Capacitor powered LED flashlight

Justin Roeder — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 17:48:31 +0000

Long time ago QVC sold a shakeable Flashlight that had no batteries just a shakeable generator and a super capacitor. This flashlight uses a 5vdc 1.5a wall wart to charge the capacitors.

To figure out how long it will take to charge the flashlight you use this equation

$$T=5R_{currentlimit}C$$

And for total discharge time

$$T=5R_{LED}C$$

Where

T is time in seconds

Rcurrentlimit is the power resistor used in charging the capacitors in ohms

RLED is the LED resistor in ohms

C is total capacitance in farads

One thing you should know if the capacitors voltage is lower than the supply voltage you should put capacitors in series to increase the voltage rating on the capacitors. Usually you should use 2 capacitors in series and the supply voltage should be no more than capacitors voltage times 2. The diode will drop the voltage by some and also prevent discharging it threw the wall wart

https://youtu.be/aEMwYkuUkbI

YouTube video of this project

The post Capacitor powered LED flashlight first appeared on Delphijustin industries.

DIY Holiday Lights

Justin Roeder — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 22:03:08 +0000

In this blog I will show you how to build holiday lights. This idea came from Penny who wanted to get green lights and come to find out they are not in store.You can take LEDs and wire them in parallel with a current limiting resistor for each one. Or to speed up soldering just get the ones with built-in resistors. It will make them look more professionally made. See the circuit below:

LEDs with built-in resistors

To use the standard ones just put a resistor in series defined by this equation

$$R=\frac{V_{in}-V_{f}}{0.001I_{f}}$$

R is the resistance in ohms, Vin is the supply voltage in volts, Vf is the voltage drop defined in the LED datasheet and If is the current defined in the LED datasheet. If you don’t know model of your LED or can’t find a datasheet use a 1k. It wont be the brightest but good enough.

You can also flash them by an Arduino, computer, 555 timer, etc…

Just remember that the output current sometimes might not be enough or the load could be too much, so you probably need a Transistor Switch circuit

LED Controlled by pulses

You can get 20ft of wire for $2.60, 45x 12V LEDs for $20(you can get them cheaper without the built-in resistors) and a 12.5V power supply for $3.50 at allelectronics cost including shipping $34.10

To determine the total current draw we can use this equation, where Itotal is total current in milliamps, n is the number of LEDs and If is the LED current defined in the datasheet.

$$I_{total}=0.001I_{f}n$$

And for wattage:

$$P=0.001I_{f}nV_{in}$$

Where P is power in watts. If is LED current in milliamps, n is the number of LEDs and Vin is supply voltage.

The post DIY Holiday Lights first appeared on Delphijustin industries.

led light - Delphijustin industries

Capacitor powered LED flashlight

DIY Holiday Lights