12v Nightlight

[Nosha]

Buy a two part 12v plug, normally in beige & clear plastic and a bright white LED & 12v resistor (Maplins, or much cheaper are Ultraleds on ebay who sell them in bags of 10 with free resistors).

For an up-lighter, fit a bright white LED with resistor to the pos leg inside the clear body- gives a nice pool of white light on he ceiling.

For a down lighter fit the LED just outside the body of the plug and hold in place via the wire clamp (if you think the bare legs of the LED and/or the resistor may short out, strip a length of mains 3 core, the blue, brown or earth insulation is just right to slide over the legs before fitting).

The down lighter is ideal for seeing dogs, shoes and everything else you seem to trip over getting up for a quiet wee in the night without blinding everyone with a 10w halogen spot light!

 

[ducatobuild]

Better still go to your local poundland store and buy a parasol light £1 it has 20x bright, bright leds working off 4x aa bateries and floodlights the surrounding areas.
I have about 6 now and find them very usefull as emergency lighting screwwed to the inner roof and side panels as required
slanj
Dougie


www.poundland.co.uk


RIP Colin MaCrae a fellow scotsman you will be missed

 

[Nosha]

I have one of those as well, for a top locker with no power, but hardly a nitelight!! Mine is 'blinding', run on rechargables, which can then be re-charged via a Maplin 1hr fast charger run via the cigar lighter - so still no need for 240v!

 

[mildred]

Poundland LED lighting

Poundland are selling camping lights that consist of 24 white LEDs arranged in a circle mounted in a plastic housing that is designed to be fitted with four AA batteries. The price is ... just one pound.

If you open one of these up and follow through the simple circuitry you'll see that there are 4 PCB boards, each with 6 LEDs wired in parallel. In turn, each of these are wired in parallel across the output of the batteries which are connected in series - so each LED has 6 volts (4x1.5) across it - which is a bit cruel (no resistor fitted) - but accounts for the bright light. I suppose that the batteries will soon drop to a kinder voltage with use.

I rewired the boards so that they are in series with each other and tested with a (fused) 12V leisure battery - no drama and a nice white light. Total current draw was 70mA, and with the battery I was using there was not more than 3.2 V across any one LED - a much more sustainable value which will prolong their life. With current draws reduced to this level for lighting, extended wild camping becomes possible without recourse to EHU or generator use for recharging the leisure batteries.

I've made one up as a portable lamp using a redundant 12V phone charger plug and coiled lead which plugs into various outlets around the van - and have bought more to use as a basis to replace the filament and flourescent strip lights I have, though will probably retain the one over the hob/sink where a harsh bright light is quite useful.

I've noticed that the quality of the camping lights is quite variable - it's worth just touching all solder joints with a hot iron to ged rid of dry joints. I wouldn't try to use the fitted swith and battery holders at all... Also there seem to be two sorts of PCBs used - one type has the cathodes of the LEDS to the outside, the other has the anodes - so don't mix and match without paying attention!

If you like experimenting with LED lighting these lights are an excellent source of cheap components - I'd be interested to hear of any other lighting projects using them.

MAT

 

[twosugars]

Buy a two part 12v plug, normally in beige & clear plastic and a bright white LED & 12v resistor (Maplins, or much cheaper are Ultraleds on ebay who sell them in bags of 10 with free resistors).

For an up-lighter, fit a bright white LED with resistor to the pos leg inside the clear body- gives a nice pool of white light on he ceiling.

For a down lighter fit the LED just outside the body of the plug and hold in place via the wire clamp (if you think the bare legs of the LED and/or the resistor may short out, strip a length of mains 3 core, the blue, brown or earth insulation is just right to slide over the legs before fitting).

The down lighter is ideal for seeing dogs, shoes and everything else you seem to trip over getting up for a quiet wee in the night without blinding everyone with a 10w halogen spot light!

these plugs are made by Clipsall - who have just re-designed them so they are now all biege. - no clear section

so suppliers may not have the old ones for long...

 

[derekfaeberwick]

Anybody else tried the LED lights sold at ASDA? Brilliant bits of kit that look good if you have a white ceiling. Went up to £3.50 recently but still great value.