Ever wonder why some comments are higher up the list than others? One BIG factor is how often you click the "like" button for that persons videos. So, take a split second out of your very busy day and mash that button! It shows you really appreciate the time, money and effort that we put into making videos like this :)
I did a similar setup with led strips I bought. I made two light panels to reduce shadows and powered them with a converted atx power supply. Most led strips are 12 volts. Those led strips are fun for making lighting projects and are surprisingly cheap!
For us guys just starting out on TH-cam, videos like this save us tons of time and we absolutely appreciate your advice and experience. Well speaking for myself, I do. Thanks.
The days we went to school and Shop class building that techno dancing light, here we are again doing the same thing all over again 40 years later, for me. Great job. enjoyed the how to straight forward and simple to follow thank you for bringing back high school memories.
This is a perfect idea for a light table for hand drawn animation, architectural drawing, or even looking at x-rays if you want. Awesome build, thanks for showing us.
John, I like that you don't get into the 'how to build minutia' with these. Most of us subscribed to your channel have a basic understanding of woodworking. Your concepts & designs are what shine through, and they are great!
A few years ago I brought LED shop lights from the big box store $$$ in a hurry to get proper light in my shop. I just added two more of these to complete two rows of lights. I did that just to keep what I had already done uniform. I going to build some of these as a shop/overhead light on the other side of my shop and a camera light as well. Great idea and a fraction of the price!
Not to make "light" of your light weight light panel, but I do believe it sheds the light on the subject lightly. A nice, light touch for your filming and light needs. It's no "light weight" by any means regarding the light it produces. You might think I'm making "light" of your project, but I am not by any means. It should serve your light needs for many episodes to come. :)
For folks wanting to try this, here's what I've learned when monkeying around with these LED light strips over the past year: - They come in all sorts of colors - even changing colors. Knock yourself out. - These are sold in 5-meter strips for around $7-15 USD, depending on which particular kind you want. Lots of varieties. Some are even water proof. - Regardless of the brand, I've never got the adhesive to work well., I just use hot glue every few inches as needed. - You can cut the strips into lengths of your choice, but the smallest increment is 3" or so. - If you want eye-pleasing white, do NOT get "cool white" (sometimes called "bright white"). It's got a garish blue tint to it that will grate on your nerves after a while. Get "warm white". It's closer to incandescent light, and feels more natural. - Last time I bought some, 5050 was not the brightest. I think it was 3528. But those numbers refer to the size of the LED module on each strip, and are not always a direct correlation to the lumens. - They require 12v. If you use more, you will burn them out. If you use less, you won't like it. - They require 1amp for every 5' or so. If you plan on lighting up the entire 15 foot strip, plan on a 5amp power supply. (Laptop chargers work well for this, but make sure it's a 12v charger. Universal laptop chargers from eBay work well, and they're ~10USD) - If you want to dim them, don't bother trying to reduce the voltage. you won't like the results. Instead, use a special dimmer switch that is made for it. They're about $1. You'll even find some on eBay included as a kit. Some kits even have wireless remotes. VERY CHEAP - Instead of painting the background white, you can glue down tin foil and then glue the LED strips on top of it. Watch the solder so you won't short it out. Have fun!
That is neat. Educational, informative and easy on the eyes. As always, a pleasure to view your hard work and effort that you put into producing a quality video for our viewing pleasure. Thank you Sir.
You are some sort of fantastical genius. I absolutely love your setup. I wont be making this light any time soon but I will be watching your video again and again
Cool trick for cutting the strips vs trying to cut with scissors. I've also found the sticky only lasts long enough to hold while the silicone glue I add is drying. Def back up with some glue or fasteners.
Have been wanting to do something like this for a while now.....Will need to step down the voltage for the batteries I would like to try and use. Thanks John!
I want to give you a quick tip. I've been soldering up a 5m piece of RGB LED-strip and I found out that with the many soldered connections that I made, that there was only 9v left at the last piece, compared to the 12v at the beginning. This resulted in more dim LED's at the end of the strip. My tip is to have connect the 12V lead that is coming from the supply, to somewhere halfway too, to counter this voltage drop (due to resistance that are now made with the solder and cables. Edit: well, since you've closed it all up, I guess it's a tip for the next time ;)
that's a cool project, it turned out great, I'd love to try this myself! I've done a couple of very similar projects but smaller, I found that I gained a lot of light using aluminium foil glued as a backing.
