Minuet LED light design

Royce · 04-02-2008, 12:04 PM

I decided to design and build new interior lights for the Minuet. LED was a must as we like to Boondock and want low current drain on the battery. I also wanted to salvage the original light switch as it is a four position. The light for the galley pictured here has 8 of the 6 LED light strips from Superbrights. I connected 3 on position one 5 on position two and all 8 on position three of the switch. Initial testing with 3 total didn't provide sufficient light. For the bath room I will use 4 or 6 of the light strips and 6 or 8 for the dinette light. The body is rock maple hollowed out in the back for the wires and the lens is 1/8" acrylic, this fixture used 2 of the warm and 6 of the cool white. Warm white is far too yellow and the cool is too cold. The combination works for a nice balance to my eye. I will follow up with photo after installed, but have some interior work to do first. Left hand photo is the lens side and the right photo is of the back side. Paper dust cover in place, not sure if I will worry about that in the future renditions.

Fyrzowt · 04-02-2008, 12:06 PM

I'll look forward to the finished product.
Dave

HowieE · 04-02-2008, 01:13 PM

Not that I would ask you to rip it apart but do you have any photos of the lights inplace without the lens?

Do you have a site for Superbright?

Aerowood · 04-02-2008, 01:29 PM

I have also been looking for new interior lights. Did you roll the lens too, and if you did where did you find the milky colored acrylic? i have not been able to find LED fixtures that Liked.

UpNorthAir · 04-02-2008, 02:27 PM

What size LED's did you use? I found these on ebay and was thinking of using them like you did. Just don't know how many to use...

Maybe these could be used as recessed lighting in the ceiling? hmmmm

WHITE HIGH Power LED Aluminum Pod Module 1 Watt light - eBay (item 180132124603 end time Apr-14-08 13:08:04 PDT)

Nice job!

HowieE · 04-02-2008, 03:54 PM

If you are considering LED lights and want to make up your own fixtures take a look at this site. Good info.

Sample LED circuit designs.

Royce · 04-02-2008, 05:22 PM

Aerowood,

The lens is 1/2 of a 4" clear acrylic pipe. Masked off the cut area and the side against the fence and cut on a table saw. I used the same trick to frost it as the big boys use to frost the view glass on a large format camera, 220 grit sand paper. On a flat piece I will use a random orbit sander but had to do this one by hand as I wanted the frost on the inside of the lens. The acrylic pipe came from Outwater Plastic Outwater Plastics Industires. Not finding any that I liked in a ready made is what drove me to make this one. I will make more for sure but will set up jigs to make the cutting of the backer block easy. Also wanted to maximize the light output so the lens was a critical part of the project. Almost left the lens clear but my bride didn't like that.

HowieE

No problem to take the lens off. Attached is a shot of the arrangement with the lens off. Thanks for the LED design site. I purchased the LED strips already made up with resistors in place, from http://www.superbrightleds.com/ Later tonight I will photo the fixture in place with the lights on. I should have also taken a photo of the lens off. Oh well, likely won't do that now. :-)

vswingfield · 04-02-2008, 05:45 PM

Very nice work, Royce!

Innovative and elegant. I like the Maple base and the lens solution is brilliant! Rim shot please.

I have found that I am unable to tolerate cool whites in either LED or fluorescents. I am very happy with the light I get from the Phillips Warm White fluorescent tubes I get for my Thinlites at Home Depot, but it does seem that they don’t last all that long in a Thinlite. It also seems like Thinlite ballasts are problematical, too. Besides, LED have way more cool factor. I may have to make an initial purchase of a few of each kind and evaluate for myself. Then maybe I’ll make myself some local knockoff of Royce designer lights.

For my curiosity, which 2 are the warm whites?

Royce · 04-02-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vswingfield

For my curiosity, which 2 are the warm whites?

Thank you vswingfield. There is no way to tell when they are off as near as I can see, keep the packges identified. Only when turned on then it is apparent. BTW, I noticed after install that I somehow got three of the warm strips in place not two. That will be apparent when I am able to photo with the light on later this evening after dark. I see I forgot to list the LED info. They are the LB3-cool or LB3-warm

vswingfield · 04-02-2008, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Royce

Thank you vswingfield. There is no way to tell when they are off as near as I can see, keep the packges identified. Only when turned on then it is apparent. BTW, I noticed after install that I somehow got three of the warm strips in place not two. That will be apparent when I am able to photo with the light on later this evening after dark.

I’m glad that I’m not the only one to do things like that. I guess it is still light there. It’s dusk here in Little Rock, and it is cloudy and dark. If it was clear, it would still be pretty bright.

Complements again on the nice work.

Royce · 04-02-2008, 08:08 PM

Here are a couple of shots of the lamp installed. One flash off next with flash on. Please ignore the funky yellow color of the wall paper. One of the previous owners viciously attacked the interior with a paint brush. We were able to get the paint off but it left a stain, so we will have to paint the vinyl

Repainting to a light off white will be the next project.

I would say that the 8 strips of 6 LED's each are about as bright visually as the original fixture with 3 automotive lamps. I am not a lighting engineer so YMMV.

Royce · 04-02-2008, 08:46 PM

I finally woke up enough to remember that I have a fine Zone VI modified one degree spot light meter. So back out to the Minuet. Reading reflected off the palm of hand 18” from the fixture. New fixture reading is 8, and the fixture in the Bathroom which is the same fixture as the one removed from the galley and the reading is 7.66. So they are very similar, at least in terms of what B&W film would see.

vswingfield · 04-03-2008, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Royce

I finally woke up enough to remember that I have a fine Zone VI modified one degree spot light meter. So back out to the Minuet. Reading reflected off the palm of hand 18” from the fixture. New fixture reading is 8, and the fixture in the Bathroom which is the same fixture as the one removed from the galley and the reading is 7.66. So they are very similar, at least in terms of what B&W film would see.

Thanks for the photos. Ok, you are one of the few people I know who have a spot meter.

Royce · 04-07-2008, 06:16 AM

A question was asked regarding the power usage. Here is what I am able to observe with limited test equipment. With volt meter attached, the old fixture would drop the battery voltage 0.5 volts and it would not recover completely when you turned off the light, the new fixture drops the voltage 0.01 volts and it recovers instantly when you turn off the light. How much better? I am sure there are better ways to measuer power consumption but this is something to go on.

Oh, as as to the spot meter.

I have no excuse other than it helps in low light conditions and saves on bracketing with that pricy 4X5 film.