Was thinking of making some new desk lamps. For a bit of background this is what I do for a living.
I have a huge dermestid bettle colony. The one pictured is old. The present colony can clean a skull in about a day.
So my question is what set up would be best to make an insert to turn some skulls into desk lamps. The light is going to be passing through the bone so should soften the light and, I am hoping, make a very nice glow effect.
Any ideas before I start would be greatly appreciated.
My first idea was just to use some sipiks with a power supply.
The 10W ones are 3P3S, nine 1w chips in the single package. Run from 9-11 volts or so depending on current. $0.85 each. Thread using these cheap LEDs for car dome/trunk lighting: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/19748
For drivers, it depends. You can buy sealed drivers that run from AC, or you can use cheap DIY DC-DC converters (adjustable) if you want to power them from 12/18v wall warts.
Stock 8W incandescent fixture shown, mouseover to see the 10W LED conversion...
How much heat do these make? copper needed or can I use just any metal rod?
The rod with the led will be inserted into the foramen magnum of the skulls and be used as the both the light source and the mounting rod. At least in my head that is what I am planning.
At 600-800mA they'll live with nothing fancy (they will run happily at 3 amps and make a whole lot of light, though that's not what you would want to do for a sane, long-term reliable application). In car retrofits I just use plain flat 1/8" plate but of course it's then bolted to the car. On the other hand, steel is a pretty crappy heat conductor, they would probably do just as well with the Al plate not bolted to anything at all.
What size bar are you talking about?
You could also do a Noctigon triple wired in series, with XPG2 or Nichia 219s, and those same '10W' AC drivers above will work. That's a lot more money per unit though.
