Water cooling leds

1212ham said:

Have you used those aluminum brazing rods? I tried once and that was enough, I tig welded my light.

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Induction brazing. Check it out! One of the tricks I might have up my sleeve If I try making the DIY coolant rails.

Almost done with building a 1000w 48v liquid cooled ZVS induction coil. Not only could I melt down some aluminum scraps in a mini crucible, and cast my own little square end plugs (with a tight interference fit) for capping off the 3/4' square tube rails... but also use it to heat up the parts more equally than any other method, and get perfect water tight solder joints within seconds. Without any welding, torching, or grinding on it.. Just zap it together with high frequency pulces. Then tap out the center hole the rest of the way on the end plugs, and screw in whatever compression or hose barb fitting on each end for the tubing to connect the loop..

Drop That Sound said:

EB Series™ Slim Gen 3 by Bridgelux Datasheet | DigiKey

View EB Series™ Slim Gen 3 by Bridgelux datasheet for technical specifications, dimensions and more at DigiKey.

www.digikey.com

View attachment 5441700


So I looked around and found these slim EB gen 3 series modules, that come in a few different lengths. Only a 1/2" wide. They look pretty efficient at upwards of 200lm per watt. I would probably be OVER driving them harder with liquid cooling though, so forget about efficiency ratings..

Are they good strips? Or, is there a better option?

Could adhere 2 of the 390mm long modules on one 32 inch aluminum baluster rail, or get the 590mm strips and put one on each 26" rail..
View attachment 5441698 View attachment 5441699
^ @ lowes

I would also make a wider "cold plate" water block to mount the driver\s on..

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After trying them I would not go back to work with them. Overdriven they lose a loooot of efficiency, theres tests on them somewhere, try searching on the forum i threaded some of tekniks tests. They are very flimsy, has to be glued and not screwed. Takes
.75mm wire no 1mm. You can also use one 390 + 590 strip for a longer type strip. I would only rec these if you cannot find youre preferred spectrum and if youre using many on low power. But then its also a bitch since youre doing so much wiring. Ymmv.

do yourself a favor and if you are going to try and make a water cooled light use either a hydroponic/icebath water chiller. or skip the thermal electric shit and get a big car radiator and a high flow pump and a big ass fan.
I made a water loop for my co2 laser with peltiers and has a lot of issues with freezing and blocking lines. you will have to use a PID controller to limit the power to the chips or it will freeze.
but in all honestly my guy you are going to create more problems then u are going to solve. just save the cash buy a proper light for the tent and get growing unless you know what u are doing its dangerous to be playing around with electricity and water.

Copy that. I see now the EB gen 3 series are lower voltage, so yeah they would need thicker gauge for the wiring, right... I was paying more attention to the dimensions if anything, to make sure whatever I get fits. I notice the occasional times I browse through the DIY LED threads you guys are generally using higher voltage strips (usually wider with more rows of diodes) and drivers, which likely offsets the cost and ease of wiring... Makes sense.

Good call on using a 390 + 590.. That would be around 38-39 inches, just short enough to fit on the longer\thinner 42" x 5/8" " aluminum stair "picket" rails. They cost a few bucks more than the shorter 3/4" wide balusters, but that extra 10 inches on each rail would make for a wider fixture, with better coverage and not as many gaps. I won't be able to screw into the rails anyway, and have to use some kind of thermal adhesive or double sided tape.

I'll keep looking for more slim strips that will work, before pulling the trigger.

If I do go with water cooling, I will be adding heat ex-changers and water blocks to everything in the sealed room, not just the LED lights & drivers. Including an extra radiator w/ shroud placed over the output on the dehumidifier, and also another integrated coil to suck the heat away from the gas co2 burners (just like the portable on demand gas water heaters work to make hot water), etc.

It only makes sense to go all the way IMO, and liquid cool the entire grow op, regardless of the scale. Share one central res with a chiller, or underground geothermal loop coil buried 5-6 ft down in the yard. If the plan works out, its only gonna cost pennies to control my climate... by the time I'm done spending a small fortune, lol.

Drop That Sound said:

If I do go with water cooling, I will be adding heat ex-changers and water blocks to everything in the sealed room, not just the LED lights & drivers. Including an extra radiator w/ shroud placed over the output on the dehumidifier, and also another integrated coil to suck the heat away from the gas co2 burners (just like the portable on demand gas water heaters work to make hot water), etc.

