electronics for LED lighting

[343EVE]

I'm trying to use LED lights in a very small MOC, and essentially the problem is small enough switches. I need a switch small enough to fit inside a 1x1 square tube, but no luck on amazon, radioshack, etc. Where's a good place to start looking?

[JopieK]

Hi 343EVE, welcome to Eurobricks!

Can you be a little more specific? A picture would help. Aliexpress and parts suppliers including Mouser, Arrows, Digi-Key, etc. have a massive amount of different switches. But it totally depends on what you need, what LEDs you want to use etc. If you embed it entirely in a model you could even use a reed switch and a magnet.

[anothergol]

The best would be no switch at all. You probably already know about http://www.i-brix.com/

But I don't know if it has already started shipping - they said first half of 2018. And of course the lights are full bricks, not exactly tiny. But why do you need the switches inside the MOC?

Oh, and there's this. I don't know the size, but it looks like it'd fit in a 1x1 tube, and it's the full thing including the switch.
Specs say around 3mm diameter, so smaller than a stud, and perhaps it's the same as a bar (but it looks thicker in the video). The whole thing would have the metrics of a Bar 2L, that sounds too good to be true. Maybe I'm gonna order a couple.

Edit: for those who are interested, here are my findings:

-those Hiromi are hard to find. They're on HLJ, but out of stock. Maybe you can backorder them, I'm not sure. Generally they say backorder for stuff that are out of stock. Those have the advantage that the LED seems smaller, and isn't built-in the cap.

-then there's Aliexpress. Lots of them there, most as fishing lights as well. The most common is PS408, which is what I've just ordered. There are other ones, they all (including the Hiromi one) seem to share the same CR311 battery. Here sadly the LED is in the cap and probably activates when you attach it. But here you don't have to throw the whole thing, you can buy batteries again.

Are those 3mm batteries really bar-sized? I'll let you know when I'll get them. The leds will stick out a bit too much for my taste, BUT there also seems to be new LQ2016 batteries which are 2mm thick (still 11mm long), and those seems to have slightly smaller LEDs attachments, & quite possibly it's then the LED that's bar-sized. I haven't ordered those because they don't seem to be widespread yet, and way more expensive.

I don't know how the LEDs are connected to the batteries, if it's simple enough I assume one can just buy bulks of LEDs & end up with something very small & cheap. Those caps are for waterproofing & we don't need that.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by anothergol