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Sammy's DIY Cree CXA LED

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sammyz2646

Member
gusgusthegrate said:
"I do not yet have a light meter, but its on the list for the future"

i just found a light meter app on both ios and andriod. i need to try it later.
Click to expand...

I am CERTAIN that it will not be accurate enough or have the correct needed measurements in that application, but its cool to give it a try. These meters are complex and are not cheap if you want to measure specific colors and specific intensity levels . I need to be measuring the Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD)

This is one that I have been eyeballing. . . . and it is middle of the road as far as the prices and devices go----


http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/231232833491?lpid=82
 
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sammyz2646

Member
Yes, I have actually watched this before..and its pretty cool, his little fan. :) But to hang a fluid filled lamp? UUUmmmm yeah, not sure how?

Thanks a bunch Gus for sharing though, others will enjoy it





My friend who welds, let me borrow his mask------



And OMG!! Now this is what I needed. I guess the lenses are rated in the welding shades from a 5.0 to a 14.0

The glasses I purchased earlier were @ a 5.0 and do help immensely to "soften" the blow , but staring directly at a 100 watt COB was still a no go.

This mask is a 10.0 on the scale and is so dark, that when you put it on without a LED blasting in your face, you'll think your blindfolded or something. What's cool though is that you can literally inspect individual diodes in all the cobs at full power. Very neat. It's perfect to try and measure temps but, holding the gun just right with that much eye protection, is STILL a bit like a monkey f@#king a football, LOL
Since these lenses are easy to swap out in these masks , I'd like to have about a 7.0 or 8.0 too, and they are only like $3 a lens, after the mask, which he tells me is about $20
 
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sammyz2646

Member
QUOTE~~~~~In my 56 years, the only person I EVER heard use that phrase was my father.

Dad? Is that you?






LOL, I used to be the young buck, now, I'm feeling, lets say, more seasoned, a destiny we all face. But, yeah, kind of like saying, LED's make me feel. . . . SWELL

:yay:
 
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sammyz2646

Member
This is part of an idea I discussed previously using convection in addition to the heat sink, therefore allowing you to effectively downsize the sink itself, but still run at high power. (4" inline fan required) and may not be applicable for everyone, based on their grow space.

I will probably mount this in several eight foot sections adding up to 1 per every 2 feet in pipe length. (Just a rough estimate), and say, cut the pipe in small sections (however long you want the LED's spaced APART), using couplers , to create the ease of cutting & mounting slots, in the pipe

Again, these photos are to simply demonstrate how you mount this PARTICULAR heat sink, found on Ebay, into this particular pipe.


 
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sammyz2646

Member
I am currently testing out these 100 watt warm white 3000k Chinese Cob's ,(bare with me, if you don't like them), running them with a 50 watt , $13 driver, and using the Kill-a-watt, it reads right about 43 watts

This is the test setup I made to temporarily measure the surface temps both on the heat sink and on the Cob with my 4" fan going--- as it will be in the grow room, post- testing





I will add that I tested these out, prior to using ANY fan, just to get an idea of JUST how hot they would run if completely unassisted. I gathered that data and realized that it wasn't bad, but slightly hot with this heat sink, even running @ 43 watts, although it did take about 20 min to really get warm. (~ 120 Celcius!) ouch. Now I will introduce the 4" fan, that may potentially cool up to ??????? LED's in one run of pipe. (with gentle bends), as you do NOT want to be using 90 degree turns in this as it would resist and retain HEAT due to sharp turns in your pipe.

Now for the new measurements with the full airflow----

This is the BACK of the heat sink inside the pipe--



I am excited about that 29 centigrade temp. That's about 85 degrees F. Perfect. I will note that this pipe, is fire- resistant as well.


And the COB itself---



BTW-- ( Putting the IR gun into the shadow of the on coming light beam using the gun as a visor seem to be the key, as shown here. (only took me about 2 weeks to figure that out) thought I was smart. LOL


Overall it is impressive the differences. I will note that the COB still is running warmer than I thought it might, but the NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE was the sink. It went from literally COOKING my hand to a mellow barely even warm unit as a whole, as shown
 
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luvdemshrooms

Member
Excellent idea. It would be very interesting if for the sake of experimentation you dropped the heat sink even further into the tube. While it appears you have it that high so that the inside "wings" contact the tube for stability, perhaps the pressure of the pipe would still firmly hold the heat sink. Then see if the temps at the outside decrease substantially. I suspect they will. A few minutes time could increase the life of your LED's considerably.

