How Richard Does his LED Spots
How Michael Miller Does his LED Spots
Diagram of resister connection
How I Do my LED Spots
DISCLAIMER: Do this at your own risk. I do not recommend
or
advise that you use this procedure. I only admit that I do. Electricity
can bite so you need to be careful.
I got this idea from the Crazy Light Lady. Check out her site for more LED stuff!
My MR-16 LEDs are first hot glued into half of a 80mm fillable ornament ball.
Then I melted two holes in the other
half for the wires using a soldering iron.
By using a soldering iron and not a drill you don't crack the plastic.
Then I pushed the socket onto the pins (Some
folks just solder wires directly to the MR16)
I got the sockets off Ebay but you can also get them from
Best Hong Kong (shipping is large).
Next I hot glued the half together. You
should be a little quick on this as
the hot glue can cool and before the halves
are together.
I then took my hot glue gun and ran around the edge to seal the globe and
sealed
the wires.
I used a 3" PVC 45 degree elbow as a holder.
The PVC elbow is the thinner drain type.
I will paint the PVC elbow with black plastic paint.
I can aim the spot up or down and the glue around the edge holds it in place.
The parts to the prototypes are:
1 1-1/2” PVC Cleanout (Plumbing) .55
Menards/HD
1 1-1/2” PVC Female Adapter (Electrical) .72
1 - 60mm Acrylic Ornament Ball (half) .42
here
www.ThisandThat4Crafts.com
1 - MR16 Connector .40
LED Wholesalers (eBay)
The Second Prototype just adds a 1-1/2” to 2” adapter. This makes the MR16
recessed. The same 60mm half ball fits perfectly inside the 2” PVC.
The Total for the first prototype is $2.09. It’s not cheap, but it seems like it
will work well and last a long time.
How
Richard Does his LED Spots
Visit Richard's site
These
are from Michael Miller:
Lights on Logan
Notes from Michael:
I have three of these "banks" for L/C/R
control of the colors on the house.
The color to throw on the house is determined by a mixture of red, green, and
blue:
R = Red
R + some G = Orange
R+G = Yellow
G = Green
G+B = Aqua/Cyan
B = Blue
R+B = Purple
R+G+B = White
There are twice as many reds as green and blue because the red LEDs are dimmer.
The MR-16s are from Action and have 20 LEDs each. They are 12V AC (not DC) but
will run on 13.8V DC just fine.
All are housed in a PVC electrical threaded adapter (glued in place) with an
equivalent threaded plug from the plumbing department. The Action floods
themselves are waterproof and need no additional protection on the front side.
Each of those is bolted to a horizontal board and can be individually adjusted
in the X axis. The entire group of 5 on the board can be adjusted in the Z axis.
The Y axis adjustment is just how far away you put them.
PVC Flood Light Recipe
Ingredients:
(1) Cantex 5140047 1 1/2" PVC Threaded Adapter
(1) Charlotte #106 1 1/2" Cleanout plug
(1) 1/4" x 1 3/4" bolt, 20 thread
(1) 1/4" nut, 20 thread
(1) 1/4" lock washer
(2) 0.062" Molex female crimp on sockets (Mouser 538-02-06-1103)
(1) short length of SPT wire
(1) tube of Goop Plumbing adhesive (comes in a purple tube and lists PVC and
glass both on the back)
(1) Teflon tape
The 1 1/2" PVC threaded adapter may or may not be at your local Lowes/Depot
electrical department. Lowes only had one when I was trying out the design and
they never restocked it... you may have to order them from an electric supply
(it's cheaper that way anyway-- only 0.60 each). The cleanout plug is readily
available in any plumbing department, although at my quantity (120) I found it
cheaper to order them online at only 0.40 each.
1) Drill two 1/4" holes in the PVC adapter. The "top" hole should be about 1/3
of the way between the support ring and the "front" (non-threaded) end of the
adapter. The "bottom" hole should be behind the support ring (yes, that places
it into the threaded portion).
2) Put the 1 3/4" bolt through the "top" hole from the inside of the PVC
adapter. On the outside place a lock washer and the nut. Tighten.
3) Optionally (as pictured below) place three small pieces of the hook side of
Velcro around the "front" inside of the PVC adapter. This will help steady the
MR-16 (keep it from slipping) when it is being glued in place. Alternatively
just use a steady hand.
