# Are there any DIY LED kits for incandescent base (edison base) lights????



## redfishsc (Jun 2, 2012)

I have a small stash of white LEDs (everything from Cree XML, XPG, Rebel ES, and chinese 3-watts) that are leftovers from me playing around with my reef aquarium lighting and a few utility lights I've built. 


I'd LOVE to find a way to screw these into an edison-base light socket (non-dimming). I have small 3-watt drivers laying around, I just need to figure out how to fit them into the screwsocket base with a small heatsink.


Ideas?


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## Ken_McE (Jun 2, 2012)

You have something of a problem in that the socket is designed to support a bulb that weighs a few ounces, and you are expecting it to hold a much heavier ballast. How light a ballast can you come up with?

If it was me, I'd find a screw in plug that I could work with, a bakelight one maybe, make the electrical connection between it and the ballast, and mechanically bond them together so that the ballast doubled as a handle to use to screw the fixture in and out. After that I'd have the LEDs arrayed around the handle, each with its own aluminum heat sink, the heat sinks doubling as mechanical connectors to the ballast/handle.


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## redfishsc (Jun 2, 2012)

Ken_McE said:


> You have something of a problem in that the socket is designed to support a bulb that weighs a few ounces, and you are expecting it to hold a much heavier ballast. How light a ballast can you come up with?




There are a few fairly light ballasts that can be connected to 110VAC that will run a few small LEDs. Originally I was going to use some very small light drivers (MR16 drivers) but I forgot those are 12v input.





> If it was me, I'd find a screw in plug that I could work with, a bakelight one maybe, make the electrical connection between it and the ballast, and mechanically bond them together so that the ballast doubled as a handle to use to screw the fixture in and out. After that I'd have the LEDs arrayed around the handle, each with its own aluminum heat sink, the heat sinks doubling as mechanical connectors to the ballast/handle.



I may have to do this, it's certainly simple. I could mount the aluminum (old CPU) heatsinks somewhere near the ceiling in my kitchen and let the big square glass dome cover them.


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## Ken_McE (Jun 3, 2012)

redfishsc said:


> There are a few fairly light ballasts that can be connected to 110VAC that will run a few small LEDs.



I saw this as being the only serious problem. You seem to have solved it. If the little ballasts are not suitable for a handle I would look for a plastic tube (PVC plumbing??) to serve as the handle, have the ballast(s) sit inside it. The plastic would also keep your hand further away from line voltage if anything went bad. 




> I may have to do this, it's certainly simple



We will of course require pictures. There is a lot of interest in this general problem.


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## Optical Inferno (Jun 6, 2012)

http://generalhardwaresz.com/index.asp?sid=40 these guys are not too bad. You get the heatsink, socket, optic, and in some cases the circuitboard for the LEDs


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