LEDgardener

If the spine is hanging normally as it would in a growing situation, and we are looking at it from the end of the spine, yaw and pitch were not the problem, but roll.

My problem was unequal mounting of the strips on to the heatsink where on one side, I would end up with strips closer to the plant canopy than the other side. I forced it to be "balanced" by using the 90° perpendicular mounted bars on each end (T) which allowed me to use 4 hangers instead of two.

Cheers and great build!

Ah. Yes. I anticipated roll. I’ll probably do as you mentioned about using a perp. bar for corners. I was hoping not to, but sometimes function has to supersede form.

I like your concept.

If your using a thermal conductive adhesive - tca, don't worry about the marred aluminum surface, the tca will bridge the gaps and smooth out the mounting surface.

I did a similar modular design but used angle and ready rod.

I agree with HomerPepsi - make a four point contact with a tee intersection on both ends. Make it slide on the ends to be able to remove it when changing out the flat bars/strips.

Instead of the brazing and cutting the small center uchannels as a center spine how about sandwich the light holding flat bar with two flat bars running 90 degrees, one on top and the other on the bottom, do on both ends for a four point contact. Then your just drilling holes and you also get infinite positioning of where you want your lights to sit. That way for materials all you need is flat bar and bolts, it also cuts down on mfg'ing time

@Nuggie some of my inspirations came from seeing different pics here and at other sites. Your pics might have been some of them if they were posted here.
I’m sure there are hundreds of ways to build a spar and rib design using all kinds of materials. I had been wanting to do a project using those brazing rods and this build gave me the opportunity to try it out.

I first tried using thermal epoxy for the first 4 strips...nightmare. So I got my hands on some thermal tape. (Next time I order from cutter I’ll pay they extra dollar for the tape to come preinstalled.) Using the tape saves me hours of time and frustration.

I’m now on to wiring. I bought solid core 18g wire and hate it. It’s so damn stiff to try to make small bends with it.(I think I broke one of the strips connectors on the first one trying to make a small bend). I’m contemplating switching to multi strand core wire just for the flexibility. My strips are 48v running just under 700mA so I think multi strand should be able to handle it. Each strip will be done with a 4’ wire lead to connect to wago connectors.

I’m behind my planned schedule. Plus fighting a root rot issue. Thrips seem to be disappearing. Too many parts in motion at the moment.

Cheers
YYC

No worries man, stranded wire is fine. Creating bends in 18 gauge, I use the corner of a table or some other tools. I like the rigidity personally. If someone could make a quick paint drawing of the proposed idea with the T intersection thing that would be very appreciated, after reading it I still don't understand it. But it seems like something worth knowing

Spreading out the pickup points to make a tee at the ends (or an H shape) for a four point contact.

YYC, I appreciate your willingness to try new things and experiment, if we never did that we'd be stagnant so good on you.

Ahh right on, thanks. English isn't my main language so it's hard to understand some construction stuff hehe.

Your English has always seemed fine. What is your main language?

Nuggie wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:17 pm

Spreading out the pickup points to make a tee at the ends (or an H shape) for a four point contact.

YYC, I appreciate your willingness to try new things and experiment, if we never did that we'd be stagnant so good on you.

Exactly! Thanks Nuggie for the drawing. This is what my problem was when using the spine rib design. And the solution. The T-bar forces rigidity along the horizontal plane.

Cheers,

**update**

Sorry for the long delay on updating. Electrical was slow and cumbersome. I fought through using the 18ga solid core wire since I bought a spool of 50m

Like all good electrical projects, f*cking wires all over the place. Every problems creates solutions to which I used some basic wire guides with adhesive bottom. Placing one at the center of each rib made a world of difference.
And then there’s more electrical work to do! (Thank goodness for Wago connectors). Every rib gets its own fuse so there’s that...
...and then this.
Forward progress at last!

TBC...