Edit: The more I look at your pictures the more I think you should try dropping it in far enough that only the final (LED mount) is still outside the tube.
 
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sammyz2646

Member
Good suggestions. But , remember that you can not have too much resistance inside your pipe, as the flow needs to be mostly un- interrupted for numerous reasons. The only other issue with that, is that the further down you insert the heat sink in to the pipe, the more sort of mushroomed the pipe gets (cause I tried it)-- due to the taper on the sink gradually widening.

EDIT------- Unless you decide you wanted to up the pipe & fan to a 6" !!!

Hmmmmmmmm... . . . Holy crap that opens up numerous options that were "hitting the fence" so to speak, using the 4". Although a 6" pipe uses up too much room space as a whole, for most people, including me, unless it was hung from above. My initial plan was to do some side lighting with this idea



My OTHER theory here is that the sink, as a whole, will tend to remain fairly consistent as it rises in temperature. This is why I thought that by putting in the REAR of the sink inside, would be NEARLY as good as the whole unit on the interior. I would do that with 1 or 2, but I wanted to add ~ 6 -10 LED's in 1 run.

I know with that many in the pipe (6 to 10), that you must not interfere with the overall general airflow, as the cumulative heat within, will probably be a BIT hotter near the end, just as they are at the end of a inline heat removal operation, used in HID lighting. That is not including the additional resistance put on the fan, therefore slowing down the overall airflow slightly to moderately, creating more allowable time for the ambient heat to rise (in the pipe prior to removal ) on our heat sinks and LED's. Even a slight delay in air ejection, could impact the overall temperature within, but tests when fully built, will tell me everything that I will want to know, in the end

With that said, I believe that the temp rise will be minimal at the end of the run, BUT , putting the sink too far into the draft (inside the pipe), and adding numerous LED's would be un- advisable in my opinion, knowing what I know about airflow/resistance.

I do however very much appreciate yours and others input here, as this is a sort of pioneering -ish idea. LOL And I still am admiring many things about your design luvdemshrooms.

And there really is, an almost UNLIMITED number of ways to sort of tweak anything and everything from ideas, to the parts involved. So much fun, compared to spending all my money on prefabbed--over-priced-- "GROW" lights
 
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gusgusthegrate

Member
I agree. The sence of acomplshment will even be greater with some chunky buds and a cool buzz. Accomplishing a small project like this can give you the confidence to tackle things you doubted before.

Wake n bakeee!
 
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vostok

Active member
Veteran
A light meter (lux meter) is an essential tool for light maker or general growing too, is fun and removes any doubt, with light for plant placement, great fun when stoned too

Great Thread

thanks
"V"
 
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sammyz2646

Member
So for the real install.. .. .. .. I will try one light first.

Forgive the Chinese COB used in the CREE thread, but I intend to use the CREE's once these have been proven to succeed. . . and I am convinced that I could try it now but I will monitor the temps for a day or two before using the spendy cob's
And forgive my wiring, as I am in a bit of a hasty mode at the moment. (I seem to only have 1 speed) lol










I chose this height (for now to get under the canopy as side lighting (3000k) warm white 100 watt cob running @ ~ 43 watts ($6 COB)////w/ a 50 watt ($13 driver)& ($10 heat sink)

It's bright!! and running amazingly cool----And I have the ability to add add add more LED's (higher or lower, on the pipe) with the major airflow here!!! Add a blue, add a red , or even a full spectrum. . by simply adding ------couplings! just make your little "slots" slightly wider than your middle line of aluminum (on this heat sink) and attach LED's wherever you like really. . . . . :smokeit:


