# Looking for ideas on how to make kitchen counter lights?



## ken2400 (Jan 13, 2007)

Hi I am looking to light up my kitchen counter with LED lights. I have some 5mm ones sitting around BUT would buy more if need be.
Please look at 



The counter.jpg one.

I have made some night lights and am good at basic electrons.
Any ideas/examples would be GREAT!

Thanks

What I have so far. 


5mm LEDs in wire molding.


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## DonShock (Jan 14, 2007)

You might find this 120 Vac Input / 350mA or 700mA constant current driver useful.


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## ken2400 (Feb 25, 2007)

It time I get to this project going. I have a power supply that will put out 5.9 V DC at 2 Amps. It is an CASIO Casiapeo(sp) PDA power supply AD-C59200U,

What is the best way to connect say 12 to 20 5mm LEDs? I was thinking parallel with a resistor? I was going to drive them at say 20 ma each and use a multimeter and a pot to figure out the right resistor?

Am I thinking right?

Thanks


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## ken2400 (Mar 1, 2007)

Bump


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## Bandgap (Mar 1, 2007)

Buy them from Ikea - it does strips of 5mm leds and a power supply exactly for this application. 

Steve


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## 65535 (Mar 1, 2007)

LikeWise I think cutter.au sells higher powered strips of lux's or cree's with pre installed or not optics. Might take a look there.


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## mchlwise (Mar 1, 2007)

It's not near as fun, but two words:

"LED ropelight." 

:rock:


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## Ken_McE (Mar 1, 2007)

Can you say a little about how you want it to look, and what you want it to do?


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## hotbeam (Mar 2, 2007)

5mm and rope lights will give you a glow. Just an effect only. Power leds will be bright but you need a good heatsink and the may add to the height of the fixture. Also unless you put them quite closely spaced, you will get the scalloping effect which may be quite unsightly. You should use lower intensity LEDs and space them evenly so the light is even.


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## ken2400 (Mar 2, 2007)

Thanks for all your ideas so far. I am trying to light up the counter under the cabs in picture. I did look at one from Lowes, round disks for like $16. Did not find a picture of them on the internet.


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## ejor (Mar 2, 2007)

I used an old tracklight track [about 3/4 thick] upside down, for heatsink and ran wires and resistor inside used appropiate wall transformer. I cut aluminum track to lenth with carbide skillsaw blade. epoxied 3 k2's to it. lots of light.


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## Brocken (Mar 2, 2007)

I'm working on one right now with 5 Cree LED's, mounted to aluminum heat sinks made from 5 or 6" round stock, 3/4" thick, using a Xitanium transformer. Still waiting for the LED's to arrive, have got to spin up the Al yet and order the transformer so it will be a couple of weeks before it is all done. McGizmo has a set mounted under his counter and that is what I'm trying to do, he has pictures and a write up also.

Dave Brock


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## cutlerylover (Mar 2, 2007)

check out lowes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was there the other day buying rope lighting for a bar that my father and I are building...they have exactly what your lookign for, both incandescent and LED "pods" that can be attached underneath cabinets for accent lighting...they have a test area and they are bright lights! Im not sure how much they cost though...but I can tell you I had fun playign with them in the store...


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## greenlight (Mar 2, 2007)

I'd like to remove these lamps and replace them with a strip of leds.


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## Sway (Mar 2, 2007)

4 T-Bin LuxIII's, flat stock aluminum heat sinks, nFlex driver. This set up has been updated since the pic's were made, another LuxIII was added over the coffee maker for a total of 5 LED's and MaxFlex driver is use with a 12V 35Ah SLA.











Later
Kelly


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## ken2400 (Mar 3, 2007)

Thanks cutlerylover. I have been to Lowes and use to have one of the lights you are talking about. I played with it for a while then returned it. That was before my wife asked for the lighting. I wanted to buy another one BUT they were out. Need to go back. In the mean time I wanted to use the 5 mm ones I have to make something.




cutlerylover said:


> check out lowes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was there the other day buying rope lighting for a bar that my father and I are building...they have exactly what your lookign for, both incandescent and LED "pods" that can be attached underneath cabinets for accent lighting...they have a test area and they are bright lights! Im not sure how much they cost though...but I can tell you I had fun playign with them in the store...


