DIY LED Filming Light System
Hello there and welcome to my Instructable on how to build your own custom LED lighting system that can be used for all kinds of things. I've made this lighting system to be good for filming, as I use it to light my workspace in my YouTube videos. Go ahead and give this video a watch if you want to see what these LED panels are capable of!
Today I'll be showing you both some details on building these lighting panels as well as how to build the control box that I built for them.
Disclaimer: These DIY projects are not safety tested or certified. If you want to make these projects on your own, that's awesome, but understand that you are assuming all responsibility. I don't recommend leaving such DIY systems unattended and ensure that you watch them closely so that they don't cause any problems such as fires. They can also be dangerous in other ways, so be careful. Follow my projects at your own risk and have fun!
Supplies
LED Light Panel Supplies:
Non-Affiliate Links:
168x White 1210 SMD LED Chips - I recommend getting some extras if you don't solder SMD all the time as there's a decent chance you might kill a few like I did.
Heatsink - This heatsink is about the right size for one panel.
Aluminum PCB - Order your PCBs from PCBWay here. You can use either my Gerber files to make the exact panels I did in my video, or you can design your own. It is CRUCIAL that they are aluminum PCBs if you are putting any more than a couple LED chips on them, or they will not cool effectively.
3D Printed Mount - You can order the mount for these boards from PCBWay using my STL files below if you don't have a 3D printer. I recommend having these mounts printed in a decently temperature resistant plastic, as I've had issues with PLA deforming under the panel's heat. I've provided a mount with threads that should be able to screw on to a 1/4"-20 camera mount/tripod thread and a 3/8"-16 microphone stand thread, so you have options. These threads are designed to have tolerance for less accurate printers, so they don't fit 100% perfectly but should hold on good enough as long as you're not screwing and unscrewing them all the time.
I've also provided a new model that is optimized for being 3D printed out of metal, if you want to have a super strong and somewhat overbuilt mount like I do.
Screws - Mount the stand adapter to the PCB.
Screws - Mount the heatsink to the PCB.
Thermal Paste - Make the PCB and heatsink transfer heat effectively.
Wire - Any wire of sufficient gauge to carry about 2-3A should do the job, but I found that speaker wire was nicely flexible and easy to work with.
Supplies that might come in handy while building the panels:
PCB Heater - Aluminum PCBs will steal heat from your soldering iron and make it very difficult to solder the LEDs on. If you want a more permanent solution, a board heater like this one should work well.
Alternatively, you can use a cheap Perfboard and a few Power Resistors to make a makeshift board heater like I did in the video on the light panels. Be careful when doing this, as it can overheat easily and be dangerous if not watched closely. However, it's a good way to get by without spending a bunch of money on a board heater - especially if you don't plan on using the board heater often.
Control Box Supplies:
Non-Affiliate Links:
3x 8-Pin DIP Socket - Optional
4x Two Pole PCB Screw Terminal
1x 2.54MM Male and Female Header Strips
3x TRS Socket
1x Slide Switch
1x DC Jack
1x 5A Fuse - Optional
1x 18AWG Wire
1x Board Screws
1x Lid Screws
PCB - Order the PCB from PCBWay here at this link with my gerber file.
3D Printed Enclosure - Order the component enclosure from PCBWay with their 3D printing service if you don't have a 3D printer yourself. Use the STL files available in this Instructable.
Get a Board Heater Set Up
If you have a board heater that you know how to use already, you're good to go on to the next step.
If you ordered a proper board heater, go ahead and figure out how to set it up and heat your PCBs with it.
If you have a perfboard and some power resistors, build up a small array of power resistors that you can run current through. I used 4 10-ohm 10-watt resistors in parallel and ran about 30-40 watts of power through it to heat my board. When doing this, be highly cautious to protect your work area, as these resistors will pump out a lot of heat in all directions. Don't let it melt anything, light anything on fire, or do anything else bad. You have been warned.
Once you have a board heater set up and your PCB preheated, you can move on to the next step.
