diy lamp update

Some learning from five years outside. I have taken down my lamps to make changes. Let's see how they are weathering.

My concept was to build simple safe cheap reliable rugged outdoor lamps using common materials: wood, found glass, cheap LED chips and "wall wart" power supplies, all re-used if possible.

It was important to me that my lamps give efficient light without drawing attention to themselves.

This one (Model upside down L) is shown attached to a corner of my deck under the railing. I mounted it low, about knee height off the ground. The light shone downward on the path and was limited upward to the horizon by the top of the lamp. There was no glare from these lamps as you walked toward them, just illumination of the path. Would the design be classed as "full cutoff"?

I am pleased with the result. They were bright! Each used only 2 watts at 9 volts from an old printer power supply. The cost was about $5 each for new and reused materials.

[click any pic to enlarge]

A gray connector box is barely visible on the other side of the post. The wire carrying low voltage DC to the lamp passes through a hole in the post to the connector box. I tried to hide the wires and plug entrances for rain and bugs. Not very well it turned out.

I liked using old glass telegraph insulators for the lamp lens although I tried all sorts of glass. Some, like the insulator, were difficult to mount, especially for outdoor year round use.

The idea was that the glass object would protect the LED chip from the elements yet pass the light in a pleasing and interesting yet effective dark sky kind of way.

A common material I used was 2x4 lumber, usually without any protective coating so that the wood weathered natural grey. I avoided cracking of the wood by selecting evenly grained sections with no knots or visible cracks. I pre-drilled all the screw holes. Cracks did form over the years but they were minor.

I had intended for the lamps to look rustic in a modern way if that is possible?

These lamps were not connected this past winter but had illuminated the pathway perfectly for the four years before that, five years total. I didn't know if they still worked.

On the bench connected to a power supply!

Perhaps I shouldn't sound surprised?

Let's have a look inside. To do that, I have to destroy them.

One of the lamps has been a bug home for a while, the other is clean, apparently a better seal.

The bug is alive. No bugs were harmed in this research!

The seal was a bead of silicone around the skirt of the insulator where it touched the aluminum sheet. I had trouble getting the silicone around where the wires went through the sheet.

The thin aluminum sheet is a piece of natural finish roof flashing. It serves as reflector, heat sink and support for the bale wire. The glass hangs from the bale wire so that the silicone has backup. The glass insulators are relatively heavy. The aluminum sheet with it's attachments form a sub-assembly that gets screwed to the wood frame enclosing the electrical part from the weather. There is a cavity in the wood to fit.

It was crudely done.

The back view before removing the bale wires and peeling the aluminum sheet away from the glass. I can see that I used both steel bale wire (the thinner rusty wire) and aluminum wire (thicker and shiny). I recall that the aluminum was easier to bend to the required shape. The steel, although thinner was more stiff.

The smaller rectangles are pieces of aluminum bar to improve heat transfer to the thin sheet. The LED chip is mounted on the other side with two screws. There is thermal compound between the chip and the bar and between the bar and the sheet.

They don't look the same because I tried a couple of variations. The one of the left was a later model. Notice that the silicone fills the holes for the bail wires but not the electrical wires!

I'll bet that's the bug entrance!

In this pic, the bug house LED is the bottom one. Surprisingly clean.

The top one has suffered some rusty corrosion to one of the two bolts but not the other.

Both LED's still work as I showed with the bench power supply. I wouldn't count on the top one lasting much longer just by appearance. There seems to be some darkening at the top corners of the COB array potting.

This LED is from the dark sky shielded lamp. As you can see, it did not do well at all. The LED no longer works.

I had used a small glass jar as a lens for this lamp. I found that it almost immediately showed signs of moisture inside the glass. None of the screws I used were rust resistant and the lid of the jar rusted badly.

The connector boxes were ok although 2 of 4 became bug houses. Corrosion of the cover screws was a problem. The screw used is an unusual fine metric thread (M4x0.5 15mm long) so finding a suitable replacement is difficult. I like these boxes otherwise for outdoor use. The one has been in direct sun and rain for five years.