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## ken2400 (Mar 3, 2007)

What is the best way to connect many leds together. I have a 5V DC power supply and need to connect like 10 + LEDs to it. Should each LED get it's own resistor?

Thanks


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## ken2400 (Mar 3, 2007)

Well I made some progress. I made two strips that use my 5mm LEDs. I still need to get some resistors since I think each LED needs it own resistor? Something about one could pull more current then the other 3? I am going to go for 20 ma, maybe less if they give off enought light at 15 ma.

Well I will keep working on it and post some results later.
Thanks for all the help so far guys.


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## roadie (Mar 4, 2007)

oh do note on also easy cleaning on the led area when its spring cleaning of the year.

in real world, dust, oil , water vapor do attach to fixtures in the kitchen.

happy modding


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## cutlerylover (Mar 4, 2007)

ken2400 said:


> Thanks cutlerylover. I have been to Lowes and use to have one of the lights you are talking about. I played with it for a while then returned it. That was before my wife asked for the lighting. I wanted to buy another one BUT they were out. Need to go back. In the mean time I wanted to use the 5 mm ones I have to make something.


 
No problem...Sorry to hear they were sold out when you went...To save yourself a trip you cna call before hand and find out if and when they will have them in stock...


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## AndyTiedye (Mar 4, 2007)

Added to LED Fixed Lighting Index


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## 2xTrinity (Mar 4, 2007)

> What is the best way to connect many leds together. I have a 5V DC power supply and need to connect like 10 + LEDs to it. Should each LED get it's own resistor?
> 
> Thanks
> Reply With Quote


The best way to connect multiple LEDs together is in series, so that each receives the same current no matter what. The only problem with that in practice is will be hard to find a good power supply with high enough voltage to pull that off. Also, if you want to arbitrarily add or remove an LED later, that creates problems (as you'll change the voltage drop across the string) The switching power supplies used for cell phone chargers are perfect for this sort of project. I've made a single-LED fixture using a 4.9V 400mA battery charger -- the voltage rating is a maximum, as long as that number is higher than the forward voltage of the LED (or string of LEDs) then the power supply will consistently deliver the nominal current (it has to be well regulated if it's a battery charger).

With a 5V power supply, you will have no choice but to run them in parallel though. I would run at least 4 LEDs so that each one gets on average 500mA. 5 or even 6 would work better if you can afford it, as each would get 400mA/333mA respectively -- the LEDs will be running somewhat more efficiently at lower current, meaning you'll get more total light for the same power with more LEDs, and the heat, and light ouptut, will be more evenly spread out.

One potential problem with running LEDs in parallel is if one LED heats up more than the others, its resistance will go down -- this will cause it to take on more and more of the current, and others in the parallel array to get less and less. Even though the total current (2A) is regulated, the current through each separate LED isn't, so you may get uneven brightness/heating. Placing a low-value resistor inline with each LED will mitigate that.

Since it's possible to buy 5 U-Bin Seoul LEDs from dealextreme for $36, and you already have the power supply, you could get this entire fixture done for under $50. Not a bad deal considering much, lower quality LED/fluorescent undercabinets fixtures can go for $30+. The Seoul LEDs with your power supply should provide about 600 lumens of light fom around 6 watts dissipated in the LEDs, plus losses in the driver. The switching supplies don't get very hot in my experience so they must be pretty efficient too (don't have any numbers offhand).


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## LiteFan (Mar 4, 2007)

Some info and pictures

http://dmcleish.com/tri-cluster/

I recently saw tons of info on MCGizmo's Maui home that he has wired tons of led's for night lighting but cannot find it now.

edit: found it http://dmcleish.com/MauiHome/


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## ken2400 (Mar 4, 2007)

Thanks for the add AndyTiedye, the pressure is on to get this up and some photos now.



