Highbeamer LED Mini Spotlight

The Highbeamer is a really bright little LED project using 5 to 20 5mm white LED's that's about the size of a business card. Use it to agitate your friends or just see really far in the dark!

This project was designed by Capdiamont. You can get the kit from Gadget Gangster and download a PDF version of this howto. If you'd like to gather the parts yourself, you'll need the following.

Parts list

• 2x 10uF Electrolytic Caps
• 1x 2 position Terminal Block
• 5x Bare jumpers
• 1x Red jumper
• 2x Gray jumpers
• 1x Blue jumper
• 5x 5mm White LED's (to start with)
• 5x 100 ohm resistors
• Gadget Gangster project board (Half Board)
• A 5V Voltage Regulator

You'll also need a soldering iron, solder, and wire cutters. Build time is about 20 Minutes and is an easy build.

How to Use It

Usage is super-simple: Connect your 6V+ power source (you can use a 9V battery, a power adapter or whatever) to the terminals and you get instant light! Get started building - go the next page for step 1.

First, we are going to attach the small jumpers on the top side of the board. (so the [G] is facing up).

Bare jumpers from,
E16 - F16,
H19 - i19,
E20 - F20,
L20 - M20,
E22 - F22

Red jumper H20 - J20

Last for this step is the blue jumper K16 - L22

Turn board over, and trim wires.

Insert the voltage regulator H16, I16, J16 with the tab to the top. I bent it down to reduce its height.

Insert capacitor with the negative band marking to the right from L16 - M16.

Insert last capacitor with the negative band marking to the bottom from G19 - G20.

Lastly, the two pole power terminal is inserted with the wire holes to the bottom from H22 - J22

Turn board over, and trim wires.

Dark gray jumpers.
A18 - i17
i18 - Q18

Turn board over, and trim wires.

Bend the resistors in to a U shape (Transistor radio style) as shown in the second photo

Insert resistors (Don't worry, they're not polarity sensitive)
D17 - E17,
A19 - B19,
P19 - Q19,
D21 - E21,
M21 - N21

Turn board over, and trim wires.

Last thing is the LEDs. The side with the flat spot/short lead goes towards the voltage regulator/inside of the board.

LEDs,
A17 - B17,
D19 - E19,
M19 - N19,
A21 - B21,
P21 - Q21
Before soldering the LEDs, connect your power supply, to test the LEDs. You may have to wiggle them to light them, since they are not soldered yet. Once they test good, solder them, turn board over, and trim wires.

Now hook up your power supply, positive on the right. Make sure it can handle 500ma if all twenty LEDs are installed. Lower voltage, the less energy is wasted in the regulator, and the cooler it runs. You may want to tack down the voltage regulator directly to the board with a bit of solder to dissapte heat if you're going run higher voltages (or use a heat sink).

The upper area is reserved for additional LEDs. If you want an even brighter project, you can grab more LED's here.

All Done! You can get this kit on Gadget Gangster and download a PDF version of this howto.

Here's a little test, to give you an idea of the output with just five LED's on the basic kit.