SDG #238 Zero Power LED Night Light Strip with PCBs from PCBWay

This build takes the “zero power” night light idea to a finished product stage: a slim LED strip that draws no standby current, laid out on a custom PCB and then permanently encapsulated in clear resin. Rather than treating it as a breadboard curiosity, the project is designed properly in Altium, with the schematic and layout walked through so viewers can see how the parts are arranged for an even light spread and a thin, castable profile.

The PCBs are ordered as a small batch and assembled by hand, which makes this a useful reference for anyone moving from a working prototype to something that looks like a real device. The more interesting engineering problem arrives at the resin stage. Mixed epoxy traps air, and air bubbles in a clear casting around an illuminated PCB are immediately visible, so the pour is degassed in a vacuum chamber. That section doubles as a practical look at a Topshak vacuum chamber and pump kit: how quickly it pulls down, how well it holds vacuum, and whether it genuinely improves the clarity of the final cast versus simply pouring and hoping.

The payoff is the testing segment, where the finished strip is checked in a dark room to see how bright and how long it actually glows once charged by ambient light. The takeaway for anyone considering a similar project is that the electronics are the easy part; enclosure and finishing decisions, including resin choice and degassing, are what separate a demo board from something you would actually mount in a hallway.