That's too funny! I built a very similar a few months back, but the light was not bright enough and I noticed flickering when I played back the video. Nice one, John!
Build article with more detail: www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/led-light-panel.html The camera gantry build article: www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/camera-gantry-1.html Ways YOU can help support the work I do in making these videos: Plans for sale: www.ibuildit.ca/plans.html Making these videos is expensive and time consuming, and you can help by becoming a supporter of this channel on Patreon. For as little as $1 per month, you'll get early access to regular videos and also exclusive videos made just for my Patreon supporters! www.patreon.com/user?u=865843&ty=h Did you know I have two other TH-cam channels? My second channel: th-cam.com/channels/zGbp-rRVNwyFhn9gHoZr5g.html My home reno channel: th-cam.com/channels/MlfKvFrEpzg1PEpTzJDWoA.html
Nice. All you need now is a monitor and perhaps a teleprompter to attach to your gantry. Okay perhaps you don't need it but it'd make it way cool looking.
Quite a while ago I was involved in building some similar light (at least for the purpose), and the major difference we he was putting on top of the LEDs (before the diffusor layer) a thin sheet of shiny polished aluminum (where there were cutouts for the LEDs). This way it was noticeable brighter and also had a slightly improved CRI.
Hot glue works to attach LEDs, its fast and simple. They all suck at sticking. Thanks for the build, going to make a few of these for my kitchen ceiling.
I’ve made several of these for free. I find a flat screen TV with a cracked screen in the trash, remove the cracked screen and it’s long narrow board, remote IR sensor board, speakers, and leave pretty much everything else and viola! Although the LED strips,CCFLs or whatever you find in a flat screen TV might not be the kind you want(warm white, cool, etc)…. They make for great light tables Atleast.
if you want better soldering you can try hot soldering instead of cold soldering. With hot soldering you make the wire touch the smd strip and heat them both up until the tine melts onto it, instead of heating up the tin and putting it between the two.
also i think the reason the strips come loose is from the heat, LED's do not get as warm as other light sources but all the heat is generated at a very tiny spot at the base and it has nowhere else to go.
Are all LEDS wired in parallel? What voltage battery did you use. Could you have used a small DC power supply and eliminate recharging the battery? Nice job
I have LED stripes with the self-adhesive backs that I put under my kitchen cabinets. If you light the LEDs before you stick them on a surface the glue heats up a bit allowing them to stick better. (knocking on wood) I haven't had any issues with the strips not sticking.
Nice light John. I've bought similar LED Strips, with the same 3M double-side tape, and I've had the same issues! The tape only really sticks to metal or glass. Anything remotely 'rough' doesn't work. I ended up using superglue to stick mine to wood.
You are awesome sir, I sub ur channel since the day I saw your video "Can paper cut the Wood" it was amazing experience. You are hard working man, and you deserve success. May God bless you and all Hard working men & women.
Morning John what a awesome idea. It’s been 4 yrs I hope your able to answer my? 1. How is it as of today 2. What led strip did you buy 3000k 4000k etc and where did you buy them. A item number or? Would be helpful. Thanks
The LED vendor that supplies us with our strips at work mentioned something about how the life of the LEDs goes down dramatically if the power supplied is too low. We control the brightness of our LEDs with a PWM. That's probably not important in this instance but I thought I'd pass along something that I found unusual about LED strips.
Very soft but bright. Nice work (but not in your special electronics basement room - haha)! That gantry is looking more like a movie set gantry. Just put a seat on it and a little hydraulics and you will be all set to film Mr. Focus! Lights, camera, action. Ok ok no action from him.
I guess I got lucky with the adhesive on my light strips. I've got light strips stuck to oak coated with water based polyurethane for over three years and the adhesion is still rock solid. But then again, maybe its not luck...I live in SoCal. The low humidity is probably why it sticks so well.
