anyone know some very basic electronics?

[evilenglishman]

I'm a bit of an idiot with this kind of thing but here goes.

I am modifying some motorcycle body armour for a photoshoot. I'm going to make it futuristc/military.

I will be sticking huge spikes and also that metal shower hose (amongst other things, then making it look worn/rusty etc.

I want to incorporate some LED's in it - one idea is to have some inside the front of the neck area to send a light up on the wearers face.

I want to power them from an AA battery (or maybe 2). They will have to be bright enough to show though so I'm not sure how many LED's I would need and also resisters etc.

I've also seen some LED's for computers that shine a beam like a laser, it might be nice to use 2 of those on the shoulders or something.

Could anyone tell me how i should go about this? or a place that has very basic info about this type of thing?

[robertwgross]

There are new LED parts on the market that have a fairly high light intensity. They are being packaged into headlamps (torches). There are different kinds, but they tend to fall into two categories. One is directly powered from the power pack, which generally consists of three AA batteries. In other words, the LED runs off 4.5 volts to get the high intensity. I have one that runs off a two AA battery pack (3 volts total), and it is fairly bright. The second type runs off two AA batteries (3 volts), but it has an intermediate transistor device in there called a charge pump that "gooses" the power up to make the LED burn brighter. For your purposes, I would stick with the first type. It's simpler. If you get the voltage too high for a particular LED, you will exceed its rated current and it will burn out. As long as you keep the voltage and current within the spec, it will last almost forever.

---Bob Gross---

[evilenglishman]

cheers bob, could you point me to a link so i can have a look at what I'm trying to find?

[Andy_T]

Try out...

http://search.ebay.co.uk/led_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsoloctogZ 9Q26Q3DQQsotrZ2QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQco entrypageZsearch

Best regards,
Andy

[JZaun]

As long as you are not going to shine them in someones eye you can pick up small red lazers real cheep. In the US I can find them for as little as 3 to 4 dollars. Key chain pointer lazers. Try office supply stores. Not sure this is the type of light you need though!

JZ

[evilenglishman]

okay, this is the only example i could find and its not very good.

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0211443/jasonx_14.jpg

its maybe not very apparent on this photo, but there is a blue light inside the armour which is shining light up onto the girls face - you can see it slightly around her mouth.

[JZaun]

Try this , key chain red LED light.

Telescope.com is Orion telescopes and acessories

http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?itemID=30&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=6&iS ubCat=30&page=2&itemList=&oldList=

JZ

[evilenglishman]

Thanks for the tip $13 :shock:
I've just found some on ebay for £3 ($5) :wink: