Probably, many faced a problem when you choose to spend the night in nature, and it’s dark around, because the light from the fire is not enough for a modern person to feel comfortable. For these purposes, you can make an LED lamp that will work on a 12 volt battery.
Necessary materials and tools for work
From the materials you will need:
- For the manufacture of the housing, a segment of an ordinary plastic pipe with a diameter of 20 mm is perfect.
- LED strip on a self-adhesive base. You can even use small segments if they are left over from previous work. To do this, it is enough to connect them in series with wire and soldering or using special clamps.
- Silicone sealant.
- Insulation tape.
- Wire, screw terminal blocks, 12 V connector and other materials for making electrical connections.
Tool Needed:
- Any tool available that is suitable for longitudinal cutting of a plastic pipe.
- Soldering iron and solder.
- Screwdriver Set.
- Pliers, wire cutters and other improvised tools.
Making LED Tube Lamp
First you need to determine the size of the lamp. The length of the necessary PVC pipe and LED strip depends on this. The lamp housing is cut out of a plastic pipe. You can use a small grinder, sharp side cutters or any other tool with which you can cut plastic. This is how the case should turn out.
Note! The ends of the tube (approximately 50-100 mm) are left intact so that the structure has rigidity and shape.
After the pipe is cut, the edges of the cut must first be treated with coarse, then fine sandpaper, to remove plastic burrs and make the edges smooth.
The next stage is working with the electrical part of a home-made lamp.
The approximate assembly order of the LED lamp is as follows.
A power connector is connected at one end of the LED strip. Any type of plug connection may be used. The example shows the use of the so-called aviation plug, to which the wires were soldered. The wires and terminal connections for the battery are soldered to the second part of the plug.
Advice! If you need to connect several segments of the LED strip, this can be done using convenient clamping connectors and a conventional screw terminal block. Also, this method can be used if in the future additional lighting will need to be connected to the finished lamp.
The advantage of using LED strips is that all the LEDs are powered from the tracks going inside the tape, so there is no need to lay additional wires.
When all the electrical connections are complete, it remains to lay out and align the tape in an improvised ceiling, then gently peel off the protective strip from the adhesive strip and stick the tape to the plastic.
To connect the next segment of the lighting system, a connecting wire with a terminal block at the end is passed through a side hole in the pipe.
The end holes of the pipe are filled with silicone sealant. This filling performs two functions:
- Reliably seals electrical connections.
- Locks in the necessary position of a wire.
That's all, after the sealant has completely dried, the LED lamp is ready! You can make several of these fixtures and, if necessary, increase the power of lighting to connect several segments in one system.
Such a lamp can be taken with you outdoors, used in a garage or workshop when the power is turned off.