Just you know herr Heisz, any flatscreen computermonitor has a very powerfull light in it. A nice flat fluoresend lightfixture which in most cases can be made working without the picture electronics... Just remove the monitopr parts and do some soldering and done.... even the case of the monitor can be re-used as a lighting fixture...
How are you finding the heat management? Most of the 5050 LEDs I've tried get very hot, especially running from an SLA battery which tends to put out closer to 13v. If you run them at around 11.5v they run a lot cooler, and will have a much longer working life.
Do the LEDs stay fairly cool? I've seen several videos where people have used these strips and no one seems worried about attaching these directly to wood boards. Seems like a fire hazard, but maybe these never get that hot and since yours run on a battery they aren't pulling too much power.
Nice and effective light. Are those the same led's from Lee Valley? I bought them a few years ago from there for underneath the kitchen uppers. I found they have a nice colour temp.
I got this one from Amazon. Brand was "Power Mall", but may be "Lucky Golden Ball" next week :D They claimed "daylight" colour temp, and it looks pretty darn close.
John, Im working on a smaller version of your camera gantry for my shop. Unfortunately, I have a garage door opener blocking about 1/3 of the space needed to have it on rollers. I cant put it lower then the opener because there is a window blocking the way.. If its not one thing its another. Im thinking of a pivot system in the center of the shop that extents to all stations. this will require alot of experimenting on my part. Great addition to your gantry my friend.
Maybe a better solution is to make something that rolls on the floor. A small flat dolly with a mast you can mount the camera arm on, etc. If you use a car battery to add weight to the dolly to keep it stable, you could use that as the power source for a light like this.
+John Heisz ohhhh John... very happy I left that comment. if I reposition my large work bench and table saw into the center that could certainly work. fantastic idea man. thanks : D
No problem! I've been thinking about doing it myself, and getting rid of the gantry. The gantry is hard to beat, but it does block the ceiling lights in some shots.
Ever wonder why some comments are higher up the list than others? One BIG factor is how often you click the "like" button for that persons videos.
So, take a split second out of your very busy day and mash that button! It shows you really appreciate the time, money and effort that we put into making videos like this :)
Done and I also Tweet you videos. So hoping even more people mash that button.
Button mashed.
I did a similar setup with led strips I bought. I made two light panels to reduce shadows and powered them with a converted atx power supply. Most led strips are 12 volts. Those led strips are fun for making lighting projects and are surprisingly cheap!
Awh man. You're so cool. Love your vids.
Awh man. You're so cool. Love your vids.
For us guys just starting out on TH-cam, videos like this save us tons of time and we absolutely appreciate your advice and experience. Well speaking for myself, I do. Thanks.
The days we went to school and Shop class building that techno dancing light, here we are again doing the same thing all over again 40 years later, for me. Great job. enjoyed the how to straight forward and simple to follow thank you for bringing back high school memories.
This is a perfect idea for a light table for hand drawn animation, architectural drawing, or even looking at x-rays if you want. Awesome build, thanks for showing us.
John, I like that you don't get into the 'how to build minutia' with these. Most of us subscribed to your channel have a basic understanding of woodworking. Your concepts & designs are what shine through, and they are great!
I have been wanting to make a light like this. Thanks John
Nice to see your version :)
It is a matter of time you two get together and come up with something neat.....
A few years ago I brought LED shop lights from the big box store $$$ in a hurry to get proper light in my shop. I just added two more of these to complete two rows of lights. I did that just to keep what I had already done uniform. I going to build some of these as a shop/overhead light on the other side of my shop and a camera light as well. Great idea and a fraction of the price!
Not to make "light" of your light weight light panel, but I do believe it sheds the light on the subject lightly. A nice, light touch for your filming and light needs. It's no "light weight" by any means regarding the light it produces. You might think I'm making "light" of your project, but I am not by any means. It should serve your light needs for many episodes to come. :)
Thanks, you are all light :D
I'm glad you're so lighthearted
Light on!!
You have many talents John, always a joy to watch your videos!
