# LED Spotlight Terminal



## Hallowennie315 (Sep 5, 2007)

Hey everyone. So I followed the tutorial HERE to make LED spotlights and they are great! (BTW, the prewired LEDS are SOO worth the extra $) To extend this, I made my own terminal to power all the LEDS. Here is the link to the tutorial on HalloweenForum. I have also put a "picture-less" how to below...

Here is what you will be making:









What you will need:
a wooden craft box (I got mine from Michael's)
speaker wire (you will need it for the LED spotlights anyway)
electrical wire (again, you will need it for the LED spotlights)
liquid electric tape
speaker terminals
adapter (or whatever power source you're using)
assorted small screws
wire caps
black paint

Tools you will need:
a drill or screwdriver
jigsaw
wire cutter/stripper
glue gun (and glue sticks) * optional
a paint brush

Step 1: Take the top (smaller side) off of your box. You can set the top aside for now.

Step 2: Measure your speaker terminals - mine were about one inch long and one and a half inch wide so I traced out a section that I would eventually cut out. I got my speaker terminals HERE. Since I got 20, they were only $0.58 each. In this step, I also drilled holes in the corners so that I could saw out the rectangles easier.

Step 3: Cut out all three sections. Notice that section 3 on the right is smaller because I wanted to fit all the speaker terminals on the box so I did two rows of 7 and one row of 6. Put the sections that you cut out aside for later.

Step 4: Paint the top and bottom black.

Step 5: Screw the speaker terminals into the board. You can see that I didn't space my rows properly and I only could fit one screw on the last 2 rows... they're still fine and secure... I'm not too worried.

Step 6: Turn the box over and fill in any gaps you may have with electrical tape.

Step 7: Next, using spare speaker wire wire the terminals together. You can attach the wire to the terminals by looping the wire through the hook on the back. REMEMBER: Know what side is red and what side is black. I used the copper side on the red terminal side and the silver wire on the black terminal side. I grouped the terminals into groups of four and then connected the groups of four together to the adapter.

Step 8: Use the liquid electrical tape and seal up the loop and wire from the terminal. Put a big dab on top and let it dry overnight. I put on 3 coats of liquid electrical tape just to be sure. I also added a dab of hot glue after the third coat was dry.

Step 9: Wire all the groups together to the adapter. I used wire caps to keep the wires together. I also drilled a hole in the side so the adapter chord could go through.

Step 10: Screw one of the sections that you cut out to the bottom so that your box will stand up and re-attach the top. Plug it in and you are done! Simply make your spotlights and you can attach the ends to the box! Tonight I will take some pictures of the spotlights in the dark so you can see just how bright they are. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and Happy Haunting!

LikI will give clarification on any of the above steps.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

I'm going to have to read this later, but I think you solved my biggest problem for this year. Thanks for sharing.


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## Allen H (Feb 13, 2010)

Awesome, you are so much smarter than me, lol. Great idea making a terminal. Its awesome how an idea gets thrown out, and so many other cool things just add to it.


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## Death Wraith (Mar 23, 2006)

Thanks for posting this. I've been kicking around the same idea for awhile now. In my version the sockets are mounted to the back of a medium size toolbx. The power supply sits inside and the led spots are stored in the tray of the toolbox. Makes everything compact for storage and easily portable to the haunt site. I haven't nailed down what would be the perfect 'plug and go' type of connection. Ideally it would be something like 1/8" audio plugs and sockets so you can just plug the spots straight into the toolbox. But how to mount the sockets? I think I would struggle with your speaker terminals with tiny speaker wire in a dark location. Maybe you could mount an LED to your box with a small switch and powered right out of your wiring, for those times when it's dark.


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