DIY LED FOR PC CASE/extreme micro box

Just an idea for those interested in this type of set up

cheap as chips/easy as piss to build for lighting a pc case like
Server-Tower
CA-01B-B-SL
530 x 205 x 650 mm

so its total canopy is about 1.14 sq ft

there are 5 builds and plenty of variations and mix and match fun here!
I appreciate everyone who posts their builds and gives back to the community


Before you guys start trippen that you dont see CXB and meanwell drivers its because these are cheap-easy 40% efficient builds not ultra 65 % efficient expensive builds
the meanies would be good on these bigger builds so ill add those in or carts where digi gets thier 100
OTHER KITS

THE ALL AMERICAN
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7221783&postcount=16

THE BUT IM NOT IN AMERICA
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7221876&postcount=18

THE MAMOTH
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7222790&postcount=21

THE BIG DADDY
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7248138&postcount=33

lets see how cheaply we can get above 6000 Lumens in there with focus on price,ease of build and passive cooling for stealth and efficiency above/equal to 140L per watt

BUILD # 1 The 'el cheapo'
[Price: $69] [Skills Required: Soldering] [Tools Required: soldering iron] [44watts/6000 Lumens]


we will use Cree XP-G2 R5 2800-3500K (115 degree viewing angle so lenses are totally optional in this tight space)






so at 600mA we get 140L/w and about 250L each chip-seen as they are only 2 watters we can attach with a thermal pad and reduce the cost of mounting


it will push them @ 600mA in series but unfortunately can only drive 12 per string without reducing the mA so we will have 1 spare chip

mount 8 chips per heat sink

lets see what that costs


$68.71






what does that get us?

6079.2 L
140.4 L per watt
43.3W total






DISCLAImER: This is a set-up that requires you to solder the chips in series




SHOPPING LIST


(5x5 pack of chips[25 total chips])https://www.fasttech.com/p/1921703


(2x 20 pack of thermal pads)https://www.fasttech.com/p/1350301


(x2 driver)https://www.fasttech.com/p/1734701


(x3 heatsink)https://www.fasttech.com/products/1348407

I think this would be way better than the 63w CFL I've got in my PC Right now.

I'm having a hard time imagining how you will put these together. You said 3x 50 cm U profiles. Are these the base? What are they made of? Will they act as a heat sink? Do you have a link?

You have 5 COBs and three U profiles, so two have two and one has only one? Same with the drivers, one drives three and the other drives two? Why not six COBs or would that take three drivers? Finally you say run in series, again how three and two as separate circuits?

I'm intrigued by this. I've used LED in my grows, but they are too expensive for a PC (pre-built). Thanks for sharing and helping me out.

Another option are these bulbs right here :

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Philips-10...obileweb_pip_rr-1-_-205861840-_-205887197-_-N

$26.00 for a 4 pack. 1500 lumens per bulb. All you would need are a few cheap sockets. No driver No heat sink. No putting together. Unless you enjoy that of course.

Chloemobile said:

Another option are these bulbs right here :

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Philips-10...obileweb_pip_rr-1-_-205861840-_-205887197-_-N

$26.00 for a 4 pack. 1500 lumens per bulb. All you would need are a few cheap sockets. No driver No heat sink. No putting together. Unless you enjoy that of course.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it piqued my interest because I dig that sort of thing.

Chloemobile said:

Another option are these bulbs right here :

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Philips-10...obileweb_pip_rr-1-_-205861840-_-205887197-_-N

$26.00 for a 4 pack. 1500 lumens per bulb. All you would need are a few cheap sockets. No driver No heat sink. No putting together. Unless you enjoy that of course.

Click to expand...

only 97 L per watt and cut your headroom down by 4.7 inches

i think in the states you call them C-channels

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1...C-Channel-with-1-16-in-Thick-802657/204273938

you need one that is about an inch wide though this one is too thin

How are you calculating lumens?

Lumens don't stack. You can't just add up the lumens of each bulb and say that an area gets that many lumens.

blynx said:

How are you calculating lumens?

Lumens don't stack. You can't just add up the lumens of each bulb and say that an area gets that many lumens.