Determine LED Polarity
Figure out the polarity of the LED chips that you have and what markings on the chips you can use to identify the polarity when soldering. Make sure that you don't solder any of your chips backwards, as that can be a really annoying problem to fix!
On my PCB design, with the top layer of the PCB facing you and the three mounting holes for the stand adapter at the bottom, the positive terminal of the LED will go on the left-hand side and the negative terminal will go on the right-hand side.
Solder Your LEDs
Go ahead and solder all of the LEDs on to your light panel. If you're using my design, after soldering each group of four lights (see the attached image of the Gerber design view to see what I mean, I highlighted what "one group of four" would be), I recommend applying 9-12V to the board's power terminals to make sure that all of the chips are illuminating and that you didn't solder one on backwards or make a bad solder joint. This can seriously save a lot of headaches by checking your work as you go.
Solder Your Leads to the Light
Connect the wires that you're going to use to connect the LED light to whatever power source you plan to use. After you solder the leads to the PCB, you can connect whatever connector you are going to use to connect the light to the PSU. In my original video, I used some small JST connectors to connect all three of my lighting panels in parallel so they could be powered by my bench power supply, though how you want to do this will vary person to person, so you can come up with your own method here.
If you want to build the control box that I built to control these lights though, connect a 1/4" TS connector to the end of the cable with the sleeve being negative and the tip being positive.
Add the Heatsink
Drill the holes in your heatsink that will allow it to be bolted to the back of the aluminum PCB. Depending on how hard you're pushing your lights and how many LED chips you have on there, there is a chance you might need to come up with a way to put a fan on to the heatsink as well. Bolt the heatsink to the board with a healthy amount of thermal compound between the mating surfaces so that heat is transferred as good as it can be. Also, make sure that the orientation of the fins is in such a way that when you are using your lights, convection can bring air up and across the fins. Since my lights are rectangular and will be in a "landscape" orientation nearly all the time, you can see the orientation that my heatsink was mounted in for optimal cooling.
Connect the Mount
Connect the mount to the light by lining up the three mounting holes and screwing in the three bolts that connect it to the light. Then, you can mount your finished light panel to either a standard 1/4"-20 camera/tripod thread, or a 3/8"-16 microphone stand thread if you have microphone stands that might be easier to use to mount your lights.
If all you're here to build are the light panels, you're done!
However, if you want to build the control box too, keep scrolling to the next step.
Build the Control Box
In this next section, I'll show you how to build the control box for these lights. Firstly, you should watch the video in which I made the control box at this link.
Program the Pi Pico
Program the Pi Pico immediately. Due to the way that the Pico will be attached to the main PCB, it's really difficult to program it after it's been soldered down. So, grab the code from the attached file, and program the Pi Pico with it before you solder it down.
IMPORTANT!!
You need to use the Arduino-Pico library which can be installed through the instructions at this link. The official Arduino library that adds the Pi Pico will not work as it does not contain the AnalogWriteFreq(); function.
int out1 = 0;
int out2 = 1;
int out3 = 2;
int in1 = 26;
int in2 = 27;
int in3 = 28;
int in4 = 22;
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode(out1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(out2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(out3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in1, INPUT);
pinMode(in2, INPUT);
pinMode(in3, INPUT);
pinMode(in4, INPUT_PULLUP);
analogReadResolution(8);
analogWriteFreq(19850);
analogWriteResolution(8);
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
if (digitalRead(in4) == HIGH) {
int pot1Val = analogRead(in1);
int pot2Val = analogRead(in2);
int pot3Val = analogRead(in3);
analogWrite(out3, pot1Val);
analogWrite(out2, pot2Val);
analogWrite(out1, pot3Val);
}
else {
int pwmVal = analogRead(in1);
analogWrite(out1, pwmVal);
analogWrite(out2, pwmVal);
analogWrite(out3, pwmVal);
}
}
Solder the Rest of the Board
Go ahead and solder the rest of the components to the PCB. Make sure that you get the MOSFETs the right way around, and the MOSFET drivers the right way around as well. Reference the provided Gerber view for information on the electrolytic capacitor's polarity placement.
