LED Area Light

[4x4mike]

I've been cruising the internet lately thinking I need another project and have money burning a whole in my pocket. One thing I've been wanting to build lately is an area light. This is the kind of light that you turn on at camp at night if you pull in late and have to set up camp. I also thought it would be handy for cooking and repairs.

There are different versions commercially available but I wanted to build something. Custom is always nice but I wanted something that would do the job and be much more affordable.

Hella makes a lot of different models but they are halogen and HID and will pull more juice than I want.

There are a few companies making led work lights and others are using the led light bars but they are all pretty expensive. They are really nice but out of my budget.

So here is what I'm thinking for making one. It'll be 4 high powered leds. 2 will be a spot and 2 will be a flood. I'm thinking 2 switches that will allow me to have the spots on, floods on or both. The leds will run at 1 amp per 2 leds and be housed in something that is cheap and give me different mounting options. Some guys are putting these lights on poles but I'm thinking magnet mount, swivel, roof rack mounted or free standing (Paddlenbike mentioned a Gorilla Pod). The plug will be a 12V cigarette lighter socket that will allow me to move it between vehicles and plug it into my porta power and take it anywhere.

I've ordered parts and hit up Home Depot so the damage has begun. I'm uploading some pictures now so I'll update. Any suggestions will be great. Currently my only concern will be heat. I've never made anything that runs 4 leds on 2 amps total so I'm not sure how hot this thing'll get. I've got some aluminum so I plan on making some heat sinks.

[4x4mike]

Alright I have some pictures.

This is what is going to be giving it's life for the plug.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07482.jpg

It's a Type R so I know it's a good one.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07483.jpg

The thing spins really fast and it's quite loud for a spiny orange light.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/th_MOV07485.jpg (http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/?action=view&current=MOV07485.flv)




Drivers
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07474.jpg

This is my first time playing with optics. These are the spots.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07475.jpg

Floods
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07477.jpg


These hold the optics and are glued to the tops of the emitter stars.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07479.jpg

The optic snaps into the holder which is nice because I'll be able to swap out depending on my needs. I'm pretty sure this thing is going to be bright I just need to harness the light and make it work for me.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07480.jpg

[4x4mike]

From HD is got the usual stuff
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07426.jpg

I was looking for a housing and was going to use the metal inspection plate box thingys that are used for electrical wires. Metal conduit threads into the sides and these little slim boxes are at corners, junctions and areas where you need to inspect the wires or add on. I wasn't sure if they would work and they were around 10 bucks so I looked on. Copper is pretty expensive and couldn't find anything that fit my needs. The copper would be nice because it would act as a heat sink and dissipate the heat. Like with most projects I ended up in the PVC isle. It's cheap, comes in all kinds of sizes with little add ons and everything. Problem is that as a housing it won't dissipate heat so that remains an area of concern.

My haul
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07427.jpg

I'm thinking I'll use the clean out plug as a face and try to work in a lens. If I can't work one in I'll have to epoxy the heck out of the front around the optics holders which is fine as the optics snap in and out and the epoxy will seal up everything. I think I've got some dremel work ahead of me. The conduit things were heavy thick metal and I think they would be a bear to work with.

I actually got really far tonight but I have to take some more pictures and brain storm about my design a little more before I spend more time grinding, filing and gluing. I hope I'm not up all night thinking about this, I need my sleep.

[Robinhood4x4]

I've always wanted to do an area light too and was thinking of mounting them on poles on the roof rack. The poles would lie flat front to back on the roof rack but swing up when needed to get the light source higher up.

[4x4mike]

I've been finding a lot of guys with the pole lights but most have plate bumpers and swing out tire carriers. These make for good foundations to mount a light onto. I have a roof rack and basket and have been giving it some thought. I haven't wired the light yet or messed with the optics but once I do I'll know if I want to use a pole or not. I think that it will be nice to disperse the light especially if it's pretty bright. Ideally I'd have a mount that can do it all and I think I've got that figured out.

Here is my light and housing. As I said it's not wired and will probably be a day or two as I'm exhausted from the past week or so.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07465.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07468.jpg

[Robinhood4x4]

Only 1 flood? I'm thinking you're going to need more, especially if it's going to be up on a pole.

Which emitter are you using?

[4x4mike]

Those are place holder optics. I'm actually not using any of those. I was thinking on circuit with 2 spots and cone with 2 floods. The emitters are Q5 crees.

I just wired everything up tonight and might do some rethinking. 1 amp per 2 leds is really bright and as a result really hot. I ran all 4 emitters for 3-4 minutes and my heat sink got crazy hot (~150*), hot enough that I'm rethinking this. With the drivers I have I can run all 4 at 500ma but it would be all 4 all the time and I was hoping for 2 and 2. Another is the spot optics. At 1 amp they are really bright and just a spot, maybe 4 floods will be better. I'll put this back on the drawing board as currently there is too much heat to deal with right now.

[troyboy162]

Those are place holder optics. I'm actually not using any of those. I was thinking on circuit with 2 spots and cone with 2 floods. The emitters are Q5 crees.

I just wired everything up tonight and might do some rethinking. 1 amp per 2 leds is really bright and as a result really hot. I ran all 4 emitters for 3-4 minutes and my heat sink got crazy hot (~150*), hot enough that I'm rethinking this. With the drivers I have I can run all 4 at 500ma but it would be all 4 all the time and I was hoping for 2 and 2. Another is the spot optics. At 1 amp they are really bright and just a spot, maybe 4 floods will be better. I'll put this back on the drawing board as currently there is too much heat to deal with right now.

whats the point of dimiishing returns for a q5? 350MA? i know 700MA vs 1A is not much of a gain for the amout of power you throw at it. they must a have a effeciency spot

[4x4mike]

I'm one hand typing with a baby in my arms so I can't serch for the data sheet but more than 350ma and probably close to 700.

