I bought a set of tripod mounted softbox lights as used in photography and filming. These are portable lights that put out a large area of diffused light to provide even illumination.
This set came with no assembly instructions at all and a quick check on youtube found some useful info but not quite matching my set. So I made the first one up and made a video of the assembly of the second one in case anyone else is looking for a suitable guide to building them up.
The lights consist of a lamp head that has a bracket for mounting on a tripod. The tripods have a device called a spigot on the top that goes into the bracket and is then locked in place by a thumbscrew or wingnut. One the lamp head is on securely (don't apply power or put the lamps in yet) the centre of the reflector can be placed over it. Mine was elasticated.
The lamp head has a series of lamp holders and four or more holes around the outside into which flexible reflector supports are fitted. On my square reflector there was a velcro pocket at each corner for the rod ends, with two of them being sewn shut and two having a flap that could be folded over. The first two support rods go into the closed velcro corners while the the second ones that are installed under spring tension can be threaded through the open velcro corners, pulled tight and then the velcro flaps folded over to lock them in place. The rods have a blunt end for the reflectors velcro pockets and a thinner end which goes into the holes on the lamp housing. (Slightly flimsy feeling holes!)
You don't need to use the reflector at all if you just want a bright wash of bounce-light in a corner of a room, but the reflector can aim the light in a more controlled pattern and has one or two optional silk layers to help diffuse the light.
Before installing the silks you can put the lamps in and then test them. Make sure you only hold the compact fluorescent lamps by their bases to avoid breaking the tubes as you screw them in.
My kit had one lamp out of 14 broken. It was useful to check out the internal circuitry, which is standard compact fluorescent style circuitry but with a relatively decent 10uF capacitor for smoothing.
If your kit has two silks per light then the smaller one goes in first and attaches to the inside of the reflector on small velcros tabs. The main outer silk hooks over the corners and is attached by short strips of velcro on all sides.
With compact fluorescent lamps you may not need the inner silk, but it does provide an extra level of diffusion.
Although these lights are supposedly rated for continuous use they will get fairly hot inside and that can lead to early failure of the circuitry in the compact fluorescent lamps. As such I recommend that the lights are turned off if they are not going to be used for a modest length of time.