L.E.D. light build - ongoing

[kamloops_reefer]

Here are a few shots of the heat sink I'm putting together. Being in the steel industry I just can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on decent sized heat sinks from some of the online suppliers. So I decided to make my own, 1/4" x 1/2" flat bar and 1/8" x 1" flat bar - will be held together with both Stainless Steel threaded rod, and a adhesive agent.

I've had the LED's ordered for awhile, got them from LED group buy - will be running of a 300 watt power supply.

don't expect progress for while :)

[mikellini]

Here are a few shots of the heat sink I'm putting together. Being in the steel industry I just can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on decent sized heat sinks from some of the online suppliers. So I decided to make my own, 1/4" x 1/2" flat bar and 1/8" x 1" flat bar - will be held together with both Stainless Steel threaded rod, and a adhesive agent.

I've had the LED's ordered for awhile, got them from LED group buy - will be running of a 300 watt power supply.

don't expect progress for while :)

Looks good. Most run aluminum or copper for heatsinks, with copper working a bit better than aluminum but not as good in salt water environments. Is that all steel? Should work as well as long as it's large enough.

[kamloops_reefer]

no this is aluminum - sorry by being in the steel industry, one typically has access to all metals :biggrin:

[mark]

will your adhesive transfer heat?

[kamloops_reefer]

what epoxy I will use is unknown - there are "metal welding adhesives"

were you trying to bring up the point of thermal transfer paranoia?
just like insulation, one wouldn't have to become paranoid that the adhesive prevents thermal transfer - I'm sure it would for the first 2 seconds. Look at commonly used high rating per inch Rigid insulation - 1" gets you 3.2R If these adhesive offered an R2000 insulation rating and could stop heat transfer in a space of 0.0001" you would probably see a revolution in insulation products. I know I've read a lot of people concerned about some minuscule topics like this, myself as well - but when I've put it into a perspective like I have - I'm far from worried

its my opinion that this would become nill, and I only have to ensure the adhesive will maintain its properties at high temperatures.

[brandonpauley]

Thought I'd share my DIY LED build. I caved in and bought the LED Group Buy heatsink. I love DIY but I have no resources to build a 6 foot long aluminum heatsink so I had to buy one. I have no regrets though because it is designed soooo well that it was totally worth the money. Anyways, I loaded the heatsink with a full spectrum of leds, UV, Violet, Deep Blue, Blue, Cyan, Red, Warm White and Neutral White. All of the LED's are driven by meanwell PWM drivers, running at a max of 3 watts per LED. I have two 500 watt power supplies supplying the meanwells. I have them all controlled by a Coralux Storm-X controller which is a thing of beauty. The output on this setup is crazy, and being fully customizable I can add more drivers and LED's if I ever get a deeper tank!

http://i.imgur.com/BcOpPhv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/o71WSmy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uKoM1Mj.jpg

[gregzz4]

As long as you use a thermal adhesive that can survive under the temps you're going to have I don't see an issue
But I wouldn't use just any old epoxy

Keep the pics coming :smile:

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

I f you are placing some lenses on your setup,I hope you have a clean solder as not much room for play with the lenses.
Looking really good.if taken good care of it should last you a long time as mine still going roughly 4 years later.

[byee]

Nice build!!!

I considered the LED Group Buy heatsink for my build but decided it was just easier to buy the Kessil for my 45gal Oceans by Design cube.

Keep the photos coming.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[brandonpauley]

Of course buying a premade light is easier :wink: For me though, I can't justify spending thousands of dollars on lighting a 6 foot long tank, when I can build something for under a thousand which is fully customizable, fully rebuildable and fully upgradable. I'm really interested to see what the OP will be doing with his DIY heatsink!

[kamloops_reefer]

update - here is a picture of a 4/5th's complete of the LED's bonded to the heat sink. I have clustered them together as close as possible in groups to avoid "spotting" which I've heard about. as well - this will be similar to so many lights on the market anyways (having clusters like this).

[kamloops_reefer]

Here is a conceptual view of the finished product. I will have my old sources on the WETcoast waterjet cut and form up the aluminum or stainless housing which will accomodate (3) 5" fans, louvers for venting, attachment to the heat sink, and the mounting of the Storm X controller. I plan to have the 500 watt power supply run externally to reduce additional heat.

[brandonpauley]

Wow looks awesome! Wish I had thr resources to make the heatsink like you did...going to look great when its done

[kamloops_reefer]

I really haven't been catching much of a break on price or anything for the material I'm using, just the know where to get it. and also know how to do drafting to make a plan on how to put it all together.