Click to expand...

cringe

why not?

i thought the stacking theory relates to intensity not total light?

u have a lux meter, tell me if the lux increases at 12 inches with 1 of ur bulbs on vs 2?

Dion said:

cringe

why not?

i thought the stacking theory relates to intensity not total light?

u have a lux meter, tell me if the lux increases at 12 inches with 1 of ur bulbs on vs 2?

Click to expand...

I was wrong about adding lumens. You are correct, you can add lumens when combining light sources.

The problem is lumens are just a measurement of total amount of emitted visible light. That doesn't really tell us anything meaningful that we can relate to.

Lux is a measure of light hitting a surface.

There is no correlation between lumens and lux, but lux is something we can measure and relate to.

Example; We have a square box.

You say 6079.2 lumens total for the five LEDs. This gives us 1215.9 lumens per LED (6079.2 / 5).

We mount one of your LEDs in the ceiling of the cab.

You will have 1215.9 lumens in that cab no matter where you mount that LED.

Let's say we place it in the center facing down toward the canopy.

We can take a lux meter and use it to measure the light in various places under the light. This will tell us an amount of light hitting the surface wherever the meter is.

We will see that the measurement directly under the bulb is higher than one taken in the corner.

We can use these numbers to help us plan good bulb placement (ie place a single bulb in the center instead of the corner), choose lens angles, build reflectors, etc.

Let's say we mount all five LEDs in a straight line, spaced out evenly across the ceiling of the cab.

Now we have 6079.2 lumens in the box.

What does that tell us? That 5x as much light is hitting the canopy? That the canopy is 5x brighter?

No it does not. It simply tells us the total output of visible light in that box is 6079.2 lumens.

Lux, on the other hand will give us measurements we can relate to. It will show us that the measurements taken directly under the LEDs along that line might vary slightly as you move along that line, but they are all higher than measurements taken away from that line.

It will also show that if you measure directly under the center bulb, it is not 5x as bright as a single bulb. Yes it is higher, but it's not 5x higher, probably not even close to 5x.

This would be even more apparent if you mounted the center LED so it was facing down, but mounted the other four LEDs so they were facing upward toward the ceiling.

The total lumens for that cab would still be 6079.2, but do you think the amount of light hitting the canopy directly below that single LED facing down is 5x as bright since you added four more LEDs (even tho they are facing the wrong direction)? Not a chance.

The lack of correlation between lumens and lux is why you can't expect a 5x increase in lux when your lumens increases 5x.

That lack of correlation is also the reason that we can see higher lux readings from LED bulbs than CFL bulbs when both put out the same lumens.

just to be clear this build uses 25 chips

good reply blynx i always like to learn and appreciate those who take the time to teach

Dion said:

just to be clear this build uses 25 chips

good reply blynx i always like to learn and appreciate those who take the time to teach

Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. I thought it might be 25 LEDs but I wasn't sure.

It doesn't really matter if it's 5 or 25, the only thing that changes in what I posted is the numbers. It doesn't change the fact that lumens and lux can't be correlated.

Lux is a better measurement for our purposes.

Lumens weren't used with lightbulbs until CFLs came out. Before that, we used wattages to buy bulbs. A 60w bulb was brighter than a 40w bulb. A 100w bulb was brighter than a 60w bulb.

Then CFLs came out and they produced 'equal' amounts of light at a lower wattage, ie 14w CFL emits total equal light that a 60w incandescent.

They used the lumens measurement to let people know that a 60w incandescent was the 'same' as a 14w CFL even tho the wattage was lower in the CFL.

LED bulb manufacturers are trying to hit a standard of lumens, ie total output, say 800 lumens for 10w LED (14w CFL).

Screw-in LED bulbs use the plastic reflector to help spread the light to make it more usable to people. It also lowers the amount of light being emitted from the bulb, but they have the LEDs set to take the lens into account. This means that when they test the bulb, the overall output from the 10w screw-in LED bulb is 800 lumens.

Fortunately for us, because all they care about is lumens, ie total output, we can use their own design to our advantage.

Remove the lens. Light is not going to be diffused in all directions. Their LEDs are mounted flat and all pointing in one direction. With the lens removed and the directional placement of the LEDs, the output is brighter and more directed toward the canopy than when the lens is on the bulb.

