Heatsinks for DIY LED lamps

dandyrandy

Well-Known Member
Ahh, makes sense. Could you use a thermal fuse (or this) attached to an actively cooled heat sink (idk, maybe just use kapton tape or something to keep it attached) as a fail safe for the fan?
I bought some off of eBay. 140f. Mounted to each cob sink. They open quickly with the fan off. I used a 12v relay also. The thermal is in the coil string. The relay runs off of the same 2 amp supply for 9 fans. If the supply fails no 120 is applied to the drivers through a NO contact. Same with the thermal. Relay drops and shuts system down.
 

beppe75

Well-Known Member
From the testing with COBs and modern LEDs, I lowered my recommendation to 25cm²/W for active cooling and 75cm²/W for passive cooling, assuming you are using a passive cooling friendly heatsink. These are just general guideline, you could allow the COBs to run a lot hotter and they would still perform well, especially Veros. With these recommendations I am aiming for very low temp droop, 2% and under for those running medium-soft.

I would like to incorporate the C/W/3" data by translating that data to cooling/1000cm² chunks. But as @getsoutalive pointed out, it is very complex in practice. So our best bet might just be to get a few chunks of different profile sizes and test them with our actual conditions (horizontal orientation, slight air movement and very small temp differential between heatsink and ambient).

Here are the figures for C/W/1000cm² chunks. The smallest numbers should be the most passive cooling friendly, BUT again these numbers are based on no air movement, vertical orientation and super hot heatsinks, much different conditions than we will be dealing with. Really, this calculation is not valid for the profiles with large changes in length and the assumptions made about how that affect heat flow, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

1.8" -> 1.4 C/W/1000cm²
2.08" -> 1.8 C/W/1000cm² (great for small COB passive vegging due to cost and spread)
3.5" -> 1 C/W/1000cm² (my fav for active flowering due to spread and large COB passive vegging)
3.945" -> 1.6 C/W/1000cm²
4.23" -> 1.1 C/W/1000cm²
4.6" -> 1.46 C/W/1000cm²
4.85" -> 1.37 C/W/1000cm²
4.9" -> 1.2 C/W/1000cm² (my fav for passive flowering due to spread)
5.375" -> 1.22 C/W/1000cm²
5.88" -> 1.4 C/W/1000cm²
7.28" -> 1.22 C/W/1000cm²
8.46" -> 1.345 C/W/1000cm²
10" -> 1.3 C/W/1000cm²
10.08" -> 2.22 C/W/1000cm²
12" -> 1.46 C/W/1000cm²
hello @Supra...
i was wondering if this heatsinkhttp ://www.amazon.it/25mm-alluminio-dissipatore-calore-Dissipatore/dp/B00L063ZPK/ref=sr_1_124?ie=UTF8&qid=1427222798&sr=8-124&keywords=dissipatore+in+alluminio
is capable of passive cooling one cxb3590 driven @ 1050ma or a cxb3070 driven @ 1400ma
i really don't understand this data:wall:
 

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
Surface area is 913cm², which is good for about 12-13W passive cooling. However the fin spacing is close, so even at that wattage it may not perform well horizontally.
 
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bicit

Well-Known Member
Anyone know where one could get a copper heatsink? Something similar to what heatsinkusa offers, but copper?
 

Sxott

Well-Known Member
I have been reading a lot about aluminum and copper foam. The stuff looks amazing and has a giant surface area. I would love to attach it to a base with some thermal adhesive and try it out. Better yet, melt some aluminum down and cast my own :) Anybody here ever use it?
 

alesh

Well-Known Member
I have been reading a lot about aluminum and copper foam. The stuff looks amazing and has a giant surface area. I would love to attach it to a base with some thermal adhesive and try it out. Better yet, melt some aluminum down and cast my own :) Anybody here ever use it?
Very interesting, never heard about it. I'm going to read up something. Thank you for sharing!!!
Meanwhile some pictures...
foamHS-003.jpg
foamHS-001.jpg foamHS-004.jpg
foamHS-002.jpg
foamHS-005.jpg
 

UKpeanuts

Well-Known Member

Can someone check my work please, I think its right because the total surface area per unit length is similar to that of the 5.88" HUSA profile. --
Edit: I actually think the area is too small because I didnt add in the horizontal area between fins,
If someone could check that would be great
This stuff is available in the UK. btw.


=== Calculating Heatsink Size ====
Desired Light Power: 100W
No. Cobs = 4
Power per cob = 25W
drive current ~ 700mA
efficiency = 50% based on a cxb3070


Using the Supra Area rule of tum.
Passive = 75 sq cm /W
Active = 25sq. cm/W
Semi = 55sq. cm/W (weighted toward passive for safety)

100W * 55sq.cm/W = 5500sq.cm

Heatsink area = 108sq.cm per cm of length
= 5500 / 108 = 50cm

50cm total length of 1160 profile to semi passive cool 100W.
 
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alesh

Well-Known Member

Can someone check my work please, I think its right because the total surface area per unit length is similar to that of the 5.88" HUSA profile.

=== Calculating Heatsink Size ====
Desired Light Power: 100W
No. Cobs = 4
Power per cob = 25W
drive current ~ 700mA
efficiency = 50% based on a cxb3070


Using the Supra Area rule of tum.
Passive = 75 sq cm /W
Active = 25sq. cm/W
Semi = 55sq. cm/W (weighted toward passive for safety)

100W * 55sq.cm/W = 5500sq.cm

Heatsink area = 108sq.cm per cm of length
= 5500 / 108 = 50cm

50cm total length of 1160 profile to semi passive cool 100W.
Yep, you got it right.
 

UKpeanuts

Well-Known Member
I don't think I included the small horizontal area between fins, are you sure I got it right? (ty if you did the maths)
 

Doer

Well-Known Member
I have to say, it is not to that level of detail in practice. The simple reason is we always want a safety factor and we are not trying to save pennies on aluminum to throw away GBP on fried COBs. :)

I was aback in the breeze a bit when I saw you calculating in the tips of the fins.

I can tell you why accuracy is impossible here. You would have to calculate for every exposed atom of aluminum and the speed of a molecule of gas over that.

But, the guess is the speed of the molecule of gas. And that is because of turbulence and turbulence leads us into Chaos Theory. The pressure of the gas and the ability to take waste heat is constantly changing, quite unpredictably, in the turbulence, we need.

Non-turbulent, laminar flow, like on an airplane wing will not remove heat.

So, when building something, take your best time estimate and double it. :)

Take your best heat sink calculation length and add 2 cm.
 

UKpeanuts

Well-Known Member
@Doer // I get the safety margin.
Apart from the way I set about, how would you suggest calculating the total surface area for the heatsink I posted above?

I totally forgot the baseplate. (i'm gonna call that my safety margin :P )
 

alesh

Well-Known Member
I don't think I included the small horizontal area between fins, are you sure I got it right? (ty if you did the maths)
I did quick math and came with the perimeter of 104.8 cm. Since my estimate is slightly underrated, the result is close enough to consider your calculation correct.
[Quick estimate: base_length * 2 + fin_height * number_of_fins * 2]
 
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