Come on baby light my bulb

September 3, 2005 6:18 PM

Help me name and find an electronic component

For my wedding, I'm going to be using battery powered lights to illuminate decorative paper lanterns (candles are impractical for a few reasons). I bought this example online, but it was expensive. I know I can buy the components and put it together myself for much less. I've found cheap battery cases and cheap bulbs, but for the life of me, I can't find the light bulb socket (highlighted) anywhere.

Can someone help me out with this, and provide me a link to a site that sells them? So far, all I've found is this but I'm hoping I can find it for cheaper. I'm not even sure what to call this item. Is it a light socket, a screw bulb base, a lampholder, or what?

posted by thewittyname to shopping (16 comments total)

Receptical?
posted by phrontist at 6:22 PM on September 3, 2005

I think I'd call it a socket.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:33 PM on September 3, 2005

Mouser calls it a lamp holder.
You may want to consider LEDs instead of incandesants. Electronics Goldmine has pretty good prices on white LEDs. And these came out of gameboys and are mounted to a circuit board and have wires ready to connect to 5-9V dc.
posted by 445supermag at 6:59 PM on September 3, 2005

Lamp holders are generally categorized by two things: the type of connector (screw, wedge, bayonet, etc) and the size (T1-1/2, T3-1/4, etc.) It's hard to tell from the picture there, but it looks like you're looking for a T3-1/4 screw base. E.g. Mouser stock no. 35LH010 (data sheet [pdf]), item G at the bottom of page 72 [pdf].

But that's how they're measured in the US, I dunno if that system is used elsewhere. Download the mouser PDF catalog and just browse, you should be able to find what you need or at least an idea of what you need.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:08 PM on September 3, 2005

Since you indicated battery operated, the socket looks to be automotive (12 Vdc). Although bayonet is more common than threaded. Try auto parts.
Also, you could contract the whole thing out to us techie types with free time. How many lights do you need? When do you need them? Can they be powered in strings, or do you need individual self-powered units? How long must they run?
E-mail is in profile.
posted by tcy at 9:38 PM on September 3, 2005

American Science and Surplus has miniature sockets, 10 for $2.50. They're the last item on the page.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 9:55 PM on September 3, 2005

Seconded re: LEDs, just connect a resistor (a few K-ohms) in series and attach to a battery.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:59 PM on September 3, 2005

Looks like a Lilliput Edison Screw (LES) or maybe a Miniature Edison Screw (MES) socket / base - the scale is a bit hard to pick in that photo. Scroll down a bit here for the common metric sizes.

Around here, they can be found in electronics parts stores (e.g. DSE, Jaycar, etc). Don't know about Tandy / Radio Shack.
posted by Pinback at 10:02 PM on September 3, 2005

3rd on LEDs, you'll save a bit on batteries. I might get a wire-wrapping tool, some stripboard, and make little rows of leds. You could solder them, but I figure you're making quite a few, and it might be convenient to just wrap them onto the boards.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 10:25 PM on September 3, 2005

4th on the LEDs. They might not have the warmish glow of incandescents, but they'll never break and almost never burn out. And you can get low powered "warmish amber" leds pretty darn cheap - say, 10-15 cents each at retail quantities - as opposed to high output whites - at about 50 cents to several dollars each in retail quantities.

And if you add up the cost of the bulb, the bulb socket and the additional batteries to make it light up, low-medium power LEDs might be cheaper all said and done, even including the resistor.

And they'll last longer, bulb and battery-wise. And at a good price breakdown, you could even throw a cheap switch inline.

And your guests could take them home and have something that was pretty or semi-useful that would last a long time.

Also, there are a number of companies making solar-rechargable LED 'candles' that cost around 3-6 dollars the last time I looked a few years ago. They may be cost effective and time effective, even with modifications for the paper laterns. Look for them in the outdoor/landscaping lighting of your local hardware/garden store.
posted by loquacious at 2:10 AM on September 4, 2005

That, sir, is an Edison lamp socket, as opposed to a bayonet lamp socket; as Pinback has said.

In reference to the needless derail: assuming your light is going inside the paper lanterns, definitely stick with your incandescent plan and not LEDs. Using LEDs would quite simply look rubbish.
posted by nthdegx at 2:55 AM on September 4, 2005

Radio Shack does sell these sockets.

LEDs would look bad in a paper lantern because the lens in the LED focuses its light in a relatively tight beam, so the lantern would have a bright spot, but would be mostly dark.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:20 AM on September 4, 2005

You can get LEDs dirt cheap on ebay. I've bought thousands for a project I want to do when I'm not suicidally overworked.
posted by substrate at 7:44 AM on September 4, 2005

Thanks everyone for your advice. 445supermag and Rhomboid pointed me in the right direction, so super kudos to them. As for the LEDs: the bright white LEDs that I would need to replace the bulbs with are too expensive. I don't think the cheaper amber LEDs would produce enough light.

Thanks again!
posted by thewittyname at 10:15 AM on September 4, 2005

I've sen amber LEDs inside paper lanterns and it looked very nice, like candlelight.
posted by bug138 at 11:46 AM on September 4, 2005

When you purchase LEDs through Digi-key, they give you specs for the milicandela rating, and angle of view for any given led. Bulbs are nice and simple, I just figure they're going to need more ba$$eries.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 1:46 PM on September 4, 2005