Let's Finish Up This Project: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Portable LED Lighting System

After marking a line 2 centimeters from the bottom section of the LED panel with a scriber, it was finally time to mount the LED strips. For that, I created shorter pieces of the strip which contained up to 15 LEDs each and repeated this cutting procedure until I got a total of 13 shorter strips. Only problem was that the emitted light of the pure white LEDs was a bit too cold for my taste.

So, I created an equal amount of shorter warm white 5630 LED strips, which would balance out the overall color temperature decently. To mount the strips in the middle of the panel, I marked the 6.5 centimeter spots from the left and right side onto the previously created line. And I peeled the protective tape of the adhesive to secure the first pure white LED strip along the marked line.

The following LED strip was then warm whites, and the following again cold whites and so on and so on. The only thing that bothered me while mounting the LED strips was that due to the rather poor quality, some had unpleasant bumps, which were pretty much unremovable. But nevertheless, after securing the last LED strip near the top section of the panel, I marked a line in the top left and right corner 1 centimeter beneath the upper flat bar limits.

I got myself 12 of those cable mounts due to the adhesive back sides it was easy to stick six of them evenly distributed on the left side of the plates in level with the warm white LEDs. On the right side though, I also stuck six of them evenly distributed, but this time in level with the cold white LEDs. And after drilling two 3.5 millimeter holes according to the previously created lines above the cable mounts in the left and right corner.

It was time to remove the insulation of a 3 meter long, 3 x 2.5 square millimeter stiff wire. I used 1.5 meters of the brown and blue wire on each side, and pushed it from the back through the created holes, all the way down to the lowest cable mounts.

Then, I connected the components to one another and designed an appropriate case for the electronics in 123D Design. After a print duration of roughly 8 hours in total, the printed case looked decent but definitely had some warping problems. But nevertheless, after removing all the support material, the circuits did fit decently.

So, I added the appropriate socket to my lithium ion battery pushed them into the new housing and secured them with two component adhesive. After the glue was dry, I added the remaining components to the perfboards soldered wires and male headers to two potentiometers hooked up the LED wires to the terminals and connected the power circuitry in order to test the completed circuit one last time.

Since it worked like a charm, I soldered appropriate wires to the switch and voltage tester connected them to the XT60 connector and balance connector and then mounted them along with the potentiometers onto the case with nuts and a bit of hot glue. Then, I secured the control circuit in the top section of the board and the buck boost converter right underneath it.

