Wiring up LED's for pedalboard lighting

[trumpus]

Hey,

So I've been thinking of adding some sort of light to my pedalboard so that i can tweak settings easily in the dark.

I have been thinking of building (or buying if cheap enough) something like a short segment of ropelight, or a strip of LED's to mount under the top shelf of my pedalboard and on the back part of the storage compartment.  I like the idea of having that eerie blue light eminating from the board a la some of the stuff the guys over at Trailer Trash are doing:

.
Note the strip of LED's at the back of the board

Does anyone know where I could buy something like this for a reasonable price?  If not, any ideas on how to wire up a bunch of LED's so i'd have a couple of 6" strips of blue LED's powerd by a single 9V or my Godylke 9V adapter?

Thanks,
Brian

[tommy.genes]

I was thinking recently that Electro-Luminescent (EL) wire might be good for this sort of thing, but I don't know if the inverters that power the stuff are too noisy, either audibly or electro-magnetically, to be used in proximity with pedals.

The wire needs an AC source to illuminate, and what little info I've found indicates that the frequency can be squarely within the audio range (60Hz to 6kHz), so the potential for noise in your audio path seems real. I'd be interested to hear any practial reports from people who may have tried it, however.



I'm guessing that DC-powered LED rope light might be better in terms of noise, but it looks to be more expensive and possibly more difficult to work with.

I tell ya, this is a difficult topic to research because Google searches yield a million hits for amateurish web pages selling the stuff, but very little detailed/accurate/trustworthy technical data.

-- T. G. --

[H S]

How about putting fluorescent stickers on all the knobs and mounting a blacklight to shine on the board?

[trumpus]

So,

I started to search a bit and found these:


eBay Link

It says they run on 12V ( I believe that's DC) power. My question is, if I got these does anyone have any idea as to how to wire these up to a power supply. I guess it would be ok to use a 9v (according to nitefly7), so i would like to run some wires to a small enclosure with a battery and a switch (SPST or SPDT?). I know this is probably the most basic DIY question, but my experience is limited. I'm assuming i'd need a resistor or two in there, but any specifics on how to wire maybe 2 of these strips together with power and a switch?

Any ideas? I'm about to snatch up a few and i'd love to grab the other parts so i'm ready when they come in.

Alternatively, I found these:



Another Link

Probably a bit too long to fit under my board, and more expensive, but still doable i'm sure - the question still remains - how to wire these to a switch and power them?

Brian

[pyrop]

Hey Brian check this out. I posted a basic schematic how to wire up leds
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=41991.msg303151

pyrop

[trumpus]

Sweet - i'll look into doing it that way...but since these LED strips that i posted above come pre wired, with just a positive and negative lead coming off...how would i connect the battery and/or a DC jack to that?  What type of resistor would i use, since I wouldn't be able to add one for each LED?

Alternatively, any idea how to wire up a bunch of LED's on perfboard, so I could make my own strip like that?

Thanks,
Brian

[pyrop]

Brian, looking at link for those strip lights it says 12vdc power source.
You won't need to use a resistor as they would be in there already.
Powering the strip of leds with 9v will be ok but will be slightly dimmer.
And at $2.95 + post.. its cheap

To wire up on perf just follow the schematic on the other page and lay the components out on the board as you see them on the schem.

pyrop

[trumpus]

So, since i'm essentially a newb - how (specifically, as in negative from LEd board to ____ wire of battery, X wire goes to one lug of SPDT switch) would i wire this to a switch and 9v connector?

Would i be better off wiring it to a DC jack and using a 12V adapter from Rad Shack?  If so, how would i do this?

What type of switch should i use?  I think i have some DPDT toggles lying around.  also, would i be able to run 2 of those boards from the same power supply?  If so, how should i wire it.

I'm sorry for the total newb questions - these are probably really easy for you to answer!  I'm not great at reading schematics, so drawings or clear descriptions would be better....

Thanks a bunch!

Brian

[Austin73]

Maplin also do the LED strips again a bit pricey but i think you ca get power supply from them too? (Don't quote me though! lol)

Austin

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47376&criteria=LED%20strips&doy=30m3

[trumpus]

Being in the UK and all, i'd probably get slammed on the shipping.  The ones from eBay are smaller ( better to fit under my pedalboard shelves) and part of me wants to kindof do this "myself" (with a little help from y'all, of course!)

Brian

[spudulike]

Firstly, illuminating your pedal board from behind will look very Star Trek but be next to useless (Ive tried it). I settled on using this circuit, run off a 6 volt dc adapter. I mounted one set of 6 LEDs on the left of my board and the other set of 6 on the right, at the back of the board, slightly higher than the tops of my fx. No flicker, lower current draw than just banging 20-odd leds and resistors across a battery, and the pulse rate can be adjusted by R2 value. You can add or remove extra leds at will, and you can use hi-bri leds at light levels that wont remove your retina. I used white leds in mine.



http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/555.htm#555leds.gif        ->     for the full schem explanation.

