Roll your own for a fraction of the cost of pro units.
Written and photographed by Tyler Winegarner
Time Required:
4–6 Hours
Cost:
$70–$100
Hack LED strips with a better dimmer and save hundreds.
TYLER WINEGARNER
is a filmmaker and photographer based in San Francisco. When he’s not busy shooting, he’s down in his shop grinding, soldering, or hacking at his next project. Follow him at @the_real_tylerw.
OPINIONS ARE MIXED ON LED LIGHTING UNITS, BUT ANYONE WHO HAS EVER DONE LOCATION WORK CAN’T DENY THEIR UTILITY — they’re lightweight, they have very low power draw, and they generate very little heat. They’re an excellent tool to have in a one-man band style of shooting. They’re also expensive. But now, with the proliferation of LED lighting kits for home use, you can build a very good equivalent to $500 off-the-shelf products for under $100. It even looks good — and that might be handy, depending on who your clients are.
At the core of this project is the adhesive-mounted strand of LED lights. These are usually sold in kits with an external power supply and an inline dimmer. Unfortunately this dimmer operates at a relatively slow cycle — it looks steady to your eyes, but in camera you’ll see the flicker. So we’ll be using the guts of a better, external dimmer to get the results we need.
There’s a lot of soldering in this build, but none of it is very tough, so it’s a good project to help you build your skills.
1. CUT THE PANELS
Cut the plexiglass and corrugated plastic to size. Drill a ¼" mounting hole in each corner of the corrugated panel, ½" inward from the edges.
2. PREPARE THE HOUSING
Using the holes drilled in the corrugated panel as your guide, mark and drill four corresponding ¼" holes on the back of the baking tin, starting with the 1/16" bit for a pilot hole.
In the bottom of the long edge of the housing, drill 3 additional holes: one ¼" hole in the center for the mounting hardware, and about 2" away, 7/16" and 5/16" holes for the DC jack and the dimmer knob. Keeping the jack close to the mounting hardware will make cable management easier when using the light.
Use your grinding wheel to roughen the metal (and remove any teflon coating for better adhesion) around the inside of the ¼" center hole.
If your pan is teflon coated, also remove about a 1"×2½" patch of teflon roughly 2" above the holes for the DC jack and dimmer knob.
3. MOUNT THE INTERNAL THREADING
Use the grinding wheel to score one side of a ¼-20 nut. Use epoxy to bond the nut to the inside of the housing, centered on the ¼" center hole. Let the epoxy set.
4. CUT AND SOLDER THE LED SEGMENTS
You can only cut the LED strip at the marked areas, which appear every 3 lights. Starting with the end that has the loose wires, cut fourteen 10" segments.
Cut fourteen 2"–3" segments of speaker wire, and split and strip each end.
Now use the wire segments to solder all the LED segments back together. I find the best technique is to melt a small dot of solder onto each terminal of the LED segment, and then heat up that solder while poking the wire end into it. Connect all the LED segments end to end, making sure you don’t cross up the positive and negative terminals.
Use a voltmeter to verify continuity.
5. MOUNT THE DIMMER AND JACK
Disassemble the PWM dimmer and remove the PCB and potentiometer. Use double-sided foam tape to mount the PCB to the inside of the housing, on the patch you prepared.
Use a 3"–5" length of speaker wire to connect the DC jack to the input terminals on the dimmer PCB, following the manufacturer’s instructions for both. Connect the positive and negative wires from the first LED segment into the output terminals of the dimmer PCB.
Mount the DC jack and dimmer potentiometer into their holes. Connect your DC jack to power and check your circuit to make sure everything lights up and dims when you twist the potentiometer.
6. MOUNT THE LED PANEL
Mount the corrugated plastic panel to the housing by fitting the Allen screws and washers into the coupling nuts.
Peel the adhesive backing from your first LED segment and mount it to the corrugated panel just above the washers. Mount each consecutive segment in the same way, zig-zagging your way up the panel.
Check your circuit again, and resolder as needed.
7. MOUNT THE COVER PANEL
Use the original holes at the ends of the baking pan to mark the plexiglass. Drill ¼" holes at your marks, then mount the plexiglass cover to the front of the housing using the remaining Allen screws, washers, and nuts.
If you have access to a bandsaw, you can cut the plexiglass to match the shape of the baking pan.
Use the grinding wheel to carefully clean up any rough edges. You’re done!
USE IT
You can use the threaded hole on the ballhead to mount to any ¼" tripod stud, or use the shoe adapter included with the ballhead to mount to any shoe mount.
Because the LEDs generate little heat, you can use household items like baking parchment to diffuse the light. Binder clips can be used to attach diffusion material or gels to the outside of the housing.
There’s a lot of variation you can do with this project, from panel size to color temp to lots of other configurations. Happy shooting!
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