Thinking of a new light ..

[stardustsailor]

That is a really 'dirty' driver ..
(what i should expect from a $7 retail price led driver ,huh? ..
The only certification,that comes with it : 'Ya never know ..It might explode as well ! '....)

.....And say ok with the EMI ...
I suspect that there's also some RFI there ..
Got to test it with a radio at AM band ...
If so,that's bad news ...

 

[PetFlora]

How did I miss this?

Would multiple smaller 2700 cobs spread over the heat sink be better (wider coverage) ?

Using my 2 x 90w ufos (3500/5000) as my base, BML shipped me 2 x 3ft rails mostly 2700/3000 but with 3 @ 660 + 2 @ 450. They will run along each long side of my 2 x 4 tent, replacing he 4 x 3000K led tubes from my last grow.

 

[bilbo182]

i was thinking that in the computer world cpu liquid cooling is seen as better than
fan + heatsink

i guess it would work out more expensive on larger light arrays more than one cooling unit might be needed or maybe larger cooling units designed for larger servers

keeping the leds as cool as possible would allow you to run them at their full rated power without worrying so much
about shorting their lifespan

when i look at these modular led lights they look some much like plug n play modular computer components anyway
pretty sure the cooling designed for cpu's would work with led chips , they are similar size
although cpu's will put out much more heat in that small size

the water electricity thing would be less of a worry since led is low voltage low heat to start with, folk be using these to cool their cpus for many years
i do take your point though water and electricity does put some folk off at the mere thought of it
i think cooling hps with water would be a worrying thing for me that would be more complex

peace

I was looking into this since I build gaming rigs and the sealed unit watercooling units are pretty standard now. The big difference and the difficulty to overcome is that the sealed units attach directly to the flat top of the CPU/GPU using thermal paste but as far as I can tell the LED's are set into the heatsinks to dissipate the heat from the whole unit.
I suppose the easiest way to try and overcome this would be to find a way to direct the heat coming from the lamp to a flat surface that the cooler could be attached to.
Won't be long before someone comes up with a way to attach a 40 euro CPU watercooler that could handle a fairly large number of bulb units at once.

 

[SNEAKYp]

I was looking into this since I build gaming rigs and the sealed unit watercooling units are pretty standard now. The big difference and the difficulty to overcome is that the sealed units attach directly to the flat top of the CPU/GPU using thermal paste but as far as I can tell the LED's are set into the heatsinks to dissipate the heat from the whole unit.
I suppose the easiest way to try and overcome this would be to find a way to direct the heat coming from the lamp to a flat surface that the cooler could be attached to.
Won't be long before someone comes up with a way to attach a 40 euro CPU watercooler that could handle a fairly large number of bulb units at once.

The only one i've seen used copper water blocks off of ebay, sanded them down and put some thermal paste to place the LED on the block.

 

[stardustsailor]

How did I miss this?

Would multiple smaller 2700 cobs spread over the heat sink be better (wider coverage) ?

Using my 2 x 90w ufos (3500/5000) as my base, BML shipped me 2 x 3ft rails mostly 2700/3000 but with 3 @ 660 + 2 @ 450. They will run along each long side of my 2 x 4 tent, replacing he 4 x 3000K led tubes from my last grow.

Well ..
I'm on the 'raw power ' boat now,Pet !
...

 

[stardustsailor]

60x 60 cm ..Like EU standard home electrical devices ....
That's a home appliance I want !

 

[CannaBare]

Isn't this a little over the top? Isn't the goal to grow the best weed? This is like an electrical engineering project.

 

[stardustsailor]

Isn't this a little over the top? Isn't the goal to grow the best weed? This is like an electrical engineering project.

For me is not something over the top ....
It is an electrical engineering project !


By all means,of course it is ...
If they weren't around (those weird projects of weird people ) ....
Still all ,of us,we would try to grow 'best weed' with tea candle lights or something of that tech level ...
I hope you understand what I mean..
And see a bit more clearly ,through the mist of thick madness of mine,bro ...

Since I can built something like that-in order to grow 'best weed ' in the 'best way' ..
with 'least trouble' and high efficiency ......-
WTF ?
I'll do it ...
Now..What's YOUR problem with that ?

P.S. / Edit : I think you can imagine with how many problems I 've to deal to build such a light,already .....
I can not deal with more ,really ...
Apologies if question taken as offensive .

 

[CannaBare]

My idea of DIY is to save money. And with the arduino you could just buy a few ATTiny85(2.50 each). have each one set to a temp device next to the chip and each ATTiny to the same buzzer and have them go off at say 100degC and back on at 75degC. That way you don't need to reference only one. Heck you can do it with only one ATTiny and 6 temp resistors and one buzzer. Just to much over thinking for arduino. If you must have the LCD then get the bigger ATTiny and use the temp resistors and show the highest temp on the screen for your reference.

