Simple USB Charging 1W LED Light DIY
I Have A Thing For Li-Ion Batteries and LED's.
Saturday, 01 February 2020
I have gone through a lot of mobile phones, mostly given to me by my kids who always seem to want the latest and greatest phones. I myself have upgraded my phones but mostly to keep the Android Apps I use "relevent". Over the years I've accumulated phones, cables, chargers (I like re-using these as well), batteries, manuals, boxes etc. This post is specifically related the 3.7V Li-Ion batteries with inbuilt protection.
This small DIY project is very basic, just a handful of extremely cheap ebay componants with minimal soldering, the 3 parts all mounted directly onto the battery using a glue gun.
- repurposed mobile phone battery (Li-Ion 3.7V 350mA+) with built in protection
- 1W LED with PC Board from ebay.
- lithium battery charger board from ebay.
- current limiting resistor 1 Ohm 1/4Watt (I didn't have any so I used 4x 22 Ohm in parallel = 5.5 Ohm). I just ordered 100x from ebay 1.2 Ohm resistors
- a cheap switch from ebay
- some hook-up wire
The soldering is basic and straight forward
- battery charger board connects directly to the battery +ve to +ve, -ve to -ve
- the 1W LED is made up like so, +ve -----[ Switch ]-----[ 1 Ohm Resistor ]-----( 1W LED )----- -ve, connected in parallel with either the battery charger board OR the battery.
Procedure
- glue the charger board, switch, LED onto the battery.
- solder the resistor between the switch and LED
- completed the connections using hook-up wire
For me, that is the end of this project. I made 10 of these, fully charged them up then stored then in a kitchen cupboard. On a 4 monthly schedule (sometimes I forget, even after 8 months) I pull them out, switch them on to see if they are OK, charge then stored onced again. I haven't had 1 failure yet.
Enclosure
Not looking too professional I did make an attempt of creating a somewhat pleasing housing. A plastic Mayonaise Jar (labels removed) with bubble wrap pushed inside and threw away the lid. This sits over the mobile phone battery. Looks neat at night!
Summary
Just a reminder for those not familiar with Li-Ion batteries. They do not last forever, from my research they can be recharged between 300-500 times. But considering they can be found in abundance or cheap to buy (brand new) this can still be a useful lighting system.
Earlier Lights made 4 Years Ago Still Working Fine
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STOPThis is so creative of you @kiwibloke! My husband also does something like this. He is fond of making diy projects!
What are these lights for? Why did you make 10 of them?
This is simply wonderful! It is recycling with practical utility!
Here in Venezuela (where I live) it would be very useful to learn how to make this lighting system for the days when the national electrical system does not work. It would serve for several emergencies: hospitals, stairs, among others.
It has been a great pleasure to read you @kiwibloke
ha ha very funny ;-)) it's nice to see all these smart and creative ideas on steemit !! keep on
Hi kiwibloke,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.