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This autopsy of my lamps after their "life test" shows what needs improvement. My projects are never perfect the first time!

Your comments are welcome. Please browse the other articles in the series.

Thank you for over 55,000 pageviews of this DIY Lamp series so far!

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George Plhak
Lions Head, Ontario, Canada

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update - this article

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a shielded low power diy garden lamp

Much is written about the benefits of shielded "dark sky" lighting. The main benefits are reduced light pollution, improved security and reduced energy use. You can read more about the dark sky movement at Wikipedia.

Shielded light fixtures focus light downward where it does the greatest good. No light is allowed upward into the night sky or over into a neighbor's property. Lower light levels produce less glare and save energy. Less glare makes for better security since it is easier to see intruders without being blinded by a bright, exposed light source.

Health benefits are also claimed, for humans and our animal friends. See Scotobiology.

I was challenged to make a shielded version of my Do It Yourself (DIY) garden lamp. My lamps already use very little power, adjustable from 1 to 10 watts yet produce a surprisingly bright field of illumination. Since the LED is mounted up inside the lamp, no vertical light escapes (light above the horizon) but because of the glass diffusers being exposed, some light does escape horizontally. I wanted to show a design that controlled the light in a manner consistent with the definition of a shielded lamp.

Construction

Continuing with my theme of using commonly available recycled materials where ever possible, I visited the local recycling store and purchased a rather used medium sized stainless steel mixing bowl with a flat bottom and a squat jelly jar. Total cost $1.25.

The jelly jar will provide protection for the LED and some light diffusion. The lid of the jar will be mounted on the flat in the bottom of the bowl so it was important that the jar lid diameter was less than the diameter of the flat part of the bowl.

It would have been better to use a spun aluminum bowl instead of the stainless steel because the bowl will also function as the heatsink for the LED. At lower power that is not really necessary and the steel will work well as a heatsink but at 10 watts and above in a hotter climate, the aluminum would be a better choice if you have that option. It seems that stainless steel bowls are most common although I do have some aluminum bowls from IKEA. I will check at IKEA on the next trip to see what they have available.

These are the basic parts less the LED and wire. The jelly jar is shown where it will be mounted, at the center of the bowl. The L-bracket is made of ordinary framing lumber. What I had at hand was some pressure treated 2x6 but I could have used pine, cedar or any wood of pretty much any thickness or width.

I cut one end of the support arm round to match the flat bottom of the bowl and you should be able to see the cross hair I marked to show where the center of the bowl will mount to the arm (click any picture for an enlarged view).

The arm is screwed to the upright with two deck screws. I pre-drilled smaller holes to help line the two pieces up and to help prevent splitting of the wood.

As with all my projects, even though this is a prototype, I smoothed the cut edges with a file and then some sandpaper to make for a more finished appearance. Generally I don't apply a finish. I prefer to let my outdoor lamps turn grey for a weathered natural look but you can finish yours in any way your like or leave them rough. You could use reclaimed wood or new. The cost of new wood and the two deck screws would be about $1.

I need the multiple holes I am going to drill through the jar lid and the bowl to line up precisely. First, I found the center of each and drilled one hole just slightly larger than a small bolt (I used a 4-40 or M2 bolt and nut) to fasten the jar and the bowl together temporarily. I then marked the location of the three holes that will ultimately hold the wood screws fastening the jar and bowl to the arm.

In this picture, I have inserted the same type of machine screw and nut in all four holes to check that they all line up.

I am going to take this apart after the holes are drilled. You can see that I marked ONE of the outer holes with a marker to distinguish it on both the lid and the bowl so that I can reassemble in the same orientation so everything stays lined up. The marker shows the front hole, the one that will be toward the front of the lamp.

In this picture, I have removed the center bolt and nuts, marked the locations of the mounting holes for the chip LED and I am drilling those holes with the jar lid and the bowl still screwed tightly together with the three outer bolts and nuts to ensure accuracy of the through holes for the LED.