I also did not see the reasoning behind the Voltage and Amperage controls because you should buy a driver that can handle the LED were you want and set limitations on the potentiometer/PWM or what you are using to dim.

And it's going to be bulky and heavy as hell by the look of the case and heatsinks.

But by all means do it because you will! And I'll watch over it

 

[CannaBare]

But I do applaud your google sketch skills!

 

[stardustsailor]

My idea of DIY is to save money. And with the arduino you could just buy a few ATTiny85(2.50 each). have each one set to a temp device next to the chip and each ATTiny to the same buzzer and have them go off at say 100degC and back on at 75degC. That way you don't need to reference only one. Heck you can do it with only one ATTiny and 6 temp resistors and one buzzer. Just to much over thinking for arduino. If you must have the LCD then get the bigger ATTiny and use the temp resistors and show the highest temp on the screen for your reference.

I also did not see the reasoning behind the Voltage and Amperage controls because you should buy a driver that can handle the LED were you want and set limitations on the potentiometer/PWM or what you are using to dim.

And it's going to be bulky and heavy as hell by the look of the case and heatsinks.

But by all means do it because you will! And I'll watch over it

Well ...
Nice ideas ...
Indeed...
But I try to save also money ....
I'm already using what was sitting around in some dusty carton boxes..

Bulky ?
Yes ...Can you suggest any alternative in that matter ?
...

Why I want the Volt/Ampere meter ?
Since I'm already using top-notch drivers ....?
For monitoring bro ...
Statistics ...
Report Tc / Vf /If values in a spreadsheet ,daily ...
Do some weird math..
Alchemy ...Maybe ..
My own secret reasons ..
I like watching those analog needles pulsating ,for hours ...

Temp resistors ?

A resistor as a sensor ?
Wow ! ...

4x K or J type thermocouples ain't a 'resistor' and cost >$40 (medium quality )
they need a Max dedicated circuit ,to operate ..If say AT tiny can handle this operation ,then
4x Max 31855 circuit/break boards > $50 ...Now ...I can continue analysing the 'economical ' way .....You want me to ?
I do not really think that $500-600 is much for that kind of light ,anyway ...
I've already build much more expensive led systems ...

 

[stardustsailor]

But I do applaud your google sketch skills!

Wait till you see the 'building' skills of mine ...
And then the 'growing skills' of the builds of mine ...

 

[stardustsailor]

But that is a serious concern of mine ....
Monitoring the Vf , If and Tc from a single chip ....
To monitor all four of them ,means +$100 at least ...
And I believe mostly in man ,not in the machine..
So that's why I like lots of ..Human Interface Devices ...(& controls sometimes ) ,on my builds ..

Anyway ..What shoothes my concerns ,is the same envirnment the chips will be dealing ...
More or less ...So monitoring one of them ,is roughly ,like monitoring all of them ....

I need If value to know the % of the chip's power level ...(Pot setting )
With numbers ..A x V = Watts ...
Tc & Vf values ( initial & stable operational ,if a 'loose' -once a week- file is kept ) ,
can reveal a lot about the 'health' and efficiency of the chip ...
And the 'use' of it...
Those two values ,recorded over time,'tell' the history of the led ....
And may reveal weak points of a design ,also ...
Or show hidden paths of improvement ..
Evolution ,acts in mysterious ways ...

 

[Positivity]

Just a thought sds..

Since you will have some nice thermal protections built into the unit why not use a CPU style heatsink?

To me it would seem big heatsink for less protected setup and small heatsink for well protected setup. Would save you lots of space and weight and make for a cleaner build.

I like big heatsinks too...but if I had those thermal protections in place I'd run smaller heatsinks.

Nice build design so far, you have definitely got me interested in arduino now. Not sure I've got the time to learn something new like that...was thinking of getting the spark fun learner kit...think that would be enough to teach me how to build and program one?

 

[stardustsailor]

Just a thought sds..

Since you will have some nice thermal protections built into the unit why not use a CPU style heatsink?

To me it would seem big heatsink for less protected setup and small heatsink for well protected setup. Would save you lots of space and weight and make for a cleaner build.

I like big heatsinks too...but if I had those thermal protections in place I'd run smaller heatsinks.

Nice build design so far, you have definitely got me interested in arduino now. Not sure I've got the time to learn something new like that...was thinking of getting the spark fun learner kit...think that would be enough to teach me how to build and program one?

