Makeshift Portable Light 20W

Hey everyone what's up?

So here's something useful, a Portable Light Setup that can be used while camping or during blackouts.

This Setup is completely made from scratch, even the LED Boards and its battery pack both are reused projects that I made in past.

Its base is a Metal Sheet that was salvaged from an LCD Display and it's used to hold the main PCB of that LCD Display, I made a few changes and use it to hold LED Boards and a Battery Pack with PCB Mounts.

This Instructables is about its built process so let's get started.

Following are the materials used in this built-

• Studio Light LED Board x 2
• Megapack Battery Pack x 1
• Metal Sheet
• M2 PCB Mount 15mm Long x 4
• M2 PCB Mount 60mm Long x 8
• M2 Bolts
• M2 Nuts
• Mosfet Board Custom PCB
• A04406A Mosfet IC
• JST Connector
• 3D Printed Parts
• Rocker Switch

Almost a year ago, I made a Studio Light Project that was an LED Board containing a few LEDs that were driven by an Onboard LED Driver IC Setup, been using this for lighting up my desk for a small photoshoot.

A few weeks ago, I prepared a battery pack setup that was made from PCBs and was capable enough to drive big loads.

By combining them both, we can make a portable Lighting setup that can be used outside during camping or it can be used during a blackout which is pretty common here in India.

The whole idea revolves around using existing projects to make a new one by reusing stuff.

This Setup is pretty simple, there are two LED Boards connected in parallel with Megapack which is the portable power source.

Switches are being used to toggle each LED Board, however, these switches are not manual ones. Mosfet Switches are being used to control both LED boards.

There's a Mosfet Board that toggles the LED Board by using two rocker switches.

This is the Mosfet Board and it consists of two AO4406A which is an N channel Mosfet that comes in SOIC 8 package.

It's a switching mosfet that can operate up to 30V with a max current of 13A.

Datasheet- http://www.aosmd.com/res/data_sheets/AO4406A.pdf

Mosfet as Switch setup is being used here to drive the LED Board, there's a CON2 Port for adding a switch with this setup.

The switch connects the Gate of the mosfet to the positive terminal of the battery and this triggers the mosfet.

You might be thinking, why not use the Rocker switch alone instead of using a MOSFET switch?

Using Rocker Switch directly with LED Board will work for a while but after a few days of usage, the rocker switch's internal connection points will deteriorate because of DC Voltage and this will cause blinking in the LED Board operation. These Rocker Switches are made for AC Operation so it's not recommended to use them in DC Applications, DC Rocker switches are available but they are much more costly so it's wise to use a Mosfet switch instead.

I first prepare the schematic and then converted it into a board file.

Later I finalized the board and gave it to PCBWAY for samples.

After Finalizing the PCB, I sent the Gerber data to PCBWAY for samples.

I choose RED Soldermask for this project with a White silkscreen.

The quality of the PCBs was awesome as always.

Been using their service for a while and I have to say, it's pretty decent for getting started.

PCBs used in the LED Board and even the PCB Battery Pack both are from PCBWAY as well.

Checkout PCBWAY from here- https://www.pcbway.com/

• We start the PCB Assembly process by first adding the solder paste to both pads of IC. A Solderpaste Dispensing Needle with a Wide syringe is being used here to apply the solder paste. The solder paste that is being used is a regular solder paste consisting of 63% Tin and 37% Lead.
• Next, we place the SMD IC on the PCB by using an ESD Tweezer.
• We then lift the board and put it on a Reflow Hotplate for melting the solderpaste.
• PCB is now completed for the final assembly

As for the 3D Parts, I made a total of 4 parts that were the switch holder, Back Rest, Holding Bracket, and wall mount.

The switch holder was made for holding two rocker switches and mounting them with the metal sheet.

The backrest supports the whole light from the back side so it can be placed in an upfront position.

The holding bracket was made for carrying it around and the wall mount lets us place the light on any wall through a nail or screw.

PLA was used to print all parts with a 1mm Nozzle at 0.32 Layer height with a 40% Infill.

The main assembly contains the following steps-

• We first make 8 mounting holes in the metal sheet for the two LED Boards and the battery pack. 2 holes each for LED Board and 4 holes for the battery pack.
• Then we add four PCB Mounts for adding the battery pack.
• Next, we add four more PCB Mounts for the LED Board.
• After adding PCB mounts on both sides of the metal sheet, we first add both LED boards on one side by using 2 M2 Bolts for each LED Board.
• Next, we place the battery pack on the PCB mounts on the Bottom side and use four more PCB Mounts to hold the pack in its place.

• Now we first connect the First Light and battery pack along with a rocker switch to the mosfet board in order to check the operation.
• After making sure that the first light works, we add the second light's positive and negative terminal to the mosfet board and add another rocker switch for the second light.
• Then we place the mosfet board in its mounting position and use two M2 Screws to permanently hold the circuit with the metal sheet.

• We now desolder the rocker switch from the mosfet board and add them into the switch holder.
• After this, we reconnect the rocker switch wires with the mosfet board.
• Next, we use an M2 Screw to mount the Switch holder to the metal sheet.

• Next, we place the holding bracket in its place by adding two M2 Screws to the metal sheet.

• Now we add the backrest to the setup by first undoing the screws from the back of the PCB.
• We then add the backrest to the PCB and secure everything with M2 Screws.

• At last, we add the wall mount to the setup by undoing the screws from the back side of the PCB and then adding the wall mount onto the board.

Here's the result of this build, Each LED side runs at a power of 10W and there are two of them.

Both LED side contains a separate LED Driver (SIC9301A) that is set to drive 30 LEDs each driving 0.5W of power.

LEDs are arranged in 3 Series 10 Parallel configuration.

30 x 0.5W = 15W, but the driver is also tuned so it's set at lower power output. (It contains Current Limiting Resistors to reduce the current and limit the power of led)

The battery pack that I made also contains an ON board buck converter that is based around MPS2314 IC which bucks down 12V to 5V 2A for powering XYZ stuff through USB.

By using the Wall mount, we can hang its setup on the wall and use it for illuminating the front side, this can even be used as a video or studio light.

As for actual Testing, I added a Multimeter in series between the battery source and LED Driver Input and set the multimeter in Ammeter mode, and then measured voltage across the driver input.

Below are the readings I got-

• Each LED Board draws at least 0.9A, Both of them together draw 1.8A.
• LED Driver takes 10.56V, This voltage varies based on the battery charge state.
• Power of both LED Setup is 10.56V x 1.8A = 19W

If the battery Voltage increase, the current that LED Driver draws reduces.

We can carry this setup outside and use it to illuminate any dark area for example, here's me outside.

Also, we can use it during a blackout or as a camping light.

It even has a 5V USB output so we can power anything with it like a smartphone for example.

After using this light setup for a week now, here is my review.

It works but it doesnt have a diffusion layer so it hurts if we look directly into the leds.

In theory, the backup should be 3.4 Hours.

19W is what this light consumes per hour, Battery Pack is a 12.6V 5.2Ah Pack, and the total power that we can get from this pack will be 12.6V x 5.2Ah = 65.5Wh.

The backup of this light will be 65.5/19 = 3.4 Hours.

The actual backup that I'm getting is between 2 Hours 30 Mins and 3 Hours, It's lower than the theoretical backup as each cell has its own Internal Resistance and that might be the reason why cells are getting discharged in OFF State.

Well, this is it for today folks.

Thanks PCBWAY for supporting this project, do check them out if you need great PCB Service at an affordable price.

Thanks again and peace out.