DIY : Making your own Metal Core Printed Circuit Boards for led applications .

Great thread SDS. I've found in the past that adding transfer foil on top of the toner/black paint marker before dropping in the etching solution really seems to help with the process. Once you have your toner transferred, you repeat the same process with the green foil (iron, lamination etc)

Also, as noted above, make sure your etching solution is warm, this greatly speeds up the process.
 
revived for easier reference.

shits about to get real, with a mcpcb with a hole big enough to fit a 3590 in the center and a few 660nm deepreds to soak up the extra head room of the new hlg240s all in a pcb package that will fit under a kingbrite 100mm lens.

stay tuned
 
Growmau5 said:
revived for easier reference.

shits about to get real, with a mcpcb with a hole big enough to fit a 3590 in the center and a few 660nm deepreds to soak up the extra head room of the new hlg240s all in a pcb package that will fit under a kingbrite 100mm lens.

stay tuned
Click to expand...
This whole frggin thread proves stoners can be brilliant LOL! I knew cannabis wasn't killing all of our brain cells.. This is amazing. I never knew that i could print/make my own circuit boards for my LED's. Brilliant friggin brilliant. Thanks Happy Holidaze!
 
The cannabis is making my brain cells grow!

however, I am having a hard time finding an Aluminum backed, one sided, copper clad PCB in raw sheet form. If anyone comes across a source, please link!

these nerds on ebay either want to sell me pre etched, or fiberglass backed pcbs.
 
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Growmau5 said:
The cannabis is making my brain cells grow!

however, I am having a hard time finding an Aluminum backed, one sided, copper clad PCB in raw sheet form. If anyone comes across a source, please link!

these nerds on ebay either want to sell me pre etched, or fiberglass backed pcbs.
Click to expand...

maybe ask steves led ... he has done a bunch of luxeon M 12 watt leds on a square copper star.
 
found it, !!

now, who can help me with the circuit design in either Eagle or Express? those are the two programs I have access to?

My vision is to design and fabricate this thing, then send it off to a PCB company that is willing to save this profile/design so you guys can call them up and order them to your house.

ali pcb.png
 
be gentle its my first time. but here is what I am thinking. HLG240-700 has so much extra output voltage. we use 72v cxb3590s so that we can run deep red 660nm monos in series at the same drive current 700ma.
*anyone have real life actual forward voltage of a 72v 3590 running at 700ma?

cxb3590 plus 660 mono pcb.png

of course, now I realize that I have not included a way to secure the COB, let me look into those cheap TE connectivity 90deg universal corner cob holders. and try to integrate that & rework the pathing.
 
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Growmau5 said:
revived for easier reference.

shits about to get real, with a mcpcb with a hole big enough to fit a 3590 in the center and a few 660nm deepreds to soak up the extra head room of the new hlg240s all in a pcb package that will fit under a kingbrite 100mm lens.

stay tuned
Click to expand...

Nice..

No lens for me though

Kinda wondering...say we can order the pcb from someone that stocks them. Applying the solder paste to multiple tiny oslon or even cree reds would be really challenging without a matching stencil. Being right next to each other you couldnt really do one at a time.The stencil would have to fit like a glove over the whole pcb and be made of a stiff material to hold its form.

So i take it you liked having the deep reds in the spectrum? Thought you were heading the other direction by the sound of how the latest yield report was going. Maybe i missed something along the way....nice work

Edit....maybe you were planning to have the monos already mounted? Thatd be a lot easier if the price is right..
 
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Growmau5 said:
be gentle its my first time. but here is what I am thinking. HLG240-700 has so much extra output voltage. we use 72v cxb3590s so that we can run deep red 660nm monos in series at the same drive current 700ma.
*anyone have real life actual forward voltage of a 72v 3590 running at 700ma?

View attachment 3564209

of course, now I realize that I have not included a way to secure the COB, let me look into those cheap TE connectivity 90deg universal corner cob holders. and try to integrate that & rework the pathing.
Click to expand...
Awesome as usual. We follow similar paths. Getting it under a 100mm lens was an issue when using a holder and a 3590. Even 3070's don't leave much room. 10mm donut around the ideal holder is the best I have come up with for the 3590 and keeping it all under one optic. But I've been using the 36v then spitting into parallel after the cob.
If you can figure a way to integrate the holder and PCB for a decent price let me know. That is the only way to downsize I've been able to think of.
 
