How to make a powerful LED flashlight with your own hands. Homemade cree LED flashlight
A flashlight is a necessary thing when traveling to nature or to the countryside. At night, on a personal plot or near a tent, only it will create a ray of light in the dark kingdom. But even in a city apartment, sometimes you just can’t do without it. As a rule, it is difficult to get something small that has rolled under a bed or sofa without a flashlight. And although nowadays there are devices that are multifunctional and can be a source of light, some of our readers will probably want to know how to make a flashlight with their own hands. How to make a small device from scrap items will be discussed below.
Classic shape
The most convenient design, which in principle has remained unchanged for flashlights for many years, is the design containing:
- cylindrical body with batteries of the same shape;
- reflector with a light bulb at one end of the housing;
- removable cover at the other end of the housing.
And this design can be obtained using unnecessary household items. If you make a lantern with your own hands, you will, of course, not have the beauty of shapes like an industrial design. But it will be functional and you will get a lot of positive emotions from a working homemade product.
So, the main problem, which at first glance is difficult to solve, is the reflector. But it just seems complicated. In fact, we are surrounded by many objects that can become preparations for a whole range of reflectors of different sizes. These are ordinary plastic bottles. Their inner surface near the neck is very close in shape to that of a reflector made at the factory. And the lid seems to be created for mounting an LED in it, which is the best light source today. It is brighter and more economical than a miniature light bulb.
Making a reflector
The fact that you may not be able to find a tube of suitable dimensions for making a body is not a problem. It can be glued together from individual parts. For example, from unnecessary disposable ballpoint pens. To spring the contacts, you can use a spiral, which is used for binding pages, and the contacts can be made from thin sheet metal, the raw material for which will be a tin can. Therefore, we start by choosing a plastic bottle of the desired size and selecting the remaining elements. The smaller the bottle, the stiffer and stronger the reflector will be. The easiest way to fasten parts during assembly is using construction sealant.
So, let's start making a flashlight with our own hands. Using a sharp knife, cut off the neck and parabolic part of the body from the bottle and trim the edges with scissors.
For effective reflection, we use foil in which chocolate bars are wrapped. If its size is not enough, you can cut a larger piece from a roll of foil intended for baking products. To keep the foil on the surface, apply a thin layer of sealant. Then we press and level the foil over it. If she wrinkles, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that there are no swellings and that it follows the shape of the base.
We press the foil with our fingers and, smoothing out the unevenness, form the most even surface possible. Using scissors, trim the edges of the foil flush with the plastic base. Along the contour of the neck we make a cutout with a knife for the LED, which will subsequently be installed in this place on the socket.
We make it from the bottom of a bottle cap, cutting off the threaded edges with a sharp knife and, if necessary, trimming them with scissors. Then, using an awl or the tip of a knife to make two holes in the socket, we thread the legs of the LED through them, pressing its base against it. To correctly install the LED lamp in the center of the cover, you must select the correct distance between the holes according to the location of the legs in the base of the LED.
We bend the LED leads to the sides until they touch the edges of the socket. We attach the conductors to them by twisting. If the twisting turns out to be unreliable due to the properties of the wire cores or for other reasons, soldering is used. After attaching the wires, the leads are folded along the socket. It is recommended to check the performance of the received part using the batteries used in the flashlight.
Then we cut out a contact pad for the battery from a sheet of tin, which rests on the socket with the LED. By twisting or soldering we connect the pad - terminal with a shorter wire. We attach the terminal to a spring, which in turn is attached to the socket. To fasten the elements we use sealant.
Then we glue the socket with the LED into the reflector.
Bottom and case with batteries
The part of the flashlight body opposite the reflector is also made from a part of a bottle with a neck. But only from the very neck with the lid. A terminal made of a sheet of tin is glued to its inner wall. A wire is also attached to it. This wire and the second wire from the LED will be used to control the flashlight. The terminal is in contact with the battery, being pressed by a cap that is screwed onto the neck.
