Heatsinks for DIY LED lamps

sanjuan

Well-Known Member
Need a recommendation on heatsink for single Vero 29 , 2.9Amps or more, active cooling
looking for Heatsink with long fins
I have USA heatsink 4.900" X 12" . USA heatsink 10.080"X8" Wide Extruded might be better suited due to larger fins but might be too big
How about a chunk of the 3.945 profile? I haven't assembled my kit yet but a 92x25 or 92x38mm fan mates perfectly.
3.945.jpg
 

PurpleBuz

Well-Known Member
what would ones recommendations be to cool 800w in a 4x4area? Anyone know the cost? I'm a die hard water cooler guy but a buddy of mine wants me to retro fit an air cooled hps hood w a fan set up in trying to get a reasonable quote for materials. He likes the simplicity of it and water makes him nervous around DC power LOL ill be running 12 100w Chinese cobs off 2 400w power supplies. Also how far apart are u guys spreading the leds? I had mine stacked in tight in pairs. Worked good but I'm a newbie.
"12 100w Chinese cobs" how long do you think these will last ?
 

robincnn

Well-Known Member

NastyN8t

Active Member
so far like 4 months at 66% power. And yeah I realize if u don't run cree or Vero no one takes u serious here. But I'm pioneering my own water cooling set ups and didn't want to fry hundreds of dollars in cobs to prove my design. So far it kicks ass. I was familiar cree quality way before anyone had any serious grows w them my lil bro and his friends have been building cree powered flashlights for almost a decade. Chinese cobs are $4 a piece and made me some frosty harvest on my first run indoors. I'll definitely build a cree or Vero array eventually. My Chinese cobs+power supply is about $50 for every 400w. Are they as bad ass as the cree? Doubt it ......have they let me down?not yet but I have spare components on hand just in case.....theoretically we are in the same club but I don't have the expensive shiny toys yet ......
 

nogod_

Well-Known Member
Not really about shiny new toys or showing off.......most folks just want to purchase components whose performance justifies the departure from HPS. Running cheap CoBs hard does not. You will get less heat/more light from a 400w HPS than you will from 400w of generic CoB.

That being said I understand your reasoning for wanting to build a low risk prototype, just wanted to let you know theres more to cree/bridgelux reasoning than snobbery.

so far like 4 months at 66% power. And yeah I realize if u don't run cree or Vero no one takes u serious here. But I'm pioneering my own water cooling set ups and didn't want to fry hundreds of dollars in cobs to prove my design. So far it kicks ass. I was familiar cree quality way before anyone had any serious grows w them my lil bro and his friends have been building cree powered flashlights for almost a decade. Chinese cobs are $4 a piece and made me some frosty harvest on my first run indoors. I'll definitely build a cree or Vero array eventually. My Chinese cobs+power supply is about $50 for every 400w. Are they as bad ass as the cree? Doubt it ......have they let me down?not yet but I have spare components on hand just in case.....theoretically we are in the same club but I don't have the expensive shiny toys yet ......
 

NastyN8t

Active Member
yeah I've never had an hps.....but my friend who has been rockn his 1000 hps 's wants a cob light now. I explained the difference between the high end cobs and my prototype. The Chinese claim 100lm per watt my lux meter at work only goes to 200fc of white light. The Chinese cobs have proven themselves to be up to the task of getting the job done for me. ..... They rum cool enough that I can hold them in my hands after being on for 10 hour or even 10 days and I can run them within 4-5 inches w put burning my girls..but like I said I'm a total newb to it all , so I'm hookin up the homie with a set up to compare his hps to, his room, his skill set. After I get some good harvest $ I will do a classic side by side of the quality cobs vs the cheap. But if any of u cob veterans are feeling spry I encourage you to try a few of the cheapies next to urs. To get a personal opinion of them. I built my first and only flowering light based upon the inspiration the DIY cob community and my modest investment capabilities. Fortunately I'm an accomplished builder in other related fields and have lots of electrical / mechanical experience. I have considered building custom heatsinks for the airkewld traditional DIY cob crowd.
 

