Too bad I'm more of a butcher than a machinist...

The size of these is very deceptive. The "star" is 20mm across or about 3/4", the lens part of the emitter itself is about 3/16"! The black ones are the cool whites from Deal Extreme - $4.36 for 10+ if you're not concerned when you'll get them... as far as I know therman is still waiting on his after more than a month. I ordered in two batches, the first was a little over a month, the second was about 3 weeks.

Gluing the LEDs to the heatsink. I used a piece of cooling fin I cut off to line everything up nice an neat!

Not a great pic, but I used 24 AWG solid core wire to do the LED to LED hookups. On the first iteration I'm using 18 AWG - 5 conductor thermostat wire to the ELN 60 - 48 drivers. More pics and explainations will follow!

that looks awsome!!!

Very cool!

hul kogan said :

Very cool!

No... very bright! Thanks, I'll keep this updated as I progress, there's quite a bit to do yet.

Looking good!

I cancelled my dealextreme order last week (placed in March) after they couldn't give me any idea of when they might ship.  I placed an order with ETG that should be here in a week or so.

That must have taken some major aluminum cutting to hollow out for the fans.  How did you do that??

How many of these modules are you building?

Building 4 of them.... the aluminum work was far more tedious than I imagined but I burned up my old router and had to buy a new, much nicer one, I love this hobby!  I used a 1/2" x 1 1/2" carbide straight cut bit... 1/8" at a time on each fin. I did cut 2" x 1/4" wood strips and wedged them between the fins to eliminate the fins chattering. I definately would warn anybody contemplating it to have their AFLAC paid up!

Cutting thick aluminum always seems like a great idead until I'm actually doing it.  Can't imagine routering it...I'm impressed.

I think it may be easier with the new router, but it was pretty tedious with the old one and with the way my shoulder still is. Although I started 1 of the two I have yet to do with the old one, I think I learned a thing or two to make it and the last one much nicer.  With my shoulder getting stronger, and the stout new router I think they'll end up much cleaner.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'd like to have the first two installed this weekend. I need to find someplace local with some 2 1/2" x 1/4-20 SS socket head bolts, I found them in 2" but nothing longer... I used to have an assortment, used them to build a small block, but do you think I can locate them now?

I'll post some updates soon.

Tim

looks great, that is one of many projects on my to do list. I've cut many heat sink on a bridgeport mill (not fun) I cant imagine doing it with a router!

i'm pretty sure fastenal has a store down there, they would be a good place to look for the screws.

You're right they do... I check with them tomorrow!

Thanks

Just a quick update, I went back to work and it's been kind of crazy so this has been slowed to a simmer.... I am working on the dimming part of the system using an Arduino, a dimming shield from one of the Gurus on RC, and lastly a real time clock so the Arduino knows when to brighten and dim the LEDs.

This was my first time soldering SMT components and everything went well on the first try... no magic smoke!

What happens is the Arduino can be powered either via USB, or a wall wart, in this case I need a 12V wall wart to supply the dimming shield's 9V regulator. The Arduino board has 6 PWM outputs that can supply up to 5V. The dimming shield raises that to a regulated 9V dimming signal (red and black wires on the right), it can also send out 6 discreet signals via pins 3,5,6,9,10, &11 on the right.

There's more to it but it's probably best to start with the basics at www.arduino.cc , components for the automated dimmer can be had for under $75, the software to program the arduino is free on the website above, and ready made "sketches" or programs to control the whole thing are readily available from other hobbyists on RC and other places. This will work with the Meanwell LED drivers I'm using, dimmable buck pucks, or even dimmable T5 ballasts that require the sam 0V - 10V dimming signal.

Ah ok.  I thought you had to solder the dimming shield circuits together yourself.  Did you just need to solder all the dim + and - inputs from your meanwells to the module?  That's not too bad at all! 

The catch is there probably aren't any more of those particular boards, I have the eagle file but not sure how much it costs to have them made. These had a flaw which IMO was fine, I just used a different regulator than he intended... 9V rather than 10V. The 10V is not available in the correct package type for the board. Then there is the matter of soldering the surface mount parts...

...that's a transistor on my finger, not an ink spot...

For hook up to the dimming circuit I soldered the reds and blacks to the board then wire nuts to the drivers. I'm thinking a Cat5 & RJ45 plug may work well for that depending on how I end up mounting things. This Arduino can do 6 channels I may end up with two syncing them from the same RTC so I can control each of my whites and blues independently for the storm and cloud functions.

Tim,

Did you ever get the controller working?  I'm looking to build something similar soon, but haven't made that leap yet.  Been waiting for a project on Reef Central to get finished up so I can copy what he did.

Scott