
The first question some may ask is “Why?” Those of us who are LED addicts say “Why the hell not?” This guy literally took 500 bright white LEDs and created his own giant 50W flashlight. While it may have been just ever so slightly overkill, it’s still an impressive build. Can you imagine soldering all of those 500 LEDs?!
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As you can tell in the video above, it has an absurd amount of controls for various brightness settings. Heck, it could even be a non-lethal weapon as it would temporarily blind any bad guys. Check out all of our DIY lighting projects including some related projects below:





































March 28th, 2010
Can we get some plans for this? I’d love to make my own.
March 28th, 2010
Unfortunately, all the details we have on this project are shown in the video above.
March 29th, 2010
I’ll take “What’s Wrong With One Big Honking Halogen Bulb” for $500 please, Bob…
March 29th, 2010
Meh, that’s not nearly as unique as 500 LEDs
March 30th, 2010
It really needs a reflector
March 30th, 2010
Yeah, it needs a massive reflector. You can see how much light is coming off the edge of the LED plate in several scenes.
April 1st, 2010
No strobe?
April 1st, 2010
Apparently not.
April 18th, 2010
That would make a sweet bike like eat your heart out nite rider… You could even sell that to police and emergency units mount it on a vehicle
April 24th, 2010
Show some specs. Compare the power input to what it takes to equal this monster with incandescents for example. How many batteries will run it for how long? how portable is it? You lead the way with your LED marvels! Keep up the good work.
May 7th, 2010
why didnt he just use 50 1w leds…. would be much easier, smaller and make more sense lol
kudos all the same.
May 26th, 2010
it really gets clear how bright that 500 led flash light is when they showed in the woods with the minimag.
June 5th, 2010
not bad, but…
in your next project try to use CREE leds
June 10th, 2010
with a reflector that thing could be even more deadly. How long does the battery last?
June 10th, 2010
hmmmm good question, I think it might say in the video…
June 14th, 2010
should have used higher wattage LEDs (i.e. 1W)
August 1st, 2010
There are more than 500 leds.
I counted it to 514 leds.
August 2nd, 2010
lol, thanks for the correction Rick
August 12th, 2010
Uh, why not just use like 5 20w led’s and call it good?
or better yet why not 500 laser diodes? they’re just a few watts each, and imagine even 20 at once…
August 24th, 2010
What was the cost to make this?
August 24th, 2010
I don’t think it was included in the project description, sorry.
August 30th, 2010
I once did an LED “flashing lights in sequence” Level 1 soldering project from Velleman, it was cool, but I only soldered 10 red LEDs! As for the Maglite-mini (LED), I bought one at Radio Shack, it positively humbles my old 2-D cell regular Maglite flashlight. I think I’ll upgrade to the Maglite LED D-cell. As for this 500 LED monstrosity, I think if this guy can create a waterproof one, and patent his design, he could get some company in China to mass-produce these and make a fortune. Neat project, and kudos again to this guy for his time and effort into building that thing.