Turn your JANSJÖ into a light off timer lamp!

We hacked an IKEA LED lamp to turn off automatically after twenty minutes. It’s our version of a light off timer lamp.

We have a bunch of JANSJÖ LED lights in our home.

They’re good quality, they have exactly the right mix of focus, intensity, and bendability. And they’re good value. Great stuff.

JANSJÖ LED light | IKEA.com

The only snag is that my family tends to fall asleep with the light on.

In the beginning I went around turning the lights off, but now we’ve found a solution that works much better: we’ve converted the lamps into turn-yourself-off-after-twenty-minutes lamps.

Materials for light off timer

If you want to make this lamp, then this is what you will need:

An LED lamp with a section of low-voltage cord that you can cut; any voltage up to, say, 24 volts will do, but most are between 4 and 12 volts. Our IKEA lamp works perfectly for this. A lamp with a halogen bulb might not work well with this timer, since it draws much more current and doesn’t cut off cleanly; you’d need to do some tests. Do make sure that you’re working with low voltage – don’t try this on a cable that carries mains voltage!
A logic-level MOSFET, with turn-on voltage below 4 volts; we used the IRF3708 (datasheet) in the TO-220AB package.
A large electrolytic capacitor (we used 470 muF)
A large resistor (we used 4.7 MOhm)
A little piece of stripboard or veroboard (although one can also build the timer without)
A push-button switch (normally off, push-for-on)
A container to house the timer
A voltmeter, or an LED, to to determine the polarity of the cable wires
Some soldering skills

This Instructables post contains all the nitty-gritty, but here’s the executive summary.

The cord between the transformer (in the wall socket) and the lamp carries 4 volts, and one can insert a very small electrical circuit in that cord that acts as a timer.

For this you need a few electronic components and some soldering skills.

The end result is a lamp with an extra button in the cord: if you press the button, then the lamp turns on for about twenty minutes, and turns off at the end.

Now we can all sleep in peace, knowing all the lights are off.

The post Turn your JANSJÖ into a light off timer lamp! appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

Comments

Hackers Help: How to attach headboard to ESPEVÄR mattress base?

I’m trying to figure out if a headboard can be attached to an Espevar Mattress Base , and how to accomplish that. I’m looking at a standard metal headboard (because I just prefer the look of curved metal to what IKEA offers) and am not interested in a slat base with just a mattress on top, and a wall mounted headboard is not an option due to renting. Thanks for any help! ~ Amy *** Hi Amy I’ve not seen the ESPEVÄR in person but I believe it is possible to attach a headboard to it. From the website, the ESPEVÄR looks like a regular wooden slatted mattress base under a bed base slipover. As to how to attach it, that will depend on the fittings on the metal headboard. So you will just need to get the right hardware to secure the metal headboard to the wooden frame. And make some small openings on the slipcover to let the fixtures to go through. Jules Photo: IKEA.com Try these free-standing headboards for size A lime green and white headboard that takes centerstage in the r

Kitchen renovation reveal: Rhombus wall steals the show

It’s been a while since I did a home tour. If you’ve missed the previous reveals, you can catch up with my Master Bathroom remodel and Guest Bathroom reveal . Today, let’s focus on my kitchen renovation. Hands down, this is the most used room in my home. I spend crazy amounts of time in here, even when I’m not cooking. Just off to the side of the kitchen I converted an awkward space into a reading nook . In the mornings, I sit and read or pray and meditate, before it gets too warm. And on the other side, there’s a work-in-progress plant wall / indoor garden which also takes up a lot of my time. So, all in all, lots of traffic in here, and that’s not even counting cooking and eating time. The kitchen is definitely my favourite room, because the transformation is huge and I love how it turned out. Kitchen renovation: The before House 17 when I first got it, actually had 2 kitchens, which is a very common “Asian” home concept. First, the “dry kitchen”, which is where you make simp

IKEA sofa with genius armrest storage

Bet you never knew your sofa armrests were prime storage space. Ok, so the guys at IKEA are the masters of hidden / secret storage everywhere. In fact, one of the things I most loved about the ESKILSTUNA sofa series was the undercover storage on the chaise lounge, but… what? More than 80 liters of storage space wasted on the armrests? NO WAY! I really don’t understand how they didn’t take that opportunity with several different armrest modules. Mobile chargers, cup / can holders, foldable tables, refrigerators… there’s SO MUCH space in there. I can’t stop thinking on different options! For myself, I went for two designs. First, a “full space” design on the (right) side of the chaise lounge. (The cavity fits two foldable chairs). Second, on the left armrest — a flip open section for “mobile charger / remote control storage / etc.”. Below that, a full-depth pull-out drawer, tall enough to store A4 sized magazines. This is the final result: Full space design, right of cha

Martin Cooper

Search This Blog