in this video i'm going to show you how tobuild an insanely bright led panel. this is mostly for video work, like i'm doing now,and i've used it quite a lot since i built it. the main advantage is that it's superbright. it uses about 100w of electricity, which is equivalent to i think about 1000wif it was a normal (incandescent) lightbulb. so that's a kilowatt of light output, whichis incredible. another advantage is that it costs not that much to make. if you wantedto buy a panel of this brightness you'd be looking at around â£300 ($600), but this actuallycost â£40 to build which is around $75 or so. so very budget friendly. another bonusis that because it uses voltage regulation for dimming it doesn't flicker, which meansthat you don't get any strobing lines on your
footage, which can be a problem with panelsthat use pulse width modulation. a side bonus of using voltage based dimming is that youcan use a variety of different power sources to power it. so you can use laptop adaptersfor example, or lipo batteries, all sorts of things like that so it really is idealfor budget productions. it's not actually that hard to build either,it doesn't take too long. so if you want to build one yourself, or even if you're justinterested in seeing how it was built, continue watching and i'll show you everything involved. for this project you'll need the followingitems, all of which are listed in the video's description for convenience.the main component is the 3 5m strips of neutral
white leds. these specific leds are prettymuch pure white, with no blue or yellow tint. other important components include a voltageregulator, two meters of 12awg paired wire, some magnet wire, one large sheet of 6mm thickmdf, and a smaller sheet of 18mm mdf. you'll also need the following tools:so the first thing to do is build the frame, starting with the tripod mount. so get a camerashoe mount adapter and trim off the excess plastic around the thread on the bottom usinga hack saw. next cut out two 35mm by 100mm rectangles,one out of 6mm mdf and the other out of 18mm mdf.drill a hole in the centre of the thinner rectangle for the trimmed shoe adapter tofit through, using a coping saw or file to
make it square.next use a chisel to dig out a hole in the thicker rectangle for the shoe adapter tofit in to, and use some glue to stick it all together.next cut a 55 by 35cm sheet out of 6mm mdf. this is going to be the main structural panel.now clamp the tripod mount to middle of one of the longer edges of this panel, with thetripod thread facing outwards, and drill two holes through the panel and into the tripodmount. these are pilot holes for screws, but beforescrewing them in, add some glue to the tripod mount for extra strength. make sure you countersinkthe holes beforehand so that the screws end up flush with the front of the panel.now it's time to work on the handles. i used
aluminium tubes for this as i had a few lyingaround, but wooden dowels should work just as well. so cut down your aluminium tubesor dowel to make two lengths measuring 27cm long, and one length measuring 47cm long.next cut 6 blocks out of 18mm thick mdf. these need to be around 6cm high and x 2cm wide.as they're going to be supports for the handles, you'll need to drill a hole into each forthe handles to slot in to. once you're happy with the positioning, drillsome pilot holes into the bottom of each support block, and a corresponding hole through theback panel. secure each block in place using wood glue and a screw. to prevent the blocksfrom splitting as the screw goes in, you may need to squeeze the block with a clamp.just as before, remember to counter-sink each
hole on the front of the panel so that thescrew ends up flush with the surface. you may also want to glue in the handles to preventthem from twisting once it's all dry. now it's time to add the wires for the leds.what you'll need for this are two lengths of thick paired wire, each about one meterlong. they need to be thick so that it can supply the current needed by the leds, andi recommend that you use at least 12 awg wire. after stripping off about 16cm of insulationfrom one end of the wires, drill two holes on each side of the panel and thread themthrough, making sure the stripped ends of the wire are on the front side of the panel.position them splaying outwards from the centre and use some staples to keep them in place.each side is going to have its own polarity,
so it doesn't matter if they touch at themiddle point. now it's time to add the leds to the panel.so what you need to do is cut your strips of leds into 50cm lengths. always make sureyou cut between the copper pads which are between every three leds.once done you should have 30 individual strips. in order to solder wires to the strips you'llneed to bend back and cut off the waterproofing material from each end, leaving the solderpoints exposed. now they're ready to stick to the panel, butfirst draw a horizontal dividing line on the front to help you keep things straight.peeling off the tape cover on the back, stick the first strip just to one side of this line.do the same with the next strip, but off set
it so that the leds start to make a checkerboardpattern. continue this process until you have stuckon all your strips. now it's time to connect the strips to thelarge wires we added earlier. what you'll need for this is some magnet wire, also calledenamelled wire. you can of course use normal insulated wire, but it's much more time consumingas you'll have to manually remove the insulation. on the left side of the panel, solder thismagnet wire to each of the positive-marked contacts on the strips. as you go along, trimthe enamelled wire at the point where it passes over the thick wire we added earlier.once you've done, solder the trimmed ends to this thick wire.after you've finished the left side of the
panel, move around to the right side and followthe same procedure, but this time you using the negative marked contacts on the strips.once you've finished it should look something like this.at this stage you may want to try hooking it up to a 12v power source to check for anyloose connections. keep in mind that it may appear dim at this point unless you use apower brick capable of supplying at least 10a.once you've confirmed that there are no loose connections, cut some lengths of mdf to makea boarder about one and a half cm high around the edges of the panel, using wood glue tokeep it in place. leave a gap along the top edge so you have the option of sliding incoloured filters like i mentioned earlier.
