Rechargeable LED Softbox

In this small project i want to do a low cost softbox as lighter as i can and i like to power it just with a portable battery charger (that you can use and re-use) in order to move it freely around it.

The things that i need in order to make it:

• 1 plastic container
• 16 LED lights
• 16 220 Ohms resistors
• Some wire to connect and soldering wire too
• 1 can of white paint in spray 1-PVC pipe (the most lighter you can get)
• 8 screws with their respective bolts
• 4 clips
• 1 small piece of thin wood
• Paper (to diffuse the light)
• 1 battery charger

In the first part i will make a square hole at the bottom of the plastic container and cut a small piece of wood that can cover the entire hole and a little bit more.

I will put the wood into the final position and attach it with four screws and bolts.

After that i will drill trough the holes to install the LEDs.

With two sections of the PVC pipe i will make the part that will serve as a sustain of the square of paper (...that will work as a diffuser for the lights). I will attach this at the middle of each pipe with a screw (holes are made with a drill) and that will go into the "ears" of the plastic container just to make it a little more flexible.

At the tip of each pipe i will install the metallic paper clips.

A paint job will ensure that the light doesn't escape trough the transparent plastic, i choose white but it could be silver, or even so you can cover with aluminium foil.

I start to solder the resistors to the negative leg of each LED.

The other leg (+) will complete the circuit.

I found a small plastic piece that i install at the bottom to make the connection with the tripod.

The battery charger will go behind the circuit attached with two nylon stripes and the connection will be an USB cable that i cut.

At the end will look more or less like in the third photo.

And that's it, there you have my version of a low cost rechargeable softbox.

After use it a little bit i can tell that i could use a lighter plastic container, i could use some more LEDs and make the connection a more stable with some piece of wood or something.