Two main parts are ready. Now we need to make a case for the batteries. To do this, we use dry and therefore no longer needed felt-tip pens. We leave only the body, which we shorten in length and cut along the axis at the ends, making two protrusions for gluing. Before cutting, make marks with a marker, applying the body of the felt-tip pen to the parts to be glued.
Apply glue to the protrusions and glue them to the reflector and the back, respectively.
Then we cut out the switch parts from the tin sheet. We mount the wires to them and glue the parts to the body.
We insert batteries into the flashlight and use it. This, of course, is not a factory-made flashlight with a high-quality reflector and high beam. But it is made with your own hands, it is your own product, which gives good low-level lighting and gives great pleasure, and money cannot buy it. Now you have a clear idea of how easy it is to make a lantern yourself.
Ready flashlight and light from it
LEDs today are built into everything - into toys, lighters, household appliances and even office supplies. But the most useful invention with them is, of course, a flashlight. Most of them are autonomous and produce a powerful glow from small batteries. You won’t get lost in the dark with it, and when working in a dimly lit room, this tool is simply irreplaceable.
Small copies of a wide variety of LED flashlights can be bought in almost any store. They are inexpensive, but the build quality can sometimes be disappointing. Or maybe it’s homemade devices that can be made using the simplest parts. It is interesting, educational and has a developing effect on those who love to make things.
Today we will look at another homemade product - an LED flashlight, made literally from scrap parts. Their cost is no more than a few dollars, and the efficiency of the device is higher than that of many factory models. Interesting? Then do it with us.
How the device works
This time the LED is connected to the battery only through a 3 ohm resistor. Since it contains a ready source of energy, it does not require a storage thyristor and transistor to distribute the voltage, as is the case with the Faraday Eternal Flashlight. An electronic charging module is used to charge the battery. A tiny micromodule provides protection against voltage surges and prevents the battery from overcharging. The device is charged from a USB connector, and on the module itself there is a micro USB connector.Required Parts
- Plastic syringe 20 ml;
- Lenses for LED flashlight with housing;
- Micro button switch;
- 3 Ohm/0.25 W resistor;
- A piece of aluminum plate for the radiator;
- Several copper wires;
- Superglue, epoxy resin or liquid nails.
Assembling a powerful LED flashlight
Preparing an LED with lenses
We take a plastic cap with lenses and mark the circumference of the radiator. It is needed to cool the LED. We mark the mounting grooves and holes on the aluminum plate and cut out the radiator according to the markings. This can be done, for example, using a drill.
We take out the magnifying lenses for a while, they won’t be needed now. Glue the radiator plate onto the back of the cap with superglue. The holes and grooves in the cap and radiator must match.
We tin the LED contacts and solder them with copper wiring. We protect the contacts with heat-shrinkable casings and warm them up with a lighter. We insert an LED with wiring from the front side of the cap.
Processing the flashlight body from a syringe
We unlock the piston with the handle of the syringe; we will no longer need them. We cut the needle cone with a painting knife.We completely clean the end of the syringe, making holes in it for the LED contacts of the flashlight.
We attach the lantern cap to the end surface of the syringe using any suitable glue, for example, epoxy resin or liquid nails. Don’t forget to place the LED contacts inside the syringe.
Connecting the charging micromodule and battery
We attach terminals with contacts to the lithium battery and insert it into the syringe body. We tighten the copper contacts to clamp them with the battery body.
The syringe has only a few centimeters of free space, which is not enough for the charging module. Therefore, it will have to be divided into two parts.
We run a paint knife in the middle of the module board and break it along the cut line. Using double tape we connect both halves of the board together.
We tin the open contacts of the module and solder them with copper wiring.
Final assembly of the flashlight
We solder a resistor to the module board and connect it to the micro-button, insulating the contacts with heat shrink.
We solder the remaining three contacts to the module according to its connection diagram. We connect the micro button last, checking the operation of the LED.
