15W LED Photography Light

If you wish to start out photography easy and cheap, then the commercial world is a nightmare. There is a lot of cheap and bad gear. But you could also make it yourself. In this project, you will learn to build a small 15W led panel for photography.

Supplies

Components (Aliexpress links)

Tools:

Soldering iron
Basic tools
Electrical tape
A 3D printer

Print the Parts

You will need to print the parts. There are 6 parts:

The base part that is hosing the electronics
The backplate for the base
The LED protection cover (You do not need this, but its a good idea)
Knob for the controller

Battery:

Battery base
Battery top

The parts need to be printed in PETG or something like PETG. I have used Devil Gray PETG and Devil Transparent PETG.

The parts can be found at cults.com:

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/15w-photo-lamp

This took me a lot of time and 3 different versions, so please buy the file and support me :)

Assemblé the Battery

The battery. I found some old batteries that I had laying around. You could also buy a lithium-Ion battery for cheap. This part is the most dangerous, so be careful. Solder some wires to a female pin connector, and carefully solder them to the battery. BE CAREFUL NOT TO HEAT UP THE BATTERY TO MUSH! After that, close the battery compartment and screw the 2 screws into place. you could also add electrical tape around the battery for safety.

Assembly the Lamp

Start by soldering all the components together to test the connection.

StepUp Converter:

Adjust the Stepup module by looking at a multimeter at the output and having the 4.2 V battery connected to it. This way you could use the potentiometer to change the output. The output needs to be 12V. If you don't own a multimeter, you could also just hook the led panel directly up to the StepUp-converter. This COULD destroy the lamp! Adjust the brightness so it fits. DON'T OVERCRANK IT! Otherwise buy a simple multi-meter at AliExpress.

Brightness Controller:

I soldered the screw terminals of my motor controller off because I didn't need them. After that, add electrical tape to the bottom to prevent a short circuit. Add longer wires to the output of the controller (around 10 cm). These are for the lamp.

The Lamp

Pass the wires from the motor controller through the hole, in one of the ends of the base. Now add the heat sinks. You will need to cut off 20mm at the end. Now they should fit. If they don't, add something like foam into the missing spots.

You could also add the thermal paste. Solder the led wires to the lamp now. This needs a lot of heat, because of the big metal plate on the backside. Just take your time and heat up the metal, but not for too long. Now screw the lamp into place with the protection cover. There is a sliding notch on the cover, this is for the wired side of the panel.

Wires

The connection between the battery and the lamp is done by male/female pins. Use the hot glue to add the male connector to the lamp, in the hole, where the battery is placed.

The switch is so the battery won't be drained when it's not on. Add this into the lid, and solder wires to it, as shown in the schematic. There is also a version without hole, if you just wants to remove the battery after use.

Charger

And a male pin connector to the output, of the charging module. These should be at B+ and B-. Look at the picture above. Wrap electrical tape around the module and cut out a small hole for the status lamp.

Done

Close the lamp with some M3 bolts. And now you are done. Concrete. Depending on the battery, the lamp will work at full brightness, from 10-30 minutes.

If you have any problems, contact me at quizendesigns@gmail.com or just write a comment.

If you have anything to improve, let me know.