What size are the LED's and resistors?

In one of my other hobbies which is ham radio, I hand soldered 1205 sized SMD's  while building an RF amplifier.  I'm curious what size the components Michael is using are.

Michael

Aha....

great vid, I can hear Michael say, with Herr Flicks' accent, "We have zthe meanz zto light up zthe layout" ...

I'm sure Michael will view this and answer

Michael will probably cruise this thread and answer any and all questions.  I know he uses some high end LEDs that are much better then the ebay strips.

Jappe - there you go again making me chuckle!  Did you hear how Michael blamed me for rushing him causing the defective results?  I am so blessed to be able to have Michael as a friend as he is a hoot, very creative, generous,and always entertaining!  He gave me one of the LED strips to take home along with some other goodies!

From now on....

I will be reading every post form Michael with a German accent.

Ya das is gut!

Excellent Video

It's also nice to hear voices put to faces.

Speed of Light

I just can't get over the speed at which this man works!  I'd have been there for at least an hour (maybe two) to accomplish what he did in minutes.

Remarkable!

Remarkable!

Michael Rose ...

... might be a good choice for some MRH/TMTV "How To ..." videos.  Some proper video equip and let him strut his stuff!  LED strips, Laser crafting, most anything model railroading seems to be within his realm of expertise .. he may not have the time for it though ....  Any rate, although I'm not normally a "video" type of person, I do take exception to this one.  Short and sweet and documenting the process, start to finish ....  Thanks for sharing.  

I just can't get over the

And I did it standing at the layout ! These components are actually pretty large compared to what I normally have to work with these days so it's easy. Takes about 10 minutes to make a strip.

Available for purchase?

Michael,

Very nice! Looks like the LED strips are just the ticket for a lot of us. Have you considered selling the blank boards?  I bet I am not the only one that would be interested in purchasing them. Also, what LED are you using? The white LED's seem to come in all kinds of colors.

Thanks for posting the video.

Ross A

Fast...

Yes,very fast.  I am guessing he has soldered a few of those SMD LED's in the past, however, lets not forget that half the strip didn't work until he went back over the solder joints to find the bad connection.

Michael makes it look easy but as he mentions the LED's in the video are of a larger size.  If they were 402's I think that the process would slow down a bit.

Is that Rick Wade speaking in the background?  They seem to have a good rapport going.

More how-to videos gentlemen?

Guilty as charged!

Kevin,

Yes, indeed - that is me doing the video and speaking in the background.  Michael & I are good friends and he is always willing to share his knowledge.  I'm hoping to get a little "how to" video every time that I visit and will be posting some trains running on Michael's layout in the near future.

Thanks to all for your kind words about the video!

Sounds Good!

Rick,

I thought it might be you.  Looking forward to whatever you and Michael can share on video in the future.

Thanks to both of you for doing it!

Regards,

Available for purchase?

I too would be interested in purchasing blank circuit boards.

Are they setup for single color LEDs?

Great DIY project!

Thanks!

Rick and Michael,

Thanks for sharing.  I too am very interested in the subject of LED layout lighting.  

BTW: great to hear voices for the faces!

SMD's are not near as intimidating as I first thought.....

...especially the ones I used on my ham radio RF amp project which were 1205 size.  When I was first considering it,  I was intimidated but the gentleman who  was selling the amp kits at the time assuaged my fears.  I would not want to work with hand soldering anything much smaller than what I had but good lighting and a decent pair of tweezers with a good low wattage fine point soldering iron is the key. Michael apparently has experience working with smaller stuff than I have used but if I can do it with my shaky hands, just about anyone can.  Michael, did you ever comment on the actual size of the LED's and resistors you are using to make the strips?

Michael

That is fantastic! I believe

That is fantastic! I believe Michael said he had those boards made? That looks easy enough I'd like to give it a try.

LED Lighting and Alternatives

For those who have not been closely following Michael's Georgetown & Allen Mountain Railroad blog, he is using Seoul STW8Q14BE-U0U7-DA LED's. LED's are mounted in 5.6 mm x 3.0 mm surface mount packages (See page 4 of data sheet) which are, as far as surface mount packages go, fairly easy to mount.

But if anyone is going to try and replicate Michael's work, I would suggest another DIY project and investing in the construction of a Solder Reflow Oven. A web search will point you to dozens of instructional sites and videos ( How to: Reflow Surface Mount (SMD) Soldering Tutorial, DIY Soldering Reflow Oven). I made my first Arduino controlled oven for about $45 dollars, and it has saved by tush (and many expensive components) several times.

Michael has done some very good work on his lighting; however, I would actually advise going the commercial flexible LED route. DKRickman in My results with LED layout lights and others have demonstrated that you can get good results with these commercial strips at reasonable costs.

Michael achieved up to 1564 lux at 14 W per foot compared to 40W at 806 lux for CFLs, but for those that do not want to go that far there are the flexible LEDs strips. Using three strips (see table below) mounted 3.5' (ft) above the bench I am measuring about 850 Lumens (comparable to CFLs) and drawing < 30 Watts per meter (< 10 Watt per foot). This is not as bright as Michael's system, but with the addition of either commercial or a DIY microprocessor based controller I can dynamically adjust the intensity (0 to 100%) and color temp over a fairly large ranges.

LED Strip Bench Lighting Example

Item               #LEDs per 5 meters    Color Temp ºK        Power               Cost Meter (Foot)

LED Strip 1       600 LEDs                    ~6000               ~ 9 W/m (3 W/ft)           $5 ($1.5)

LED Strip 2       600 LEDs                    ~4500               ~ 9 W/m (3 W/ft)           $5 ($1.5)

LED Strip 3       600 LEDs                     RGB                ~ 9 W/m (3 W/ft)           $5 ($1.5)

Power Supply and controller                                         ~ 95% efficiency             $3 (< $1)

Totals                                                                            ~ 27 W/m (9 W/ft)        $18 (< $5.5)

was that 3.5ft?

"Using three strips (see table below) mounted 3.5” above the bench"

What is the actual distance?

" Typo Corrected

Alan,

Sorry for typo. Should have been 3.5' that is feet.

HUH?

I have no idea what you are talking about!   I am rather new to the LED lighting tech. Part #'s and sources would be helpful. Making the 90 minute drive to UDOIT electronics and asking for flexible LED strip #1 would get me this reply.  HUH ????  Maybe someone can do a primer on the subject.

A significant cost increase of electrical power was recently announced in my area, so that any savings in lighting would be helpful.

BTW Michael did mention in the video that the circuit boards were custom manufactured for him, and the source was not mentioned.

LED Light Strips

To All      First Mikes work is very inspiring I enjoy watching his progress. Second as for the LED light

               strips you can purchase strips up to 16 foot long for under $20.00 so why would you want to

               go thru all the work in making them? What am I missing here? By the way Rick your work is

               great to.Is this a real low voltage thing?        ron netti

What am I missing

Amount of light produced?

Quality of light produced?

LED Light Strips

Could not that be achieved by a rheostat?           ron netti