The issue of saving energy is more relevant today than ever. Incandescent lamps consume a large amount of electricity, but do not always provide adequate lighting. They were replaced by LED street lights, home and car illuminators. Read on to learn how to make your own LED flashlight.
Tools:
Materials:
One of the simplest ways to make an LED lamp is to use a broken old housing and install individual LEDs in it. This allows you to make LED lights with your own hands without additional effort. But when the work is done from scratch, you have to work more carefully and responsibly. We bring to your attention three schemes at once, according to which you can make a powerful and economical diode flashlight. In each of the proposed schemes, we recommend using LEDs with a power of 3 W. You can choose the color of the glow at your discretion (warm or cold). But for the home, a warm color will be more pleasant, giving the room pastel colors. On the street it is better to use a cold one - it will be a little brighter. LED flashlight diagram No. 1
Within the range of 3.7-14 volts, this circuit shows excellent operating stability. Please note that efficiency may decrease as voltage increases. At the output, you can adjust the voltage to 3.7 and maintain it over the entire range. Use resistor R3 to set the output voltage, but do not reduce it too much. It is necessary to calculate the maximum current on LED1, as well as the maximum permissible voltage on LED2. If your flashlight is powered by a Li-ion battery, the efficiency will be 90-95%. 4.2 volts provide efficiency within 90%. 3.8 – 95%. You can calculate it with a simple formula: P = U x I. The selected LED will draw 0.7 A at 3.7 volts. Let's make a calculation: 0.7 x 3.7 = 2.59 W. From the resulting number we subtract the battery voltage and multiply it by the current consumption: (4.2 – 3.7) x 0.7 = 0.35 W. And now you can easily find out the exact efficiency: (100 / (2.59 + 0.37)) x 2.59 = 87.5%. Powerful LEDs must be installed on the radiator. It can be taken from the computer power supply. You can use the following arrangement of parts:
Please note that in this case the transistor does not touch the board. Do the following:
LED flashlight diagram No. 2
The second option is quite economical. You will need KT819, KT315 and KT361. Using them you can make a good stabilizer, although the losses will be slightly greater than in the previous version. The scheme is quite similar to the first one, but everything is done exactly the opposite. The voltage is supplied by capacitor C4. The main difference is that the output transistor is opened by resistor R1 and KT315. In the first scheme, only KT315 is closed and opened. All parts must be located as follows:
An additional LED provides good stabilization. The following information will help when creating other low-voltage stabilizers.
LED flashlight diagram No. 3
The last scheme under consideration allows us to significantly increase efficiency and obtain higher brightness. In this case, you will need four batteries with a total capacity of at least 13 Ah and an additional focal lens for the LEDs. In this case, there is no need for an additional LED. Everything is done in SMD design without transistors, which consume additional energy. Thanks to this, the battery life is significantly increased. The stabilizer can be TL431. Moreover, the efficiency can vary from 90 to 99 percent, which is more than good. It is best to set the output to 3.9 volts. At the same time, the LEDs will not burn out for many months, or even years. Although slight heating of the radiator is quite possible. But that's okay. Make a flashlight from 1.5 VIf you don’t need to understand complex circuits to get a powerful lighting device, we also offer a simple method with which you can make simple (albeit rather weak) LED lights for your home. This flashlight is quite enough for home use. To make things easier, you can take an old incandescent flashlight and work with it. The procedure is as follows:
When the circuit is ready, the diode shines with maximum brightness and everything works, you can move on to the finishing work.
The made flashlight can work fully and for a long time even on a discharged battery. If there is no battery at all, the light will light up even with a non-standard battery. For example, if you insert two wires of different metals into a potato and connect an LED. It’s not a fact that you will need this method, but the cases are different. LED lights have received good reviews from customers due to their low energy consumption, low cost and reliability. Incandescent lamps are far from the best option today. And now you know how to make an LED flashlight yourself using available materials. |
Blocking – generator is a generator of short-term pulses repeated at fairly large intervals.