I love it that You make everything of wood or plywood except the battery and leds ;). Greetings from Tenerife island
Every thing about this is very neat. I really like how you can leave the battery in place while charging it.
Great idea, almost bought a video led set a few weeks back for a small fortune your idea is much better
For folks wanting to try this, here's what I've learned when monkeying around with these LED light strips over the past year:
- They come in all sorts of colors - even changing colors. Knock yourself out.
- These are sold in 5-meter strips for around $7-15 USD, depending on which particular kind you want. Lots of varieties. Some are even water proof.
- Regardless of the brand, I've never got the adhesive to work well., I just use hot glue every few inches as needed.
- You can cut the strips into lengths of your choice, but the smallest increment is 3" or so.
- If you want eye-pleasing white, do NOT get "cool white" (sometimes called "bright white"). It's got a garish blue tint to it that will grate on your nerves after a while. Get "warm white". It's closer to incandescent light, and feels more natural.
- Last time I bought some, 5050 was not the brightest. I think it was 3528. But those numbers refer to the size of the LED module on each strip, and are not always a direct correlation to the lumens.
- They require 12v. If you use more, you will burn them out. If you use less, you won't like it.
- They require 1amp for every 5' or so. If you plan on lighting up the entire 15 foot strip, plan on a 5amp power supply. (Laptop chargers work well for this, but make sure it's a 12v charger. Universal laptop chargers from eBay work well, and they're ~10USD)
- If you want to dim them, don't bother trying to reduce the voltage. you won't like the results. Instead, use a special dimmer switch that is made for it. They're about $1. You'll even find some on eBay included as a kit. Some kits even have wireless remotes. VERY CHEAP
- Instead of painting the background white, you can glue down tin foil and then glue the LED strips on top of it. Watch the solder so you won't short it out.
Have fun!
That is neat. Educational, informative and easy on the eyes. As always, a pleasure to view your hard work and effort that you put into producing a quality video for our viewing pleasure. Thank you Sir.
You are some sort of fantastical genius. I absolutely love your setup. I wont be making this light any time soon but I will be watching your video again and again
Am I the only one that finds this so calming and fun to watch
I love these videos. Serious skills, great ideas, creativity and humour. Wonderful.
Cool trick for cutting the strips vs trying to cut with scissors. I've also found the sticky only lasts long enough to hold while the silicone glue I add is drying. Def back up with some glue or fasteners.
wow that was really brighter than I thought it would be. very cool
Very gool John. Love the set up. That is thinking and very intuitive.
Excellent thanks. I think I will have a go at making a few of these for filming. brilliant
Have been wanting to do something like this for a while now.....Will need to step down the voltage for the batteries I would like to try and use. Thanks John!
I want to give you a quick tip. I've been soldering up a 5m piece of RGB LED-strip and I found out that with the many soldered connections that I made, that there was only 9v left at the last piece, compared to the 12v at the beginning. This resulted in more dim LED's at the end of the strip. My tip is to have connect the 12V lead that is coming from the supply, to somewhere halfway too, to counter this voltage drop (due to resistance that are now made with the solder and cables.
Edit: well, since you've closed it all up, I guess it's a tip for the next time ;)
that's a cool project, it turned out great, I'd love to try this myself! I've done a couple of very similar projects but smaller, I found that I gained a lot of light using aluminium foil glued as a backing.
That's too funny! I built a very similar a few months back, but the light was not bright enough and I noticed flickering when I played back the video. Nice one, John!
Build article with more detail:
www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/led-light-panel.html
The camera gantry build article:
www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/camera-gantry-1.html
Ways YOU can help support the work I do in making these videos:
Plans for sale: www.ibuildit.ca/plans.html
Making these videos is expensive and time consuming, and you can help by becoming a supporter of this channel on Patreon. For as little as $1 per month, you'll get early access to regular videos and also exclusive videos made just for my Patreon supporters!
www.patreon.com/user?u=865843&ty=h
Did you know I have two other TH-cam channels?
