I have been drooling after some nice led panels for a while now, but just can't justify spending a fortune to buy them.
These LED panel give a nice soft light source for photography, saves electricity, robust and won't heat much.
I am not a professional photographer, just enthusiast that sometimes has professional justify to build silly stuff like this.
I decide to do two big ones and one smaller that i would add battery later for outside shooting.
These LED panel give a nice soft light source for photography, saves electricity, robust and won't heat much.
I am not a professional photographer, just enthusiast that sometimes has professional justify to build silly stuff like this.
I decide to do two big ones and one smaller that i would add battery later for outside shooting.
Step 1: Planning and Ingredients
My coal was to keep budget under 100 pounds for 3 led panels. Some how a 12v strip light felt like the best way to start. Also 12v meant that its easy to find power for. car batteries, power supplies and so on. How much light I would want? Well let see 5 amp feels like maximum amount of power I want to draw and 5M 300-SMD 5730 LED strip rope light white looked like a good model. (although later found it to be too cool near 9900k) there is a warmer version also. 5730 LED where 0.5 watt each and strip light was split in group of 3 LED's, so these can be cut between these groups. That was a good start for some calculations this site came handy.
So now I know that my bigger panels would take 99 leds and smaller would have 81 and you can left only 36 on by switch, if you want to increase battery life.
So where to house them. First looked into buying some aluminium briefcases for it, but then remembered that I had previously bought some aluminium school cooking containers from 70s for possible iPad and laptop bag, but now that project would wait and these cases would get a new purpose. I think these where perfect for the task. bigger panels where built on one container lid as one panl and botom
I wanted to able to dim this led although I know that it might be a possible problem and introduce flickering specially in low power, but then I decided that I will be mostly run them full power and I just went a head with a simple premade led dimmer.
Some switches i tried to find ones with bit of a retro style.
I think aesthetics are important I can find myself enjoy something I have built more if it also looks good.
List of parts
3x Led dimmer 12/24 volt 8 amp
price of one 9£
3x power supply 5 amp
price of one 5£
Led strip
5M 300-SMD 5730 LED strip rope light white
40£
3x power switch
price of one 2£
3x power plug
price of one 2£
aluminium tape
some electric wire
total 94£
additional stuff
plexiglass
20£
mounts
14£
3x photography light stand
price of one 9£
So where to house them. First looked into buying some aluminium briefcases for it, but then remembered that I had previously bought some aluminium school cooking containers from 70s for possible iPad and laptop bag, but now that project would wait and these cases would get a new purpose. I think these where perfect for the task. bigger panels where built on one container lid as one panl and botom
I wanted to able to dim this led although I know that it might be a possible problem and introduce flickering specially in low power, but then I decided that I will be mostly run them full power and I just went a head with a simple premade led dimmer.
Some switches i tried to find ones with bit of a retro style.
I think aesthetics are important I can find myself enjoy something I have built more if it also looks good.
List of parts
3x Led dimmer 12/24 volt 8 amp
price of one 9£
3x power supply 5 amp
price of one 5£
Led strip
5M 300-SMD 5730 LED strip rope light white
40£
3x power switch
price of one 2£
3x power plug
price of one 2£
aluminium tape
some electric wire
total 94£
additional stuff
plexiglass
20£
mounts
14£
3x photography light stand
price of one 9£
First I tested lights in groups this is important because I found out that 12 of my LEDs did not light up.
Remember to buy more than you need.
So after getting rid of non working ones I cutter the strip in smaller right length strips. And placed them pre planned position. And started to cut out wires and place switches on right places to get an idea if all would fit well.
I laid few layers of tape under led strips for isolation and then temporarely taped them in place.
clear tape works here fine as it does not block reflections from the aluminium container.
Remember to buy more than you need.
So after getting rid of non working ones I cutter the strip in smaller right length strips. And placed them pre planned position. And started to cut out wires and place switches on right places to get an idea if all would fit well.
I laid few layers of tape under led strips for isolation and then temporarely taped them in place.
clear tape works here fine as it does not block reflections from the aluminium container.
Step 3: Dimmer
I opened one of the dimmers to see what it had eaten. See if i can reduce the size of it and I was really pleasantly surprised that it was perfect layout and it even had dimming control with wire so I could place it freely.
note: Remember these kind of dimmers are very basic and works with Pulse Width Modulation principle. witch means that when led is dimmed it actually cuts the current for really short periods rapidly. You can't see this by eye, but when used for video or photography camera can pick up these cuts and it looks like a flickering or produce artefacts when shooting video.
This comes more problem when lights are dimmed a lot and high speeds for shutter time is used. Problem goes away when full power is used.
note: Remember these kind of dimmers are very basic and works with Pulse Width Modulation principle. witch means that when led is dimmed it actually cuts the current for really short periods rapidly. You can't see this by eye, but when used for video or photography camera can pick up these cuts and it looks like a flickering or produce artefacts when shooting video.
This comes more problem when lights are dimmed a lot and high speeds for shutter time is used. Problem goes away when full power is used.
Step 4: Holes
After that I took few measurements for rest cables. Then I took the LEDs off and drilled holes for DC power input, dimmer control Knob and on/off switch. It's good to drill your holes for mounting also. If you are going to add plexiglas or gel in front it's also time to drill mounts for that. For me it was a late update so I did this in the end.
note: buy round DC plug so you can mount it easy just by drilling one hole. My power supply had DC 2.5mm male plug so i bought corresponding 2.5mm female plug.
note: buy round DC plug so you can mount it easy just by drilling one hole. My power supply had DC 2.5mm male plug so i bought corresponding 2.5mm female plug.
Step 5: Testing Electronics
It was time to test electronics and see if everything would still works.
note: be careful that no electric connectors touch metal or short circuit when you test. duhh :)
note: be careful that no electric connectors touch metal or short circuit when you test. duhh :)
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