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Ciphers DIY 120 and 75 gallon LED build - Page 2

post #21 of 90
2/22/12 at 5:41am
Thread Starter 

I saw that too and am glad to know that.  The bad part is i still have 3/4 of one of the heatsinks left to tap so I gotta work on it more today so I will be ready for the order.

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post #22 of 90
2/22/12 at 3:59pm
Thread Starter 

WOOOOOT just got done tapping all of the holes banana.gif.    Now Corey what is the best way for getting all the oil off of the heatsinks or should I even worry about it?

 

I ended up breaking 1 tap on the first hole and then doing the rest of the 388 with one tap and it seems to have some life left in it still.  Also went through 3/4s of a bottle of 3 in 1 oil while tapping.

Here is one of the 4

DSC01684.JPG

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post #23 of 90
2/22/12 at 6:09pm

Why wouldn't brake cleaner work........shrug.gif

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post #24 of 90
2/22/12 at 6:40pm

Congrats!  That's the first major hurdle out of the way.  

 

I just wiped mine down real good with rags.  I used the air compressor to blow the extra oil from inside of the holes and out of the fins on the back of the sinks. Then I just ran the rags across everything to clean it up real good.  Some cleaners might stain the finish so I was a little hesitant to use anything on them.   I can tell you that if you don't clean the oil out of the holes fairly good first then you're probably going to get a little ooze under your led stars when you go to screw them down.  I screwed all the leds down to the sinks first before I applied the thermal grease and ended up with some ooze on the back of the stars when i pulled them off. So I had to wipe all the stars down and that's when I decided to blow them out real good with the compressor.  The excess oil could and probably would effect thermal transfer from the stars to the sinks to some degree or another if they're not completely dry first. 

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post #25 of 90
2/23/12 at 5:41am
Thread Starter 

This morning I washed the heatsinks in dawn water then rinsed and dried them off well.  They will have plenty of time to dry now before I use the heatsinks because i wont have the bolts and nylon washers until tomorrow and the lights are supposed to be here on Saturday or Monday.

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post #26 of 90
2/24/12 at 9:29am
Thread Starter 

Just received my order from rapid and its not all correct.  I ordered a few extras of each color so i orders 44 royal blues and 24 regular blues but they sent me 68 royal blues instead.  I sent an email this morning letting them know about the mix up.  Do you guys think I should just keep the royal blues and forget about the regular blues or get them switched.  Not sure if its gonna be a hassle or not but I will know after they respond to me.

 

Also the drivers I ordered from Jameco shipped out yesterday afternoon so I should have them in a week.

 

Edit:  Wow they are quick to respond.  I sent the message and within 2 minutes had replied to me saying he is gonna send the 24 blues out to me with a return shipping lable and return the 24 royal blues that were mixed up.  

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post #27 of 90
2/28/12 at 9:43am
Thread Starter 

All the lights are on the heatsinks so now im tinning them.  All of them are easy to tin except for the red ones which are next to impossible it seems.

 

Here are the lights as of right now

 

DSC01711.JPG

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post #28 of 90
2/28/12 at 10:44am

Looks good, man.  I need to get a better soldering iron for the next build.  Those little 25 watters aren't the greatest for this kind of work.

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post #29 of 90
2/28/12 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 

Yeah Agreed.  I wonder if thats my problem with those osrams or if the pads are just that hard to get tinned.  All the rest of them seem to take the solider perfect. Wiring these bad boys may be a nightmare but I guess we will see lol

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post #30 of 90
2/28/12 at 4:05pm

I think a more powerful iron period would have made the whole process a lot faster and easier.  I'd like to get a nice one with a variable voltage adjustment but so far I haven't been able justify the cost for one.  

 

The osram pads are silver and the stars that rapid is using are like a gold color.  I wonder if the difference in material is what's effecting the solder from taking very well. I did have a few that didn't want to take very well but I think it had more to do with inconsistency on my part with not keeping the tip on the iron perfectly cleaned and pre tinned for every single pad.  I started with a brand new tip on the iron before I began the whole process.  That tip is now toast.

 

 

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post #31 of 90
2/29/12 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 

Ok so I have the 2 units for my tank wired and am planning on working on the other 2 tomorrow.   Also was wondering what size fuses and resistors am I needing for these builds since im gonna be running parallel strings.  Going to radioshack this weekend and can pick some up so I can get these things burning.

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post #32 of 90
2/29/12 at 5:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cipher43 View Post

Ok so I have the 2 units for my tank wired and am planning on working on the other 2 tomorrow.   Also was wondering what size fuses and resistors am I needing for these builds since im gonna be running parallel strings.  Going to radioshack this weekend and can pick some up so I can get these things burning.