Since the LED I am using relies on bolts at it's edge to hold it in place, these holes must be the most accurate of all. The LED must be firmly held to the jar lid to allow the heat it produces at higher power to be dissipated. If it cannot get rid of it's heat, it will overheat and fail. I will also coat the bottom of the LED with thermal grease and the corresponding area where the jar joins the bowl to help with heat dissipation.

One final, larger hole drilled through both the jar lid and the bowl will allow the wire to pass into the jar to be attached to the LED. I then remove the three screws, take the jar lid and the bowl apart and remove any burrs and chips from the drilling.

Reassembled in this view with the three bolts and nuts and the smaller bolts and nuts holding the LED in place. I have attached the wire to the LED with solder. I do not use connectors if possible on outdoor construction since I feel that a hard soldered connection is going to provide better reliability.

You will see that I have marked the negative wire (the one attached to the negative terminal of the LED) with a small piece of black heat shrink. I have also marked the other end of the same wire with another piece of heat shrink. Since the LED is a DC device, it must be hooked up in the correct orientation. The LED will not produce light if it is hooked up backwards.

In this view, I have the jar lid and bowl screwed to the arm. I have removed the three bolts and nuts, lined up the holes and attached the jar lid and bowl to the arm with three small wood screws through the same three holes.

In this side view, you can see a shallow channel I have cut in the arm to pass the wire along so that it comes out of the back of the arm. In a later version I will fill the channel with caulking to hold the wire in place.

I have pre-drilled holes in the upright piece of wood to make it easier to attach the lamp to a post on the deck.

A final step, before taking the lamp outside to installwas to take it over the electronics bench to attach power to make sure the lamp was wired correctly. It worked the first time! While at the bench, I checked the light pattern with and without the jar fitted.

Performance

The lamp gives a pleasing warm white illumination with a very sharp cutoff.

The lamp in the picture is mounted about 2.5 feet up a post at the side of the deck. At this height it brightly illuminates a circular area about nine feet in diameter. There is very little spill, as can be seen.

In this test, I am driving the LED at about 9 volts from a recycled 9 volt DC "wall wart" power supply from the recycling center.

The LED I am using is the "10 watt" LED chip described in this article. From the spreadsheet testing results I gave in this article, the LED should be running at about 3.2 watts at this voltage. This is about the mid-range for this LED chip. I could run it at 1 watt and still have very usable light or comfortably up to 10 watts for much brighter illumination.

The Lighting Research Center Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY gives definitions for Full Cutoff, Semicutoff and Noncutoff as well as the difference between full cutoff and fully shielded. Who knew that lighting could be so complex?

In order to properly classify my light, I will have to draw some circles on the ground and get out my lightmeter. I prepared this illustration based on the bowl I used from the recycling center. The cutoff angle would of course be different depending on the dimension of any paricular bowl that was used, but these are the angles for my prototype.

External pictures of the shielded garden lamp

Thank you for your interest in my work.

George Plhak
Lion's Head, Ontario, Canada

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp - this article
diy lamp update

diy garden lamp progress

Clean, simple, solid and bright. Can use recycled parts.

A recent example of the georgesworkshop do-it-yourself garden lamp that I have built here in the new workshop. (click any pic to enlarge)

This lamp is slightly brighter than the earlier ones since it looks after an important safety area where visitors step onto the deck from the grass. It uses C$1.50 LED chips bought on Ebay from China. Six chips can be installed in this lamp. I am using two. I am using slightly more DC current for more brightness but only use 4 watts total. I can adjust these lamps over a wide range of brightness by varying the DC power supply, a much wider range than with an AC dimmer. They don't go out all of a sudden but keep adjusting right down to zero.

I think these might qualify as dark sky lights because all the light is directed downward - none is wasted. This one uses about 4 watts of DC power at 18 volts from a recycled printer power supply. Nothing gets warm, the power supply and the LED chip are not working hard.