My second channel:
th-cam.com/channels/zGbp-rRVNwyFhn9gHoZr5g.html
My home reno channel:
th-cam.com/channels/MlfKvFrEpzg1PEpTzJDWoA.html
Nice. All you need now is a monitor and perhaps a teleprompter to attach to your gantry. Okay perhaps you don't need it but it'd make it way cool looking.
Good work. From my experience with LED strips I suggest you to give under the LED strips some piece of aluminum as a heat sink.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Bless you!
Pretty awesome arrangement you got there! Very nice video gear project!
A really 'Bright' and useful idea for sure, John! Well done!
i want to make something this!, but as a table top for a club scene that i'm shooting in my movie! this video is EXCELLENT!
Vintage 2x4!
I will definitely be using that. It's all perspective: I used to just be considered cheap, but now I'm a "maker!"
Nah, true "makers" can only do it with a CNC, a 3-D printer, lots of fast talk and an arduino attached :)
We are the REAL deal :D
Nice build a toggle switch between the battery and box might be a good addition thanks for the video
Super cool. I would have never thought of something like this.
Great job John, really like the idea.
Thank you for sharing us your knowledge dude, great video
For best results, is much better put in parallel led lines. Good job !!
Quite a while ago I was involved in building some similar light (at least for the purpose), and the major difference we he was putting on top of the LEDs (before the diffusor layer) a thin sheet of shiny polished aluminum (where there were cutouts for the LEDs). This way it was noticeable brighter and also had a slightly improved CRI.
Thanks, John. That was nicely explained. I am going to use your diffuser idea when
I make mine!
Great project John, and well explained ,mate
Cheers
Mike
Hot glue works to attach LEDs, its fast and simple. They all suck at sticking. Thanks for the build, going to make a few of these for my kitchen ceiling.
Excellent as always brother.
Smooth workmanship.
This is another one of those projects I plan on getting around too. Yours came out great! 🤓
I’ve made several of these for free. I find a flat screen TV with a cracked screen in the trash, remove the cracked screen and it’s long narrow board, remote IR sensor board, speakers, and leave pretty much everything else and viola! Although the LED strips,CCFLs or whatever you find in a flat screen TV might not be the kind you want(warm white, cool, etc)…. They make for great light tables Atleast.
if you want better soldering you can try hot soldering instead of cold soldering. With hot soldering you make the wire touch the smd strip and heat them both up until the tine melts onto it, instead of heating up the tin and putting it between the two.
also i think the reason the strips come loose is from the heat, LED's do not get as warm as other light sources but all the heat is generated at a very tiny spot at the base and it has nowhere else to go.
God I'm so envious of that gantry
Are all LEDS wired in parallel? What voltage battery did you use. Could you have used a small DC power supply and eliminate recharging the battery? Nice job
I have LED stripes with the self-adhesive backs that I put under my kitchen cabinets. If you light the LEDs before you stick them on a surface the glue heats up a bit allowing them to stick better. (knocking on wood) I haven't had any issues with the strips not sticking.
Can you make a video of what wiring and battery you used ?
Nice work, awesome 🤘😎🤘
Do you need to add an in-line resistor to drop the voltage from the adapter?
I have all kinds of those leds I might just copy you build John. Great job as always
If it helps there is a primer used for pre sticking down peel and stick floor tiles. It helps bind peel and stick vary well to plywoods.
Hi, John. Could you give us the link for the LEDs you got for this project? Thanks!
Nice light John. I've bought similar LED Strips, with the same 3M double-side tape, and I've had the same issues! The tape only really sticks to metal or glass. Anything remotely 'rough' doesn't work. I ended up using superglue to stick mine to wood.
Now THAT's a bright idea!
You are awesome sir, I sub ur channel since the day I saw your video "Can paper cut the Wood" it was amazing experience. You are hard working man, and you deserve success. May God bless you and all Hard working men & women.
Has anyone ever told you that, You sound incredible like the narrator off the film Elf! Its uncanny.
A great option. I have in the shop are like that. Lighting comfortable. For the video a like!
Morning John what a awesome idea. It’s been 4 yrs
I hope your able to answer my?
