Led build~ 2' heatsink 200w

Lets build a 200w light

Sometimes people can get lost in the crazy world of leds. This will be a meager attempt to help those truly interested in building their own high performance grow light

The first build will be a standard 200w light. It can easily cover a 2' x 4' area. I'll do my best to absolutely minimize the tools and steps needed. I'll also try and provide further steps in case you do have a few tools around

The second build will be a cased 200w design. Cases are my preferred way but they do require a bit more work. But, even that can be made very easily.

This will be a slow work in progress as i find the time. I'll try and get it done within a week or two depending on how much time i am able to devote

Anyone else putting together a light I would encourage you to share the process as nothing helps more than a instructional with pictures. I learned myself through various diy sites and will just be further sharing.

So, to start, I will be reusing a old t-slot heatsink from heatsink usa. Originally made for leds on a 20mm star pcb it will be modified to work with cobs.

If you are purchasing a new heatsink you can ignore the first few steps. For those with a t-slot heatsink I'll be sharing a way to keep the heatsink useful.







Updates to follow shortly..

Positivity said:

Lets build a 200w light

Sometimes people can get lost in the crazy world of leds. This will be a meager attempt to help those truly interested in building their own high performance grow light

The first build will be a standard 200w light. It can easily cover a 2' x 4' area. I'll do my best to absolutely minimize the tools and steps needed. I'll also try and provide further steps in case you do have a few tools around

The second build will be a cased 200w design. Cases are my preferred way but they do require a bit more work. But, even that can be made very easily.

This will be a slow work in progress as i find the time. I'll try and get it done within a week or two depending on how much time i am able to devote

Anyone else putting together a light I would encourage you to share the process as nothing helps more than a instructional with pictures. I learned myself through various diy sites and will just be further sharing.

So, to start, I will be reusing a old t-slot heatsink from heatsink usa. Originally made for leds on a 20mm star pcb it will be modified to work with cobs.

If you are purchasing a new heatsink you can ignore the first few steps. For those with a t-slot heatsink I'll be sharing a way to keep the heatsink useful.



View attachment 3408849
View attachment 3408850


Updates to follow shortly..

Click to expand...

Nice Job Brother!!!!

Positivity said:

Lets build a 200w light

Sometimes people can get lost in the crazy world of leds. This will be a meager attempt to help those truly interested in building their own high performance grow light

The first build will be a standard 200w light. It can easily cover a 2' x 4' area. I'll do my best to absolutely minimize the tools and steps needed. I'll also try and provide further steps in case you do have a few tools around

The second build will be a cased 200w design. Cases are my preferred way but they do require a bit more work. But, even that can be made very easily.

This will be a slow work in progress as i find the time. I'll try and get it done within a week or two depending on how much time i am able to devote

Anyone else putting together a light I would encourage you to share the process as nothing helps more than a instructional with pictures. I learned myself through various diy sites and will just be further sharing.

So, to start, I will be reusing a old t-slot heatsink from heatsink usa. Originally made for leds on a 20mm star pcb it will be modified to work with cobs.

If you are purchasing a new heatsink you can ignore the first few steps. For those with a t-slot heatsink I'll be sharing a way to keep the heatsink useful.



View attachment 3408849
View attachment 3408850


Updates to follow shortly..

Click to expand...

What are the dimensions of the heatsink? Also, what cobs do you plan to use?

orangeade5 said:

What are the dimensions of the heatsink? Also, what cobs do you plan to use?

Click to expand...

link to profile

I'm guessing either vero 10's for compatibility with the T-slots. Or CX[ ]3070's.

I'm curious to see the coverage. Covering a 2x4 evenly is going to require a rather high ceiling.. I think anyhow.

I always wondered how the t-slotted heat sinks worked out in comparison to straight-block heat sinks.

bicit said:

link to profile

I'm guessing either vero 10's for compatibility with the T-slots. Or CX[ ]3070's.

I'm curious to see the coverage. Covering a 2x4 evenly is going to require a rather high ceiling.. I think anyhow.

Click to expand...

I've got 4x cxb3070 and a meanwell hlg-185-1400 dimmable and literally nothing else, need to figure out how I want to mount everything and what I wanna mount it to so I'm also interested in how he plans this coverage out.

I don't want to clutter this thread too much so i'll keep it short.

moondance said:

Nice Job Brother!!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks...we will see at least..i'll give it a go

orangeade5 said:

What are the dimensions of the heatsink? Also, what cobs do you plan to use?

