# Large multi led spot lights



## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Hello All,

Here is my tutorial for making larger multi-led spot lights using either 1 1/2 schedule 40 PVC pipe (12 leds) or 2 inch schedule 40 PVC pipe (18 to 21 leds). The procedure is the same for both the only difference is the size of the pipes. I prefer the 1 1/2 spots because they are a little easier to solder. Here is a picture of a 1 1/2 12 led spot light (unpainted) it consist of an end cap, a 4 1/2 inch piece of pipe, a temporary closure cap, and a straight pipe coupler. The temporary cap is a small plastic disk with a lip on it that fits into the PVC pipe. They are used to keep mice and bugs out of plumbing work before it can be finished. The cap is removed when more pipe is added.




























The first step in adding the leds to the cap is the drill the holes in the temporary cap. Draw a centered grid of 3 columns and four rows. Drill a 3/16 hole where the lines intersect. This is to be used as a template to make the other caps for drilling. To mark the blank caps I use a short 1/2 piece of 1 1/2 pvc pipe to align the disk. I then use a sharpie marker to mark the spots to be drilled out on the cap to be drilled. The template cap sits on the top and the blank cap is in the bottom of the short piece of pipe.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Here we see the new cap that is now drilled and ready for the leds. The 3/16 hole is a little tight for the leds so a slight wobble when you drill the holes will make them fit better.










Now we move on to the leds. if you look at a led you will notice that one of the leads is longer than the other this is the positive lead. Aother feature of the leds is that if you look along the lip at the base of the dome where the leads enter the led from the bottom you will see a flat spot on the lip on the negative side of the led. Also I want to mention that in the picture below you see the four resistors I cut one end shorter (about 1/2 inch) which will be soldered to the led as we will see shortly. I will post another thread which will deal with how to select the correct resistor and how to use a resistor calculator.










It may be hard to see is this photo but the flat spot is at the top of the lip in this picture.










The next step is to take 4 leds and four resistors that we are going to solder together. First I bend a small hook in the longer positive lead of the led and the shorter end of the resistor and hook them together for soldering. Squeese the hooks closed and then solder the connection. Do this for all four leds and resistors.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

And here is the soldered connection.










Now we can start to mount the leds into the temporary cap. Insert one of the leds with the resistor into the first row of three holes. To keep it the same and to lessen the possibility of making a mistake I always keep the positive leads to the left. I start with one of the leds with the resistor on the left and the remaining two leds have the longer leads on the left.










Twist the leads together with only one twist at this point. This will connect all three leds together. DO NOT solder it yet. We have to test it first. Make sure that none of the leads are touching (except for the one that we twisted together. Apply power (positive 12V on the left and ground to the right in my case) and make sure that all 3 leds light up. If they do not check to make sure that one of the leds is not connected backwards or you might have a bad led (it is extremely rare to have a bad led but not unheard of).










Remove the power and give each twist another turn or two (be careful not to over twist and damage the led) and solder the connections.










Trim off the excess leads and should now look like this.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Repeat for the remaining three rows. Remember when testing before you connect the power make sure the leads are not touching between rows. Here all the leds are installed tested and soldered.










The next step is to twist together the ends of the resistors and the negative ends of the end leds and to form hooks for easier soldering to the power wires that will come up into the PVC pipe through a hole in the end cap. Finally hot glue the leds to seal them and to keep the leads from ever touching and shorting out the power supply.










The finished cap with all the leds installed and ready to be wired.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Cool. I'm thinking about trying to make 10mm leds to see how they will look. I'm might try this with it.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Thanks for this. I was reading the M&T thread and was trying to picture how this all goes together and now I don't have to try ... its all here.

Now, to look over the RCA connectors and I have my next project to do.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Nicely documented, HP! Having the photos is extremely helpful.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

I was planning on making some of these too add to my LED light show. Thanks for figuring it out! I will be copying this tut later this summer. Good work.


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## Joiseygal (Sep 3, 2008)

Great job on the tutorial Joe! I love the the detailed photos...it always helps while doing a project like this.


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

Great Job Joe. I was working on a very similar design over the winter, Great minds think alike. Great pictures too!


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

That's nice, but can we see the rest of the project..?


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Thanks guys, Beelce there is not much left to show - just final assembly and some mounting options for the spots. I have not yet documented that yet but I will get to it prob this weekend. Rich has already covered the power distribution boxes. These spots are just larger versions of the smaller ones that we have made before. They will mount the same way. I have included all links relating to this below. If you still have any questions please feel free to ask.