To finish this project, I used three strips of Velcro tape on the back side of the battery and control housing to mount it to the back side of the LED panel shortened the LED wire, secure them to the PCB terminalsgave the whole thing labels and closed the housing with its lid.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enLet's finish up this projectAfter marking a line 2 centimeters from the bottom section of the LED panel with a scriber,it was finally time to mount the LED stripsFor that, I created shorter pieces of the strip which contains up 15 LEDs eachand repeated this cutting procedure until I got a total of 13 shorter stripsOnly problem was that the emitted light of the pure white LEDs was a bit too cold for my tasteSo I created an equal amount of shorter warm white5630 LED strips, which will balance out the overall color temperature decentlyTo mount the strips in the middle of the panel,I marked the 6.5 centimeter spots from the left and right side onto the previously created lineAnd I peeled the protective tape of the adhesivein order to secure the first pure white LED strip along the marked lineThe following LED strip was then warm whitesand the following again cold whites and so on and so onThe only thing that bothered me while mounting the LED stripswas that, due to the rather poor quality, some had unpleasant bumps,which were pretty much unremovableBut nevertheless, after securing the last LED strip near the top section of the panelI marked a line in the top left and right corner1 centimeter beneath the upper flat bar limits and got myself 12 of those cable mountsDue to the adhesive back sides it was easy to stick six of them evenly distributed on the left side of the platesin level with the warm white LEDsOn the right side though, I also stuck six of them evenly distributed,but this time in level with the cold white LEDsAnd after drilling two 3.5 milimeter holes,according to the previously created lines above the cable mounts in the left and right cornerIt was time to remove the insulation of a 3 meter long, 3 x 2.5 square milimeter stiff wireI used 1.5 meter of the brown and blue wire on each sides,And pushed it from the back through the created holes,all the way down to the lowest cable mountsThen I used my wire stripper to remove the insulation of the four wires,and secure them afterwards to the cable mounts with zip ties, and a bit of hot glueNext I pre-tinned the solder pads of the pure white led strip on the left side,and the solder pads of the warm white LED strips on the right sidesThrough the help of thinner, 0.75 square millimeter wire,I connected all plus pads to the thicker brown wires, and all minus pads to the thicker blue wiresBut keep in mind that the pure white solder connections are all located on left sidesand the warm white connections are all on the right sidesDuring the soldering process. I also regularly tested the LED strips with a 12 volt power sourceAnd once the soldering was complete. I was able to power all the LEDs,through the four wires from the back of the panelThat means it was time for the control electronicsNow of course we could use an Arduino,in combination with a potentiometer and a MOSFET,in order to turn on and off the LED strip rapidly and thus dim its brightnessBut you can already see a common problem with such a circuitsBy utilizing the predefined PWM frequency of the Arduinowhich is around 490Hz, a noticeable flicker is captured by my cameraTo fix this we could change the PWM frequency of the Arduino up to 3.9KHzwhich gets rid of all the flickerBut we could also scrap the microcontroller parts completelyand simply use the classical 555 timer IC insteadBy creating an astable multivibrator circuit with itwe can create a PWM signal with a variable duty cycle between 0% andalmost 100% at the frequency of 25KHzThis signal is then fed into a TC4420 MOSFET driver ICWhich controls the gate of an IRLZ44N MOSFETand thus ultimately controls the LED stripAt a constant voltage of 12Vthis circuit draws around 3A at 100% brightness of the pure white and warm white LED stripsBut since my targeted portable energy sourceaka a lithium-ion battery pack which I created in a previous project videohas a voltage range of 12.6V down to 9Vit would slowly decrease the brightness of the LEDsSo, we need a powerful buck boost converterwhose input connects to the battery in order to create a stable 12V outputno matter whether the input voltage is higher or lower than 12VAnd for safety reason we also need one of those LiPo battery voltage testerBy connecting the balance outputs of the lithium-ion battery to itit monitors the voltage of each cell constantly andcreates a loud beeping sounds when one of them reaches a voltage of 3Vsince that is the moment you need to recharge your battery packTo complete the circuit, all that was left was a double pole double throw switchwhich interrupts and connects the ground potential of the battery to the buck boost converterand the ground wire of the balance connector to the monitor circuitNow of course, one 555 timer circuit with MOSFETs is not enough for two LED colorsSo I created a 7 x 5.5 centimeter piece of perfboard with copper dots,gathered the required components for two 555 timer circuitsand soldered all of them to the perfboardAccording to my created schematic of the finalized circuit,I connect the components to one anotherAnd of course you can find the schematicalong with other useful information in the video descriptionOnce the soldering procedure was complete,I use the component and screw hole markings on the perfboard that I created beforehand,to design an appropriate case for the electronics in 123D DesignAfter a print duration of roughly 8 hours in totalthe printed case look decentbut definitely had some warping problemsBut nevertheless after removing all the support material, the circuits did fit decentlySo I added the appropriate socket to my lithium ion batterypushed them into the new housing and secure them with two component adhesiveAfter the glue was dry, I added the remaining components to the perfboardsoldered wires and male headers to two potentiometershooked up the LED wires to the terminalsand connected the power circuitry in order to test the completed circuit one last timeSince it worked like a charm, I soldered appropriate wires to the switch and voltage testerconnected them to the XT60 connector and balance connectorand then mounted them along with the potentiometers on to the case with nuts and a bit of hot glueThen I secured the control circuit in the top section of the boardand the buck boost converter right underneath itto finish this project I used three strips of Velcro tape on the back side of the batteryand control housing to mount it to the back side of the LED panelshorted the LED wire, secure them to the PCB terminalsgave the whole thing labels and closed the housing with its lidThe following battery test was, as you can see, a clear successBut you can always scrap the battery part and directly connect a 12V power source to the DC jackThe buck boost converter does not mind thatNow I will use my LED panel in the future to film a solar project in my garageSince there's wiring, a switch, a socket and the light installedbut simply no electrical power availableI hope you liked this projectIf so don't forget to like, share and subscribeConsider supporting me through patreon to keep such videos comingStay creative and I will see you next time