Universal LED Circuit Board Project
by Catherine LaineJuly 3rd, 2007
John Barrie from Sustainable Design Update is in Guatemala right now working on prototypes for a universal LED Circuit Board Project with Jose Ordonez of XelaTeco.
I have been working this week on a universal LED circuit board. The concept is to create an inexpensive circuit board that can be filled with LEDs and other electronic components in the field.
Background: Over 2.1 billion people live without access to electricity. Another billion people live with unreliable access to power. The great majority of these people illuminate their homes and businesses with fuel-based kerosene lamps. Kerosene lamps are inefficient and unhealthy, causing fires, burns and lung disease. Kerosene lamps produce more greenhouse gasses per unit of illumination than any other common light source. Moreover kerosene lighting is expensive, more expensive for a unit of light than what we pay in the developed world. A small percentage of the people who live without electricity have access to light using photovoltaic panels, batteries and fluorescent lights provided by non-profits. This combination of technologies (photovoltaic panels + batteries + fluorescent lights) has proven to be economically feasible based on published data about a program in rural Bangladesh underwritten by the Grameen Shakti Foundation.
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Progress: This last week I have been working with Jose Ordonez at the Xela Teco workshop in Guatemala. We have been prototyping the universal LED circuit board described above. We successfully created several boards plus a quick proto board to identify a problem with some inexpensive resistors. I will update SDU on this project when I have had time to crunch some numbers.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Any update on this project?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am
In July 2007
John wrote:
“The LED project with Xela Teco was a great success! We made several different LED circuit boards and trouble shot a few bugs. Jose Ordonez of Xela Teco discovered a problem with the very inexpensive resistors we purchased direct from China and made up a circuit board that proved his assumptions. He managed to pull all this together after a hail storm nearly collapsed the roof of the workshop. We spent most of one afternoon propping up the roof and sweeping water out of the building. Even with this delay the project was all finished a day ahead of schedule.”
http://sustainabledesignupdate.com/?p=265
I’ll email them to get more up to date info.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
We can holp you with quality fast turn boards both commercial and Mil spec. Low volume or high volume.
Thanks
September 10th, 2009 at 12:21 am
very good project! nice to read that :)