HydroRed
Well-Known Member
Im building my first 200W Cree LED COB bar.
Its going to basically be built the same as @Greengenes707 build with a few variants.
If you are looking to build a bar & haven't seen his 200W tutorial build -you should.
This is pretty much a personal test and will grow into a larger build if I like it and will be replacing my 2 -1K Watt HPS in the summer months (possibly year round if they give off decent heat but thats another project).
I am already working out plans for an adjustable bar setup in a complete frame that will house
(3) 4 COB bars in each frame & I would be building 2 frames total for a 6'x8'ish canopy.
The variants I mention begin with approx 2 feet of 1-1/4" x 1/16" thick aluminum bar stock.
I built a little "bridge" so to speak for my plugs and extension cord to be mounted to so they arent in contact with the fins of the heatsink. I slotted out 2 spots on the bridge for a ziptie to run through to hold everything securely to it.
The bridge will get mounted to the 2 outside edge fins with (2) 4-40 allen head screws on each side (not done yet in pics).
I also have added a little mounting plate for the potentiometer to be mounted directly to the fin of the unit.
It needs to be cut down and have a knob affixed to it but it is going to work perfect.
Every bit of wiring on this will have been soldered and heat shrinked when it gets completed except for the solderless connections of the COB holders.
As for the wiring of the cobs, I will be running the wire on the finned side of the heatsink to give the face of the light a clean look and have as much of the wire out of sight and as far from the main heat sources as possible.
Basically how it looks in this pic is about how it will look once the cobs are inserted and it is running. Maybe 1/8" of wire will be visible coming through to the solderless connectors on each side of the COB holders.
I'm thinking I should be firing this up in the next few days so I'll have more pics as soon as I get it going.
I will be sharing more ideas on this build but will wait til I have them at least underway or functional.
JUST A HEADS UP for anyone who is new to this like me, I would suggest grounding to the heatsink directly from the ground on the AC side. You will want to run a seperate lead from the green ground from the driver and affix it to your heatsink along with the AC male plug end that gets grounded at the outlet. As for the Meanwell driver itself, it will ground to the heatsink when it is mounted to it since it is a metal body driver. If you want to make sure there is good conductivity for a good ground, you can rough up the mounting points of both driver and heatsink with some 600 grit sandpaper before mounting. I had a bit of a time finding any answers on this subject regarding grounding so I figured I'd share what I have learned while looking for answers.
Its going to basically be built the same as @Greengenes707 build with a few variants.
If you are looking to build a bar & haven't seen his 200W tutorial build -you should.
This is pretty much a personal test and will grow into a larger build if I like it and will be replacing my 2 -1K Watt HPS in the summer months (possibly year round if they give off decent heat but thats another project).
I am already working out plans for an adjustable bar setup in a complete frame that will house
(3) 4 COB bars in each frame & I would be building 2 frames total for a 6'x8'ish canopy.
The variants I mention begin with approx 2 feet of 1-1/4" x 1/16" thick aluminum bar stock.
I built a little "bridge" so to speak for my plugs and extension cord to be mounted to so they arent in contact with the fins of the heatsink. I slotted out 2 spots on the bridge for a ziptie to run through to hold everything securely to it.
The bridge will get mounted to the 2 outside edge fins with (2) 4-40 allen head screws on each side (not done yet in pics).
I also have added a little mounting plate for the potentiometer to be mounted directly to the fin of the unit.
It needs to be cut down and have a knob affixed to it but it is going to work perfect.
Every bit of wiring on this will have been soldered and heat shrinked when it gets completed except for the solderless connections of the COB holders.
As for the wiring of the cobs, I will be running the wire on the finned side of the heatsink to give the face of the light a clean look and have as much of the wire out of sight and as far from the main heat sources as possible.
Basically how it looks in this pic is about how it will look once the cobs are inserted and it is running. Maybe 1/8" of wire will be visible coming through to the solderless connectors on each side of the COB holders.
I'm thinking I should be firing this up in the next few days so I'll have more pics as soon as I get it going.
I will be sharing more ideas on this build but will wait til I have them at least underway or functional.
JUST A HEADS UP for anyone who is new to this like me, I would suggest grounding to the heatsink directly from the ground on the AC side. You will want to run a seperate lead from the green ground from the driver and affix it to your heatsink along with the AC male plug end that gets grounded at the outlet. As for the Meanwell driver itself, it will ground to the heatsink when it is mounted to it since it is a metal body driver. If you want to make sure there is good conductivity for a good ground, you can rough up the mounting points of both driver and heatsink with some 600 grit sandpaper before mounting. I had a bit of a time finding any answers on this subject regarding grounding so I figured I'd share what I have learned while looking for answers.