One of the advantages of blocking generators is their comparative simplicity, the ability to connect a load through a transformer, high efficiency, and connection of a sufficiently powerful load.
Blocking oscillators are very often used in amateur radio circuits. But we will run an LED from this generator.
Very often when hiking, fishing or hunting you need a flashlight. But you don’t always have a battery or 3V batteries at hand. This circuit can run the LED at full power from a nearly dead battery.
A little about the scheme. Details: any transistor (n-p-n or p-n-p) can be used in my KT315G circuit.
The resistor needs to be selected, but more on that later.
The ferrite ring is not very large.
And a high-frequency diode with a low voltage drop.
So, I was cleaning out a drawer in my desk and found an old flashlight with an incandescent bulb, burnt out, of course, and recently I saw a diagram of this generator.
And I decided to solder the circuit and put it in a flashlight.
Well, let's get started:
First, let's assemble according to this scheme.
We take a ferrite ring (I pulled it out from the ballast of a fluorescent lamp) and wind 10 turns of 0.5-0.3 mm wire (it could be thinner, but it won’t be convenient). We wound it, make a loop, or a branch, and wind it another 10 turns.
Now we take the KT315 transistor, an LED and our transformer. We assemble according to the diagram (see above). I also placed a capacitor in parallel with the diode, so it glowed brighter.
So they collected it. If the LED does not light, change the polarity of the battery. Still not lit, check that the LED and transistor are connected correctly. If everything is correct and still does not light up, then the transformer is not wound correctly. To be honest, my circuit didn’t work the first time either.
Now we complement the diagram with the remaining details.
By installing diode VD1 and capacitor C1, the LED will glow brighter.
The last stage is the selection of the resistor. Instead of a constant resistor, we put a 1.5 kOhm variable one. And we start spinning. You need to find the place where the LED shines brighter, and you need to find the place where if you increase the resistance even a little, the LED goes out. In my case it is 471 Ohm.
Okay, now closer to the point))
We disassemble the flashlight
We cut a circle from one-sided thin fiberglass to the size of the flashlight tube.
Now we go and look for parts of the required denominations of several millimeters in size. Transistor KT315
Now we mark the board and cut the foil with a stationery knife.
We tinker the board
We fix bugs, if any.
Now to solder the board we need a special tip, if not, it doesn’t matter. We take wire 1-1.5 mm thick. We clean it thoroughly.
Now we wind it on the existing soldering iron. The end of the wire can be sharpened and tinned.
Well, let's start soldering the parts.
You can use a magnifying glass.
Well, everything seems to be soldered, except for the capacitor, LED and transformer.
Now test run. We attach all these parts (without soldering) to the “snot”
Hooray!! It worked. Now you can solder all the parts normally without fear
I suddenly became interested in what the output voltage was, so I measured
I offer for your consideration three options for circuits of powerful LED flashlights, which I have used for a long time, and personally I am quite satisfied with the brightness of the glow and the duration of operation (in reality, one charge lasts me for a month of use - that is, I went, chopped wood or went somewhere). The LED was used in all circuits with a power of 3 W. The only difference is in the color of the glow (warm white or cool white), but personally it seems to me that cool white shines brighter, and warm white is more pleasant to read, that is, it is easy on the eyes, so the choice is yours.The first version of the flashlight circuit
In tests, this circuit showed incredible stability within the supply voltage of 3.7-14 volts (but be aware that as the voltage increases, the efficiency decreases). As I set the output to 3.7 volts, it was the same throughout the entire voltage range (we set the output voltage with resistor R3, as this resistance decreases, the output voltage increases, but I do not advise reducing it too much; if you are experimenting, calculate the maximum current on LED1 and the maximum voltage on the second) . If we power this circuit from Li-ion batteries, then the efficiency is approximately 87-95%. You may ask, why was PWM invented then? If you don't believe me, do the math yourself.