1. How is it as of today
2. What led strip did you buy
3000k 4000k etc and where did you buy them. A item number or? Would be helpful. Thanks
Very cool and bright!
have you thought about a deans plug set-up to more easily connect with the battery?
and great project!
Great but what is the front cover than you bought from home center? What is it called ?
Beautiful work!
Nice build! 👍👍
Nice build.
Liked it...very neat & does it's job & you have good skills too.👍
Congratulations. Very cool.
The LED vendor that supplies us with our strips at work mentioned something about how the life of the LEDs goes down dramatically if the power supplied is too low. We control the brightness of our LEDs with a PWM. That's probably not important in this instance but I thought I'd pass along something that I found unusual about LED strips.
Great work, John. I always learn something.
Great stuff as always John.
Enjoyed the project. Thanks.
excellent work, well explained
Very soft but bright. Nice work (but not in your special electronics basement room - haha)! That gantry is looking more like a movie set gantry. Just put a seat on it and a little hydraulics and you will be all set to film Mr. Focus! Lights, camera, action. Ok ok no action from him.
Sweet job 👍
Thank you :)
very cool set up!
I guess I got lucky with the adhesive on my light strips. I've got light strips stuck to oak coated with water based polyurethane for over three years and the adhesion is still rock solid. But then again, maybe its not luck...I live in SoCal. The low humidity is probably why it sticks so well.
Might be better tape.
Is the little circular mirror for a different part of the gantry?
Very nice, John Heisz
Looks great. Always hard to get consistent lighting.
Always mount those type of LEDS on a sheet of aluminium to dissipate the heat, plus it will stick better.
Looks great John!! 👊🏻
nice project John thank you for this
Great project! Very neat cuts:-)
Excellent proyect!
What is the name of the acrylic or white cover that diffuses the led spots?
thank you for sharing your amazing work, you have a new subscriber, greetings from Mexico
Wow, great one. I should have paid more attention in wood shop.
Just you know herr Heisz, any flatscreen computermonitor has a very powerfull light in it. A nice flat fluoresend lightfixture which in most cases can be made working without the picture electronics... Just remove the monitopr parts and do some soldering and done.... even the case of the monitor can be re-used as a lighting fixture...
How are you finding the heat management? Most of the 5050 LEDs I've tried get very hot, especially running from an SLA battery which tends to put out closer to 13v. If you run them at around 11.5v they run a lot cooler, and will have a much longer working life.
Nice work John. any reason you went with battery over ac?
AC can give you flicker
Very cool idea, John ;)
Really great video equipment John!
Hello, what you use typw panel for this 2:22 can you give me website for this product ?
yea i cant find it eithier
I think acrylic sheet
Do the LEDs stay fairly cool? I've seen several videos where people have used these strips and no one seems worried about attaching these directly to wood boards. Seems like a fire hazard, but maybe these never get that hot and since yours run on a battery they aren't pulling too much power.
Nice and effective light. Are those the same led's from Lee Valley? I bought them a few years ago from there for underneath the kitchen uppers. I found they have a nice colour temp.
I got this one from Amazon. Brand was "Power Mall", but may be "Lucky Golden Ball" next week :D
They claimed "daylight" colour temp, and it looks pretty darn close.
Double thumbs up for using flux!
Is that an acrylic glass that you used to diffuse the light?nice build man..
John, Im working on a smaller version of your camera gantry for my shop. Unfortunately, I have a garage door opener blocking about 1/3 of the space needed to have it on rollers. I cant put it lower then the opener because there is a window blocking the way.. If its not one thing its another. Im thinking of a pivot system in the center of the shop that extents to all stations. this will require alot of experimenting on my part. Great addition to your gantry my friend.
Maybe a better solution is to make something that rolls on the floor. A small flat dolly with a mast you can mount the camera arm on, etc. If you use a car battery to add weight to the dolly to keep it stable, you could use that as the power source for a light like this.
+John Heisz ohhhh John... very happy I left that comment. if I reposition my large work bench and table saw into the center that could certainly work. fantastic idea man. thanks : D
No problem! I've been thinking about doing it myself, and getting rid of the gantry. The gantry is hard to beat, but it does block the ceiling lights in some shots.