# $15 DIY scope up-pin light.



## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

I was shooting through my new Axcel sight with an extreme scope on there and thought, this pin is really weak when looking through a #1 clarifier and 4x lens. I know someone makes nice light kits, LP being one of them and I will get one at some point, but I'm short on cash and this seemed like a fun project. I don't care much for the lights that just shine down on your pin rather than feeding light through a fiber optic cable; they're about the same price as this project. I wouldn't say that something like this should be attempted by anyone without a basic grasp of simple DC circuits and the ability to solder. I don't know enough about electronics to make this any fancier... like adjusting the light levels using a potentiometer, or a transistor to bump up the voltage. 

I suppose one could use a small LED flashlight to connect the fiber optic to, but that's boring. 

I started out purchasing a few things from Radio Shack. I picked up a 12v LED that already had a resistor in it ($2), a box to house electronics ($3), a switch $3), A 3/32" mono jack and plug ($5), and a couple 9v battery connectors ($2). Everything else I had lying around. 

I glued the tip of the fiber optic end to the LED itself with super glue. I hooked up a battery to the led and it worked. I figured this was a good starting point since if it didn't work all I had to do was trim off 1/8" of fiber optic cable and go about using the scope as I had been. Since that worked, I took a 2" bit of an old broken X-cutter shaft, flattened out a small piece of tin foil with a scissors and rolled a piece into the inside of the 2" arrow shaft (to reflect light away from the arrow walls as much as possible). Then I took a bit of clear epoxy and filled up the inside of the arrow shaft, LED inside it, and about 1/2" of fiber optic in place. After that, I took a bit of flattened tin foil, rolled it around the outside, and using heat shrink, secured everything in place and gave it a nicer appearance. After that, I took the two ends (positive and negative) of the wires sticking out of the arrow bit and soldered on a 3/32" mono audio plug to the end of that. This'll plug into the battery box so that you can disconnect the two. You might want to think about lengthening the wires depending on how much you need to get to the battery box. The scope moves up and down too, so plan on that. I plan on attaching the battery box to the sight extension bar. 

Inside the battery project box, I wired up the positive and negative terminals of two different batteries, then with the positive end of the first battery I connected to the positive terminal of a mono jack (that your fiber optic/LED unit will attach to), then a wire off to the switch from the negative terminal of the jack to the positive terminal on the switch, then from the negative terminal of the switch I connected to the negative terminal of the second battery. Does it really need an on/off switch? Not really if you have a jack. The circuit will be broken as soon as you remove the 3/32" jack, but I wanted the ability to turn it on and off without unplugging it. 

It seems to work! Apparently 12v led works on 18v without burning it out. If I were to do it over again, which I won't, because I'd rather buy something factory made when I have the money, I'd use the same color fiber optic as LED color. I wanted a red pin, so I used a red LED. When it's really bright out, light is picked up by the fiber optic, and the two colors mix into an orange color. I suppose I could cover up the remaining exposed fiber optic to solve the problem. I also would have liked a super bright LED, then toning it down if need be by using a potentiometer or something like that. 

There you go! Try it at your own risk! 

P.S. you'll need a multi-meter if you don't already have one.


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## TH30060X (Jan 7, 2006)

Wow...pretty sweet


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## madarchery (May 28, 2003)

I made one of these some time ago. Found over time for hunting it just did little for me. Especially with the new wrapped sights.

Someday I may try the thill bobber light for a sight light. Seems about as cheap and light weight as you can get.


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

Yeah, I thought about the bobber idea. I wandered around various stores looking for ideas and wandered past the fishing section. I plan on using the bow often, for about an hour per day and 70 shots, so I needed a long lasting power source. I would be perfectly fine with a normal fiber optic non-led setup for hunting.... There's no clarifier in the peep that diminishes the clarity of the pin in favor of seeing the target with a scope. The illumination really helps.


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## Geewhiz (Dec 11, 2010)

I did something similar recently. I also have an axcel sight. I bought a 3/8 x 32 die nut and machined a piece of brass down so I could cut the threads on it. I then took a 1100 mcd 3.2 volt LED and glued it in the end of the brass. I run 22 gauge wire fron the LED to the smallest project box Radio Shack sells. Inside the box I used a 1/2 watt 5 turn 1K potentiometer, an off/on switch and a battery holder that held two AAA batteries. I soldered all of the connections, however I wish I had used a mono jack and plug instead. BTW I taped up my sight so the only light the sight gets is the light I have installed. I used the two AAA batteries trying to keep the weight down. 4 of my shooting friends have seen what the new light has done for my shooting -now they each want one. I really enjoy being able the adjust the brightness of the sight pins to fit any light situation I run across. If it wasn't for archery and tinkering with such as this light I don't know if I could enjoy life as much as I do.