That is what we want. We want as much light as possible aimed at our canopy.

This is why the lumens can be the same between a 14w CFL and a 10w screw-in LED, but the lux output is a lot higher from the LED bulb when measuring below the lights.

Why did you choose to use the xpg2 over the xml2 or xpl series? If I were to build one for such a small area I would choose the xpl chips with a dimmable driver. This would allow more intensity when the lights are further away from the canopy and the intensity could be lowered when they eventually get to close. Another option is a single cxb 3070 run softly for those who don't want to solder 24 individual chips. Either way, a dimmable driver is something I think should be recommended for any micro led.

Something else to keep in mind is the efficiency of the chips being used. This is one if the most important things when heat management is an issue (such as micro enclosures). A chip that puts out 90 lumens per watt will release the rest of the power consumed as heat, a chip that puts out 150 lumens per watt will put out more light AND less heat at the same wattage. When using "led conversion" bulbs this is amplified because the ballast is contained in the fixture and also produces heat. If you can mount the ballast remotely or even after the carbon filter you would be able to run much higher levels of light if you were limited by ventilation.

grouchy said:

Why did you choose to use the xpg2 over the xml2 or xpl series? If I were to build one for such a small area I would choose the xpl chips with a dimmable driver. This would allow more intensity when the lights are further away from the canopy and the intensity could be lowered when they eventually get to close. Another option is a single cxb 3070 run softly for those who don't want to solder 24 individual chips. Either way, a dimmable driver is something I think should be recommended for any micro led.

Click to expand...

grouchy said:

Something else to keep in mind is the efficiency of the chips being used. This is one if the most important things when heat management is an issue (such as micro enclosures). A chip that puts out 90 lumens per watt will release the rest of the power consumed as heat, a chip that puts out 150 lumens per watt will put out more light AND less heat at the same wattage. When using "led conversion" bulbs this is amplified because the ballast is contained in the fixture and also produces heat. If you can mount the ballast remotely or even after the carbon filter you would be able to run much higher levels of light if you were limited by ventilation.

Click to expand...

i chose the xpg2 because they r cheap and fast tech has the R5 bin in a 5 pack for 8 bucks vs xml 2s which are like 6 bucks each more than a vero 10(which is the option id go with if u wanted to use cobs in a pc case) so it allows to underdrive them massively and still get better effeciency than a cxb 3070 plus the cxb3070 would be too intense in the mid and not enough on the edges-this design allows very uniform canopy and can be scaled down as well(ie using 1 driver with only 12 chips for like a bonsai sativa or smth lol)

PLUS I wanted to avoid using cob holders and stuff because then it gets a bit too hard-with low power leds u can just use pads

but i appreciate ur feedback and i will throw a couple more desighns in here over the next few days-def one with cobs


this is a cheap simple highly efficient build

if u wanna talk big step into my thread below-this is for the micro heros

Do you have a link to that cree calculator? I'd like to submit a couple ideas. Maybe you could keep a current first post with a couple recipes

BUILD #2 the 'All American'
[Price: $148.78] [Skills Required: Drilling] [Tools Required: Drill] [65W/8950Lumens]

This is a DIY LED kit for lighting a pc case like
Server-Tower
CA-01B-B-SL
530 x 205 x 650 mm

so its total canopy is about 1.14 sq ft

the first build was supposed to be cheap and easy but after seeing prices of Aluminium C-Channels in the USA and also considering not everyone can/has a soldering iron or wants to deal with China this next build should excite a few

same basic concept only this time we are using cobs:



I looked at the speadsheets and believe that at the current prices vero13s provide a good option for this build-they are available from digikey but digikey charges $30 shipping unless you order $100 or more, so I present to you the $150 Vero 13 all parts included dimmable growlight DIY KIT








3500K


with this build you dont need to solder (use the pico harness thing) but you will need to drill holes for the #4 self tapping screw





so this time we will mount all chips to 1 heatsink by drilling holes for the screws and then apply the grease (youtube vids for all this there r so many out there) and finally screwing the chips down (through the screw holes on the chip) to the heatsink. then we will click the harness into the chips and wire in series to the driver(u may need a bit more wire depending on where you wanna put the driver-id prob put it on the back outside the pc) add a plug to the drivers ac side and mount the sinks in the pc case(magnets screws brackets bolts zipties etc) if you want to dim you will also need a 'single turn linear potentiometer' with a value of 20k for this model- for 70c chuck it in the cart lol and please do read the data sheet)

we get about 9000 Lumens and its a hell of a lot easier to build then the last one