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...for soft sds said...diptrace... i will add fritzing... just my inexpert pov...
...and seems to me oslons are too close to de cob ...but... its other inexpert pov too....;)...

....mmm cobs are soldered too?... :eyesmoke:....

:peace:

Saludos
 
@Positivity good points, tinning and reflowing leds arent for the average joe. In fact, I have zero experience with it, but I am willing to learn. Maybe my expectations of what the average hobbiest is willing to do, are too high. But I do know that these companies will pump out pcbs for you cheap, and I have access to a conveyor style reflow oven. So maybe there will be a www.GM5ledparts.com someday. I have no interest in mass market fixtures at this point, but I do have an interest in making peoples lives easier in tracking down components.

-on the all white vs adding monos thing: i see things on the internet and get really excited , then start ordering stuff. Sometimes I forget what my grow philosophy is, lol.

@Greengenes707 I was thinking scrap the Ideal holder all together and use a tiny corner only holder like those ceramic TE conn one. or something along those lines.
We saw your light come out, then GoGreen, now these Rottweilers all using the same(ish) components. Something like this could be a market differentiator. If we are talking about being purely capitalistic here, this plays into the public perception that you need a lot of red light, or red leds to flower plants.
 
thanks for clearing that up growmau. I'd be interested in those for sure, right up my alley. I try to be somewhat careful promoting reds. There isn't a night and day difference. I do it from the perspective that they are just extra tools to use in growing and while it may be deep reds today tomorrow it may be something else.
Plus, I thought you had a overwhelmingly good experience with just cobs and you were over monos. It wouldn't surprise me...I'm still figuring it out myself

I just brought the stencil up since oslons are hard to do on a star. having other things in the area would make it even more challenging. But, it may still be easyish and doable..hard to say just visualizing it.

anyway, thanks, and kudos for the cool stuff you've been doing
 
@Growmau5 nice you highjacking SDS thread now :hump:
Awesome Idea about the monos and cob under same lens.

Excessive heat from COB could heat up the monos if they are too close. I would avoid keeping monos too close to the cob and also too close to the edge of lens. Monos do not need to be snuggled up next to cob. Lens will still spread the light from monos.
A bigger COB like 3590 and ideal holder would make it tough. All respect If you can pull it off with 3590.
Vero 18 32.2mm
Vero 29 43mm
CXB 3070 50mm with C14036_CLAMP-CXA25-30 , with BJB not sure

Also I like your idea of hole in PCMCB for COB. Why would we want to increase thermal resistance between COB and heatsink by adding a PCMCB layer. Great idea.

Amare uses a smaller lens and monos or other white around it. Neat design. I bet you already knew.
Notice the reflector inside the lens. I bet it increases output by reflecting the light that was reflected back from lens. Any way you can make your PCMCB reflective.
upload_2015-12-14_19-48-30.png
 
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robincnn said:
@Growmau5
Amare uses a smaller lens and monos or other white around it. I bet you already knew.
Notice the reflector inside the lens. I bet it increases output by reflecting the light that was reflected back from lens. Any way you can make your PCMCB reflective.
View attachment 3564467
Click to expand...

would be cool if someone could make a cob holder + low height wide angle reflector like in the amare pic above.
 
Wow... bet this would go good in a 3D printer.

Loooooove this shit, it's the kind of thing that gives me thoughts of possibilities!

Keep the good stuff coming!
 
robincnn said:
I bet it increases output by reflecting the light that was reflected back from lens. Any way you can make your PCMCB reflective.
View attachment 3564467
Click to expand...

I think its main purpose is collimation of light. One will know the reflector is in the optimum position when looked at directly (power off), since the reflector should be completely yellow (reflecting the phosphor). That's assuming one is using polished surfaces. The plano-convex lens then takes that plane wave (in essence) and focuses it as per the design of the lens.

The 4% or whatever that is lost due to QED effects is gone; don't try to recapture it. The increased intensity more than makes up for it, anyway.
 
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