NastyN8t

Active Member
another point was made about a 400w hps throwing more light and less heat? Has anyone provided any data to refute this claim? I'm assuming that the Chinese cobs have been investigated by a knowledgeable individual and shown to be grossly inferior to the quality counterparts? I would expect a marginal difference but it seems that most are convinced that it is impossible for the Chinese to emulate the quality electronics effectively.........if its not snobbery then why have the only responses been based upon a critical aspect of my questions? I just wanted a little foresight into what's been working for u guys . I can do the research into the thermal conductivity of different alloys, based upon hardness, electrical conductivity etc....but I figured someone could just chime in and say " we like to use this company and these heatsinks for this scenario, they cost this". I can drop by the machine shop i used to work at and throw my old boss some nuggz to mill out any heat sink I want , but I think using additive methods like casting would be more practical and cost effective. ........either way I digress , ill just lurk and do my own thing.
 

nevergoodenuf

Well-Known Member
It would be cool to mill a 3' long heatsink so you can run 2 lower power cobs side by side but with a couple of degrees off. All lighting would then come in at a slight angle. 6 on one bar for around 200 watts.
 

NastyN8t

Active Member
It would be cool to mill a 3' long heatsink so you can run 2 lower power cobs side by side but with a couple of degrees off. All lighting would then come in at a slight angle. 6 on one bar for around 200 watts.
that's what I plan on doing for my next water cooled set up , 3' long 3-4" square tubes capped and tapped on each end to 3/4 inch pex plumbing. The aluminum wrought goes for $2 a pound at our local yard store.......i have probably 30lbs of wax for casting aluminum, just haven't found the time to build a smelter and molds........



I do like the idea of the cobs at a few degrees off from each other, thanx for acknowledging a new member
 

PurpleBuz

Well-Known Member
so far like 4 months at 66% power. And yeah I realize if u don't run cree or Vero no one takes u serious here. But I'm pioneering my own water cooling set ups and didn't want to fry hundreds of dollars in cobs to prove my design. So far it kicks ass. I was familiar cree quality way before anyone had any serious grows w them my lil bro and his friends have been building cree powered flashlights for almost a decade. Chinese cobs are $4 a piece and made me some frosty harvest on my first run indoors. I'll definitely build a cree or Vero array eventually. My Chinese cobs+power supply is about $50 for every 400w. Are they as bad ass as the cree? Doubt it ......have they let me down?not yet but I have spare components on hand just in case.....theoretically we are in the same club but I don't have the expensive shiny toys yet ......
question was not about brand snoberry, question was much more basic. I wanted to know how long you think they will last, since you seem to have some experience with them. nothing more, and after multiple replies still never answered.
 

NastyN8t

Active Member
I apologize for taking offense to a simple question, the genesis cobs like most leds are rated at 50000hrs. Honestly I have no clue how long they will run. I let them veg 24/0 for 10 days continuously without any noticable degradation. I'm running 525w w a 630gph pump and a measely 5gallon reservoir with a heater core radiator and CPU server fan. They get pretty warm and a larger reservoir and fan wouldn't hurt. ..... I've got one harvest so far.

I automatically assumed that I was getting bashed as Im used to for my ingenuis and frugal methods.......
 

SomeGuy

Well-Known Member
I apologize for taking offense to a simple question, the genesis cobs like most leds are rated at 50000hrs. Honestly I have no clue how long they will run. I let them veg 24/0 for 10 days continuously without any noticable degradation. I'm running 525w w a 630gph pump and a measely 5gallon reservoir with a heater core radiator and CPU server fan. They get pretty warm and a larger reservoir and fan wouldn't hurt. ..... I've got one harvest so far.

I automatically assumed that I was getting bashed as Im used to for my ingenuis and frugal methods.......

I don't think folks are bashing. Chinese stuff just doesn't have data sheets and proven performance standards/efficiencies.

