Circuit parts (refer to the schematic diagram)
R1: approximately 100k-ohm resistor (such as: Yageo CFR-25JB series)
R3: current set resistor - see below
Q1: small NPN transistor (such as: Fairchild 2N5088BU)
Q2: large N-channel FET (such as: Fairchild FQP50N06L)
LED: power LED (such as: Luxeon 1-watt white star LXHL-MWEC)
Other parts:
power source: I used an old 'wall wart' transformer, or you could use batteries. to power a single LED anything between 4 and 6 volts with enough current will be fine. that's why this circuit is convenient! you can use a wide variety of power sources and it will always light up exactly the same.
heat sinks: here i'm building a simple light with no heatsink at all. that limits us to about 200mA LED current. for more current you need to put the LED and Q2 on a heatsink (see my notes in other power-led instructables i've done).
prototyping-boards: i didn't use a proto-board initially, but i built a second one after on a proto-board, there's some photos of that at the end if you want to use a proto-board.
Constant Current LED Drivers. Constant current drivers are designed for LED lights that require a fixed output current and a ranged output voltages. This type of driver will have one specified output current labeled in amps and a range of voltages that will vary depending on the wattage rating of the LED.
selecting R3:The circuit is a constant-current source, the value of R3 sets the current.
Calculations:
- LED current is set by R3, it is approximately equal to: 0.5 / R3
- R3 power: the power dissipated by the resistor is approximately: 0.25 / R3
I set the LED current to 225mA by using R3 of 2.2 ohms. R3 power is 0.1 watt, so a standard 1/4 watt resistor is fine.
where to get the parts:
all the parts except the LED's are available from http://www.digikey.com, you can search for the part numbers given. the LED's are from Future electronics, their pricing ($3 per LED) is far better than anyone else currently.