Old Sockets

Take apart the socket from a burnt out florescent bulb. Cut a circle of plastic or cardboard that will just fit into the shell. Solder 28 LED in series and place them around the perimeter of the circle and push in the circle of plastic to hold the LEDs.


The following is one way of how to wire a 1.1 Watt white LED light bulb that uses 115 Volt AC.



The following is an example of what can be done with LEDs held in place with silicon rubber (RTV Silicon Instant Gasket).


Different shapes for the end can be made for different purposes.

The pigtails on the LEDs can be bent around the support wire as show below. This didn't work as well as using a PC board with holes in it. The LED leads have to get really hot during soldering to the number 12 wire. It is very easy to over heat the LED.


The use of a PC board with holes in it worked the best to organize and point the LEDs. Note that this rendition uses the LM-317 to limit current to 84 ma.


In this case sanding some of the LEDs flat and leaving some round to get the right light distribution.


Small stick on push to turn on battery operated LED lights can be found on the market these days. These were bought at a local store.


Or this can be made from an older tungsten filament version by taking it apart and replacing the bulb by several LEDs. This one has 3 LEDs a series resistor and runs on an exteranal 12 Volt battery.

Offered by Mike.