Caught in the dark ..........
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:20 amNo more !.......after the recent wave of storms sweeping in off the Pacific on us, I decided that I wouldn't come home to a dark house any more......in the middle of Nov., we had 50 cm of snow dump on us within four days......within a week the wind and RAIN had come in and flooded lots of areas along with snapping trees (winds of 70kph gusting to over 90) and dropping power lines in the process.......there were local islands around us telling tales of no elec for 20 of the past 40 days, and still some areas are in the dark......I had my own bout of it.......in light of this, I decided to get some stuff together with the aid of the internet.......
I went out and bought some Fishemans Friend mints....gee, nice tin box they come in.......along with this I also got some LEDs, resistors, batteries, switches and battery holder.......tie it all together with wire and you can come up with this.........you can just make out the momentary push button on the top along with the two LEDs on the left end, on the right end is a SPST switch to have an "always on" condition.........
Inside you can see the hot melt glue used to hold the LEDs in position (the holes were snug, but to ensure they stayed put ) the resistors chosen were 80 ohm to limit the 6v of the 4 AA cells and are shrink wrapped on the left end.......the two power controls were run in parallel so that if a flash light function was desired, then all you do is hold the push button on the top. For a constant light with no hands operation, the SPST switch on the right end is engaged. This image is to show the contents of the box and the layout.
Does it throw out light ? in a total dark house its perfect !......this shot is with lights on, room lights on and no flash, hence the slight blurr from the slow shutter speed.
The reason I went with LEDs is that they are all the rage in lighting now, they don't have a fragile filament and consume way less power than an incandescent bulb, and they last and last and last.....four inexpensive and long shelf life alkaline AA cells will do the job as this sits on the shelf near the front door.........no more tripping over shoes or anything else when coming home to a dark house.......8-)
LEDs - 7000MCD Superbright Waterclear white x2
AA Alkaline Cells x4
80 Ohm 1/4 watt Resistors x2
Switches - micro momentary pushbutton, 1 of
I went out and bought some Fishemans Friend mints....gee, nice tin box they come in.......along with this I also got some LEDs, resistors, batteries, switches and battery holder.......tie it all together with wire and you can come up with this.........you can just make out the momentary push button on the top along with the two LEDs on the left end, on the right end is a SPST switch to have an "always on" condition.........
Inside you can see the hot melt glue used to hold the LEDs in position (the holes were snug, but to ensure they stayed put ) the resistors chosen were 80 ohm to limit the 6v of the 4 AA cells and are shrink wrapped on the left end.......the two power controls were run in parallel so that if a flash light function was desired, then all you do is hold the push button on the top. For a constant light with no hands operation, the SPST switch on the right end is engaged. This image is to show the contents of the box and the layout.
Does it throw out light ? in a total dark house its perfect !......this shot is with lights on, room lights on and no flash, hence the slight blurr from the slow shutter speed.
The reason I went with LEDs is that they are all the rage in lighting now, they don't have a fragile filament and consume way less power than an incandescent bulb, and they last and last and last.....four inexpensive and long shelf life alkaline AA cells will do the job as this sits on the shelf near the front door.........no more tripping over shoes or anything else when coming home to a dark house.......8-)
LEDs - 7000MCD Superbright Waterclear white x2
AA Alkaline Cells x4
80 Ohm 1/4 watt Resistors x2
Switches - micro momentary pushbutton, 1 of
Ended up reading by headllamp with no heat or hotwater either. 