LED Headlamp Tutorial[]
WORK IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA. SOLDER FUMES ARE POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS
|
Your safety is your responsibility alone, not the authors of these articles! This page includes content that is considered to be instructional, using products, tools, substances and/or methods that may, or may not be harmful if additional safety concerns are not addressed. It is highly recommended that you research and follow the applicable safety methods before following these instructions. This Wikia has a safety page you should become familiar with, but it is in no way considered to be a complete authority on the subject. |
Materials[]
- Solder iron
- Solder
- Flux Paste (if you want it)
- Red and Black stranded wire (Roughly 20 Gauge)
- Resistors 150 ohms (Brown Green Brown Gold)
- 4 5mm White LEDs (Don't buy Radioshack brand, they're low quality.)
- SPST Switch
- 9V Battery
- 9V Battery Connector
- Electrical Tape
Wiring[]
- First you'll need to know that LEDs have a short (-) and a long (+) leg. Inside the LED is also a large prong (-) and a small prong (+).
- Now you'll need to set up the LEDs. Bend a short leg from one LED at a 90 degree angle. Then bend the long leg on a second LED to match.
- Add solder flux to both of the legs.
- Heat the leg with your soldering iron then apply a small bead of solder. Repeat for the other leg.
- Hold the short leg of the first resistor to the long leg of the second resistor and head the solder beads together.
- Solder a resistor to the longer leg of the first resistor, which should be free.
- Solder a piece of red wire to the resistor then to one side of the switch.
- Solder the red wire of the 9v battery connector to the other side of the switch.
- Solder a piece of black wire to the short leg on the second LED and to the black wire from the 9v battery connector.
- Repeat this series of steps for the other two LEDs.
- Cover bare solder connections with electrical tape or heat shrink tubing(better method).
- Add the 9V and thats it.
tutorial originally by link4044
Alternate Wiring Scheme, all component values are shown in the Schematic. Using one 200ohm resistor wired in series with all components.
!!!!! Be warned, using anything less than a 200 ohm resistor is not recommended for this circuit !!!!!
You may cause one LED to become damaged if you do not use the correct voltage/LED/resistor combination, which could cause a cascade reaction, supplying too much power to each of the remaining LEDs, and this could destroy all LEDs in the circuit.
If you use a resistor of value greater than 200 ohms, you will decrease the brightness of the LEDs. For maximum brightness, use the components with the given values as shown in the diagram.