My lights are DC powered from an AC supply (they plug in). They are not yet solar powered but they could be. I would put the battery inside the house to keep it warm and the solar panel on the roof for better exposure. Where I want the light is not the best place to gather it in most cases and with more than a few lights, it pays to centralize the battery and panel. I plan these lights to be wired with good quality outdoor wiring into permanent locations but for now they are portable prototypes.

As in the examples last year, I've used plain 2x4 wood as the frame material. I did call this project "making a lamp from a 2x4". Of course, you can use any wood in any thickness or condition that appeals to you. These can be as skillfully and carefully made as you would like. This is a do-it-yourself (diy) project - feel free to customize. I will show you a framework that you can build on.

My lamp is made from the plain spruce 2x4 sold here in North America for building walls in houses. It is not very fancy but is cleanly cut and fastened with four deck screws that you can see in the top surface, pretty basic construction, but strong. While at the lumber yard, I did pick good straight 2x4s without excessive knots. I was able to cut them cleanly at 90 degrees on a saw. I pre-drilled the screw holes to prevent splitting.

The cost of the wood used in one of these lamps is about a dollar. The wood weathers nicely. After a year or two outside it turns grey and it will be solid in this climate for at least five years, maybe ten, even without a finish. For an outdoor lamp, I do feel that the standard 2x4 is a good material to consider.

I've continued with the U shaped frame construction. I have added a combination heat sink and reflector made of thin aluminum (roof flashing). The reflector shape keeps the block in place. The glass block is a commercial product bought at a home center. It acts as a light diffuser and a weather seal for the LEDs. I like the solid glass block appearance but is the most expensive part of this lamp, about $25. Other glass can be used as a diffuser as I show in some samples below.

I am building a number of these lamps for presents and give-aways to get feedback. I have made five this week. The last one took about an hour and a half construction time with about $5 worth of materials, other than the block.

I am using these lamps myself: three light the house back entrance and two are inside as table lamps.

If you have been reading about the project, you know that I had some trouble last year with one of the lamps whose led had failed in a strange way - it was flashing. This year, I am not using the Princess Auto LED described in that report but another which is less expensive and brighter. Hopefully more reliable! It was important to look at a number of sample LEDs to pick the best of what was available. The test bench helped with that.

These lamps use surplus "wall wart" power supplies to convert line power (110 VAC) into what the lamps need (about 9-10 volts DC). By matching each lamp with a suitable power supply, I can set the brightness in a range from downright frugal security light (about a watt used) to very bright, as much as commercial led bulbs using 10 watts but they run way cooler since they are more efficient. These lamps are safe if properly constructed. You can add your own creativity to the basic construction. You can use recycled material like the glass the wood and the power supply.

For this series of lamps, I've settled on a 10 watt LED bought on Ebay from China for about C$1.30ea for 10 with free delivery. They arrived in about a week. They are similar to the ones I showed you here. This is the response curve for these LEDs as measured at my test bench.

To create the graph, I am increasing the power to the LED on the x axis and measuring the light output on the y axis. I am actually increasing the voltage, measuring the current and multiplying the two to get the power (watts). You can see the complete spreadsheet here. You'll see that after about 10 watts, I don't get more light from the LED, just more heat. If I go higher still, I actually get less light. It's interesting that this is offered as a 9 volt to 12 volt LED. I don't think it would be a good idea to run this LED at 12 volts since it would get dangerously hot, enough to burn itself out or cause a physical burn if touched? But they are great at about 9 volts. They give a very pleasing warm white light efficiently with very little heat.

Another variation which uses an antique telephone pole insulator as a diffuser. The frame is found wood. I was challenged with the insulator to come up with a method to attach it to the frame and a spider wound out of wire and attached through hook eyes into the wood frame. That part has to be improved to get a good weather seal. There are two of these and they are wired in series to get 1/2 of the 18 volts DC from an old HP printer power supply - saved from the landfill.

Here is another variation which uses an Ikea Neglinge candlestick holder, mounted upside down, for a great light diffuser. These clear heavy glass candlestick holders are available at IKEA stores for C$0.79. Some of the details of the construction of this prototype are shown in the insets (click to enlarge).

