LED lighting

[Spankbucket]

Hi again

I just found these on Ebay......could be useful.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flexible-stick-on-LED-strip-50cm-x-8mm-30-LEDs-12V-RED-/110711059673?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19c6e4b4d9

Strips of stick-on LED lights that can be cut into seperate lengths....I might give these a try.

Cheers

[mjt60a]

during the course of the working day (taking garbage and old toys and furniture from the streets to be recycled/dumped in a landfill or whatever) I picked up an artificial christmas tree, it was a Tesco pre-wired one with 100 white LED lights - so I kept those for future use 

[dubree]

can I recommend the following supplier for all your LED needs. www.goodwillsales.com. Direct from manufacturer at cheap prices, covering the whole spectrum of LED's with a fast postage service. Have used them for years for all my model railway requirements.
Dubree

[Spankbucket]

Here's another EBay seller doing low voltage/battery LED lights.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BATTERY-OPERATED-X10-WHITE-LED-LIGHT-SET-MODEL-BOATS-/250922039572?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item3a6c1e7914

[mjt60a]

that looks exactly like the sets of xmas lights for £1.99 in a couple of the shops in the high street....

[Spankbucket]

Yes Mick....not surprising.

That seller is a 'model boat specialist' so there's the reason...and...looking at the description they aren't even in pristine condition...might be flood-damaged stock?

[john s]

Buy a set similer to the set shown for a pound from the Pound shop.

[the bombus]

hello paddlers,
i found the idea with the xmas lights very usefull.
so i'm using it on my new project.
but i was thinking about the ugly batterybox, it has the on/off switch on it .
i wanted to keep it on deck for ease of handling and switching batterys.
so i hid it in a toolchest, but then it had to be verry easy to open .
i remembered i kept some springs of a ballpoint somewhere (never know what they aare good for)
the result speaks for itself i think.
i hope this idea is of some use , you can always use it on some kind of hatch that needs easy opening.

PS if your wife is throwing away an old purse check it out , those magnets in the flaps are just amazingfor a zillion  things
any comments always welcome
                               greetings from bombus

[mjt60a]

... I have also connected two in parallel to run on 6 volts without problems...

...just reading through this topic before I post (to see if anyone's already pointed this out) - and noticed a mistake! I meant two in series of course, not parallel or they'd both get 6 volts through them and burn out!

Anyhow, what I'd meant to say... I see this year the sets of christmas lights are available in not only high brightness white (the blueish white) but also 'warm white' which looks much like white grain-of-wheat lamps, bought 3 sets from one of the cheaper places in the high street and I wish I'd had them before, they're ideal for model use 

[DamienG]

I'll add a little electronics theory all LED's have an optimum running current of around 20mA and a forward voltage typically 2v and require a resister  to limit the curren't the formula is r = v/c or the resistor =your battery voltage minus the 2v forward divided by .02A eg:  12v -2v =10v divided by .02 = 500 a 470ohm is the nearest.
The exception is high brightness LED's the have a forward Voltage of 3.7V

The resistor will stop excessive current that will shorten the LED's live drastically.

[Brian Gates]

I have never really got on with electronics and find online calculators like this really handy:

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

This one works for single or multiple LEDs and as well as simple circuits suggests arrays that would be complex to work out from the formula.

Brian

[DamienG]

I've bookmarked it Brian that takes the hard work out of it.   

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Damien
If you are firm in German language, her`s another one. This also brings the wiring diagram, for mor than one coluor of LEDs on one accu.
  http://www.spaceflakes.de/led-rechner/
Regards
Gerhard

[DamienG]

Not a word i'm afraid and Google translator only does the first page.

[Gerhardvienna]

Sorry for that, maybe it helps someone else??
Gerhard