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Sprezzatura
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Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet
#14266812 - 04/10/11 12:18 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I'm building a swanky looking oak liquor cabinet & wet bar, and in the cabinet I'm gonna have a strip of lighting under glass that would light up along the front shining on the bottles, using 8 white Christmas lights.
I don't want to use an electric plug/outlet because I don't want cords sticking out of the thing, I want to use battery power to run on a circuit with a switch, so you can turn it on and off... kind of like the experiments you did in elementary school...
Anyone with experience with this kind of stuff? What voltage of battery do you think I should use?
Any tips are welcome, because I want this looking Cool.
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dummy
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267036 - 04/10/11 01:12 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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this is really easy. there is are just one thing you should worry about voltage(v)= current (i) x resistance (r).
your light source will have a rating on it. display LEDs, for example, are usually rated to ~20mA (miliAmperes) so you want to make sure you don't let more than 20mA of current through them or else they will be ruined.
how do you know you're getting 20mA?
well you started with a power source (your battery) and what it's rated to. Say it's a 12v battery. that means you need to couple the whole system with a certain size resistor in series to limit the current coming it.
but what size resistor?
well, from above we know that r=v/i=12v/.02A= 600 ohm
so your example circuit will look something like:
+ ---> 600ohm ---> LED ---> ---> -
writing this out i've realized that this is may be a little complicated for someone that isn't familiar with circuit theory. if you give me an idea of what you're working with i can just do the calculations for you. btw the switch is just a circuit breaker, it is simple.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: dummy]
#14267221 - 04/10/11 01:54 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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yeah, It's gonna be 8 standard size christmas lights. I just need enough power to light them all up.
the lights will look like these

Thanks a lot man, appreciate it.
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Shroomism
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura] 1
#14267232 - 04/10/11 01:56 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Why Christmas lights? Use LEDs imo
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Shroomism]
#14267245 - 04/10/11 01:59 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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yeah, I was thinking about LED's too... I have some of them as well.
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dummy
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267264 - 04/10/11 02:05 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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why LEDs over xmas lights? i'd use LEDs too but i don't have a very good reason for it. for lights that size you can use just about any battery, but you probably want it to last a while. you should get one of those like 3"x3"x6" brick batterys with the two springy leads at the top. i think it's like 9v and judging by the size it'll last a while. let me know what exactly you're working with and i'll make sure you don't waste any money on replacing lights. do you know some basic soldering?
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: dummy]
#14267308 - 04/10/11 02:14 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yeah, I know basic soldering. I was thinking about using a heavy duty 6 volt battery like this:

Have it hidden behind a panel and run the wires under the cabinet to the front where the lighting will be, so the aesthetics are not compromised and everything looks sleek.
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dummy
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267315 - 04/10/11 02:15 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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lol thats actually the battery i'm talking about.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267317 - 04/10/11 02:16 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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and have the on/off switch located under the cabinet.... because the cabinet will be bracketed to a wall, so it will be easy to reach under and turn it on, without actually seeing the light switch.
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dummy
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267323 - 04/10/11 02:18 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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you could probably improvise a switch if you're kind of handy. it really isn't anything special, just something to open and close the circuit with. it could be as simple as two wires and some tape.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: dummy]
#14267333 - 04/10/11 02:20 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Awesome, so I have the right idea? you think regular copper wire will do the trick? Kind of a beginner with electrical work but otherwise very handy, did many renovations in my house and I build outdoor/indoor furniture.
This will be the first piece of furniture I've built that will incorporate a lighting system, however.
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dummy
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14267350 - 04/10/11 02:24 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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you're certainly on the right track. i think that if you're competent enough for home renovations, or even just building a nice cabinet, trivial circuits like this are a walk in the park. they only really start getting complicated when you add components that can store energy or when you're dealing with digital chips. anyway, keep us updated i'd like to see how it turns out.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: dummy]
#14267363 - 04/10/11 02:28 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Thanks man, I'll post a picture when it's all stained, finished and everything is completed, oh and stocked full of liquor ... probably a few days from now.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: dummy]
#14280050 - 04/12/11 08:04 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Hey man, I got the switch to work, but I've run into a big problem...
I'm using a large 6volt battery, like the one in the above picture... when I hook one Christmas light up, it works fine, as soon as I add more than 1 light, both lights get dimmer, then one of the lights shines really brightly and the other one goes out. I hooked up 8 lights to the circuit at first, and I only had 2 lights light up very dimly.
Any suggestions to how to make this work? Bigger battery? numerous smaller batteries?
I really want to make this happen, but it's not looking good right now.
Thanks man.
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x Ju x
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14280236 - 04/12/11 08:29 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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That's the exact problem I had when I tried to hook up some led's under a coffee table with a switch.
I could get like 3 of them to light but very dim, and any more than that and none would light.
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lil_demented
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: x Ju x]
#14280256 - 04/12/11 08:34 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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You need a battery that puts out more AMPS to get them to glow brighter. Maybe a cordless drill battery if you have one sitting around might work better.
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Kid_Orgo



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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: x Ju x]
#14280263 - 04/12/11 08:35 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I found this to be a wonderful resource.
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Sprezzatura
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Kid_Orgo]
#14280506 - 04/12/11 09:11 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Think I'd get any better results using LED lights? I have a few strings of those laying around that'll never get used for anything else.
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Kid_Orgo



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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Sprezzatura]
#14280531 - 04/12/11 09:13 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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LEDs consume a lot less power (which is probably the problem with the ones you've got), but you'll have to go through and do some math regarding how much current you'd be putting through them. If I recall correctly, LEDs drop 1.5V across each of them. With a 6V battery, you'd be able to power 4 LEDs, but the current needs to be right so they don't burn out. You may need to add a resistor to limit the current.
You need to read up on circuit theory to solve this one.
Your best bet may be buying something out of box that'll fulfill your needs, or going with a chain of lights that plug into the wall.
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KrishnaDreamer
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Re: Battery lighting circuit for liquor cabinet [Re: Kid_Orgo]
#14280590 - 04/12/11 09:21 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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you gotta wire them in parallel.
so instead of it looking like this:
battery---light--light--light
it has to look like
Code:
|---light batt---|---light |---light
when you wire them in series each light uses up an equal amount of the voltage totaling up to the sum.
in parallel they all use the source voltage.
still a noob at electrical but i know that much.
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