I find these projects are best suited for those who can wait. I've been tinkering on this for a month now! and have had the LED's for almost a year, sitting in a box!

This will still cost $1,200 bucks, and some think that I would have been better of getting two radions or something, but theoretically, nothing will compete. Its kind of like hot rodding, Give me 30k to spend on a 10k used vehicle and I'll blow any production car that cost 100k out of the water.

I just have one of those personalities that cant justify spending that much money on those lights when I could do something similar, and at the day be more confident with the performance of the product (true or not).

[brandonpauley]

Not too far off from how much mine was to build...mine was about a grand total to build with the premade heatsink. I had the same thought that anything I buy will not compete with what I can build for the price. I measured the current draw at full power and found that my system is 300 watts of actual operating power and I have to have it turned down to about 100 watts to prevent bleaching of my zoas and brain corals. My tank is only 18" deep so I wont have to do any upgrading when I upgrade tanks...just turn up the power! Another plus is DIY setups are infinitly upgradeable and easily repairable

[kamloops_reefer]

well like most builds in the world - it didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, however all cosmetic things can be done later.

Here are a few pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5wrmg089ne59v1/IMG_20141205_212618.jpg?dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/s/0pdozr9olflb1h3/IMG_20141205_221227.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljdodawrgqiapok/IMG_20141205_212628.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ps1qx5wdv78ta22/IMG_20141205_213743.jpg?dl=0


of course the camera doesn't do it any justice - ah well, I'm happy with it :biggrin:

[mike31154]

well like most builds in the world - it didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, however all cosmetic things can be done later.

Here are a few pictures:

of course the camera doesn't do it any justice - ah well, I'm happy with it :biggrin:

Nice work. I kind of like the slim, industrial look of the fixture. Besides, the main thing at the moment is determining if the light output, spectrum & look of the tank, livestock, live rock etc. are what you intended. And you are happy with it, so it's all good.

On the subject of photos, not sure why they are showing only as links instead of displaying directly in your post. I tried copying your links & embedding them using the picture function but didn't work either. Could be some security settings in your Dropbox host account. I have a Dropbox account but generally use Windows Live Drive & more recently Google+ for displaying photos in forum posts. Anyhow, below is a photo from my Dropbox account, had to give it a try to see if it works for me.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/drhsgfv5fp1htk8/AAAGY9dsO228IaLGNluZKAZya

.... and evidently, it does not!

[kamloops_reefer]

Hello Mike, I know I tried to embed them as well - I swear it worked in the past.... same with google drive pictures.

ah well!

I'll figure it out today and embed the photos :)

[kamloops_reefer]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3W1wv71_XVs/VIOVeBraT4I/AAAAAAAALQ0/-25YtSyAEi4/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1216.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-85s4kQffYbE/VIOVl5jSujI/AAAAAAAALRI/SSsl9EG7qJ8/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1218.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i65eCBPjB-c/VIOViZLuFmI/AAAAAAAALQ8/kh4ItHFY-gE/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1219.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gy1_uKIcYuE/VIOVqFecD-I/AAAAAAAALRQ/HZTkLnImi3c/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1224.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-RRSqmHCtIc8/VIOVxjmfG7I/AAAAAAAALRo/ukejtPAGIqM/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1226.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8DWQGWeSm04/VIOV0o0G7zI/AAAAAAAALRw/8A-u_YQ_z5I/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1228.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dTdTtvmbXDc/VIOV8Sxo-SI/AAAAAAAALSM/nMcoi4zY_M4/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1229.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pkJ_Bu6S028/VIOV8oB0hNI/AAAAAAAALSQ/oBdC1wAkNqA/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1238.JPGhttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LLdwqqrVxLY/VIOWF7dI0_I/AAAAAAAALSs/p7Ye8S8me6g/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1240.JPGhttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1XrQi0IPb0A/VIOWEyCjqoI/AAAAAAAALSk/jHuj26bDJt0/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1243.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-R5wYd_0hnpk/VIOVXKXonyI/AAAAAAAALQk/kDea-M7k1YQ/w1379-h919-no/DSC_1211.JPG

[mike31154]

All I see is picture place holders, no photos. If I use the right click on the place holder icon, I can copy the URL & paste in new window to show the image or use the "Open image in new tab" menu option. Then I see the photo..

EDIT: Hmm, weird, I tried posting both photo with Windows Live then with Dropbox. At first the Dropbox photo didn't show, then it did. And suddenly I see all your photos. Software! Black Magic!