Everyone seems to be thinking green these days, so I thought I’d be a self professed “hero” and build something that didn’t harm the environment for a change. (Aka… no more hybrid coal/orphan children soul’s powered go carts…) A few months back I was over at my girlfriend Angela’s house and I spotted this nice looking Absolut Vodka bottle in her sister’s room and I thought to myself… damn thats a lot of vodka… then I was like… damn… that would be a sweet lamp. So I told her to save it for me when she was done with it. 45 minutes later the vodka was done and Angela and I went to work making the lamp. Since Angela had no experience with electronics or soldering I decided this would be a good project to teach her some of the basics. The whole lamp took less than an hour to build plus the time spent shopping for parts, so I would definitely recommend it as an after work/school or weekend project for beginners. You can use any type of bottle you like, as long as the neck is wide enough for the components to fit into. (If the neck is too narrow, just use 1 led soldered straight to the resistor and power supply without using a circuit board, this should fit into almost anything)

Remember:

• LED’s are very low resistance devices and must have a current limiting resistor in series with them to prevent them from burning out.
• To calculate the resistor value use the formula; R = (Vs-Vl)/I , where Vs is the supply voltage, Vl is the required LED voltage, and I is the required LED current.
• If LEDs are connected in parallel each one must have its own resistor.
• LED’s are a type of diode (Light Emitting Diode). Diodes only allow current to pass in one direction, therefore LED’s must be connected the right way around to light up. Cathode (long leg) to positive and anode (short leg) to negative.
• Try to make solders as quick as possible, overheating can damage LEDs.

Parts List:

• 4 Superflux LEDs (Superflux LEDs are one of the brightest LEDs you can buy, they feature 5 LED chips in each square package.)
• 1 6 volt power supply.
• 1 Matching female connector for power supply. (With threading for easy installation on cap)
• 1 Perf board cut down to size using a hacksaw.
• 4 Resistors properly matched to LEDs.
• 1 Bottle.
• Soldering iron.
• Solder.
• Insulated wire.

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