Original garlands are one of the ways to decorate a room that create coziness and a festive mood. Few people know that a do-it-yourself LED garland is an easy thing to do. You can independently create an option that suits you and fits perfectly into the interior.
What are garlands
On the shelves of stores you can find a huge number of different options, so as not to get lost in all the variety, you need to know how they work and how they differ. Knowing what an LED garland circuit is will help you if you decide to make one yourself.
Types of garlands:
- Traditional thread garland.
- Garlands of mesh.
- Curtains.
- One of the curtain options is icicle garlands.
- Durolight.
- Keeplight.
- Strobelight will create a flicker.
Now that you have decided on the types of garland you are creating, you need to carefully study the wires and types of power that can be used to create a garland with your own hands.
Types of wire and power
Moderngarlands are made using one of three types of wire. For this, rubber, silicone and PVC materials can be used. For outdoor decorations, the first two types of wires are used, since they have increased moisture resistance and are quite resistant to temperature changes. In the premises, you can use budget LED Christmas tree garlands with PVC wire.
By type of power, two types can be distinguished: autonomous and electric. The former are ideal for decorating facades and places where it is impossible to supply electricity. Such street LED garlands are powered by batteries. Due to the low energy consumption, they can work for a long time. A big plus in mobility, you can easily take them with you to promotions. Electrical plugs into an outlet.
Option 1. Create a garland from an old keyboard
It happens that a garland is needed in the shortest possible time, but there is no money to buy it. Then the master class "LED garland, made by hand" will come to the rescue. Consider the most budgetary option for reworking old computer office equipment, for example, keyboards and mice.
To complete the work you will need:
- Several unnecessary keyboards (maybe not working).
- Soldering iron.
- Resistors.
- Insulating tape.
- Tubes-cambric for heat shrinking.
- Flux or rosin.
First, you need to remove various unnecessary wires from the keyboard and carefully disconnect the USB cable. ForIn order for the DIY LED garland to be complete, you should look for at least five keyboards. Ask around, friends, or go to local forums. Each has a minimum of three LED lights that serve as indicators for command buttons. If there is an unnecessary gaming room in stock, then there will be no price for it, because a large number of LEDs are collected there. The most interesting option is obtained by mixing different light bulbs from different office equipment.
Instructions
Disassemble the keyboard and take out a small board with a controller. It is to it that the bulbs will be soldered in the future. It is important to consider that any LED garland (made with your own hands) consists of 12 elements that are connected in parallel to resistors. Given that a regular USB gives a voltage of 5 volts and a current of 500 mA.
The natural voltage of each element does not exceed 5 volts. If you connect them directly, they will overheat and burn out quickly. You need to lower the voltage. This can be done by pairwise soldering of elements. Thus, each of them will downgrade the other. But this option is not optimal. It is best to use a certain voltage frame that will not interfere with the riot of colored lights.
Take the cable and burn through the braid a little on one side. Solder into the bare windows. So you will create a LED garland with your own hands of the required length. Achieve the desired shape, length and isolate bare spots. Insidecable eats cores: minus - black, plus - red. Connect the whole structure and start testing outdoor LED garlands.
Option 2. Creating a garland from scratch
If you want to make an interesting garland that will meet the given requirements, then carefully study the picture below. The scheme of the LED garland will allow you to delve into the process and understand in detail the order of all the elements.
In the event that we consider the possibility of emergency regulation of the multivibrator frequencies as a result of a shift at the ends of all available transistors, the question arises of the difficulty of replacing field and bipolar transistors. In this case, it is necessary to consider the frequency of switching, if you reduce the period, then the LEDs located on the garland will start switching very quickly.
Thus, the VT-1 and VT-2 used may be similar to KTZ101 and KTZ15. To determine the supply voltage and its drop in the entire string of LEDs, you can use the transistor R2.