[pyrop]

Here is a basic wiring schematic for your led strip & dpdt switch

Note you can sub the 12V input plug for a 9V battery/snap
The yellow wires are for an optional 2nd led strip although the green wire will do the same job. These goto V+.
The grey wire is  V- for a 2nd strip.

pyrop

[trumpus]

Pyrop - You friggin' rock so hard!!!

Thank you so much!

Just one question - is the DC power jack for 12V different than the one i've used for 9V (ie, does the jack have anything to do with the volatage?)  I've got a Rad Shack power adapter that i can switch between 9, 12 and 18V, so i was planning on just using this.  I've got some spare Dc jacks left over from some TB boxes i built a while back, so i was hoping i culd just use this too!

Thanks again.   You rock!

Brian

[pyrop]

Brian, you just need a jack that your power adapter fits into so if it fits the spare one you've got use it!
There is usualy no difference between jack for different voltages although there are different sizes.
You can use as many leds as you want as long as you keep the current draw under the current rating of your adapter.
I would use your adapter switched to 12V although you could use the 9V setting.
I wouldn't use set to 18V though as it probly will cause damage to the leds.

pyrop

[trumpus]

Thanks again - did i mention, you rock?

Brian

[kissack101]

Being in the UK and all, i'd probably get slammed on the shipping.  The ones from eBay are smaller ( better to fit under my pedalboard shelves) and part of me wants to kindof do this "myself" (with a little help from y'all, of course!)

Brian

On my pedal board I used christmas lights to pretty cool effect: 14 metres of red ones I got as asda (in the UK). The light up the pedal board pretty well and draw many admiring glances at gigs if that's your thing...

Adam

[jxoco]

the company, on ebay has the same part with free shipping....

for $5.72 US

and says worldwide

http://cgi.ebay.com/7-Ultra-Bright-Blue-LED-Strips-Strip-Neon_W0QQitemZ4402752880QQcategoryZ20709QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

[trumpus]

Just an update....

OK!

So, I got the LED's in the mail on Friday and I ended up finishing this project yesterday.  This is my first "prototype" of a little lighting system.  I'm not quite sure if i'll keep the LED's where they are or move them to other spots on the boards, but here's the first attempt...

I had ordered the LED's a few weeks ago, but shipping from China (i don't know why I couldn't find them in the US!) took forever.  I made up one "prototype" switch box a week or so ago (i was getting antsy waiting for the LED's) so please excuse the crappy hand written labels/graphics!



Here're the boards with the LED's on 'em.

The whole rig:


Main board:

There are two strips of LED's each with its own switch.  The switches/power jack/box is under the shelf on the right side of the board.  The LED's are helt to the board with velcro.

Effects loop:

This is just a single LED strip with one switch (the box pictured above).

Overall, a pretty easy solution, and in the dark, it looks badass!  I can varyt he intesity of the LED's by using a power supply with a selectable voltage.  I am using one of these on the effects loop strip, but the main board lights are powered by a free 9V adapter from my Godlyke supply.  At 9V, they are plenty bright, and i actually prefer them runnin g at 7.5V, for a dimmer, more suble light that isn't blinding!

Lemme know what you think.

I just came across electroluminescent (EL) wire, and think that for version 2.0 of the pedalboard lighting, i may go this route:

http://www.vibelights.com/eznewi.html

It seems easier to fit it where i want it without  having it pointing straight out at me!

Brian

[pyrop]

Cool, good to see you got it working.
No drama's I hope.

pyrop

[trumpus]

Ha!  Yep, its working, with only limited drama!

I had put together the box with the switch ahead of time, and labeled it, not paying attention to which was on/off - so the box is labeled wrong!

Then, after wiring up the first strip - mind you the bottom of each strip is the bare PC board - i put it on my main board, but accidentally touched the bottom to the metal rim, and shorted out on of the LEDs!  No problem - i had a spare blue LED laying around, so i swapped it out and viola - good as new!

After that, i put electrician's tape on the bottom of all the strips and used shrink tubing on all exposed leads and all is good!!

The 2 strips on my main board are wired to 1 box with 2 little toggles - one for each strip.  Definately a cool project.  I'm not sure if they'll stay on the board, or if i'll try something new like EL wire or something a little more conducive to fitting under the shelves (these strips are just a hair too long!

Brian

Edit: BTW - i'm running these both at 9V and i like it better than when i run them at 12V - they are dimmer and easier to handle w/out buring out a retina or two!