LED Business Sign

N

nntp

Guest
I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights? Parallel? Series? Do I need any other electronic
components other than adapters and electrical switches?
 
nntp wrote:

I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights? Parallel? Series? Do I need any other electronic
components other than adapters and electrical switches?
Click to expand...
Inexpensive ?
Naa ...

Rene
--
Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
& commercial newsgroups - http://www.talkto.net
 
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 09:53:30 -0500, the renowned "nntp"
<johndoe@large.com> wrote:

I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights? Parallel? Series? Do I need any other electronic
components other than adapters and electrical switches?
Click to expand...
How many LEDs? You can do it with just a power supply (such as an
adapter or perhaps a PC power supply (perhaps with a dummy load), some
resisistors and the LEDs themselves.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
 
Subject: LED Business Sign
From: "nntp" johndoe@large.com
Date: 11/19/04 6:53 AM Pacific Standard

I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights? Parallel? Series? Do I need any other electronic
components other than adapters and electrical switches?

You will prob. want to use a combination of series and parallel, depending on
Click to expand...
your power supply. Your going to need between 10 and 20 ma per each LED if you
want them bright. If your going to have, say 200 leds, you will need a power
supply capable of at least, 4 amps. Normal non white or blue LEDs drop about 2
volts each when they are in conduction, and you will need to limit the current
going through them or they will self destruct. The easiest way is to use
resistors as that limiting component. So if your power supply is say 12 volts,
then you could plan to run sets of 5 leds in series with a series resistor
chosen to limit the current to say 15 ma per led, or in this case about 134
ohms. You could if you wanted to be dangerous use the 120 volt mains to power
your leds feeding them through a diode to a current limiting resistor. This
would get rid of the need for a seperate power supply. If you did this you
could put about 100 leds in series. Make sure to use a high wattage resistor as
you will have a couple a amps through it.

If you need more help than this you should prob. find someone to help you.

Rocky


 
"nntp" <johndoe@large.com> wrote in message
news:8f-dnb58hP1zlQPcRVn-pw@rogers.com...
I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business.
Click to expand...
Enough LEDs will not be cheap.

Have you considered electroluminescent wire?
 
nntp wrote:
I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights?
Click to expand...
Xmas lights; an excellent idea. Drill holes in a board that won't catch
fire and stick 'em thru. Don't they make lights that fail shorted?
That would make the sign reliable. And dirt cheap. And multi-colored.
And easily changeable. And you can safely
put it outside. And your insurance company won't get excited if
a fire starts.

High technology is not always best.

The tradeoff point changes depending on how many lights. A 10 light
sign is different from a 10,000 light sign.
mike

--
Return address is VALID.
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 $2200
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
 
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:50:00 +0100, the renowned "Frank Bemelman"
<f.bemelmanx@xs4all.invalid.nl> wrote:
Hmm, perhaps just drill holes to make the pattern, put a
filter behind it and a cheap tube light. I don't see
much advantage in leds here.
Click to expand...
Have you seen the new "Open" signs that use super-bright LEDs and a
neon-like diffuser? In North Am., Staples sells 'em.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
 
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 09:53:30 -0500, nntp wrote:

I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business. Since I
want the sign to be unique, something I can build, and inexpensive to build
and maintain, I am planning to use LEDs instead of neon or flourescent box.
My question is how do I wire the LEDs safely. Do I wire these in the same
manner as Xmas lights? Parallel? Series? Do I need any other electronic
components other than adapters and electrical switches?
Click to expand...
Well, you _could_ take a piece of plexiglass, mount it in a black
frame, with a black background, edge-light it with UV, and draw the
sign with fluorescent wax pencil, but that's not what you asked.

I see that 6 other people have beat me to the followup, so probably
at least one of them is sane. ;-)

Just in case: the LEDs have a polarity, and a rated voltage and
current. If you have a power source handy, like mains power, ;-) that
makes the power supply easy - just use a wall wart.

Decide how many LEDs you're going to use, and what the physical
arrangement will be and all that, then arrange them electrically
in series strings where each LED in a given string has the same
forward current rating as the rest of the string, and the voltages
(each type of LED has a little different spec here, so go by
the data sheet) add up to the wall wart voltage MINUS a voltage
reserved for a series, current-limiting resistor. There will be
as many opinions on this exact value as there will be people
responding. Probably an average of them will work out, unless
someone recommends a billion ohms, that could kind of skew your
figures. ;-) This is where a little bit of experience, or even
a dollop of common sense, can be helpful. :)

Add up the currents of all of the strings, since they'll be in
parallel, and that value will be the minimum current rating for
the wall wart.

Hope This Helps!
Rich
 
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:50:00 +0100, Frank Bemelman wrote:

"Kryten" <kryten_droid_obfusticator@ntlworld.com> schreef in bericht
news:nSond.84$3s2.60@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net...

"nntp" <johndoe@large.com> wrote in message
news:8f-dnb58hP1zlQPcRVn-pw@rogers.com...
I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business.

Enough LEDs will not be cheap.

Have you considered electroluminescent wire?

Nice stuff, but does not give much light. Even at night
it's too weak for a sign, I'd think.

Hmm, perhaps just drill holes to make the pattern, put a
filter behind it and a cheap tube light. I don't see
much advantage in leds here.
Click to expand...
There was a toy exactly like this some years ago - there might
still be such a thing. It used little colored transparent pegs.
But the pictures were very heavily pixellated. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
Thank You- made wading thru this post worthwhile :eek:)
lite brite indeed

"Rich Grise" <rich@example.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.11.19.20.46.01.427101@example.net...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:50:00 +0100, Frank Bemelman wrote:

There was a toy exactly like this some years ago - there might
still be such a thing. It used little colored transparent pegs.
But the pictures were very heavily pixellated. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
Click to expand...
 
<dlag@roger> schreef in bericht news:vMadnZcxIehzEgPcRVn-jA@rogers.com...
Thank You- made wading thru this post worthwhile :eek:)
lite brite indeed

"Rich Grise" <rich@example.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.11.19.20.46.01.427101@example.net...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:50:00 +0100, Frank Bemelman wrote:

There was a toy exactly like this some years ago - there might
still be such a thing. It used little colored transparent pegs.
But the pictures were very heavily pixellated. ;-)
Click to expand...
Lite Brite, it's fantastic. Never saw it before. I hope Santa brings me one!

http://www.hasbro.com/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.15023/dn/litebrite/default.cfm

Hey, on Ebay too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11735&item=5934798622&rd=1


--
Thanks, Frank.
(remove 'x' and 'invalid' when replying by email)
 
"Kryten" <kryten_droid_obfusticator@ntlworld.com> schreef in bericht
news:nSond.84$3s2.60@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net...
"nntp" <johndoe@large.com> wrote in message
news:8f-dnb58hP1zlQPcRVn-pw@rogers.com...
I want to build a business sign for my wife's flower shop business.

Enough LEDs will not be cheap.

Have you considered electroluminescent wire?
Click to expand...
Nice stuff, but does not give much light. Even at night
it's too weak for a sign, I'd think.

Hmm, perhaps just drill holes to make the pattern, put a
filter behind it and a cheap tube light. I don't see
much advantage in leds here.

--
Thanks, Frank.
(remove 'x' and 'invalid' when replying by email)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top