With the "Designed by CHWTT" text facing you so that it's right side up, the upper left pin of each MOSFET driver IC is pin number 1 on the IC. Additionally, the backs of the MOSFETs themselves should face your right if you have the board oriented in this way (Shown in the Gerber view in the second image).
Mount the Board to the Chassis As Well As the DC Jack and Switch
Mount the soldered PCB, the small rocker switch, and the DC barrel jack into your 3D printed enclosure. Wire them up so that the positive of the DC jack connects to one connection on the switch (If you're using a fuse make this connection with the fuse), then connect the other pole of the switch out to the power in on the PCB. Then take the ground from the DC jack and run that directly to the ground on the power in terminal of the PCB. For more details, watch the video.
Connect the Leads to the TS Connectors and Mount Them
Solder leads to the two terminals of the connectors that correspond to the T (Tip) and S (Sleeve) of the connectors we're using. Tip should be positive, and Sleeve should be ground. With the leads soldered, shape them so that they work seamlessly with the screw terminal blocks on the PCB when you insert them into the holes, they will be mounted in. I also recommend ensuring that the wires are nicely isolated, if you're using some bare solid core copper like I did in mine. The end result should look something like the third image, once you've used the included machine screws and nuts that came with the sockets to mount them to the chassis.
Connect Leads to the Potentiometers and Switch
Connect some leads and some female 2.54MM headers to the potentiometers and the switch. These slide switches have a central common pin that either gets connected to the left pin or the right pin based on the position of the switch. We only need this switch to either connect or not connect the two leads that get connected to it, so solder one lead to the central pin of the switch and one lead to either the left or the right pin of the switch, it really doesn't matter which one.
The potentiometer's leads should be about 4 inches (10cm) long.
The switch's leads should be about 6-7 inches (15-17cm) long.
Mount the Potentiometers and Switch to the Top Panel
When mounting the potentiometers, your potentiometers might have a little nub on them that is intended to penetrate the thing you're mounting it to disallow the body of the potentiometer from rotating. This nub will get in the way of our mounting, so either use a soldering iron to make a small divot in the lid piece for this nub to rest in (just be careful not to go out the other side!) or file off the nub.
When it comes to mounting the potentiometer, mount them so that the leads/pins are pointing towards the longer side of the lid, as shown in the picture.
The switch is intended to be glued into place in its small socket. Push it through from the front and then smother it in glue at the back. However, it's important to understand the orientation that the switch needs to be in. Because the switch kicks the controller into linked mode when it connects the two wires that are soldered to it, ensure that you orient the switch in a way that when its slider is on the side of the lid marked "Individual", the contacts are open, and when the switch's slider is pointing to the side of the lid that is marked "Linked", it's contacts are closed/connected.
Connect the Potentiometers and Switches to the Board and Attach Lid
With the device facing you as shown in the above image, that is, the TS connection jacks facing towards you, connect the potentiometer leads to the board so that the leftmost pins of the potentiometers are connected to the leftmost pins of the header for each potentiometer on the PCB. Basically, the wires should just go straight through from the potentiometer onto the board. This ensures that the potentiometers will increase the brightness of your lights when you turn them clockwise and decrease the brightness of the lights when you turn them counterclockwise. This is usually how adjustment knobs, such as volume knobs work, though if you wish to have your knobs adjust with opposite direction turns just flip the connections of the left and right pins of the potentiometer at the board. Make sure to keep the middle pin of the potentiometer in the center.
The switch can be connected to the board in any polarity, it won't affect it at all.
With everything plugged in, set the lid on the top of the box, align the screw holes, and screw it shut. You can also push the knobs on to the potentiometers at this point.
Terminate Your Connections and Test Out Your Lights!
Finally, connect the LED panels to the TS ends so that the negative pole of the LED panel is connected to the S (Sleeve) terminal of the connector and the positive pole is connected to the T (Tip) terminal.
Now, you can plug in the AC adapter and your LED lights. Hopefully, if all went well, you should have a functioning lighting system. Have fun!