I have a video of one of these lamps being dis-assembled here at Vimeo that will give you a closer look.

A family portrait of some recent examples all made with the same basic design.

Another family portrait

As always, your feedback is welcome and encourages me to continue working on this project. Thank you.

It is great to be able to make things in the new workshop and to show them to you.

George Plhak
Lion's Head
Ontario
Canada

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress - this article
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update

diy 1 watt led update

Two home made garden lamps are faithfully lighting our home walkway, coming on at dusk and off at daybreak for one year now.

The lamps are suitably bright so as to almost eliminate the use of the outdoor floodlights except perhaps when company is expected.

The untreated wood frame of the lamps is weathering nicely. The glass block looks bright and clean and is pretty much indestructible. Interestingly, most visitors don't remark on these lamps, which might be a good thing? Others don't have to notice that I am saving money while lighting their way.

Now that the days are shorter and the lamps are coming on earlier, their glow welcomes automatically.

These lights, with the exception of the LED bulb and the glass block I have built myself at minimal cost. The power supply for the lamps and the auto turn on is being done with a reclaimed plug-in transformer unit from a very popular system around here 20 years ago called the Moonlight from Noma. I built a small rectifier/filter to improve the light quality and to improve operating efficiency.

Two short videos to give you an idea of the illumination, taken well before sunrise.

This video is the properly working light

I was impressed with my iPhone as a camera on this cold morning. In the first video, the wind is blowing strongly from behind me so the audio is pretty good. In the second, I am facing into the video so the wind noise is bad.

This light developed a regular flashing in one segment of the LED array.

Sorry about the audio! I think you can still understand?

Since the video was taken, the flashing segment has failed and is dark although the rest of the LEDs in that lamp still light.

Thanks for your interest

George

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update - this article
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update

diy testing of led lamps

I had done some testing of LED lamps available to me to rank them for brightness and efficiency. I went through several interations of a DIY test method to help me select a lamp for my 1 watt DIY garden lamp project. Here is a part of the assortment that I tested back in February. I have a few more I'd like to try so this is ongoing.

I wouldn't normally do this for just one lamp, but the idea is to create a prototype for something that could be reproduced on a limited "craft" scale as a DIY project. Perhaps a dozen or so to surround a garden or guide a walkway? Or even a hundred?

My goal of making the maximum attractive light from only 1 watt of power is arbitrary. 1 Watt is an impressively sounding small number but it could be any amount. As it turns out, 1 watt can produce a very impressive amount of light. I will describe a simple but effective test method that helped me to rank LED's.

You can modify this any way that makes sense to you. It does not become dangerous until you start looking at the line voltage 110/220 operated bulbs. I don't think you need to involve line voltage in powering an outdoor system except where it plugs in to keep it safe - so all of the LEDs I tested were of the "12 volt DC", automotive or flashlight type.

I had gathered LEDs from various sources and I wanted to be able to compare them in some semi-organized fashion. I wanted to be able to measure the amount of light produced and the power used by each one. I wanted to observe the light they produced in as objective a manner as possible, but simply.

click any pic to enlarge

There is a bit of basic electronics and physics involved but it is pretty easy stuff. The equipment you can usually borrow or get used what you need at low cost. You don't need it very long, just for the tests. This is a schematic of my LED test setup. The variable power supply allowed me to vary the electrical input to the LED in a smooth manner. I don't say whether it is AC or DC since either could be used. I'll talk more about that later.

Two of the meters allow me to measure the VOLTAGE and CURRENT flowing in the circuit loop, through the LED and back to the supply. From the voltage and current, I can calculate the POWER (the watts) used by the LED. With a ideal variable supply, I can vary either the voltage or the current or both.

The lightmeter lets me measure the light produced. There are different types of light meters and I will talk a bit about that. I was lucky to have a very nice old instrument from Tektronix called the J16 that allowed me to measure either foot-lamberts or mW/sq.cm.

