LED lighting on a budget!

Anyone have ideas yet on something cheaper then HeatsinkUSA? I wandered around home depot the other night. While I did fine some aluminum L shaped rods that may potential work. I did not find much else, not even the U shaped ones I have seen discussed one some other thread.

Ive used those in this application. They work fine. I had 4 royal blue XRE's at 700ma on an ~8" piece and it stayed relatively cool, even after being on for 18 or 20 hours a day. It was just screwed to the outside of my sunpod with no fan on it or anything.
 
The best solution I have found for DIY heatsinks is screwing together 1"X1" aluminum channel like this:

LED_build_8-1.jpg


Stu
 
That looks good stu, how about using 0.5" aluminum for lower profile and having more "fins" per fixture? You may not be able to screw all the LEDs exactly where you want them. May only be a good idea if you plan to use the heat transfer epoxy to mount them.
 
Anyone have ideas yet on something cheaper then HeatsinkUSA? I wandered around home depot the other night. While I did fine some aluminum L shaped rods that may potential work. I did not find much else, not even the U shaped ones I have seen discussed one some other thread.


To posts above this question I show L channel. It works fine.
L channel is good. Probably the largest bang for the cooling buck.
 
Thanks for all the great information, I have been going cross eyed reading all the DIY led stuff. This sounds pretty simple and tax return will be coming soon, I can't wait to get started. I will be building one for my FOWLR :dance:... Jeff
 
Here is a thought, I have access to 16 amp DC SCRs. They are 115 volt input 90 VDC output and a current rating of 16 amps continous. If each LED needs .7 amps, the SCR could be used to power 22 LEDs (.7 X 22 = 15.4)and I would be able to dim the total strand as needed. The total voltage needed would be 3.5 Volts times the 22 LEDs or 77 VDC which would be under the 90 volts produced by the SCR. I have skimmed the various articles but do not remember if there is a total number that can be on one power supply.
 
TYRYFIN; You don't want to go there...

SCRs would be very hard to use. They are not normally used in DC applications as once you turn them ON they cannot be turned OFF.
 
You are loosing me on that one, these are SCR controls that are used to control DC Permanent magnet motors. They have 115 volt AC input and an adjustable 0-90 VDC output.
 
Ah, OK, then someone has done the whacked out design stuff that's required to drive SCR semiconductors.

I see now what you are proposing. Your numbers look about right. That would probably work.
 
I have recieved my initial supply of LEDs and am working on mounting them i had one more thought to run by you. Since my power supply is variable from 0 to 90 VDC with a max current of 16 amps at 90 VDC I can adjust the voltage to match the 3.5 volts for each LED used so the resistor is not needed to drop the excess voltage in my case. I can also vary the current that the power supply produces from 0 to max current so I can match the total required petty close. What would be the maximum number of LEDs that you would put in each string?
 
24.

And you definitely need a fuse in each string. One false move and pffft!(A whole string).


With 24 in a string... I'd probably still keep a resistor in each one. Why? Because as your string has more and more LEDs in it the chances of the two having uneven total string voltages increases. That would result in in one string hogging more of the current.

I would do everything just as I directed at the top of this thread but I'd just use many more LEDs in each string owing to your higher supply voltage. Any other way may work but at much higher risk to your expensive LEDs, and greater likelyhood of one string being much brighter than the other.

If your entire LED count is south of 24 then one string could go with out the resistors. Keep the fuse.

There is another gotcha you need to be aware of. Your motor controllers could output pulsing DC not DC. Motors are inductive and will integrate(mathematically) the current pulses to result in some average voltage(90V). The motors wouldn't care if actually you were feeding them rectified 169V pulses. They would still believe they are getting 90VDC. If your supplies do not provide any filtering you could be hitting your stings with 150V pulses that would AVERAGE to 90VDC. Except the LEDs will not integrate, (average), the voltage!

I would NOT hook one of those supplies to an expensive set of LEDs before I knew exactly what was coming out of them. I would hook a 100W incandescent bulb to that supply's output and then CAREFULLY look at the waveform with an oscilloscope. (Note there are many ways to blow up the scope and/or kill yourself if you do that wrong.) There might be some alternatives to an O-Scope for figuring out what waveform is coming out of those supplies.
 
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The best solution I have found for DIY heatsinks is screwing together 1"X1" aluminum channel like this:

LED_build_8-1.jpg


Stu

Have you considered putting a couple of nuts or washers in between each of the peices as you screw them together? This would multiply your effective number of fins.
 
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