My First DIY LED project cxb3590

So here we have my first DIY project nearly completed. For my 2.5 x 2.5 x 4 ft tent

4 -cxb3590 (2-5000k and 2- 3500k)
HLG‑185H‑C1400B
2- 5.88" x 20" heat sinks

I will be adding a cover down the center of the top to make it look all nice and clean, just having trouble finding metal blades for my jig saw, need to cut a hole for the 100k pot and pc power receptacle. Also will add my lenses and change up that lame tape job lol.

This was my first test in the tent with inline fan exhausting the heat/air from tent. Room temp was 73 degree and after about 20-30 mins temp in the tent was a steady 82 degrees F. Heat sink was getting slightly hot to the touch and decided to use some fans I had laying around and wirded to a plug, I placed 2- 140mm fans on top running 6.5v 2.5a and it kept cool. I have to say its very bright, def wise to wear some sun glasses with these things!

Just ordered two arctic cooling f14 psm fans that I will be mounting, Any recommendations on a single driver for both fans?

not sure why I put my pics up 2x lol sorry

Looks good! tons of light coming down. I have had good luck with these, cheap, OEM, 9V efficiency level iV. But you might find that you get very good cooling at 6.5V, nothing wrong with that either.

SupraSPL said:

Looks good! tons of light coming down. I have had good luck with these, cheap, OEM, 9V efficiency level iV. But you might find that you get very good cooling at 6.5V, nothing wrong with that either.

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Bonjour
For a few more $ you coud have one with every voltage from 3v to 12v (4, 5/6/7, 5/9) low in winter and higher in summer!?
Have a great day ★

True those adjustable are very handy. I have a few of the adjustable ones on hand but they are kind of old (transformer based?) and they have very low efficiency ~30%. Hopefully the new ones are switching?

I also have a few fan dimmers lying around that came with the rosewill CPU coolers. They are very simple DC side dimmers, I assume a more efficient way to dim than the transformer based units but I have not tested it. Normally if I need a different voltage I just switch adapters because I have a huge box of them from testing LOL.

SupraSPL said:

True those adjustable are very handy. I have a few of the adjustable ones on hand but they are kind of old (transformer based?) and they have very low efficiency ~30%. Hopefully the new ones are switching?

I also have a few fan dimmers lying around that came with the rosewill CPU coolers. They are very simple DC side dimmers, I assume a more efficient way to dim than the transformer based units but I have not tested it. Normally if I need a different voltage I just switch adapters because I have a huge box of them from testing LOL.

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What is the best way to power fans (4)
Is there little driver that you can dim with a pot?

My favorite way is to use a small, high quality AC DC switching power supply. You can adjust the voltage with something like this. I wonder if you could control a PWM fan with one of these

Another oprion to power the fan from the LED driver, DC-DC converters like this

@SupraSPL @littlejacob I have one of those radioshack ac/dc plugs for the wall, has a switch on it to adjust the voltage at a constant 2.5a. two fans at that power/speed gave me pretty decent cooling, but I really would like to utilize the 100k pots that I have if possible. Would be nice to dim the fans with the lights. Id also like to wire it into the ac power in on the unit, set up power jumper wire from the pc power receptacle. I want to keep it pretty clean, one power wire going into the fixture, going to put a cover going down the middle drill a hole for the pot and power receptacle and hide the drivers and wiring.

Do you think a led driver with a 100k pot can be used? one driver for both fans?

Also I cant seem to find the power specifications for the fan? whats the max power for the fan lol ? If I knew that maybe I could pick the driver lol. Also would I run them in series or parallel circuit ?

Think this driver would be good
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/APV-12-12/?qs=DNaZHaGatO18Qhe0x8zzqQ==

Also found this driver, has the pwm- puls width modulation? not sure what that is, but its in the fan name so it must be good haha

http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=pwm-40

Any thoughts? I think that pwm feature ensures both fans are at the same speed?

Also this driver has 3in1 dim function restistance being one of them so a pot would work?

did my tape nice n neat, super glued magnets, put my lenses on and added the rubber nipples to the eyebolts.

