Hydrofood- Thanks for the link, I'll give that a read.
rdooski3 - That's a good idea, cheers. I'm thinking I'll just go with strips attached to the frame at either end and a fan pointing at it, but if it gets too hot, I'll give either the foil or the baking pans a try. My tent has plenty of ventilation and is in a room with A/C, so based on the replies I'm guessing I should be good on heat.
DIY build advice
-
unkle_psycho
- LED Wizard
- Reactions:
- Posts: 1537
- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:49 pm
I can't say the gasket stuff was a total failure with the foil, but it never dried, and when the system heated the spray hardly supported any weight. Also I don't think the spray could ever be cleaned off.
Now I'm about to recycle the strips I used the gasket spray on. I peeled of the foils, and left the strips standing with the sprayed surface exposed. Now that the foil is off it does seem the gasket spray is drying, so I'll use thermal tape on top of it to attach it to the frame. After I finish the first one I'll compare temperatures to the first two 3ct builds to see what the dried up copper layer does to the heat transfer.
I don't know about thermal paste, my brother used to modify computers so I asked him about arctic paste etc. and he just laughed at me. He said the power levels we deal with in leds are so low that the only thing that matters is solid attachment.
I love the thermal tape. It's solid enough to be structurally useful, but it most likely can be removed with some effort. It was also cheap enough. I got 50m (150feet)of 16mm tape, and my strips are 31mm, so about 1/2mm comes out from the sides of my strips
Now I'm about to recycle the strips I used the gasket spray on. I peeled of the foils, and left the strips standing with the sprayed surface exposed. Now that the foil is off it does seem the gasket spray is drying, so I'll use thermal tape on top of it to attach it to the frame. After I finish the first one I'll compare temperatures to the first two 3ct builds to see what the dried up copper layer does to the heat transfer.
I don't know about thermal paste, my brother used to modify computers so I asked him about arctic paste etc. and he just laughed at me. He said the power levels we deal with in leds are so low that the only thing that matters is solid attachment.
I love the thermal tape. It's solid enough to be structurally useful, but it most likely can be removed with some effort. It was also cheap enough. I got 50m (150feet)of 16mm tape, and my strips are 31mm, so about 1/2mm comes out from the sides of my strips
"Nothing is true, everything is permitted"
Hey mate,
Saw you were in aus so had a read through.
I built the 2x2 bridgelux build off this site. Ledgardener is so damn helpful.
Couple of things to hopefully help. I only used the 1-foot (they're actually only 280mm) strips and went and sourced aluminium for the frame and to act as heat sinks. Now it is all up and running, the heat sinks are cool to touch at about 50% power but do heat up a bit at max power. I know you're running the 2 footers but just thought I'd let you know my situation. I don't use a fan yet because temps aren't quite high enough where I am.
The waterproof connector thing I got off ebay. You can find really similar ones to the one he suggests but perhaps not exactly the same. All it does is connects the bare wires from the driver (via a screw terminal) to the bare wires from the plug (attached to your wall). One way around this would be to buy a driver with the plug already attached, which a few places in Aus do. It's super simple to attach though.
I bought most of my parts (including the wire - both 18awg and 14awg) from digikey au. Don't forget to make sure you have wire cutters, wire strippers and a sodding iron plus solder as well. A multimeter for measuring your current/voltage to make sure everything is working properly is pretty valuable too. I got mine for ten bucks.
I was a complete novice at building stuff like this and electronics but between this site, forum, and a bit of reading/watching YouTube all the info you need is there.
Hope this helped
Saw you were in aus so had a read through.
I built the 2x2 bridgelux build off this site. Ledgardener is so damn helpful.
Couple of things to hopefully help. I only used the 1-foot (they're actually only 280mm) strips and went and sourced aluminium for the frame and to act as heat sinks. Now it is all up and running, the heat sinks are cool to touch at about 50% power but do heat up a bit at max power. I know you're running the 2 footers but just thought I'd let you know my situation. I don't use a fan yet because temps aren't quite high enough where I am.
The waterproof connector thing I got off ebay. You can find really similar ones to the one he suggests but perhaps not exactly the same. All it does is connects the bare wires from the driver (via a screw terminal) to the bare wires from the plug (attached to your wall). One way around this would be to buy a driver with the plug already attached, which a few places in Aus do. It's super simple to attach though.
I bought most of my parts (including the wire - both 18awg and 14awg) from digikey au. Don't forget to make sure you have wire cutters, wire strippers and a sodding iron plus solder as well. A multimeter for measuring your current/voltage to make sure everything is working properly is pretty valuable too. I got mine for ten bucks.
I was a complete novice at building stuff like this and electronics but between this site, forum, and a bit of reading/watching YouTube all the info you need is there.
Hope this helped
Hey clayts,
Thank you so much for that. You touched on pretty much everything I wasn't sure about. Your set up sounds pretty uch like what I'm planning except with 1 footers, I was hoping that the aliminum for the frame would be enough of a heatsink to help with temps, it's good to hear that yours is cool to the touch without a fan, so I'd say I would be more than good.
Yeah that's what I was guessing it was for, but again wasn't sure and thought I'd check with someone more knowledgeable. I would say I'm capable of putting a plug on, I've never done anything like this exactly, but i've done a bit of work with wires building and repairing computers/small electronics and it looks simple enough from the guide on here. Is there anything I should make sure to look out for when choosing a plug? Or is it just a case of making sure it's an Australian compatible plug?
I ended up getting everything except for the driver, plug, and wire off cutter. I'm getting the driver off mouser since it's a lot cheaper than anywhere else, and was gonna get wire from cutter but someone on reddit recommended going with solid core wire from bunnings instead since it's easier to work with. I was looking at multimeters on ebay, but assumed the $10 one would probably be cheap and inaccurate, is that where you got yours?
Yeah LEDgardener, youtube and reddit have all been great sources of information, I just wanted to double check on everything with someone more experienced, in case I made a noob mistake or something. Thank you so much again for your help.
Thank you so much for that. You touched on pretty much everything I wasn't sure about. Your set up sounds pretty uch like what I'm planning except with 1 footers, I was hoping that the aliminum for the frame would be enough of a heatsink to help with temps, it's good to hear that yours is cool to the touch without a fan, so I'd say I would be more than good.
Yeah that's what I was guessing it was for, but again wasn't sure and thought I'd check with someone more knowledgeable. I would say I'm capable of putting a plug on, I've never done anything like this exactly, but i've done a bit of work with wires building and repairing computers/small electronics and it looks simple enough from the guide on here. Is there anything I should make sure to look out for when choosing a plug? Or is it just a case of making sure it's an Australian compatible plug?
I ended up getting everything except for the driver, plug, and wire off cutter. I'm getting the driver off mouser since it's a lot cheaper than anywhere else, and was gonna get wire from cutter but someone on reddit recommended going with solid core wire from bunnings instead since it's easier to work with. I was looking at multimeters on ebay, but assumed the $10 one would probably be cheap and inaccurate, is that where you got yours?
Yeah LEDgardener, youtube and reddit have all been great sources of information, I just wanted to double check on everything with someone more experienced, in case I made a noob mistake or something. Thank you so much again for your help.