When I started this LED light project, there were some prohibitive issues, so I decided to rethink the project. Perhaps I’m complicating things with the original design idea. Revision two will be just LEDs mounted to a perfboard with standoffs attaching the assemble to the shelf. I started by calculating the resistors I would need, based on a 5vdc power supply (the calculator can be found here).
Bought a perfboard and some 100 ohm resistors at Radio Shack. The 5vdc power supply is an old Motorola mobile phone charger rated at 400mW at 5VDC. I had the LEDs on hand, purchased a hundred via eBay some time ago for projects that never happened.
Started the project by scoring and then snapping off the required width of perfboard. Make sure you have a good helper to assist you.
Next, a couple holes are “drilled” to accept the screws for the standoffs. Just use a small x-acto knife and twist it 180 degrees left and right. After a couple repetitions flip the board over and repeat on the same hole. Do this until the screw fits.
Ready to mount the LEDs and resistors. Since there are five LEDs per board, it was a simple matter of spacing them equally using a ruler. The LEDs will insert without any modification to the leads, the resistors will require bending. A good pair of small needle-nose pliers makes the job easy. Before bending, lay the resistor down on the perfboard to get an idea where the bends should be located. Once the components are mounted it’s time to solder all the connections following the wiring diagram.
Time to mount it to the shelf. I simply hot-glued the standoff to the backside of the shelf lip and used a dab of the glue to secure the wiring and switch in place.
The final steps are to test the two LED strips with the power supply. Measuring the current draw, it was about 210mW, extremely close the 200mW calculated. I left it on for several minutes and the draw was the same, and the power supply did not get warm. Soldered in the switch, heat shrinked all the connections.
The project is complete! The effect is subtle, but it makes a big difference.
A fairly simple, straight forward project. It only took a couple hours to complete.
Here’s a gallery of all the project pictures: