Battery Powered Altoids LED Lamp
Altoids LED Lamp.
I’ve been interested in LED lamps for some time now, and finally bought a batch of bright white LEDs. I got these from LED supply. The LEDs run at 4.5V max at 20 mA and have a luminous intensity of 6400 mcd. They aren’t the brightest LEDs I could find on the net, but they are brighter than most, and the price isn’t too bad, $13.50 plus shipping for 10 of them. In contrast, Radio Shack wants over $5 each for their bright white LEDs (at about half the luminosity). LED Supply shipped two days after I ordered, and I received them by priority mail the next day, about 72 hours after placing my order.
I had a chat over IM with my father last night about the LED lamps, and he made a couple suggestions that helped with the design. I was originally going to hack up my halogen desk lamp, but decided against that since I sometimes need the intense white light it provides, like when I was building this lamp. He suggested using household copper wire and wrapping the leads around it. I still think that’s a good idea, and may pursue it for my next light, but I ended up using some 20 guage wire, twisted tightly for the stalk and an Altoids tin for the base.