@SupraSPL I wired up the 100k Pot like u told me and plugged it into the killawatt meter and at the highest it only went up to 175w and lowest 14w, earlier I had another pot from the same batch wired up backwards but it still worked but it looked like it dimmed all the way to off, had lots of power flickers on that one too. Without the 100k pot is pulling 220w from the wall. Sound like Bad pots? They didnt come with nuts n washers so the seller refunded them and let me keep them. I ordered these

Bonjour
I have to check my pot now...
Thanks....
I should find 1400mA at max and since I have a 10k resistor 140mA min!? Am I correct? What about watt? I should have 220w max and 22w mini!???
I hope my pot is ok!
Have a great day ★

Its great to see this project come to fruition ! You have done a great job mounting everything without the use of cob holders or tapping. The magnet idea is really cool, although it probably tightens the beam angle a few degrees, which probably isn't a bad thing for a small tent.
Also, those little yellow rubber stoppers are going to save you a forehead cut for sure, nice touch

cheers

@SilverSurfer, looks very good! One thing I have been wary of with the lenses is the possibility that the solder point could short to the lens frame so I would advise to check for that because the ground on the heatsink might not catch it.

Regarding POTs you are correct the generic ones will vary quite a bit. Out of 40 POTS I have seen as low as 87K and as high as 125K. I check every one and mark its resistance on the back. Anything below 100 will be troublesome. If necessary, you can install a POT bypass switch to get full power from the driver that also has the benefit of giving you 2 preset positions.

SupraSPL said:

@SilverSurfer, looks very good! One thing I have been wary of with the lenses is the possibility that the solder point could short to the lens frame so I would advise to check for that because the ground on the heatsink might not catch it.

Regarding POTs you are correct the generic ones will vary quite a bit. Out of 40 POTS I have seen as low as 87K and as high as 125K. I check every one and mark its resistance on the back. Anything below 100 will be troublesome. If necessary, you can install a POT bypass switch to get full power from the driver that also has the benefit of giving you 2 preset positions.

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I covered my solder points with a hot glue gun, because I was worried too, quick fix .....Im not too sure how to use my multimeter or test the pots. Also would any swtich work? Its really sad how little i know about electronics lol.....this whole thing has kinda made me want to go back to school for it. Any advice on drivers I mentioned for the fans?

Growmau5 said:

Its great to see this project come to fruition ! You have done a great job mounting everything without the use of cob holders or tapping. The magnet idea is really cool, although it probably tightens the beam angle a few degrees, which probably isn't a bad thing for a small tent.
Also, those little yellow rubber stoppers are going to save you a forehead cut for sure, nice touch

cheers

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They also help keep the floor from getting scratched up too, didnt even think of hitting my head on those, ouch! lol I was going to cut the eyebolts but they work nicely as stands for setting the fixture on the ground, keeps the lenses about an inch off the ground.

Bonjour
Hello supra...since the driver work at full power when dim+ and dim- are not connected...is a simple jack that we can plug and unplug looks good to you? (Anywhere on the dimming wires)
Have a great day ★

The APV-12-12 is 12V and is very good quality. Your fans are relatively low RPM so that might work well. I suspect 9V is plenty but the easiest way to find out is probably try both.

littlejacob said:

Bonjour
Hello supra...since the driver work at full power when dim+ and dim- are not connected...is a simple jack that we can plug and unplug looks good to you? (Anywhere on the dimming wires)Have a great day ★

Click to expand...

Yes if you interrupt the dimming circuit at any point you will get full driver power when you hit the switch or unplug the connection

Double pole 240V AC power switch on the left, single pole dimmer switch on the right. 100K POT for dimming

SupraSPL said:

The APV-12-12 is 12V and is very good quality. Your fans are relatively low RPM so that might work well. I suspect 9V is plenty but the easiest way to find out is probably try both.

Click to expand...

If I run 2 fans on one of those would I be getting similar fan speed as these two at 6.5v 2.5a ?

by any chance do you know the max power of the arctic cooling f14 pwm? cant find the specs.