# LED Spotlights (Modified)



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

Hi Everyone!

Last year I became obsessed with finding the best way to build my own DIY LED spotlights. I love doing things the DIY way because I would always rather spend my time vs. my money getting something done.

I did a lot of research on the best possible way to build my own LED spotlights in this forum and others. In the end, I was most inspired by a method originally found here: Original thread. I felt that method did about 90% of what I wanted, but I knew I wanted to modify the approach a bit to get exactly what I was looking for. I am posting the results here.

I knew I needed LED spotlights that were...

Compact
Easy to plug-n-play
Full pan ability
Full tilt ability
Extremely cheap to make
Using every day items that are cheap to come by
100% waterproof for years to come
Fire resistant for safety
Easy to make
Could theoretically last forever

The original tutorial came about 90% of the way for me. However there were a few issues:

Bottle cap size standards were changing (have changed since)
I usually don't drink soda anyway! (did not want to spring for bottles just to get the caps)
Did not appear 100% water proof
Vampire system seemed a little difficult to use per my taste (no judgement!)
Pretty easy to make, although I felt it could be improved a bit

So I began the long search for new and improved ways to build upon this design and get everything I wanted. After a lot of trial and error, I finally discovered two items that solved all of these problems!

Enter wine corks & pipe brackets


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 1: Gather Materials*


3/4" PVC Pipe (thicker walled kind, not thin walled)
5mm LEDs of choice w/ appropriate resistors
Speaker wire (or other small wire on hand)
Solder / soldering iron
Wine corks
3/4" metal pipe bracket
Various bolts, nuts and brackets for swivel mount
Waterproof caulk
Custom laser-cut 1" plexiglass circles (optional)
Black spray paint


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 2: Cut up the pipes*

Similar to the original thread, I like to do things in assembly line fashion. First, I cut up the pipe in about 4 3/4" long pieces:


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 3: Cut up the corks*

In my research I discovered some amazing things about cork:

It fits perfectly snug into a 3/4" thick walled PVC pipe. I mean PERFECT! This is the replacement for the bottle caps in the original thread. 
No need to drill cork. Saves a whole step! Just stab little holes into it where you want to stick the LED cathode/anode connections and you instantly can "plant" your LEDs in place. 
Cork is naturally water and fire resistant. WARNING: Only use this with low power LEDs. This is not intended for use with super high power LEDs (Example 1 watt LEDs and higher require heat syncs to disperse the heat). Like the original thread, this is intended for every day, medium-low power LEDs only. I find that is more than enough when you wire up around 5 LEDs.
Cork naturally expands and is electrically insulating (not conductive). This is great for when you plant your LEDs, the cork will naturally tighten around the connections sealing them off from water helping to avoid short circuits and other problems. 
Cork is fast and easy to work with! Super easy to cut, mold, stab, etc. 
Cork is fun to collect (wine drinkers anyone?). Not to mention you can probably ask a local winery for some left over corks if you don't have access. 
1 cork can equal 2-3 lights because you can cut one cork up for multiple uses.
Need I go on???

So let's cut up some cork! I find that corks cut to 1 cm in thickness is perfect for the top and bottom of each light:


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 4: Plant your LEDs in the corks*

For my wiring of 5mm LEDs I find that each cork easily can hold up to six LEDs. To make it easy I draw the following diagram on the cork:









Using a push pin, I then stab little holes where I want the LED anodes and cathodes to go (you can try skipping this, but don't blame me if you bend your LEDs a bit trying to directly stab them into the cork without these little 'pilot' holes):









Once your pilot holes are ready, you can plant your LEDs:









This is the final arrangement I end up with (of course you can experiment with your own configurations):


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 5: Solder up your connections*

I won't go into too much detail on this one as what connections/resistors you solder up depend on each configuration and requirements of the LEDs you are working with. There are many tutorials on this forum and others that cover how to wire up your LEDs.

For my example in this thread I had two LED series of three, each wired up to a resistor. I then wired up both series to a speaker wire (positive and negative). Results should look something like this:


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 6: Push the newly made cork LED into a pipe*

Note the perfect fit!


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 7: Solder up the connector of choice on the back end with a cork through it*

In my case, I used a female RCA connector because I plan on having an RCA based lighting system (cheap and flexible). Once you've soldered the connections between your connector of choice and the internal speaker wire, you can push that cork in the the back end of the light. Again, a perfect fit


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 8: Bend a mounting bracket backwards around the pipe and tighten w/ nuts/bolts*

These pictures should explain in full: 

















I won't go into too many details around what kind of L brackets you use or nuts and bolts. Reason is, you may want to modify this a bit depending on how you plan on mounting your lights. But the fundamental concept here is that this keeps the lights more waterproof (no drilling holes in the pipes required). The key concept is that you can bend these pipe bracket flaps backwards and run a bolt through it to get a snug grip on the light. It works extremely well and a whole box of these pipe brackets are only a few bucks.


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 9 (Optional): Caulk up the back and plexiglass front*

I list this part as optional because you may not need waterproofing. I live in Indiana where it rains almost every day during the Fall, so waterproofing is a must. Not to mention we had snow last year on Halloween!

First I caulked the back for extra waterproofing:









Next I needed a lens for the front. I had to do some research, but I found a company that makes 1" diameter plexiglass circles for crafts. I got 100 of them for around $8. Not bad! Zlazr Plexiglass Circles. These made the perfect lenses for my project:


----------



## morrisdirector (Mar 15, 2015)

*Step 10: Spray paint those babies black!*

I have not done this yet so I don't have a picture, but this is straight forward.

Well that's it!  I would love to hear your feedback. I am loving this modified design!


----------



## BillyVanpire (Apr 22, 2015)

great job morrisdirector! you could make a bunch in one night easily 
the cork seems perfect for this, good thinking.


----------



## MapThePlanet (Nov 12, 2010)

Nice new take on an older project!! Corks! Who knew!!


----------



## Lizzyborden (Sep 7, 2012)

Thanks! The cork idea is ingenious!


----------



## forevermy3 (Sep 8, 2010)

This is awesome! You have a Wine party and then get an excellent LED light! Tanks for posing.


----------



## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Very cool. But what if you want them to use a standard socket and plug. Would you use the same resistors? These would be perfect for highlighting some of my decorations in my haunt. What about colors? Can you get the LEDs in colors? Would the use of a lens or gel be needed?


----------

