DIY LEDs - The write-up

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Skeptic_07 said:
I'd use L channel again because it was easy to mount and CHEAP!
Click to expand...

We've talked about online suppliers, home depot, etc. for channel and other extruded aluminum shapes. I was at my local middle-of-nowhere-podunk True Value hardware store over the weekend buying screws and noticed that they have 6' long 2" x 2" x 1/8" L for like $11. That's the cheapest I've seen! As we were discussing a few pages back, IMHO it's worth being creative when it comes to heatsinks, as long as you can test/verify effectiveness in your design.
 
I don't know the formula to calculate how ambient temperatures affect cooling, but IME, it plays a very large role. My pendent cooling fans, when driven at 6V, were adequate in my family room, where ambient temps hovered around 70˚F. Heatsinks were barely warm. The same fan at the same voltage did not cool the very same pendent in the LFS. It had to be adjusted to 9V to keep the heatsink "warm to touch". I was not able to measure the ambient temp at the LFS, but my guess was it was between 75-80˚F judging from the seat of the pants feel...
When designing lighting using plain flat aluminum bars or L shapes, and even full U channels, maximum ambient temps must be taken into account when verifying cooling design effectiveness. It can get hot very fast.
-R
 
Santoki said:
Skippy,
if you are referring to the first pic, those pendents are mounted to trolleys which fit inside the 1 5/8 x 1 5/8 channels. I had played around with the idea of light movers originally and figured the trolleys would make it easier to move the pendents around before deciding on a permanent position.
-R
Click to expand...

Were you able to get them at Home Depot or Lowes???
 
24 XPE Royal Blues and 24 XPG Cool white R5 Bin's over a 46 gallon.

Blues running at 60% and Whites running at 40%.

Optics 10414 Carclo 40deg. :(

4-4.5" off water surface, would like more with those optics and also like without optics but light spill was too bad.

The camera settings need tweaked because the image looks more white, but you get the idea.
picture.php

picture.php
 
Last edited:
skippy,
did you do a search for channel trolley?
There are at least 3 different kinds if I remember correctly...
dnahas,
Nice display,
are you using optics? How high are the LEDs mounted?
-R
 
Heat Sinks

Heat Sinks

What do you think of these?
picture.php

Mount the LEDs on the flat side the air will enter all of the slots on both sides and exit through the long slot at the top. The top one is upside down from the way I intend to measure them. I am going to mount 6 LEDs as close as I can on one of these and measure how hot it gets.

The only downside is that I have over 50 of them.
 
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