This is the actual test setup. I took this picture in the daytime but daylight through the window affected the tests, particularly when I used the ft-lambert sensor so all of my later testing was done in the dark. The cardboard box is around the J16 lightmeter and the variable supply and the meters are to the right.

You will see that the LED I am testing is mounted on a little frame above the J16 and both of them "look" the same way, towards a bright white sheet of paper taped to the wall in front of them, inside the cardboard light box. In the first pic above, you will see a number of LEDs mounted in these frames. I made them out of scrap wood, all the same size (about 15x8cm)so that they would clip onto the J16 easily and could be swapped around. I tried to mount the LEDs (which were all shapes and sizes) so that the main emitting surface was about level with the surface of the frame and mounted at its center.

In this way, I tried to have a similar environment for all of the LEDs. The LED and light meter are about 55cm from the white paper which is tabloid or north america B size paper. It is what I had available. You can use whatever size of sheet and setup that makes sense for you, but the idea is to keep it the same for all of the LEDs as much as possible.

Thank you for your interest.

George Plhak

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps - this article
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update

Related: Fixing LED Strings (Christmas Lights)

best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home

This is a very bad picture of a remarkably bright LED (if you click, it enlarges). This LED is running at only one tenth of it's rated power, with only one watt of electrical input yet the light is blindingly bright to me. I am trying find the best LED to use for an DIY outdoor lighting project here.

LEDs like these currently light the walkways outside my house but mine are MUCH brighter than "consumer" solar/battery LED outdoor lights available at the home centers that die after a year, or even many LED wired types you can buy.

My outdoor lights cost almost nothing to operate. Home made, safe and reliable outdoor lights that I can make with a few tools and a bit of DIY (Do It Yourself) attitude. You can change the design to suit your own situation. Solar powered, run with batteries or line power (or any of these in combination) they are very bright but hard to take a picture of.

There are a couple things going on with the picture. I am learning how to use my new iPhone 4S which is a delight but at times a frustration, like any new tech I guess. Second, I am trying to show you a very bright light source in a dark room.

All the same, I thought you might get the idea - this LED is impressively bright. This is one of a batch of LEDs I am testing for my outdoor DIY lighting project.

I want to make a pleasing and durable DIY outdoor light which uses minimal electricity in my own home workshop at a (hopefully) reasonable cost. I will show you in this series what I did. Other projects are going on around here, stick around if you can.

The particular LED I am using in this picture was off Ebay but that's not important. I am not recommending a particular product. It's about how to do this. The technology and the vendors may have changed by the time you read this, but if you go about it this way, hopefully this information will be helpful to you.

Here is that particular LED I am testing in a MUCH better IPhone pic). You can see from the lighter how small it is.

There are many different types of LEDs available: DC/AC, voltage, mounting method, big and small at all level of cost.

This is about how I compared what I had available to me.

I used some inexpensive test equipment to help me and some simple science. Accuracy is important, but not super critical since we want to compare alternatives between LEDs. Stability and operator care might be more important.

I set up the key test/experiment on a tabletop in a few hours and I had very useable results to compare different LED light sources easily. Your mileage may vary of course.

Thank you for your interest.

George Plhak

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home - this article
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update

making a lamp from a 2x4

I am making this prototype of my ultra low power LED garden light from wood, probably spruce. This is the most common form of domestic construction material around here. It is not normally used outside but from my experience it will stand up well above ground and will turn an attractive weathered grey color with one or two years outdoor exposure. Certainly suitable for a prototype. The wood is easy to work with.

The 2x4 I am using had air dried indoors here for a couple months and shows no warping or checking. Because of the small pieces, it was easy for me to cut three good looking pieces without major knot holes. The step joint at each end gives a bit of additional strength and was easy to make with my radial arm saw. A couple of screws hold each end in place with the block clamped in the center until the weatherproof glue dries. The recess and the slots were cut with a router and a 1/2" bit. In this version, I have given the interior two coats of white paint to help defuse the light from the ends of the block outward.