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## hog7 (Oct 20, 2010)

Geewhiz said:


> I did something similar recently. I also have an axcel sight. I bought a 3/8 x 32 die nut and machined a piece of brass down so I could cut the threads on it. I then took a 1100 mcd 3.2 volt LED and glued it in the end of the brass. I run 22 gauge wire fron the LED to the smallest project box Radio Shack sells. Inside the box I used a 1/2 watt 5 turn 1K potentiometer, an off/on switch and a battery holder that held two AAA batteries. I soldered all of the connections, however I wish I had used a mono jack and plug instead. BTW I taped up my sight so the only light the sight gets is the light I have installed. I used the two AAA batteries trying to keep the weight down. 4 of my shooting friends have seen what the new light has done for my shooting -now they each want one. I really enjoy being able the adjust the brightness of the sight pins to fit any light situation I run across. If it wasn't for archery and tinkering with such as this light I don't know if I could enjoy life as much as I do.


that sounds a good idea. if you wouldn't mind can you post some pics
thanx


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

I did close off the outside of the fiber optic as well... I took some plastic cable wrap stuff that looks like a small black telephone cord, and wrapped it around the exposed fiber optic. I can take it off just in case the battery runs out in order to use it normally. 

Good job on the potentiometer... Radio shack had a few there, but I didn't know which to use or how to incorporate it into the project box. I too used the smallest box they had. 

I used mine indoors yesterday, it was a tremendous help.


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## Geewhiz (Dec 11, 2010)

I bought the pots from Jameco Electronics- Part #286598, $2.15 ea.


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## TrekJeff (Sep 27, 2009)

madarchery said:


> I made one of these some time ago. Found over time for hunting it just did little for me. Especially with the new wrapped sights.
> 
> Someday I may try the thill bobber light for a sight light. Seems about as cheap and light weight as you can get.


WOW, the old V8 commercials come to mind...perfect idea. I use them when I make my lumi nocks.


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

Geewhiz said:


> I bought the pots from Jameco Electronics- Part #286598, $2.15 ea.


Any problems with the potentiometer function as a switch rather than varying the intensity of the LED?


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

Never mind... I did just try a 1K pot. It worked. I used a 15 turn 1K ( 67ohm per turn increase/decrease) pot that mounts to the circuit board inside the box. I'll drill a small hole to turn it with a tiny screwdriver. They didn't have 1k 5 turn normal pots there. Those type pots would probably have been too big for the box with the battery pack plus circuit board/jack/switch inside. They were all a minimum of 10k in the normal looking non-circuit board mounted pots, and I was afraid that 5 turns of 10k (2000ohm per turn) would have to be turned in the tiniest amounts to adjust. I also upgraded the LED to a blue 4500mcd intensity LED. The previous LED used the same 20mA, so I should expect that I should get the same life expectancy out given the power source. I changed the power source to 6 volts with 4 AAA batteries. Two 9 volt batteries have an combined average of about 1000mAh, but 4 AAA have a combined capacity around 4000mAh and with a 20mA draw, they should last 200hrs per battery set. I used a 150ohm resistor for the LED that with an online calculator found here http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz, since it operates at 3.2v. I did notice that the led doesn't quite dim completely out at the combined resistance of 1150ohms, but I doubt I'll ever use it at the 1150 setting. It does brighten up quite a bit when operated at the minimum 150ohm... so bright it'll make you see spots for a while if you look directly into it. When at 1150ohms, it's just bright enough to be able to look at directly. 

I'll post photos of the project when it's done. I still have to connect the LED to the fiber optic, plus I'm going to change the fiber color to blue. It'll probably be a couple days before I complete it all.


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## Geewhiz (Dec 11, 2010)

Let me know how the blue LED works as compared to the clear or white LED.


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

It's been a while, and I've made a few modifications to my DIY light setup. Today brought it to its final modification. I'm happy with it. It's gone through many modifications. I've tried every color and brightness of LEDs. My results indicate that at a certain point it doesn't matter how bright your LED is since the Fiber Optic can only absorb a certain amount of light. Also, I found that like most hunting lights, UltraViolet LEDs work the best. I found that green fiber optic absorbs it the best. I had a potentiometer in it to adjust the brightness, but found that in my old setup, I always had it on its maximum brightness, so I removed it. I'm looking at it through a 4x lens, and a #1 lens in the peep. It seems brighter not looking through those lenses, but after looking through those lenses, it's just right. 

