I have a pico and the standard "cheap" lights weren't going to meet my needs so I went down the DIY route. I first started out with RB + CW LEDs but was getting the Disco effect where I could tell the colors were splitting. To make things worse, I was using a glass lid and condensation was acting like lenses to make it even more obvious. My solution was to try and get the LEDs even closer! So I was looking for options and came upon Cree's integrated RGBW LEDs. They seemed like they might fit the bill. Went to your favorite auction site and after several weeks got the LED's in.
Right now I've got them mounted to the heatsink with double sided thermal tape and wired the strings together. Still need to wire up the driver board and the cables to the light.
Helpful tip. to solder the LED's when they are mounted to a heatsink, you need to pre-heat the heatsink. I used a tea light to warm up the heatsink to making soldering a lot easier. Still not quite as easy as a regular PCB, but way easier than not pre-heating.
Right now I've got them mounted to the heatsink with double sided thermal tape and wired the strings together. Still need to wire up the driver board and the cables to the light.
Helpful tip. to solder the LED's when they are mounted to a heatsink, you need to pre-heat the heatsink. I used a tea light to warm up the heatsink to making soldering a lot easier. Still not quite as easy as a regular PCB, but way easier than not pre-heating.