[4x4mike]

I had some time today so I did a little rewiring and made a mount. I've got one switch now and it turns on all 4 leds and they are floods. They are running at 500ma so they run a lot cooler yet still put out light.

Light with mount
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07504.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07503.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07500.jpg

Then I had to wait for it to get dark.
Here it is from the other side of my back yard.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07497.jpg

Here it is with a 3' pvc "pole" setup looking across the yard.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07496.jpg

Here propped up on the roof.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/Area%20Light/DSC07492.jpg

[Seanz0rz]

i demand parts list and a cost rundown!!!

[CJM]

yes parts list rundown and supplier list if possible.

Maybe how to wire them too, they are awesome!

[slosurfer]

We almost always have one of my wife's tripods with us, so it would be pretty easy to change that mount to work on a camera tripod (which would also work with my gorillapod which you mentioned) The gorilla pod is cool because it wraps around just about anything.

[4x4mike]

i demand parts list and a cost rundown!!!


The parts may be specific to your project but this is what I have going.

- 4, Q5 cree xre leds (ledsupply.com)
- Assorted optics spots, medium and tight ripple (ledsupply.com)
- Cree optics holders (ledsupply.com)
- 1, 1000ma Luxdrive driver (ledsupply.com)
- Aluminum for a heat sink (my garage)
- Assorted 18 gague wire (my garage)
- Little switch (Radioshack)
- 12V cord (from the orange whirly light)
- JB weld for gluing the stars onto the AL (Homie D)
- Maglight bezel (I had one from a long time ago. I hadn't planned on using it and in fact leaving the optics open was my original plan but I had the bezel and a glass lens so I used it.
- Assorted PVC drainage pieces (Homie D)


Thats all I used. If I were to make another one I'd maybe spend a little more time looking for a housing but I didn't want this project to take forever and I wanted it to stay cheap. I was going to use a metal housing which would have been great for heat management but it would have been larger than I wanted and taken too long to grind and cut.

My current one runs much cooler and is currently 13 minutes into a one hour test. I'm making sure it will run for at least an hour, not get hot and stay in one piece, so far so good. When I find my invoice I'll update with the prices.

As far as wiring look up the data sheets for the drivers. There are different ways of wiring depending on the number of leds, forward voltage, desired light output and type of led. I have 4 leds in series with one driver.

And as far as suppliers I went with ledsuppy because they had everything I needed. I've always gone with them for my drivers and they get to me real fast. The leds and optics can be had from anywhere. I spent a couple days looking at all of my options. Other suppliers that have a good selection are cutter and deal extreme. DX has many options but the shipping takes forever (Hong Kong) and the quality is lacking from what I've read. The have cheap leds but you don't really know the tint. Cutter and led supply let you pick your tint which is nice.

[slomatt]

Mike,

That's looking great! Did you buy the warm white leds, those look a lot less blue than the bright white ones.

- Matt

[4x4mike]

I did get the warm ones. Ken and I had been ordering a different tint from cutter and I like these more. Cutter has close to 10 tints and the ones we were getting seem to have a very very light green tint to them. Ledsupply has fewer options but these warm ones are great.

I used an old Niterider handlebar mount to add to the pvc pole and it stays put. It was a little windy today and the light swayed a bit so I'm thinking it will be temporary.

[paddlenbike]

You should have just stuck with the orange whirly light...that thing was sweet!

Seriously though, nice work, I need to get started on my gorilla pod one.

[4x4mike]

I might still go the Gorilla pod way. I welded a nut onto the u shaped bracket that I can get or make an adapter for. The light is quite bright and a spot for the most part which means that for the most use it needs to be mounted high or shining far. I'll have a week to play with it in Oregon and probably think up some more options. I made the u shaped bracket so I can mount anything onto it like the gorilla pod, a magnet or the niterider mount I have on it now.

[CJM]

No

You should have just stuck with the orange whirly light...that thing was sweet!



No, this is what he needs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cvX2N68qZ4
I got one on my work van and trust me its BLINDING! not mine but its close enough, 4 fast rotators, 4 mirrors, 2 flashing light front that are white, 2 red on back, side clear alley lights easily as bright a 55w hella 500.

[4x4mike]

Well I just got back from an 8 day trip to Oregon. Our friends have property up there and we went to visit. The baby did great considering we spent 8 nights in a tent and the temps were in the high 30's but mostly low 40's at night.

The property is quite plush with still being rugged. There is no electricity and the only running water is an artisan well that at the moment is not drinkable. There was a lot of propane flowing (lanterns and stoves) so it was nice but there are a lot of dark corners in 40 acres.

I was messing around with the camera settings so these are all a little different. For the most part the longest exposure seemed to be around 1.5 seconds in auto mode. The light did well and stayed cool the entire time. I changed up the mount to a magnet that I will rework this week. The pics are blurry so that's all you get.


Hatch light and rear cargo light
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0220.jpg

Area light on
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0243.jpg

Here you can see the different color in leds between my hatch light and area light. I like the area light color a lot better.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0244.jpg

Rocklights
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0248.jpg

More
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0250.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/mezamichael82/leds/DSC_0253.jpg

[DHC6twinotter]

Very nice!

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but do you have any info on your rocklights? :D

[4x4mike]

Yes (http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=6393.0)

[DHC6twinotter]

Wow...that's awesome! Thanks!