Using Copper Tape to Wire Book Nooks and Dioramas

For low voltage, low amperage applications, adhesive copper tape is a compact and easy way to connect LEDs. This tutorial shows some tips and tricks when using adhesive copper tape to connect LED lighting in book nooks, doll houses, model train layouts, and dioramas.
As with all things electrical, always use caution when wiring and never exceed the ratings of the components you use. My general rule of thumb is... when in doubt... don't.
Links
LED resistor calculator - ledcalc.com/
The following affiliate links provide a small commission to the channel at no additional cost to you.
Materials
Studio Pro 7/32 copper tape - amzn.to/3QMJDp7
Uxcell 5 mm copper tape - amzn.to/3HRSMbO
5 mm orange/amber flicker LED - amzn.to/3xO4lMI
5 mm yellow/gold flicker LED - amzn.to/3ymn7MM
Micro LED assortment - amzn.to/39Peykd
Tools
Basic soldering iron kit - amzn.to/3NMMKh7
A bit more than basic soldering iron kit - amzn.to/41GMW73
Bone burnisher/folder - amzn.to/3nj7AH9
Hollow hole punch set - amzn.to/3I8VSZr

[@valhalloran]

Very good and detailed instructions for complete novices like myself. Thanks!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

You’re very welcome. I hope it makes adding a little lighting to your projects a bit easier. All the best and happy new year!

[@valhalloran]

@@RandomMakingEncounters you as well! I still have to work up the courage to try it, lol. Where do you get your supplies?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

@@valhalloran I get a lot of things through Amazon. However, the copper tape is used in stained glass and any hobby or craft store that has basic stained glass supplies will also have copper tape. The soldering irons for stained glass are probably a bit on the heavy duty side for soldering LEDs so I would look for something geared towards electronics. There are some good starter sets on Amazon as well. I have a few links to supplies in the description.

[@valhalloran]

@@RandomMakingEncounters thank you for your prompt reply! Happy New Year!

[@rach_just_rach]

Thank you. This is the easiest and simplified tutorial I have found. You are a great teacher!!! I feel confident now in illuminating my displays for Halloween and Christmas.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Fantastic! We're Halloween fanatics along with everything else and it's just around the corner! Where does the time go! All the best with your projects.

[@ImeldaFagin]

That was great. There was so much that I didn’t understand…..yet.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Electronics are often a mystery to me too! I continue to learn new things. LED lighting is a great intro to things like LEDs and resistors. All the best on your journey!

[@Dixyfo]

Omg, i was looking for this information in KZbin, but it didn't help me and now i find your video - it's amazing and so helpful! Thanks 🙏

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Happy to help! This is my new favorite way of hooking up LEDs. Definitely not for high voltage, high amp applications but handy for nooks and dioramas! All the best!

[@minecraftrotisseriechicken]

This was a very easy to follow comprehensive tutorial, thank you.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Glad it helped! Cheers!

[@petermerz2704]

Great learning video! I have been into electronics for over 50 years! Your video is very accurate and the step by step process is easy to understand. Bravo! Thanks for sharing. Happy days and model on! 😎🇨🇦

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thank you! That means a lot! I know the idea of electronics can be daunting. I want to make it as approachable as possible. Cheers!!

[@greenstar24]

Thank you so much for doing this comprehensive video. There are few video's available which fully explain how to actually add electrics safely but now I feel I could actually try it myself! Thanks again :)

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Glad it was helpful. For the most part, LEDs are pretty straightforward. Soldering takes a tiny bit of practice but it's actually a good skill to learn. If you keep your voltages low, work with batteries, and watch out for shorts, it's pretty doable. All the best with your projects!

[@diannaarcher1774]

Thank you so much! I love making nooks but have always been afraid of wiring and soldering, and so usually just go with fairy lights or LED tea lights and such. Your video and step by step guide for using copper tape makes it seem easier (or at least less frightening) than I thought. I might actually try to "wire" my next nook (Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" inspired)! Thank you for videos and happy making!!! 😃

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Awesome!!! Labyrinth is a great inspiration. I think Brian Frouds art is absolutely the best in the genre. Never underestimate the power of fairy lights but a little basic LED wiring is well within everyone’s skill set. Good luck on your project!

[@aaronreynolds8587]

Your videos are always so clear! I'd love you to do a tutorial on using arduino in a dio, as most vids on the topic are way too complicated. Much thanks!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sure! What kinds of things are you looking to do with Arduino in your dioramas?

[@aaronreynolds8587]

@@RandomMakingEncounters I'd love to do a cyberpunk dio with lights that change color, go on and off, maybe even go from steady to flashing. Lots of simultaneous light effects. I know arduino is the way, but its been very hard to get my arms around. Thank you for your consideration!

[@soapygirl5]

I have been looking forward to this video. Thanks for making it easy to follow along . I cant wait to give it a try .

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry these things take so long. So many things to do... so little time in the day! I hope it helps with your projects. I've found it really speeds up complex lighting layouts. All the best.