The glass block slides snugly into the U. It will be fastened in place permanently to help weather seal the LED. On the prototypes I will lock it in place with a removable method of some type so I can get them apart. The half size glass block that fits this frame costs about $25 here, the LED about $20 so there is some salvageable value to the prototypes until I get things worked out with the design. I will seal the final version.

I've make some changes to this second version and refined it somewhat. The basic idea is the same. The LED which lights the block fits in a recess carved in the frame center, adjacent to the glass block. Here is a closer look. (click any picture to enlarge it)

This is one of six types of LED arrays that I have tried and which I will write about. This one is from Princess Auto, their product number 8381063, "5 x 2-3/16 in. Interior 10 LED Vehicle Light". It comes with a polycarbonate lens which I decided not to use, thinking that the glass block did a pretty good job of scattering the LED light.

Although the Princess Auto was not the brightest or most efficient LED I tested, it does provide a nice uniform light and is itself weather sealed. The first prototype which has been working outside for a month has one of these LEDs in it so I will be able to compare the orientation difference with the same source light. This one I plan to aim downward, rather than horizontally like the first.

This is a view of the end of the lamp frame showing the wireway for the electric feed. The wire will come straight out for horizontally aimed and down the slot for a vertically downward aimed fixture.

This LED from Princess Auto uses 111 mA at 12 VDC (only .111x12=1.33 watts) to provide 22.2 foot-lamberts of light in my tests. From the prototype already outside, this amount of light lets me see the stairway very clearly and the lamp is brightly visible even from the street 60 feet away. I made measurements of light output versus voltage for six different types of LED lamps that were available to me.

Thank you for your interest.

George Plhak

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light
making a lamp from a 2x4 - this article
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update

a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light

I have been making my own ultra low power outdoor lighting with a view to saving energy while providing safe and reliable pathway lighting that looks good, is tough and inexpensive yet a bit different from the ordinary.

Up to now, I have been using reclaimed "Moonlights" from the local recycling center. I had placed them around the house to provide low intensity outdoor lighting, mostly of the walkways and steps. A tough electrical wire ran between all the fixtures and a power unit. Each plastic fixture took one bulb chosen for 4 to 11 watts brightness. Great light. Usually I used 7 watt bulbs in each fixture. They worked fine. They were inexpensive or free but they were breakable. When the clear plastic lenses began to get brittle and break from age I knew that I'd like to find a better way. The moonlights were also ugly.

I didn't much like the commercial offerings that are available in low voltage LED lighting. I have never been a coach light fan. The solar powered battery operated ones that didn't need wires were a joke. Not enough light and in two seasons they were dead. I wanted something that was bright, efficient, different but pleasant to look at, weatherproof for 10 years and made from ordinary (hopefully inexpensive) materials yet incorporating the latest in LED components.

I chose wood as the structural material. I am set up to work with wood rather than metals. A wood lamp will eventually blend into the naturally weathered wood deck.

This is only a prototype so the wood looks fresh and new on this dull day.

The glass block in the center admits and scatters the light from the LED array which is at the back of the block, buried in a recess in the wood. Power is via a low voltage cable that runs up the back.

The blocks I used are typically available at the home centers. Mine are products of Pittsburgh Corning [update 2019 - Pittsburgh Corning no longer makes glass blocks]. The one on the right is a "full" block of the "Icescapes" pattern, the one on the left is a half block of the "Decora" pattern. Both are end blocks which means that they are fully finished on one end.

Glass blocks make nice diffusers for the sharp edged light from the LEDs and they are virtually indestructible by weather. I thought of having some custom made, a little smaller perhaps or with a hand made pattern or color?

Here is a shot very early morning of two versions of the DIY LED Outdoor Lamp Project on my test pathway. Hard to photograph the way I actually see it but I will keep trying.

Thank you for your interest

George Plhak

diy landscape lamp reading list
a very bright 1 watt diy led garden light - this article
making a lamp from a 2x4
best light at least cost - about testing bright diy leds at home
diy testing of led lamps
diy 1 watt led update
diy garden lamp progress
a shielded low power diy garden lamp
diy lamp update