I've made the battery pack smaller and used a different battery. I had two 9v batteries, then converted it to 4 AAA batteries. Now it's a phone battery. Then I changed the LED I had with a Tru-glo hunting LED. 

The new version is lighter than 4 AAA batteries I had in the old box. I used a 3.6v cordless telephone rechargeable battery that I picked up at Fleet Farm for $7. I can recharge it using a cordless phone charger. I just plug it into the phone, then put the phone on the charger. You could even answer the phone if it rings. It's a 700mAh battery, and the LED is a 20mAh, so in theory, the battery should last 700/20=35... 35hours on a single charge. And I won't ever have to buy another battery for probably a decade until that one wears out after being recharged too many times. 

I used a Tru-glo hunting light and mounted it to my Extreme Archery scope. I have an up-pin, so I just have a little fiber optic running through that up to the light. It's probably just a bit longer than an inch of fiber optic. The closer to the end you look at you can put the light, the better. I used that housing, removed the LED that came with it and replaced it with a much brighter 5mm Ultra Violet LED from Radio Shack. The original LED and the Radio Shack one were the same shape and size. I also removed the 3 watch batteries it did use. I found myself running out of power in just a week of shooting with that. It's fine for hunting when you rarely ever turn it on, but for target shooting, I needed more power. I drilled a couple holes into the top of the screw-cap on the light housing to run a couple wires into it so that I could power the LED with the battery pack. And from that, I connected the two wires with a 3/32 mono audio plug. 

In the battery box itself I made it as simple as I could. The LED I purchased from Radio Shack had a 3.2v-4.0v range, so I didn't have to use a resistor from the 3.6v power source. A resistor is necessary if you use a power source that is larger than the suggested voltage, otherwise you'll burn out the LED. There's an online calculator located here http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz to calculate what resistance you'd need, if applicable. 

The battery box itself is a small plastic box I had from a tube patch kit that had patches, glue, etc in it. All you need to do is find a small box like it. Just go to Walmart and look for anything that comes in a small plastic box like toothpicks, or dental floss. The Radio Shack project box I had worked fine, but it was far too big. I got tired of looking at it more than anything. It was the smallest they had, but still too big. The new one is about 1/3rd as big. 

I have a 3/32 mono jack to accept the mono plug coming off the LED. The battery is hooked up to that, then off to a toggle switch, then back to the battery. It's a pretty simple series circuit. I also have a 9v battery connector hooked up to the battery. I couldn't find a female cordless phone battery connector (there's a male one on the battery itself), so I used a 9v battery connector. I drilled a hole so that it could stick outside the box. I have another 9v battery connector hooked up to the male cordless phone battery connector... This makes it possible to connect to the other 9v connector coming out of the box (similar to connecting two 9v batteries together). I made it this way so that I could charge the battery without having to open up the battery box. You could use any connector you desired. I just had 9v connectors on hand. All I have left to do is put an insulator over the 9v connector coming out of the box so that anything conductive doesn't come in contact with the two terminals. I doubt it'll happen, but its better to be safe than sorry. 

I'll just use zip ties to connect it to the sight extension bar like I did with the old box. 

I think you could make one for about... $15 for the Tru-glo light, $7 for a battery, and about $6 in spare parts at Radio Shack. You'll need a soldering iron and a grasp of basic electricity. It's really not that hard. 

Any questions, feel free to ask.


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## buckman2591 (Feb 6, 2011)

How much would it cost to make one of these?


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## BowandAero (Jun 5, 2011)

If you wanted to make one, it would depend on what you'd want and what you currently have. I customized mine given the setup I had. 

I had the idea of using a cordless phone charger and battery. It depends on what phone you have and what battery/voltage it uses, but the price for batteries are pretty close to the same. 

If you were to duplicate mine... 15 for a light, 7 for a battery, 3 for a brighter LED, 2 for a switch, 5 for a jack and 3/32 plug, $4 for wires if you don't have any... $41. These are at radio shack prices. I imagine you could find them cheaper elsewhere online, but its nice to go to an actual store to plan things out and grab your choice of items. Count on spending a few hours making it. 

It's probably a bit spendy, but I'll never have to buy another battery for quite some time and I won't have to worry about it running out for a long time, or in the middle of a shoot. I also have the joy of making something myself. To me, there is no greater joy. 

here's a photo of it mounted to my bow.


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## BUCK REAPER (Jul 14, 2011)

Tagged for later, good idea guys


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## holyink (Jul 1, 2012)

Very Cool =]


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## WDMJR3DBOWGUY (Dec 2, 2003)

Been looking for something like this...thanks


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