It only makes sense to go all the way IMO, and liquid cool the entire grow op, regardless of the scale. Share one central res with a chiller, or underground geothermal loop coil buried 5-6 ft down in the yard. If the plan works out, its only gonna cost pennies to control my climate... by the time I'm done spending a small fortune, lol.

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I use a central reservoir (25 gal insulated cooler), a water chiller, and 2 radiators for my climate control. This allows me to keep my 4’ x 8’ tent sealed, closed loop and I can supplement with CO2 without it just dissipating into outside air. Costs more than a split unit, but is more efficient and I can cool as much grow space as my chiller can handle, so I use the same central rez to cool my veg room as well. All of the same central water cooling system.

I’m a big proponent of this setup.

Lights could also easily be cooled just by tapping into the radiator feed lines, but once your environment is handled, it kinda makes cooling the lights somewhat of a moot point.

Drop That Sound said:

Induction brazing. Check it out! One of the tricks I might have up my sleeve If I try making the DIY coolant rails.

Almost done with building a 1000w 48v liquid cooled ZVS induction coil. Not only could I melt down some aluminum scraps in a mini crucible, and cast my own little square end plugs (with a tight interference fit) for capping off the 3/4' square tube rails... but also use it to heat up the parts more equally than any other method, and get perfect water tight solder joints within seconds. Without any welding, torching, or grinding on it.. Just zap it together with high frequency pulces. Then tap out the center hole the rest of the way on the end plugs, and screw in whatever compression or hose barb fitting on each end for the tubing to connect the loop..

Click to expand...

I built one of the small 12v zvs induction coils for a vape they work great, I was thinking of setting up a big one to heat up aluminum ingots for forged heatsinks, it would work, would require minor machining for the die.

Right on! Those little 12v ZVS coils are handy, for sure. I have one for sterilizing lab tools, like scalpels, tweezers, and other instruments, etc. Great for plant tissue culture and mycology purposes. DIY dynavapes are hot, that's whats up

Forging your own crude heatsinks and water blocks out of aluminum though? This is the way!

I can only imagine the prices for cheap air/water cooling parts is gonna go out of site sometime in the near future. Not a bad idea to setup a small foundry & machine shop of your own, in the US anyway.. Or buy all the parts you need now..

Jonesfamily7715 said:

I've played around with tec peltiers, they can get really cold especially if you stack em but not very efficient. The hot side gets really fucking hot Might be good for a diy dwc chiller or dehumidifier. I have everything to build a water cooled cob light, I will be using vero 29 SE , cmu 2287, and cxb3590 cobs with copper tubing coils for cooling, I also have a cpu radiator and a bunch of reds to add. Should be fun.

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Well well well... Every old idea is new again. Or something like that.

Folks who've been here awhile may remember that I got into water cooled LED. Let me know if I can be of service!

Drop That Sound said:

Right on! Those little 12v ZVS coils are handy, for sure. I have one for sterilizing lab tools, like scalpels, tweezers, and other instruments, etc. Great for plant tissue culture and mycology purposes. DIY dynavapes are hot, that's whats up

Forging your own crude heatsinks and water blocks out of aluminum though? This is the way!

I can only imagine the prices for cheap air/water cooling parts is gonna go out of site sometime in the near future. Not a bad idea to setup a small foundry & machine shop of your own, in the US anyway.. Or buy all the parts you need now..

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I work in a really nice cnc machine shop, but I'm always to busy to do anything personal. Its like a kid working in a toy store but can't play with anything. I personally like playing with high powered LEDs and heatsinks are one of the cost that makes high power LEDs less appealing. It's so much easier and cheaper to run a million mid power diodes where cooling consist of just an aluminum plate.

Jonesfamily7715 said:

I work in a really nice cnc machine shop, but I'm always to busy to do anything personal. Its like a kid working in a toy store but can't play with anything. I personally like playing with high powered LEDs and heatsinks are one of the cost that makes high power LEDs less appealing. It's so much easier and cheaper to run a million mid power diodes where cooling consist of just an aluminum plate.

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The modules in the pics I just shared are running CXB3590 COB LED chips. I run these at 56W each, x4 = 216W plus the driver for a total of 225W from the wall. They get plenty warm but water cooling solves that problem effectively.

I wish I could just epoxy the fittings into the ends of the square tubes, but unfortunately I'm allergic to two part epoxy resins\putties (mostly just the catalyst part B).

Until its cured anyway, or I don a full toxic bio hazard suit to work in. I'd have to find a competent helper that won't goop it around everywhere, and have them do it for me.

Otherwise I'm stuck with either welding or brazing end caps on. Yay!