The hottest part of the heat sink that I could find after many hours of being on was ~ 35 or 36 degrees Celcius or ~ 100 F. I'm satisfied------- Especially when I get a 40 degree (C) reading coming from the surface of the driver .( About 105 F) on the driver surface..........hotter than the heat sink
 
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sammyz2646

Member
This was an area in the garden that was otherwise shaded and not well lit. It's a spot on the side and under the normal lighting
As you can see clearly, this went from darkish to nice and bright

Now for oh about, $30 in RAW active parts and maybe an hour of work and some other misc parts, (OH YEAH AND A CRAPLOAD OF HANDY TOOLS), this is super smart, and fairly simple stuff really ---------------to try and utilize this airflow as I did here , assuming you already have something similar available already churning anyway (airflow w/ fan), etc.

 
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Dr.Nonagon

Dr.Nonagon

Member
Pretty good idea! Easily expandable and low cost. There is a lot that could be built with a design like this. Vertical growing comes to mind. I wonder how many chips you could squeeze onto a tube like that.
 
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sammyz2646

Member
Thanks Dr. N ;) I must admit, YOU, my friend gave me that added inspiration (in the beginning) of this debacle , to TEAR INTO my broken light plant and simply FORCE myself to learn just how this crap works. There was just too much invested to ignore the broken light. I like many other here, was fairly intimidated, but let me assure you, I have discovered that most of this stuff is simply plug-n-play, once you know what you need, and I wanted to extend a thank you-- to you----- for sharing your perspective and experience , helping ME get my feet wet in DIY LED repair, and now, creation!!! Many other people who added and contributed have been a huge help in me better understanding this ever growing and ever changing tech front.

I am hoping that my post and ideas can help spark others ideas and we can work together and build off each others ideas to achieve better, overall results.
I am aware that my work in LED's my not be to spec or proper, but I certainly think that the benefits of adding these LED's, are really starting to show, with all my extra research, thoughts, and hard work

Back to the pipe----
I believe that in maybe a 8 - 10 ft run , that I will pack and build ~ 1 per foot in the FLOWER ROOM

I believe that is this pipe design, tat you couldn't really put too many in there --to keep cool--- The overall issue (for most), is keeping the overall room/tent- temps at bay, due to the heat exhausted from the total # of LED's in the run. I don't think with that much air movement, that you would have too many limits as to how many you put on the pipe.
Some figuring as to how much added heat will accumulate via a certain # of LED in that space, will need to be done. This will vary for each individual, based on their cooling abilities ( for the room as a whole) and the # of LED's they try and incorporate into the design.

I have it all planned to use both warm whites (2700k and full spectrum's (32 x 3 w) for side lighting---(Probably do every other one, (WW/FULL/WW/FULL/WW/FULL) 100watt WW running @ ~43 watts and the full spectrums running at ~ 50 watts using the drivers I took apart from that damn Green guy light plant. This is a gold mine of parts to use.

I have planned to use my 100 watt reds/ blues, UV's and other colors (100w) above in a hood on the rotating light mover as the 100 watt colored cobs are powerful and must remain in motion , in my opinion , to maximize its coverage--- BUT even more importantly, to avoid any OVER -exposure that these powerful 100 watt red's and blues may cause, (IE-- stretching, or rapid maturation). The benefits of these colors in concentrated form will be fantastic, in my opinion. . . . I will custom build these new 4 - 6 COB hoods that will be in motion carrying all the other SPECIFIC wavelengths that I desire in my garden as supplemental additional lighting. ( I also run 2 -1000watt HID's in every room HPS/7500k)

Like I said, the warm whites don't really need to be moving to work, but, I have again , decided to use the powerful and specific target spectrums (red,blue,UV) and incorporate them IN MOTION, as to avoid too much of any one color affecting my garden in a negative fashion


I recently ordered (10 pcs) of those heat sinks and 50 watt drivers to start this pipe project. I will build it first using Chinese Cob's, and run it for a few weeks before using the CREE's

The best part is , that I can simply change COB's easily if I have any fail----- by just popping it off the sink , and slapping on the new one. Everything is accessible easily, except the heat sink, but last I checked, all mine are still working . LOL Now to figure out the wiring. . . . . Damn I seem to have lots of thoughts
 
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