it also helps keep the leds cool.now you can paint the whole panel. i chose white, but you can choose any colour you like.to help reflect light off the boarder i added some reflective tape along the edges. honestlythis really doesn't do much so only bother with it if you happen to have some reflectivetape lying around. keep in mind that you'll need to stick on some electrical tape firstto prevent the reflective tape from causing any shorts.now it's time to add a plexiglass front to protect the leds. to trim it down, accuratelymark the size you need and score it using a sharp knife. after making a significantgrove, you can then squeeze the plexiglass between two surfaces and push downwards onthe piece you want to break off using something
to spread your pressure. if you don't usesomething to spread your pressure, you may end up with an uneven break. however, thesecan still be put to good use as i demonstrated in my shard light video, which utilised thesebroken pieces. now solder on a female xt60 connector and a switchto the regulator's input. why an xt60 connector? well, this type ofconnector is well suited for high current aplications, and is frequently used with lipobatteries. remember to use heatshrink over the solderjoints to protect against power shorts. now you can make an enclosure for it out ofmdf. make sure you leave the heatsinks exposed
as they do get quite hot.now you can solder the led panel's power wires to the regulator's output. make sure you getthe polarity correct, and use plenty of electrical tape between the wires to prevent power shorts. although not pictured here, solder two moresmall wires to these same contact points, as they're going to power a small fan to keepthe regulator's temperature in check. now you can glue the dimmer circuit to theback of the panel, just above the tripod mount. as a finishing touch, push a nice lookingknob onto the potentiometer. the last thing to do is add a fan to the regulator'sleft heatsink, which is the one that gets quite hot.to do this, simply solder the fan to those
small wires i mentioned earlier, and glueit in place. as my fan was rated at 5v, i added some resistors in series with it toreduce the voltage. this also makes it very quiet, as it doesn't have to push a lot ofair to cool down the heatsink. as you can see, i mounted it on some spongeto further reduce the noise by eliminating vibrations. this is a concept i also coveredin my "how to make a graphics card quieter" video.to power the panel you can either use an ac adapter or a battery. the voltage can be anywherefrom 12v to 30v, but the power source has to be capable of delivering at least 100wfor maximum brightness. 3 cell lipo batteries are quite a good optionbecause they are able to deliver high currents
and usually have a pretty high capacity.however, do note that you'll need to have a low voltage cutoff circuit to prevent thebattery from being over discharged during use. i built my circuit into a custom 8a batterypack, which disconnects itself when the voltage drops below a set value. while it's beyondthe scope of this video, i will be making a tutorial about this circuit soon.in the meantime, the simplest way of protecting a lipo battery is to use a lipo alarm, whichbeeps loudly when power is running low. if it hasn't got one already, remember tosolder a male xt60 connector to the power source you want to use. if you want, you canmake little adapters so that you can hook it up to laptop power supplies, for example,without replacing the connector.
so the panel is now complete. i hope you havesuccess in creating your own, and i also hope that you'll consider subscribing if you haven'talready. in case you missed it, why not check out myprevious video in which i show you how to make a dslr video ring light. i hope i seeyou there!
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