Click to expand...

2' x 8.46" Heatsink USA t - slot
Cxa 3070

bicit said:

link to profile

I'm guessing either vero 10's for compatibility with the T-slots. Or CX[ ]3070's.

I'm curious to see the coverage. Covering a 2x4 evenly is going to require a rather high ceiling.. I think anyhow.

Click to expand...

This isn't going to be made to provide perfect coverage. Just a good solid light. 200w will keep it at a reasonable amount of power for the area.

AquariusPanta said:

I always wondered how the t-slotted heat sinks worked out in comparison to straight-block heat sinks.

Click to expand...

Not good for cobs..lol. I'll have to put a metal plate under the cob so theres no gaps under the cob. I'm not anticipating any problems but I will be trying different methods along with a little thermal testing to make sure its okay. Side benefit is 20mm stars will install easily if i want to add any



One reminder, I'm not a professional engineer nor pretend to be. This is something I was going to put together anyway so y'all are just welcome to enjoy and critique. I don't even know how i'm going to do it yet exactly, figure it out when i start...

A few things to start off the build. Actually have a few ideas after looking at it, should go really fast once I have a whole day to work on it.

First I clean up the heatsink. Even when their brand new I like my metal shiny. Using a stiff bristle brush and a little aluminum polish I clean it up a bit. Needs a good wash down with soapy water when done, get all the polish residue off. Totally optional but I want it to look good as well as work good when I'm done.



Next, find a area you can get comfortable working on it. I have a little open garage area that I can leave things sitting and work on it at my convenience. Just a small table to work on is all it has to be. I use old towels under the heatsink to prevent scratches and small parts from rolling around.



At this point I like to just start laying things out randomly. Just let my imagination go and worry about wiring and things later. This took about 5 minutes to mock up, I like it though, may very well end up a lot like this.

Aluminum and copper squares can easily be purchased on ebay or amazon for very reasonable prices. I'll be doing a little thermal testing with the copper and aluminum, I'd like to see if theres enough of a advantage using copper to justify the price. I'm not expecting much of a difference, especially at the 700ma current I'll be using. I do have a 2100ma driver that I may try to further test the two metal types.



Now....

Go Manny! No building when pacman is fighting!!

Yeaaaa! Setting next to a guy that thinks he's gonna lose. Whateverrrrrr. That southpaw is gonna give may trouble no matter how hard he adapts. Along with pac veering left and right instead of straight back.... gonna be a good fight.

Sorry second time I've been drunk today.

I will throw this in, if you don't want it here, pm me and I will gladly delete it.

I just built (5) separate COB fixtures for my CXA3070s and so I have pics already. I'm running them on cheap Chinese 1500ma drivers and they run about 3* over ambient. Four are in my flower cab and one in my veg, they run about 56w each so the flower cab is just over 200w. I picked up a small shitload of pentium fan/heatsink combos from a geek friend for free to use and tried different styles, they were all too close to say one is better so I went with what was easy and aesthetically pleasing to me.

First, I simply wiped them down with a microfiber rag and water to clean them. Next I laid the cob out close to center eyeballing it. I could have went with my machinist mics and been more accurate but again, this was simple and quick and there was not a lot of difference in temperatures(1 degree or less) so it works for me. Mark the holes for the holder with an automatic punch. I drilled holes with my drill press but any drill will work as long as you get them relatively square. Tap the holes for the screws or use self tapping screws if you don't want to deal with tapping.

Thoroughly clean the heatsink again. Test fit the cob/holder dry, without thermal compound to make sure everything fits. When you know the cob/holder fits correctly, remove the cob and apply a thin layer of thermal compound to the back of the COB. Mount the cob and holder to the heatsink making sure it seats firmly.

I used quality copper stranded speaker wire from radio shack and remote mounted the drivers outside my cabinet to cut down on extra heat. I used the same wire for the 12v fans but hooked them up to a 5v driver and they are practically silent.

Finally, I used a short piece of HVAC hanging wire bent in a 90 to hang the chain from. Mechanics wire will also work, they are both stiff and can be bent to hang the heatsink easily. Finally, I used split loom wire wrap to protect and organize the wires.

Any questions, be sure to ask.

Watching

Damn! Manny and mayweather...ughhhh. Wish they would have traded more and left it all on the line with all the money in the fight.