[@basfinnis]

Good info. Thank you 😉

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

You are very welcome! Thanks for watching and all the best.

[@rbrando6667]

Ive used nail polish a dot with a tooth pick black for - and red for +

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I may need to pick me up some for marking polarity on all sorts of things! Thanks for the tip! Cheers!

[@jpwhitcomb]

I believe on most 6 mm LEDs the negative side also has a flat shoulder on the body of the LED itself. Helps if you snip the leads shorter and forget which is which.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks for the tip! I'm running outta space in my brain so I'll probably forget and still need to test. Hopefully others will fare better! Thanks again and all the best!

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

the led body also has a flat spot on the bottom to indicate the cathode (neg)

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

With my scattered brain I still need to remember what flat stands for LOL! Maybe word association... a negative sign is "flat"? Now I'll never forget! Thanks for the tip and the comment. Cheers!

[@sandinur2659]

it has all ways been the lighting that stumps me I just use string lights which doesn't give the effect I want but now I will give lighting another go.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

String lights are a great option and can go a really long way. I've seen so many amazing projects that take full advantage of them. I tend to be a bit of an electronics hobbyist as well so working LEDs and microcontrollers into my projects feeds that side of my creativity. It's not for everyone but adding your own LEDs is a great way to dip your toes into electronics. Best of luck with your projects.

[@precisioncardmodels]

You dont need to keep track of the length of the LEDs legs. The negative side has a flat side on the casing itself.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks for that tip! The sad part is I always forget what the flat side means too! I think the little gray cells may be suffering from too many miles! Cheers!

[@Towndusk]

Awsome video, I have a question tho. When it comes to LEDs dying out, isn't it too big of a work replacing them?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Absolutely. To make things worse... my nooks are usually sealed up tight. I don't keep them on 24/7/365. The good news is LEDs have a really long lifespan-I also tend to run them a little on the dim side to extend that. You bring up an important point. If your project will be on all of the time, building it in a way that it can be repaired is super smart. Desoldering a few LEDs wouldn't be too hard. Ripping things apart to get to them... that may do more harm than good. Great comment. Thanks!

[@minecraftrotisseriechicken]

I do have one slight question regarding the voltage. If I have several (maybe 20+) LEDs wired together, each being 3 volts, does this mean I should need a lot more batteries? Like a 60 volt battery pack? Or... maybe I just use the 4 disposable (alkaline) AA batteries to power 20, 30+ LEDs. Pardon my stupid.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

There are two-ish broad properties of electricity, voltage and current/amps/amperage). The two work together but one way to look at them is using the analogy of water flowing through a hose. Voltage is the water pressure and amps is the amount of water. To make things work, you need to deliver the right amount of pressure and the right volume. Too much pressure (volts) or too much volume (amps) can blow out the component (which I've done all too often). In the case of LEDs, they will usually have a minimum voltage requirement that will vary by the type and even color of the LED. They also have a maximum current rating to prevent them from burning out. To use our analogy, you need to deliver enough water pressure to do the work but not so much volume that you drown the component. This is really an oversimplification but I hope that helps. Here's a deeper dive into the concept - learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/voltage-current-resistance-and-ohms-law/voltage To answer your question, for multiple LEDs, you don't need to multiply the number of LEDs by the voltage. I generally decide what my minimum power requirements will be for the entire project... usually in the 6 to 9 volt range... based on other components I might be using (an Arduino works well with 9 volts for example). Four alkaline batteries will deliver 6 volts if wired in series. That's plenty of power to drive many LEDs for some period of time. There are a bunch of different ways to connect LEDs with resistors. I tend to keep it very simple and connect each LED with it's own resistor. I basically treat every LED as a single LED with positive going through a resistor to the positive power and negative going to the negative or ground on the power source. I use an LED resistor calculator like - ledcalculator.net/ to determine the resistor value based on the voltage of my power source and the type of LED. I usually use a bit higher resistor value so I'm never pushing the limit of the LED. It's important that ALL of the positive LED connections go to the positive power and ALL of the negative go to the ground or negative. If you start wiring positive to negative to positive to negative in a strand, that's called wiring in series and is a whole different thing. The one thing I would encourage you to do is a bit of searching on "wiring LEDs in series and in parallel" to get a better understanding of the differences. I hope that helps a bit. You would think LEDs would be super simple but the "diode" in light emitting diode means they have interesting electrical properties. Cheers!

[@minecraftrotisseriechicken]

​@@RandomMakingEncounters Wow thank you so much, what an enormous help this is! Water pressure analogy is perfect. Also going to check out and bookmark both those links, in addition to the amazon listings for the LEDs themselves (multi-color 125 pcs for $30? Whew that's an enormous relief, I've seen listings for nano LEDs, 5 for $5).

