Thanks to you all... It...it... LIVES!

Sonnshine

Sonnshine

Member
I'd read up on diy LED systems, but never really got it until I read Gaius' Battlestar Ganjatica thread. Then it clicked and I had the courage to try it myself. I studied up here and lapped up advice from CaptainMorgan, SupraSL, TimFox and many others. if I don't name you, it's because, well, you know, stoners and recall. When I had questions about my fan issues, several people helped out and identified a bad power supply. I just want to thank everyone who contributes their knowledge and expertise to this group. Maybe I'm just giddy because IT WORKS!, but really, you guys are fucking awesome.

It's primitive - more a proof of concept. No dimmers, hell, no one/off switch. I went with inexpensive Z2 cxa3070s (6 total) 4000K, Ideal holders (no lens, no reflectors) and Arctic 11 PLUS CPU coolers. The toughest part was hooking up the 30g fan wires to the 14g 50V wire, had to bone up on a trick from RC enthusiasts, tine the fan wire, wrap the larger wire around it and solder. The rest was all pretty simple.

I made a few mistakes - started with everything mounted to pine board, discovered drivers can potentially get warm, so made an aluminium frame. Burned out a few fans with the new power supply, but all in all, it was fun to make, and without the mistakes, was about $450 plus misc parts, should run around 350W. Now I want to make something with cxb cobs!
 

Attachments

DonPetro

DonPetro

Well-Known Member
Sonnshine said:
I'd read up on diy LED systems, but never really got it until I read Gaius' Battlestar Ganjatica thread. Then it clicked and I had the courage to try it myself. I studied up here and lapped up advice from CaptainMorgan, SupraSL, TimFox and many others. if I don't name you, it's because, well, you know, stoners and recall. When I had questions about my fan issues, several people helped out and identified a bad power supply. I just want to thank everyone who contributes their knowledge and expertise to this group. Maybe I'm just giddy because IT WORKS!, but really, you guys are fucking awesome.

It's primitive - more a proof of concept. No dimmers, hell, no one/off switch. I went with inexpensive Z2 cxa3070s (6 total) 4000K, Ideal holders (no lens, no reflectors) and Arctic 11 PLUS CPU coolers. The toughest part was hooking up the 30g fan wires to the 14g 50V wire, had to bone up on a trick from RC enthusiasts, tine the fan wire, wrap the larger wire around it and solder. The rest was all pretty simple.

I made a few mistakes - started with everything mounted to pine board, discovered drivers can potentially get warm, so made an aluminium frame. Burned out a few fans with the new power supply, but all in all, it was fun to make, and without the mistakes, was about $450 plus misc parts, should run around 350W. Now I want to make something with cxb cobs!
Click to expand...
It's a great feeling isn't...seeing something that bright built by your own hand!
 
Sonnshine

Sonnshine

Member
PerroVerde said:
Congratulations! I hope to be posting the same in a month or less. Any advice on hooking up the fans to help avoid problems?
Click to expand...
A few things - the wires are so tiny, I had to use my teeth to strip the wires, and very gently, still managed to bite off two wires. And I'm not sure what the deal was, the box for the fan said +12V DC. But my initial power supply was negative (red and black wires) and ran them at -2.5V. When I got a new power supply, it was for a laptop and had a white wire with wire wrapped around it. I hooked it up as +12V DC to a fan and nothing. Checked everything on the box, and tried another fan. duh. I'm pretty I had the leads hooked up right on meter while testing. Hooked up the old supply and noticed the polarity was different. That was a $20 mistake. So the advice there is to have some extra fans on hand. Not only just in case, but also if one burns out, you want to have a spare on hand. I have a couple extra now.

as far as soldering them to the larger wires, I used flux, and tinned the little wire (heated and applied a tiny amount of solder until wire is stiff and shiny). Wrapped the larger wire around it (DON'T space putting the heatshrink on before this!), flux the connected wires and solder, then heatshrink. It took some work to get the wrapping right sometimes, just have to be patient.
 
Sonnshine

Sonnshine

Member
PerroVerde said:
Congratulations! I hope to be posting the same in a month or less. Any advice on hooking up the fans to help avoid problems?
Click to expand...
Also, other may know if there is some sort of molex connector, or something similar that would make hooking up the fans more painless. I wasn't aware of anything I had on hand that would work, so went the soldering route. I was so close to finishing at that time, I just wanted to get it hooked up and running, lol. For everything else, I used bullet connectors. I didn't have anything that would work with the fan wires, but I bet there probably is a better way to do it.
 
DonPetro

DonPetro

Well-Known Member
Sonnshine said:
Also, other may know if there is some sort of molex connector, or something similar that would make hooking up the fans more painless. I wasn't aware of anything I had on hand that would work, so went the soldering route. I was so close to finishing at that time, I just wanted to get it hooked up and running, lol. For everything else, I used bullet connectors. I didn't have anything that would work with the fan wires, but I bet there probably is a better way to do it.
Click to expand...
I use these. They come male and female. Pennies on the dollar.
 

Attachments

brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
Sonnshine said:
Also, other may know if there is some sort of molex connector, or something similar that would make hooking up the fans more painless. I wasn't aware of anything I had on hand that would work, so went the soldering route. I was so close to finishing at that time, I just wanted to get it hooked up and running, lol. For everything else, I used bullet connectors. I didn't have anything that would work with the fan wires, but I bet there probably is a better way to do it.
Click to expand...
Crimp connectors??!?! U slide wire in, then crimp. Done. They are used in car audio all the time. They vary in sizes and they come with different sized ends for using different gauge wiring and they are pennies. I paid 50p for a pack of 8 a few weeks ago
 
Sonnshine

Sonnshine

Member
brettsog said:
Crimp connectors??!?! U slide wire in, then crimp. Done. They are used in car audio all the time. They vary in sizes and they come with different sized ends for using different gauge wiring and they are pennies. I paid 50p for a pack of 8 a few weeks ago
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I used for the larger wires. I just didn't have any on hand that were tiny enough for 30g wire, the smallest I could find at the local hardware store were for 22g wires. I like the ones DonPetro listed, I am going to have to find a source for those for my next project.
 
CanadianONE

CanadianONE

Well-Known Member
brettsog said:
Crimp connectors??!?! U slide wire in, then crimp. Done. They are used in car audio all the time. They vary in sizes and they come with different sized ends for using different gauge wiring and they are pennies. I paid 50p for a pack of 8 a few weeks ago
Click to expand...
The small red crimp connectors are meant for 22-18 gauge. Not sure how well they would work with the tiny fan wires. I guess you could always tin the connector after crimping to prevent pulling out.
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
Very good build by the way. Solder is always my preference with wire anyway. If I have to go small single strand to a larger wire I normally push the single strand into the wire and solder whole thing and slide heat shrink over.
 
littlejacob

littlejacob

Well-Known Member
Bonjour
Like the others said...amazing sensation when you try it the first time!
I just follow the instructions...and I am lucky everything worked the first time!
Good cob grow to you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top