@the dopest

You can leave it bro, i don't want too much stuff in the beginning of the thread but no worries. Just want it to be easy to see how the build progresses. Thats some cool pics of all the different heatsinks. I feel better about my part supply now...lol.

I saw a few really nice coolers in there, I like the heatpipe ones with copper and no fans on them, very nice. Any idea who makes them...sells them?

I saw a few really nice coolers in there, I like the heatpipe ones with copper and no fans on them, very nice. Any idea who makes them...sells them?[/QUOTE]

@Positivity!

Look for Dynatron server heatsinks
This is a big one for Intels 2011 socket.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dynatron-R8-Intel-Socket-2011-2U-Passive-CPU-Cooler-/330722593674?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d009a4b8a

Or Supermicro!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SNK-P0018-Socket-771-Passive-Heatsink-for-2U-Rack-Server-Chassis-Copper-/181729895546?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4ff2247a

@Positivity, those with the six copper pipes and horizontal fins are made by Auras, they were fan cooled in the case with a plastic shroud over them. I didn't even try that style, I read an article online about how they tested some on computer chips and just did okay with the fan on but was almost the worst on the list with fan off. I would have thought they would do well with no fan due to size but I guess not.
They would probably be even worse in our application because the fins will be horizontal instead of vertical to allow cooling. Jmo...

What heat sink would it take to be able to run with no fan?

the dopest said:

@Positivity, those with the six copper pipes and horizontal fins are made by Auras, they were fan cooled in the case with a plastic shroud over them. I didn't even try that style, I read an article online about how they tested some on computer chips and just did okay with the fan on but was almost the worst on the list with fan off. I would have thought they would do well with no fan due to size but I guess not.
They would probably be even worse in our application because the fins will be horizontal instead of vertical to allow cooling. Jmo...

Click to expand...

Thanks...I've had the same experience, small difference in different types of coolers.

OneHitDone said:

What heat sink would it take to be able to run with no fan?

Click to expand...

Supra and his heatsink thread would be the best way to calculate that. My personal preference is always fan cooled. Even just a little fan speed will drop temps significantly. I like high powered leds and they work best for me with fans.

Small update, I think this layout is what I'll be working with. My 200w 700ma driver should be able to run 6 cxas and maybe even a few stars. Haven't looked at the numbers yet, I'll worry about that later. If the stars don't fit then so be it, the cobs are the star of the show anyway, this will be a one driver rig.



After a little thought, this will be a tougher build than a cpu cooler obviously. More tools, precautions, etc. will have to be taken. I'm still keeping this as easy as possible though, nothing fancy.

Just floating a few ideas around..

Kinda like this one..bend a top cover. Had a 12" x 24" sheet aluminum laying around. Was going to cut out reflectors but changed my mind and never used it. How easy is that...stick a sheet in one end bend it into the other end and press down....lol

The sheet one looks like a rapid onyx a little and the perforated looks a bit like the osram...

Actually kinda like the solid sheet. Maybe I'll call her the silver bullet

Positivity said:

Just floating a few ideas around..

Kinda like this one..bend a top cover. Had a 12" x 24" sheet aluminum laying around. Was going to cut out reflectors but changed my mind and never used it. How easy is that...stick a sheet in one end bend it into the other end and press down....lol

The sheet one looks like a rapid onyx a little and the perforated looks a bit like the osram...

Actually kinda like the solid sheet. Maybe I'll call her the silver bullet

View attachment 3413271 View attachment 3413270

Click to expand...

The silver bullet... how originallllllllllllll



The sheet looks sleek but how will that affect the heat emitted from the fins?

AquariusPanta said:

The silver bullet... how originallllllllllllll



The sheet looks sleek but how will that affect the heat emitted from the fins?

Click to expand...

I don't know and I don't care in this case of heatsink indulgence. 200w will be a light load for her...

I'll have a nice fan slowly spinning in there. Probably a shroud on the bottom, mostly for being able to attach components. May switch this to a low voltage design..

And the interior layout..roughly. Things always change as i go

Low voltage actually kinda sounds nice. I'll save high voltage for cased stuff in the future. So down to 3 cobs at 1.4a and about 25w of 660nm...dash of 730nm

These drivers were originally gonna go in a case but they fit perfectly with the low profile cover. Plus, they have fan outputs, in this case 2 too many. Maybe I can power a arduino with the 10v output? Not sure how that goes..Something to think about. Seperate driver for the reds since they can't take the 1.4a current going to the cobs and i want them driven harder than 700ma.

Thats it for today. ....