http://www.walkerasite.com/led_switch.html
Building Your Own Remote Controlled LED On/Off Light Switch In Less Than
20 Minutes
I'm no electronic engineer , yet I came up with a simple way to build my own LED
switch that can be controlled from my transmitter. Follow my easy seven steps, and you will have a
complete working LED switch in twenty minutes time. Take note that this switch will only work with
LED lamps. Before you start building, I would like to explain how this LED light switch work. A LED
(Light Emitting Diode) lamp is a type of solid state lighting (SSL) that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as
the source of light. The LED bulb has a positive and negative leg. If the power input polarity is wrong, the
LED will not work.
With this principle, I came up with the idea to use a standard micro servo for a LED switch that can be
turned on/off from my transmitter. Almost all servos work on the same principle, so you can use any size
servo. The LED switch need to be connected to an open channel (GEAR, AUX1 or AUX2) on the receiver,
and will be activated with the relevant toggle switch on the transmitter. By toggling the toggle switch up
and down, the polarity of the LED power lead will switch around. When the polarity is correct for the LED
or LED's, they will light up. When the polarity is switched around, the incorrect polarity will turn the LED off.
Just keep in mind that the LED power lead will always have power, no matter the position of the toggle
switch. Do not connect any LED light controller or any other electronic device to this switch. Components
on the LED light controller or other electronic device might damage with polarity changes. Other than that,
the LED switch works very well. The voltage output on the LED lead will be about 3.8vDC with a micro
servo, and 4.8vDC with a standard servo. Most LED Lighting Systems operate with 4.8-8.0vDC. If you want
to connect three or more LED's, I will recommend that you use a standard servo instead of a micro
servo. Flashing LED's can also be connected to this switch.
What you need to build the LED switch
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• One servo of your choice
• Two way wire lead for the LED's
• Soldering iron
• Side Cutter
• Heat shrink tubing
• Hot glue
Follow my instructions step by step, and you can't go wrong with building the switch
STEP 1: Make sure that the servo you
want to use is in working order by
connecting it to an open channel on the
receiver (GEAR, AUX1 or AUX2)
STEP 2: Unscrew the four bottom servo
screws, and take the servo apart so that
the outer casing and gears can be
removed.
Now that the outer casing is removed, it is
clearly visible that the servo consist out of
four main components: servo motor,
circuit board, pod and servo lead.
Be careful when handling the circuit
board so that you don't damage any
components and detaching any wires.
The servo pod is very important when
building the LED switch. All three wires
on the pod and circuit board stay as is. If
you want, you can shorten the pod wires
to make the switch smaller.
Some servo motors have only two wires,
but as from the photo above, a third black
wire is soldered to the outer metal motor
casing. The only two wires needed to build
the switch, are the two wires that are
connected directly to the motor. In this
scenario, the red and blue wires.
STEP 3: The third black motor wire won't
be use in building the switch. Use a
soldering iron and remove the black wire
from the circuit board. Be careful not to
damage any components on the circuit
board. Other servos might not have a
third motor wire, then this step won't be
necessary.
STEP 4: Use the soldering iron and
remove the red and blue motor wires
from circuit board. Now that the motor
and all three wires are completely
removed from the circuit board, you are
ready to solder the wire lead for the
LED's to the same position where the
red and blue motor wires was removed
from.
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Now that the LED lead is soldered onto
the circuit board, the most difficult part in
building the switch is complete.
The length of the LED lead all depend on
your needs. You can either solder LED
lights directly onto this lead, or make use
of a connector to connect a lighting system
to the lead.
STEP 5: It is very important to adjust the
servo pod to the correct position. On the
photo above, the inner part of the pod is
rotated fully counter clock-wise.
On the photo above, the inner part of the
pod is rotated fully clock-wise. Now that
you know the maximum travel counter
and clock wise, the inner part of the pod
must be situated halfway otherwise the
switch won't work.
Now that the inner part of the pod is
aligned correctly halfway, the next step
can be followed.
STEP 6: You get different types of servo
pods. This pod has a center pin that needs
to be removed. Use a side cutter and cut
the center pin off without damaging the
inner part of the pod.
Now that the pin is removed, just double
check that the inner part of the pod is still
aligned halfway in position.
STEP 7: To prevent the inner part of to
pod to move, I use hot glue to secure it in
place.
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STEP 7: The last step is to use heat shrink tubing to cover the LED switch. This will protect the switch and prevent any short
on the circuit.
Congratulations... You have just build your own LED light switch.
The final product look like this. The size of the LED
switch will depend on the type of servo used. I have build
a couple of these switches, and found the micro servo to
give a relative small end product. Connect the LED
switch to an open channel port on your receiver. Flick the
relevant toggle switch on the transmitter for testing the
LED switch. On programmable transmitters, you need to
assign the correct channel to the relevant toggle switch.
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