How-To make your own LED Strobes the CrazyLightLady Super Cheap Way

All of the creative genius credit belongs to Darryl Quinn of D-Light Light Show Products.  Darryl showed my his proto-type back in October 2005, but I had to wait until D-Light introduced their DCx16 board early in 2006 to be able to make my own strobes.

Materials-It doesn't get any simpler than this.

LEDs-I bought a string of Philips LEDs during the after Christmas sale at Target just to see how the looked and discovered that the removable button bulbs were perfect for making individual strobes.  I paid about $6 for the strand, pretty good price for 60 super bright LEDs, that generally sell for $2.49 each at Fry's.  Even better yet, Wal-Mart offered multi-colored strands with removable bulbs for Christmas 2006.  Thank you very much!  I now have super cheap wide angle LED for colored strobes.  I'm making blue strobes first.

Resistors-You'll need one for each strobe.  There's a lot of different sites that have resistor calculator on them.   Just plug in the voltage you're planning on using, the voltage of the LED, and viola!  The correct resistor value for the strobe.  Here's a link to one of my favorite sites that has excellent information about LEDs.  I haven't purchased anything from them, not yet anyway, so I can't comment on their products.  www.lsdiodes.com/tutorial

Heat Shrink Tubing-You'll need 3 different sizes, I used 3/32, 1/8, and 3/16.  You may need different sizes depending on the size LED you use and the size wire.

Wire-Doesn't have to be heavy duty, you're only using very low DC voltage.  I'm using the wire that I salvaged from the old mini lights I had.  I cut off the plugs for other uses and then cut off the light sockets and threw them away.  Yes, you could just go buy wire, but that defeats the purpose of super cheap, especially since copper prices have doubled in the last year.

Tools-Wire strippers, soldering iron, and a helping hand.

And last, but not least.  Go to http://www.d-light.us/ and order the DCx16 board.  In fact order several, I did.  That's why I'm making colored strobes too!

Step 1. Remove LEDs from their sockets, straighten the leads, determine which lead is Positive, and color it with a red Sharpie.

I use a battery holder that uses two AA batteries.  The voltage supplied is 3v so I don't take a chance in frying the diode.

Step 2.  Solder the correct resistor to the positive lead and make sure you trim the excess. 

Step 3. Solder one wire to the resistor and trim the excess.

Step 4. Solder another wire to the other lead and trim.

Step 5.  Place heat shrink tubing over the exposed wires and shrink the tubing.  You may want to do one lead at a time to insure you have the heat shrink tight up against the bottom of the LED.  This reduces the chance of a short between the leads.

                       Before                                      After

Step 6.  Add a larger piece of heat shrink tubing around the base of the LED, it adds stability and aids in reducing the possibility of water intrusion.

There you go!  Now just wire it in to a D-Light DCx16 and strobe away!

Not the greatest video, but it does give you an idea of how well the LEDs work.  And with just 12v DC.  Amazing!

Remember this is my site and my opinions, I'm not an expert at anything, if you have questions or constructive comments e-mail me, and finally, please don't post any of this information on the TCL site or boards.  Thanks