Remote Ballasting the Screw-In LED Replacement Lamps

[Douglas.Curtis]

Who's done it, who has a tech written up, what problems can I expect to run into, what cautions are in order? What tools will make this significantly easier? Anyone know any information sites, possibly non-cannabis related?

Massively grateful for any information on this subject.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Tools and problems depends on the bulb, but pliers, screwdrivers, razor blade, and hacksaw should cover most bulbs, and a soldering iron to wire things up or remove connectors if needed to have things sit flush, as for caution just make sure you cover any exposed wires and wire things up properly, and try to avoid flexing the chip board when trying to separate it from the housing.

Take a look at the following link for some breakdown pictures

https://imgur.com/a/KklNG

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Looks great!

What type of heat sinks/fans are you using? What parts get the hottest?

So, soldering pen and solder removal tools. Tools for working with wire. Basically, unsolder wires, disassemble lamp, mount/wire ballast, mount LED, re-wire?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Im using old GPU heatsinks that are passively cooled for those 8w units, but if i was running the 14.5w "100w equivalent" bulbs i would use stock intel LGA 1155 cpu heatsinks without the fan, which have worked great for me for some of my higher wattage cobs. Or just run some aluminum channel or bar heatsink material.

As for what gets the hottest the chips and heatsinks thus why my heatsinks are externally mounted, the ballasts are cool to the touch though.

And more or less, might need a drill if you're mouthing the boards with the stock screws like i did just by drilling slightly smaller holes in the heatsinks than the screws then using one of the screws with a bit of oil to thread the holes.

But add some heatshrink and thermal paste to your list, and just remember you're working with live AC voltage on the one side on the ballast so just make sure things are covered or not grounding out on the back side as in don't mount the raw ballast to a metal backer but rather something that's non conductive

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Im using old GPU heatsinks that are passively cooled for those 8w units, but if i was running the 14.5w "100w equivalent" bulbs i would use stock intel LGA 1155 cpu heatsinks without the fan, which have worked great for me for some of my higher wattage cobs. Or just run some aluminum channel or bar heatsink material.

As for what gets the hottest the chips and heatsinks thus why my heatsinks are externally mounted, the ballasts are cool to the touch though.

And more or less, might need a drill if you're mouthing the boards with the stock screws like i did just by drilling slightly smaller holes in the heatsinks than the screws then using one of the screws with a bit of oil to thread the holes.

But add some heatshrink and thermal paste to your list, and just remember you're working with live AC voltage on the one side on the ballast so just make sure things are covered or not grounding out on the back side as in don't mount the raw ballast to a metal backer but rather something that's non conductive

Extremely helpful, thank you!

 

[Drop That Sound]

So the little metal dishes that the pcbs were glued too is the original heat sink right?

What if you build the whole light fixture frame out of copper tube, and used arctic silver thermal compound to glue the pcbs onto spots of the tube that have been slightly flattened. Then you could pump glycol through it and water cool the whole fixture. Hook up a small fan and radiator outside the grow area to remove the heat.

Sound like it could work?

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

My experience says it's technically sound.

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

but a water pump makes more noise than a good fan

it will work with high powered cobs

people have build watercooled cobs on square bars/tubes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgRmZkZWHmM

 

[Mr Pyr0]

I've been modifying my little cab, it's approx 2.3 sqft
I needed more height so attacked the shop bought led bulbs......

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=75636&pictureid=1813293

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=75636&pictureid=1813294

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=75636&pictureid=1813345

I have a total of 80 Watts of LED's, mixed temps.
Plants are loving it.

 

[Mr Pyr0]

I'm still not used to posting images inline

Apologies if this is a duplicate post

 

[Mr Pyr0]

and the final image that wasn't in the last post for some reason