I welcome some exploration of cheaper builds. I will suddenly have tripple the sq ft pretty soon and am most.likely building more fixtures with both brand name and off brand parts. I've theorized that running more of the cheaper cobs at.lower currents might be a decent trade off for.a.while.

Rambling.... But continue hanging out. Pictures of.your setup?
 

Organja

Well-Known Member
Maybe it's been mentioned already, but could one run a fan blowing in one end and another sucking out, so your air would flow through the fins horizontally?

Is there any logics behind this?

:0)

Great thread guys! Keep it up, I've got more reading to do.
 

Positivity

Well-Known Member
Maybe it's been mentioned already, but could one run a fan blowing in one end and another sucking out, so your air would flow through the fins horizontally?

Is there any logics behind this?

:0)

Great thread guys! Keep it up, I've got more reading to do.

My view...

Blowing across will work okay on low power cobs..50-60w or so. Higher power and even low, you will notice much cooler temps using fans directly above and blowing down. Air pressure vs light breeze..like wind chill factor

I personally give up perfect cooling sometimes to achieve other things. Main thing is they are under 50c for me.... Some others like them much cooler
 
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NastyN8t

Active Member
the blowing through a channel method has been proven very effective in the aircooled vw engines I've been building them for 18years now. I assume the same principles would apply. The most important goals would be to seal the duct to direct the air through the fins and adequate air flow. Could be built like an air cooled hps hood to hook up with the readily available hardware and duct the excessive heat out of the room/ tent. One could also make up for a slight deficiency in surface area/ thermally conductive mass with an increase in cfm of airflow.....just my opinion based on my experience with aircooled engineering.
 

salmonetin

Well-Known Member
The most important goals would be to seal the duct to direct the air through the fins and adequate air flow.

...ou yeah,,,
....the blower fan way... ...any medium / small power silent blower fan for our heatsinks sizes? maybe19 db or minus....

...and yeah i think on same way... ...sealing the duct to direct the air through the fins and adequate air flow..... can help the other types of fans on bigs heatsinks too... but its only my inexpert opinion...

saludos
 
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nogod_

Well-Known Member
Just for the sake of argument I'll reintroduce an old one that made me ditch the duct in favor of relying on the 140cm case fan and circulation fan....

If your case fan fails and your heatsink is covered you dont have much time before your CoBs get fried. Even with a little help from the circ fan an uncovered heatsink can radiate enough heat to buy you an hour or two maybe more.
 

salmonetin

Well-Known Member
Just for the sake of argument I'll reintroduce an old one that made me ditch the duct in favor of relying on the 140cm case fan and circulation fan....

If your case fan fails and your heatsink is covered you dont have much time before your CoBs get fried. Even with a little help from the circ fan an uncovered heatsink can radiate enough heat to buy you an hour or two maybe more.
...first... ...seal the duct..

...you can seal the duct using diferent sizes (or forms) of cover... i dont try to seal the duct at max values... ...if you use the fan on the upside the laterals sides are opened... ...if you use the fan on the lateral the other lateral side are opened...
...my inspiration are the cover / s with fan / s for hard disks or video cards on pc way... ...or the steveleds way but with cased heatsinks... not the tubes only... ...the sds lamps... etc...

...in case of fan fail...
...for these reason its used with protections... when the fan fail the protection / s stop the lamp...

...its rare the fail of an blower fan too... ...or on goods pc fans its rare total fail too...

...its ...but heyy its only my opinion...

pd... ...other crazy idea...
...maybe a possible way for obtain silent blower fans... ...reuse or recycling the silent fan / s for air conditioners...

pd1... ...other crazy idea...
...if the fan or the principal lamp fail... maybe the protection run the back up system with led tubes for fails on the fans or principal lamp... normally for high temps... and the led tubes helps with high temps too... ...or run other auxiliary illumination for deal with fail / reparation time...

...we can use the auxiliary led tubes for sidelighting too...

:peace:

saludos
 
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NastyN8t

Active Member
these valid points are why i opt to watercool w large amounts of aluminum and water. ..........ofcourse this opens up a plethora of other possible catastrophic situations lol
 
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