Steps 4 and 5 assume you use the same adhesive as I did... if not, then follow
the instructions for your adhesive.
4) Apply a bead of the plumbing adhesive on the rim of the PVC adapter and the
MR-16 bulb. Let the glue stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
5) Fit the MR-16 into place and press firmly for 15 seconds. Let stand 12 to 24
hours.
6) Separate a section of SPT wire at the end and strip off 1/4" of insulation.
7) Attach the Molex sockets to the SPT wire. I soldered them but crimping is ok.
Note: Thanks to Annalisa for the Molex tip.
8) Feed the other end of the SPT wire through the "bottom" hole. Attach the
Molex sockets to the MR-16 pins.
9) Apply Teflon tape to the cleanout plug and then screw it into the back of the
PVC adapter. You have finished the project.
10) Optional - paint them with plastic paint.
The Action MR-16s I used turn out to be waterproof from the lens side, so this
design works well. The back wiring side is protected by the PVC. The wire exit
also provides a path for any stray moisture/condensation to run out (I don't
recommend sealing it).
Photos below:
Note: The 1 1/2" sizing is because PVC is measured by inner diameter. The
adapter has a ~1.85" wide opening to accept the 1.5" ID PVC. That opening works
about perfectly with the rim of the 2" MR-16 bulb.
Everything is parallel; no resistor is required, just 13.8VDC. Polarity doesn't
even need to be observed as they do internally contain a full wave bridge
rectifier.
As a side note these can be wired 10 in series and used on an AC controller... I
did it last year and it works well. I opted for DC this year instead for other
reasons.
Yes, they can dim... however it isn't perfectly linear (typical of LEDs).
The house siding is vinyl in a basic tan like color.
You'll notice that I had to use twice the number of red than green or blue...
they are dimmer than the green/blue ones. The blue is very vivid, as is magenta
(red + blue at the same time). White (red + green + blue) is almost blinding...
great for those moments when you want the added punch.
I have not tried the suggestion of a
series resistor with the Action MR-16s. In theory it might linearize the gamma
curve some, however these effects will need to be observed:
As the resistor size increases (in ohms) the linearity will increase (to a point
of diminishing returns anyway). However, increasing the resistor size will also
increase the voltage drop which will need to be compensated for at the power
supply and will also require a higher wattage resistor.
Ohms law can be used to calculate this, or for the practical appraoch
(recommended due to the linearity quirks of LEDs) one can do the following:
Place a multimeter (set to read mA) in series with the MR-16 and attach it to
the power supply at the rated DC voltage (for the Action floods this is 13.8V)
without using the series resistor. Note the current draw. Now wire the resistor
and multimeter and the MR-16 in series and repeat the process. The mA reading
will be lower. Dial up the supply voltage slowly until the multimeter reads the
original current value in mA. This is the new required supply voltage.
The difference between the two is the voltage drop across the resistor. This can
be multiplied by the current value to determine the required minimum resistor
wattage rating. For example, a 6.8 ohm resistor might drop 1.25V and require
1.25 * 0.167 = 0.21W (1/4 watt would work, but 1/2W should be used to be safe...
always err to the next size up) and a supply voltage of 15V. If running long
lengths of wire you may also want to take the wire resistance into account.
Power Supply:
I use a BK Precision 1692 bench supply (rated to 40A continuous) to drive all of
my floods. There are far less expensive solutions but I thought I'd share what
I've been using.
Another note:
The Action MR-16s should not be run at 12VDC... they are only 50% bright at 12V
as opposed to 13.8V.
These MR16's are AC and DC so polarity is not an issue.
Each MR16 will need a 2 watt resister to be
able to be dimmed by either the
D-Light DC board or the
Light-O-Rama DC Board.
Each MR16 will draw .167 amps so you'll need an appropriately sized power supply. If you are using an LOR or D-Light DC controller you will need to use a DC power supply of sufficient size. For example if your DC power supply can output 12 volt DC at 10 amps, you will be able to power 60 MR16's (10 amps / .167 = 59.9). See my DC Controller page here.
If you just want to power the MR16's on without dimming or animation control then you can use an AC landscaping transformer.
You can even wire up 10 MR16's in series (without resisters) and power them right from a 120 volt ac animation controller. I have not done this personally but some have successfully.