life of me where. But I know they sell them like that.

 

[Daughter of Darkness]

Thanks

Thanks for the links you guys. I think, I may just go ahead and buy a couple of these as they are cheap enough for what I need them for. I will try and build one of the flicker circuits though. Looks like I could handle the beginner version.:devil:

 

[edwood saucer]

Help!

Okay - I soldered my resistors to my LED's - then soldered six together - hooked to a 12 volt battery and...nothing...

Here is my home made diagram to describe what I did. I gleened the knowledge from various sites and threads - however - I guess I missed something.

If someone would take a look and let me know - I'd be very appreciative.

The resistors are in blue...

 

[Zombie-F]

Help!

Okay - I soldered my resistors to my LED's - then soldered six together - hooked to a 12 volt battery and...nothing...

Here is my home made diagram to describe what I did. I gleened the knowledge from various sites and threads - however - I guess I missed something.

If someone would take a look and let me know - I'd be very appreciative.

The resistors are in blue...

For starters, what value is the resistor you're using? To me, it looks as though you're using too many resistors for the circuit you're using. You REALLY should use the Parallel/Series LED Wizard to show you how to wire everything and to know what value resistor you need for your circuit.