AndyTiedye said:


> Added to LED Fixed Lighting Index


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## ken2400 (Mar 4, 2007)

Good point roadie. I need to seal the wood see how the dirt builds up on the LEDs. Good thing is this is not over the sink or the stove.



roadie said:


> oh do note on also easy cleaning on the led area when its spring cleaning of the year.
> 
> in real world, dust, oil , water vapor do attach to fixtures in the kitchen.
> 
> happy modding


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## ken2400 (Mar 4, 2007)

That is what I thought 2xTrinity. I need make the light so each LED has it own resistor. As for the cell phone chargers I have made night lights from cheap ones I found at the 99 cent store. They have worked out well BUT only have like 4 months of testing on them. The 5 mm LEDs I am using call for a max of 25 ma each so I was going to see how they run at 15 ma to help make them last longer.

Someday I do want to use bigger LEDs BUT I am cheap so I will use up my ebay 5 mm ones till than.

Thanks for confirming the seperate resistor idea. I know I read what you wrote below somewhere before.



2xTrinity said:


> The best way to connect multiple LEDs together is in series, so that each receives the same current no matter what. The only problem with that in practice is will be hard to find a good power supply with high enough voltage to pull that off. Also, if you want to arbitrarily add or remove an LED later, that creates problems (as you'll change the voltage drop across the string) The switching power supplies used for cell phone chargers are perfect for this sort of project. I've made a single-LED fixture using a 4.9V 400mA battery charger -- the voltage rating is a maximum, as long as that number is higher than the forward voltage of the LED (or string of LEDs) then the power supply will consistently deliver the nominal current (it has to be well regulated if it's a battery charger).
> 
> With a 5V power supply, you will have no choice but to run them in parallel though. I would run at least 4 LEDs so that each one gets on average 500mA. 5 or even 6 would work better if you can afford it, as each would get 400mA/333mA respectively -- the LEDs will be running somewhat more efficiently at lower current, meaning you'll get more total light for the same power with more LEDs, and the heat, and light ouptut, will be more evenly spread out.
> 
> ...


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## ken2400 (Mar 4, 2007)

Making some progress BUT have more work ahead. I am powering the LEDs at like 14ma. Need to push them up to 20 ma to get more light. Had set the camera down to get this picture.


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## ken2400 (Mar 8, 2007)

An update. I now have the LEDs burning at like 25ma and can not take a picture holding the camera.

Also what else do people mount there LEDs in?






Thanks


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## ken2400 (Mar 14, 2007)

Added image to first posting. As one can see I now am using wire molding to make it look better. Still need to mount it better.

What I did is take 12 5mm LEDs and cut the top off using a hack saw and some oil. After that I sanded them down a bit and used clear nail polish to get them transpairent again. My power supply is around 6 v DC and I have an resistor on each LED to limit the current to around 25 ma.

I now need to figure out what I want to use for a switch.

Thanks aging


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## crewcabrob (Mar 18, 2007)

Nice work on the cabinet lights, I am going to try a similar set up in a buffett with glass doors and the front of my desk.

I love some of the work the guy did in Maui to his house. Any idea where those small brass fixtures came from? 

Rob


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## mjzraz2 (Apr 9, 2007)

ken2400 said:


> As one can see I now am using wire molding to make it look better. Still need to mount it better.



Hey Ken2400, 
Nice work so far on the DIY under cabinet lighting. I like the Wire mould idea for the 5mm leds. Would you care to show a closeup picture or better (pictures ) of the inside of the wire moulding to see how they are mounted, what holds them in, how the wires are soldered etc. 
I am redoing my kitchen now (slowly) and want under cabinet lights and was inspired by this thread and some of the replies. Also under consideration is the use of luxeon or cree single leds. My only issue there is it has to be low profile as to not be visible when seated in the kitchen and also not wanting bare wires exposed if using the bare emmitter. I am looking for a low profile lense or just a clear plastic cover to attach over the emmitter just to hide the wires and protect it from contact. Would not be used really to focus the light. 
I did find some cool ideas Here
Just have to find a way to make it reasonably affordable. Off to search for some inexpensive lens or light housing...
Thanks, Mike


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