At 4.2 volts efficiency = 87%. At 3.8 volts efficiency = 95%. P =U*I
The LED consumes 0.7A at 3.7 volts, which means 0.7*3.7=2.59 W, subtract the voltage of the charged battery and multiply by the current consumption: (4.2 - 3.7) * 0.7 = 0.35W. Now we find out the efficiency: (100/(2.59+0.37)) * 2.59 = 87.5%. And half a percent for heating the remaining parts and tracks. Capacitor C2 - soft start for safe LED switching and protection against interference. It is necessary to install a powerful LED on a radiator; I used one radiator from a computer power supply. Variant of parts arrangement:
The output transistor should not touch the back metal wall to the board; insert paper between them or draw a drawing of the board on a sheet of notebook and make it the same as on the other side of the sheet. To power the LED flashlight, I used two Li-ion batteries from a laptop battery, but it is quite possible to use telephone batteries; it is desirable that their total current be 5-10A*h (connected in parallel).
Let's move on to the second version of the diode flashlight
I sold the first flashlight and felt that it was a little annoying at night without it, and there were no parts to repeat the previous scheme, so I had to improvise from what I had at that moment, namely: KT819, KT315 and KT361. Yes, even with such parts, it is possible to assemble a low-voltage stabilizer, but with slightly higher losses. The scheme resembles the previous one, but in this one everything is completely opposite. Capacitor C4 here also smoothly supplies voltage. The difference is that here the output transistor is opened by resistor R1 and KT315 closes it to a certain voltage, while in the previous circuit the output transistor is closed and opens second. Variant of parts arrangement:
I used it for about six months until the lens cracked, damaging the contacts inside the LED. It still worked, but only three cells out of six. Therefore, I left it as a gift :) Now I’ll tell you why the stabilization using an additional LED is so good. For those who are interested, read it, it may be useful when designing low-voltage stabilizers, or skip it and move on to the last option.
So, let's start with temperature stabilization; whoever conducted the experiments knows how important this is in winter or summer. So, in these two powerful flashlights the following system operates: as the temperature increases, the semiconductor channel increases, allowing more electrons to pass through than usual, so it seems that the resistance of the channel decreases and therefore the current passed through increases, since the same system operates on all semiconductors, the current through the LED also increases by closing all transistors to a certain level, that is, stabilization voltage (experiments were carried out in the temperature range -21...+50 degrees Celsius). I collected many stabilizer circuits on the Internet and wondered “how could such mistakes be made!” Someone even recommended their own circuit for powering the laser, in which 5 degrees of temperature rise prepared the laser for ejection, so take this nuance into account!
Now about the LED itself. Anyone who has played with the supply voltage of LEDs knows that as it increases, the current consumption also increases sharply. Therefore, with a slight change in the output voltage of the stabilizer, the transistor (KT361) reacts many times more easily than with a simple resistor divider (which requires a serious gain), which solves all the problems of low-voltage stabilizers and reduces the number of parts.
Third version of LED flashlight
Let's proceed to the last scheme considered and used by me to this day. The efficiency is greater than in previous schemes, and the brightness of the glow is higher, and naturally, I bought an additional focus lens for the LED, and there are also 4 batteries, which approximately equals a capacity of 14A*hour. Principal el. scheme:
The circuit is quite simple and assembled in SMD design; there is no additional LED or transistors that consume excess current. For stabilization, TL431 is used and this is quite enough, the efficiency here is from 88 - 99%, if you don’t believe me, do the math. Photo of the finished homemade device:
Yes, by the way about brightness, here I allowed 3.9 volts at the output of the circuit and have been using it for more than a year, the LED is still alive, only the radiator is getting a little warm. But anyone who wants can set a lower supply voltage by selecting output resistors R2 and R3 (I advise you to do this on an incandescent lamp; when you get the result you want, connect the LED). Thank you for your attention, Levsha Lesha (Alexey Stepanov) was with you.
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