Jonesfamily7715 said:

I work in a really nice cnc machine shop, but I'm always to busy to do anything personal. Its like a kid working in a toy store but can't play with anything. I personally like playing with high powered LEDs and heatsinks are one of the cost that makes high power LEDs less appealing. It's so much easier and cheaper to run a million mid power diodes where cooling consist of just an aluminum plate.

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Lemme know when you got time to run me a few hundred of these. 3/4 x 3/4

Couple years ago I built one with these
looks like I just jb weld, but the barbed fittings are drilled into 3/4" aluminum square blocks I drilled a hole straight thru em tapped 1/4 npt and Teflon taped the connectors, then I filed the blocks just enough to barely fit in there, then I jb weld the cracks and vacuumed the shit outta it to pull that shit through the cracks. Sealed up real nice never leaked. Then I stretched this coil of copper down the corner of the room, it cooled 1000w of diodes no problem few degrees warmer than the room

Dug these pics up from way back, testing it out in my closet

I've been planning to partition off a 30' long room in my 8' x 45' semi dry van trailer, and setting up 2 long rows of vertical multi 5 tier hydroponic flood & drain grow racks. Pretty much like the picture above, but with custom rack shelving instead of the expensive metal racks to save $$.

One long row on each side of the walkway, for growing microgreen crops. All automated, so I don't have to constantly water 100s of trays by hand. Using reusable food grade screens to grow on instead of medium.

My new dream is to setup the DIY slim liquid cooled led bars for the lighting. 4 of them strapped under each shelf, to cover the four 10"x20" nursery trays that sit in the 2x4' pallet rack flood trays.. Using those 36" x 3/4" balusters, which only cost around $2.50 a piece on amazon in bulk (compare that to the prices of any other aluminum stock, including regular flat bar!).

Possibly using longer bars AS the actual rigid shelves, for the flood trays to sit on? Long water blocks for LED strips, and the shelves all integrated into one system.. Basically, water cooled vertical grow racks!?


If I'm able to induction braze the fittings inside the tubes directly, or cap it off with small square pieces of flat bar over the ends perfectly in seconds using my 2" diameter induction coil.. I could setup and run a few hundred of the baluster cooling bars in one day.

To me it makes sense to liquid cool the strips, especially in such a compact setup, with that many vertical rows crammed in a confined area. Not to mention, some of my main crops like the brassicas prefer cool weather.. I want my strips to last a long time, and have way more control over the environment, and where I want the heat to go.

Drop That Sound said:

I wish I could just epoxy the fittings into the ends of the square tubes, but unfortunately I'm allergic to two part epoxy resins\putties (mostly just the catalyst part B).

Until its cured anyway, or I don a full toxic bio hazard suit to work in. I'd have to find a competent helper that won't goop it around everywhere, and have them do it for me.

Otherwise I'm stuck with either welding or brazing end caps on. Yay!

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As I recall, the problem with brazing aluminum is the oxide layer on the base metal. Since you're allergic to epoxy, I'd use polyurethane glue and plastic 3/8" NPT fittings. Plastic tube end caps could also be glued in and tapped for fittings.

What about RTV silicone? Should hold up to the heat, pressure, and be resistant to whatever coolants or additives. Might be using glycol\antifreeze in the loop at some point. Need to make sure any parts or adhesives I use are compatible, especially the plastic end caps.

The aluminum baluster kits on amazon ^ come with the plastic end plug connectors tapped already, but looks to have a threaded steel nut inserted for reinforcement, which is no good. Could probably punch it out it, very easily. Then drill/tap the existing hole for the fittings, and then glue em in.

I already have loads of PP & nylon barbed NPT fittings in my stash. In all shapes and sizes, for whatever size tubing. Including elbows, which would keep the plumbing more compact when building single grow light fixtures when using the bars. I even have special 360 swivel fittings that would be good for releiveing the strain off the plumbing when moving the fixtures up and down when they are connected to a remote res.. My microgreen lighting will all be fixed though, with long straight runs for the loop. No messing with it, just dimming the LEDs if needed. I won't be as worried about leaks forming.

I imagine silicone gasket maker would work well, but polyurethane would have higher mechanical strength.

Compatibility can be an issue, prolonged exposure to antifreeze will degrade epoxy. The bigger issue I see is that two hoses and four fittings for each bar is just way too much plumbing for me. My six bar light would have 12 hoses and 26 fittings if done that way but the bars are welded to manifolds at each end and there are only two fittings, water in and water out.