Low cost low tech smd LED project

VHS recently received a large donation of SMD LEDs

@Emerson and I were playing around with an idea for a quick low cost way to use these LEDs.

What we came up with was two strips of aluminum tape with a couple of wires soldered to the ends to provide power at 3.0V.

An led placed across these strips will light up just fine.

We then cut out LED spacers/holders out of various materials such as 3mm acrylic, card stock and a sheet of mylar. We settled on two layers mylar for as the card stock and acrylic were too thick to allow for the pressure needed on the LEDs to provide a good electrical connection.

Finally a square piece of clear acrylic to provide a cover and way to “push and hold” the LEDS in place and provide a solid electrical connection.


It kind of works and getting LEDs in places is definitely fiddly work but I’m sure could be made much easier with design improvements.

So Pros are no solder, no boards. Easy to cut out patterns on laser cutter, cheap
Cons are fiddly assembly work.

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Lamp making, here I come

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