I thought about the idea of smaller heatsinks ,from other 'space' ..
(Computer World,Audio World ,etc ....)
Still I like those ..monsters ....

Two words ...

' HIGH - END '

..
'FREAK' ..<=.....that's me underneath those two words ..The third one ...

Before you buy/purchase ANYTHING ...
Read ..Search and study on the web ,info about your project ...
Learn..Educate self ....(it saves money ,trust me ...)

And then you can put your hand in the pocket ,to reach for the wallet ...
But,first...Search and get to know as best as possible what exactly you do need ...

I do not believe in 'learner/newbie kits '..Always over-priced for the uninformed ,innocent ,enthousiastic victims..

Get a simple Arduino Uno ,a relay break board ,1 & 10 K resistors ,10n,100n,47uF & 220UF caps ,some BC547 transistors and an LCD display ...and some epoxy small leds ..And a button and a toggle switch ....
Enough to make first moves in the microcontroller's world ....

^^^That one 's a beauty ! Pure Copper ,six oil filled heat-pipes ,massive base with added fins..
Hard-Core ! Active ( 90 mm Fan ,6500 rpm ) it used to handle ~180 Watts of heat,with ease ...

 

[churchhaze]

I agree with you on the kits. I used to feel the same way about arduino itself. (i learned on 68HC11 lol)

Read the giant datasheet for the microcontroller on the arduino you're going to get so you can see how all the peripherals are laid out and how the AVR architecture works, then using the arduino itself will make a bit more sense.

If you have a design with a ton of i/o , you may want to consider the atmega 1286/2560. They're a bit more expensive/bigger, but have way more I/O.

I got a resistor kit that had 10 of each common resistor size, 1% tolerance, and a similar capacitor kit (came with extra of the more common electrolytics), this way I have all I need laying around for prototyping. I got arrays of tiny plastic drawers to store each resistor/capacitor size in, and labeled each drawer.

 

[churchhaze]

Also, get LTSpice since it's free (and good) and lets you make circuit schematics, and can simulate them.

It's very good for saving your real components' precious smoke. (Once you release the smoke, you can't put it back)

 

[CannaBare]

Well ...
Bulky ?
Yes ...Can you suggest any alternative in that matter ?
...


Why I want the Volt/Ampere meter ?
Since I'm already using top-notch drivers ....?
For monitoring bro ...
Statistics ...
Report Tc / Vf /If values in a spreadsheet ,daily ...
Do some weird math..
Alchemy ...Maybe ..
My own secret reasons ..
I like watching those analog needles pulsating ,for hours ...

Temp resistors ?
A resistor as a sensor ?
Wow ! ...

I go with louder than normal fans because I listen to music throughout the house all day with surround in each room. I'll post my new design when it's done

lol

The temp resistor I had in mind was this
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10988
It cost two dollars but I bet in bulk of 10 you could go to 1.50. I have personally held a flame on this until it hit 100*C without a problem. So place it touching the CXA on the outside through the hole you will probably drill for the CXA wires anyway. Easy. Cheap

 

[CannaBare]

I agree with you on the kits. I used to feel the same way about arduino itself. (i learned on 68HC11 lol)

Read the giant datasheet for the microcontroller on the arduino you're going to get so you can see how all the peripherals are laid out and how the AVR architecture works, then using the arduino itself will make a bit more sense.

If you have a design with a ton of i/o , you may want to consider the atmega 1286/2560. They're a bit more expensive/bigger, but have way more I/O.

I got a resistor kit that had 10 of each common resistor size, 1% tolerance, and a similar capacitor kit (came with extra of the more common electrolytics), this way I have all I need laying around for prototyping. I got arrays of tiny plastic drawers to store each resistor/capacitor size in, and labeled each drawer.

Everything I do I do with the ATTiny. They are capable of running a 50x30x3 3D array in my experience(maybe more) so if you can simplify code they are amazing! I love to code and when I smoke I sit for hours.

 

[stardustsailor]

I agree with you on the kits. I used to feel the same way about arduino itself. (i learned on 68HC11 lol)

Read the giant datasheet for the microcontroller on the arduino you're going to get so you can see how all the peripherals are laid out and how the AVR architecture works, then using the arduino itself will make a bit more sense.

If you have a design with a ton of i/o , you may want to consider the atmega 1286/2560. They're a bit more expensive/bigger, but have way more I/O.

I got a resistor kit that had 10 of each common resistor size, 1% tolerance, and a similar capacitor kit (came with extra of the more common electrolytics), this way I have all I need laying around for prototyping. I got arrays of tiny plastic drawers to store each resistor/capacitor size in, and labeled each drawer.

I'm more ..'messy'....