 

I don't know if Radio Shack is going to have the resistors.  They do have various 1ohm resistors but I don't think they carry the 1ohm-5watt 5%.  Or at least the guys down here don't have them.  I believe they do carry pico fuses though.  Look for 1 amp fast blow Pico fuses.  Or any 1 amp fast acting fuse.

 

You can use anything over 1ohm-1watt for the resistors but it's best to oversize the wattage a bit so they don't burn out.  3 or 5 watt resistors would suffice fine.

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post #33 of 90
2/29/12 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 

hmmmmm ok so where would be a good place to get the resistors from?  Are there any stores around here I should look at or am I gonna need to go online?
 

 

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post #34 of 90
2/29/12 at 5:58pm

This is where I got mine.  I don't have any good local sources around me other than Radio Shack so I just ordered them.  Plus these are the ones that have been recommended and are being used by many other folks over at you know where.

 

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/UB5C-1RF1/UB5C-1.0-ND/2176624

 

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/0251001.MXL/F2313-ND/700718

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post #35 of 90
3/2/12 at 8:58am
Thread Starter 

Ok so I have my fuses and resistors orderd and should be here by monday.  

 

Next question is how do i adjust the HLG drivers.  Im guessing I take the screws out of each end of the case and the circut should come out and I can get to the adjustment screw.  

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post #36 of 90
3/2/12 at 9:11am
Thread Starter 

Here is what the case looks like on this driver

 

DSC01712.JPG

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post #37 of 90
3/2/12 at 9:46am
There arent any adjustments the B version of those drivers like the ELNs. Only the non dimmable A version have adjustments.
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post #38 of 90
3/2/12 at 9:54am
Thread Starter 

So what do I do then?  Is it gonna be I need a pot to keep the driver below the max output of the leds and then have the controller or what do you do?

 

Also If i set this up with the analog signal what size pot am i needing and what else will I need?  Gonna go to radio shack later today so if they would have it I can pick it up.

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post #39 of 90
3/2/12 at 10:45am

Not sure if you remember back to some of our ealier messages I had mentioned a couple times about being careful not to go with too large of driver because you'd have to make sure that you don't turn them up to high and blow all of your fuses

 

Off the top of my head I don't remember what your exact strings counts and such are going to be.  But that way I planned it out on my build and what we did for Meowzers build is calculated it out to that her drivers when running at maximum output won't exceed 1 amp under normal conditions.  So we don't really have to worry about that unless a led blows out.

 

If your strings are going to exceed 1 amp then yeah, you'll just have to be carefull not to ever turn them up higher then that.  You'll have the fuses there for insurance but still, you don't want to have to replace those all the time.

 

If you go with a controller obviously you can set the maximum output through the controller and it won't exceed a certain amount.

 

If you use POTS just get some 100k ohm pots Radio Shack carries them.  No need for a seperate 10v power supply with the HLG's like I first thought we needed on Meowzers build.  The drivers have their own built in 10v reference signal. 

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post #40 of 90
3/4/12 at 6:08pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills View Post

Not sure if you remember back to some of our ealier messages I had mentioned a couple times about being careful not to go with too large of driver because you'd have to make sure that you don't turn them up to high and blow all of your fuses

 

Off the top of my head I don't remember what your exact strings counts and such are going to be.  But that way I planned it out on my build and what we did for Meowzers build is calculated it out to that her drivers when running at maximum output won't exceed 1 amp under normal conditions.  So we don't really have to worry about that unless a led blows out.

 

If your strings are going to exceed 1 amp then yeah, you'll just have to be carefull not to ever turn them up higher then that.  You'll have the fuses there for insurance but still, you don't want to have to replace those all the time.

 

If you go with a controller obviously you can set the maximum output through the controller and it won't exceed a certain amount.

 

If you use POTS just get some 100k ohm pots Radio Shack carries them.  No need for a seperate 10v power supply with the HLG's like I first thought we needed on Meowzers build.  The drivers have their own built in 10v reference signal. 


OK so went to radio shack and wouldnt you know it they only have one of the 100k pots.  Can I hook both of the HLG drivers together or will that make them go boom.  

 

Also I thought i would say that I am gonna be running 3 strings of 12 on each of the HLG drivers.  I looked back to the pm and you had suggested this driver to me so I hope that means I wont have a problem.

 

Im still waiting on a controller to see if the typhon gets fixed or if the dim 4 is what im gonna need to do for mine.  Im going with the typhon on the 75 since its got ELN P drivers.  

 

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