Here is where I got the idea from for the these spot lights:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=28884&highlight=led+spots

These three links cover the smaller 1" leds spots:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=25530&highlight=led+spots

http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=20809

Here is Rich's coverage of my power distribution system. I just run a main line with female RCA jack pigtalls off of it every few feet and the boxes plug into these for power, Then you plug (daisy chain) one power distribution box to the next.

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30652

I have also included a how to of how to use a led calculator to select the correct resistor.

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30658


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

Thanks for the acknowlegement Joe. Feel free to link to your any of your efforts in my LED pages as well. I especially like your RCA power junction boxs. Very clever. I still like my vampire clips but that's just because I will have 0ver well 200 fixtures next year on over 600' of wire. BUT, I can see Hybridizing my setup to include Vampire clip "Nodes" with some of your Junction boxes connected to my landscape wire with Vampire clips for diferent "Zones" in this years haunt. I LOVE IT! I'm especially glad that Rich likes it. His coors lite paulsey kept him from properly connecting the vampire clips last year (Busting chops Rich ). Keep up the Great work Joe. We hope to see you at NJH once or twice this comming year.


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## CoolDJTV (Jun 28, 2011)

Awsome and easy to do


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

They look great, nice job on the tut.


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

How about a few light tests so we can see how well all those LEDs can light up a prop in the dark. Maybe compared to some of the smaller fixtures.


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

Thanks Joe, I watched Rich's tut on the rca connections, brilliant idea, especially since I have about 30 rca cords from various dead vcr's, dvd's, tv's. Glad you posted this. This is more of what I am looking for. I want more of a wash effect than a spot. Would straw hat leds work with this design?


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

I do not see why not, You might have to drill different size holes depending on the leds that you get. The plastic cap is only about 1/8 inch thick maybe less


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Dead Things said:


> Thanks Joe, I watched Rich's tut on the rca connections, brilliant idea, especially since I have about 30 rca cords from various dead vcr's, dvd's, tv's. Glad you posted this. This is more of what I am looking for. I want more of a wash effect than a spot. Would straw hat leds work with this design?


Take a look at these.










They are very bright, pre-wired for 12v, and are RGB. Just wire up the color you want, or all the lines together for white. You can also attach a cheap $8 DMX controller and dial in the intensity and color you want with a PC. I've mentioned the DMX thing before, so I won't hijack this thread.

I love the housing for these LEDS. I'm thinking about using this for my small spots. These look great!


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

Jaybo said:


> Take a look at these.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've looked at holidaycoro but he doesn't sell into Canada, pity


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Jaybo said:


> Take a look at these.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have never used those leds - I understand that they can get hot so you may not be able to use a plastic housing for them. I also think that they may be too bright for haunting needs. Try them and see how they work. I have seen RGB leds of the type that I use. It gave me the idea of maybe using them in my spots with a rotary switch to select between the three colors. These may be overly complicated though.


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Sweet. and simple. Great stuff. I needed a few more of the spot-ala-nibliques that were a bit larger. Now I will have some. Thanks. Great tutorial by the way.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Here is some shots and video of the large led spots that I used this year for my Carnival. I was very sick that week so it was the best I could do do with what energy I had. Please excuse the heavy breathing because I was all congested and could not breath through my nose.

Here are some shots and video of the carnival and the led spots. I used 6 large spots ( 3 for each game) and 4 of the smaller led spots for the fly fishing. I also used 5 power distribution nodes and one 12 foot extension speaker cable.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Here are some videos:

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v147/jmalt31/Halloween%202014/SDV_0311_zpsxeqsnkmp.mp4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v147/jmalt31/Halloween%202014/SDV_0315_zpsfqk86yew.mp4


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I'm not able to see anything.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Sorry try that - I fixed the pictures can you also see the videos?


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I can see the pictures. No video though. Nice lights.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

did you double click on the video icons (squares)? it should open the video in another window


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## bayork (Oct 20, 2006)

*Spot mods to add color filters*

hpropman/goosta...

Thx for your designs! I made a mod to them to add a flared mouth that would accept slip-in colored filters I created for these spots. I figurd someone else has probably thought of this, but if NOT....... 

Here are the spots. the 1.5' x 2" coupling I added to the mouth end allows for slipping in/out pvc-mounted gels. It adds about $1.50 to the materials cost for each light:










Here's a shot of the filters. The materials to make them are just a 2" Sched 40 PVC pipe, a pack of gel-papers(I picked this up from Amazon), and Gorilla Glue. Mine ended up costing about $.33 each, and you can find gels in practically ANY color you would want to use this way:


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Hey cool Idea! how does the filters work as opposed to actual different colored leds? I assume those are white leds?


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