[@patgoldblat3877]

Great video, thank you so much! Question: can you use copper tape in plastic models? Does copper tape heat up? Many thanks!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

The short answer is… it depends. Here’s the deeper dive answer based on my basic knowledge of electricity (I’m an art major so take it with a grain of salt). Broadly speaking, conductors, like copper wire or tape, have some amount of resistance to the flow of current or amperage. The greater the resistance and the higher the amperage, the greater the amount of heat generated. The thinner the conductor, the higher the resistance. To better answer your question, we need to understand two things: 1. What is the amperage capacity of the tape 2. How many amps is the circuit drawing. The first answer is a little bit of a guess because most copper tape doesn’t have an amperage rating but we can do a bit of research to make an educated guess. From a bit of searching, folks calculate that 1/2” copper tape is somewhere in the range of 20 AWG wire. Wire of this size has an amperage rating of around 10 amps. I’ve seen estimates as low as 5 amps but 10 seems conservative. Another good reference is the amperage rating of copper traces in circuit boards. Depending on the thickness of the trace (they’re pretty thin), a 1/4” copper trace has an amperage rating between 7 amps and 20 amps. With both of these references, it would seem that 1/4” copper tape should be able to handle 5 amps give or take a bit. The wider the tape, the higher the amount of current… narrower… less. The second question is a bit easier to answer. If you go to a site like ledcalc.com and plug in all of your variables, the calculator will give you a total current consumption of the circuit. When I put in a 6 volt power source and 20 LEDs with some basic voltage drop and LED current, I get a result of 195 mA with a mA being 1/1000 of an amp. Obviously, your mileage would vary and some high power LEDs can draw a LOT of current. However, if we’re talking standard 3 mm or 5 mm LEDs, they don’t seem to draw that much current and are well below 5 amps. In fact, the wall transformers I use regularly are 5 volt and only rated to 2 amps which is generally more than enough for most of the applications I use them for. All of these things depend on creating a good circuit where there are no shorts… shorts allow as much current as the power source can deliver to flow… so… not good. When in doubt, I’ll also use a multimeter to check how much current the circuit is really drawing. Calculators are good but a multimeter helps you understand what’s really going on. When I put a multimeter on my Mandalorian nook, it showed that it was drawing around .5 amps. I probably had close to 30 LEDs in that nook. The calculator said 400 mA so… kinda close :). I know that was a pretty lengthy reply. I am always very cautious when wiring things up and, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not an electrical engineer. I tend to err on the conservative side of things and have done a bit of research on just how much copper tape can handle. I think the mantra is low voltage, low current. I hope this helped provide you with some info to better understand the things to consider when hooking up LEDs. All of this also applies to using wire as well but it’s a little easier because wires tend to have established amperage ratings. Here are some links to the references. www.pcbcart.com/article/content/copper-trace-and-capacity-relationship.html electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/452148/ampacity-of-conductive-tape

[@patgoldblat3877]

@@RandomMakingEncounters thank you SO MUCH for your reply, and the time and research you put into it!!! Puts me on track to do a bit of research… Much appreciated!

[@arnokalayc2054]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thanks for information! :) I'm quite far from electricity, so, I'd like to ask whether they are safe with mini leds like 6-7 piece of 1206, 0805 (or a bit bigger etc.) smd leds with 12V power source? :)))

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

@@arnokalayc2054 I'm not sure I completely understand the question. Unfortunately, I'm not an electrician or electrical engineer. I can't make a recommendation around the safety of any particular application-there are too many variables. When determining the safety of any given circuit, you will need to determine the overall amperage the circuit will draw and then figure out the capacity of the conductors and components you're using. If the conductor isn't rated to handle the current flowing through it, the result is heat due to the resistance. Too much heat and you can end up with a short when the conductor melts or a fire when it reaches the combustion point of materials surrounding it. It's always best to consult with a knowledgeable electrician or electrical engineer when in doubt.

[@arnokalayc2054]

​@@RandomMakingEncounters I'm without even a clue about electricity. So, I understand how the question looks... :) Thank you very much for your kind response and time!

[@provablepigeon6826]

Arduino project lightning Bolt cloud. Hello, can you please advise me on which links to download the necessary libraries to the arduino?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

For the lightning project, the two libraries you would need are the Adafruit NeoPixel library and the DFPlayer library. Both should be available through the Arduino IDE. For more details, you can check out the following resources - learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide and wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299

[@beatapfizer3601]

Maybe dumb question, but is it possible to cut fairy lights and connect them via copper tape?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

If they are battery powered... especially coin cell... the answer is a solid maybe. I know that's not a lot of help. LEDs often require a resistor with the power matched to the number of LEDs. If the LEDs are cut apart to reposition them and reconnected in the same way but different places, it might work. Clear as mud I'm afraid. I wish I could be more help but there are so many variables. All the best!

[@beatapfizer3601]

@@RandomMakingEncounters thanks for your reply! I’m not good at these things so grateful for your reply. My problem is that even though I have 10 meter of fairy lights, the positions of them are not where I want them. I’m thinking of just covering those i don’t want with black tape.