Ive used a 3500K spectrum as i know a lot of pc growers need a bit more blue for keeping hights low but you can use other spectrums too

the driver is dimmable (you will have to rig up a 0-10v dim thing) but without doing anything to it it will run these chips at 350mA as shown in the data above

all data sheets are available via links so take a look for specifics as per mounting/dimming

(4inches per cob heatsink u decide if u want 1 long bar or 2 bars or 4 etc) http://www.heatsinkusa.com/4-850/

(6x solderless connector) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/0688014084/WM9594-ND/3880994

(1x thermal grease) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/120-SA/345-1006-ND/340304

(6x vero 13 3500K) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-35E2000-C-23/976-1265-ND/5180237

(1x[100 pack] #4 self tapping screws) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/PSMS 004 0038 PH/H800-ND/333049

(1x Constant Current Dimmable driver) http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=1121-1202-ND

3000k vero 13
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-30G2000-C-23/976-1258-ND/5180230

5000k vero 13
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-50C2000-C-24/976-1278-ND/5180250

3500k vero 13
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-35E2000-C-23/976-1265-ND/5180237

2700K vero 13
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-27E2000-C-23/976-1241-ND/5180213

non dimming driver for 4x vero 13
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/LED50W-142-C0350/1121-1078-ND/2786576

The 'All American' VARIATION #2 (bloom=7675 Lumens/veg mode=1675 Lumens)
Adding 1 more vero 5000k for veg
same set-up but this time we are using 5 vero chips(one of them will be our veg light)

so the 5th chip we use this one(5000K vero 13)
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-50C2000-C-24/976-1278-ND/5180250

(dont forget we need 2 more screws and 1 more solderless connector)

and run that 5000K on this cheap fast tech driver

(driver for for 1x vero 13) https://www.fasttech.com/products/1...18-36v-6-10-1w-led-constant-current-isolation

also need a heatsink for it
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1348407



Variations on Spectrum options

using 3000k and 5000k




using 2700k and 5000k



Just 5000k


Just 3000k

BUILD #3 the 'But I'm not in America' Model
[Price: $142.62] [Skills Required: Drilling] [Tools Required: Drill] [65W/9350Lumens in Bloom/ 3350Lumens in VEG]

This is a DIY LED kit for lighting a pc case like
Server-Tower
CA-01B-B-SL
530 x 205 x 650 mm

so its total canopy is about 1.14 sq ft

This is OVERKILL=JUST THE WAY I LIKE IT

If you need a veG light this is a great option(using all 5000K)







SHOPPING LIST

(6x solderless connector) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/0688014084/WM9594-ND/3880994

(1x thermal grease) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/120-SA/345-1006-ND/340304

(4x vero 13 3500K) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-35E2000-C-23/976-1265-ND/5180237

(2x 5000k vero 13) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BXRC-50C2000-C-24/976-1278-ND/5180250

(1x[100 pack] #4 self tapping screws) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/PSMS 004 0038 PH/H800-ND/333049

(1x Constant Current Dimmable driver) http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=1121-1202-ND
(6x heatsink) https://www.fasttech.com/products/1348407

(1x driver for VEG [2x vero 5000k 13] https://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10008256/1739206


BLOOM MODE(4x 3500K vero13 PLUS 2x 5000K vero 13)




VEG MODE( 2x 5000K vero13)


you can also not take the driver from digikey and instead get more cobs then use the fastech/aliexpress driver from other builds

The $100 model looks promising, would get here a whole lot faster than slowtech. Then again, I could just hack up led bulbs as Blynx has shown (actually my current work in progress).

ReikoX said:

The $100 model looks promising, would get here a whole lot faster than slowtech. Then again, I could just hack up led bulbs as Blynx has shown (actually my current work in progress).

Click to expand...

yeah and thats good enough for some ppl but if you want better effeciency than HPS a lil DIY will get you there cheaply