zozo
Member
Simple straight foreward, easy and cheap from any hardware store and but effective for, as far my eyes do not deceive me, a not to large medium lit tank.. Anyway i think, if you know this
(and if you're from the UK i bet you do.)
Than making this will be peanuts for you.
It still only testing right now, so it still is a bit rough around the edges.. Still have to give it a nice sanded finish and a acrylic cover to protect the led from dirt and splashes. I'll come back to that later. But for now it tested perfect for the job.
Builded it for a future 40 cm cube tank with 6mm glass thicknes, which i obviously yet do not have.. So testet it on my 40x25x25 cm little plantbin. The cob units run on DC 12-14 volt and are about 15 watt each. In the picture it runs on 13.8 volt at it's max power.. These are dimmable with PWM. A simple pot. meter controlled PWM dimmer or a TC420. Obviously at 12 volt they are a bit less bright, but still enough for a low to medium lit tank. I must say, even if you put 14 volt on the TC420 the max output still will be a bit lower then 12 volt. So it will always be less in power on this device. For max power a manual PWM dimmer with a +12 volt input is required for full power option. Ofcourse you need a 14 volt power supply for that. If you have a 12 volt, measure its real output, if it is realy 12 and no more, you could consdider a Buk converter to step it up to 14 volt.
As said it's Mecanno style and the pictures are rather self explanatory.. I'll link to the materials used and give if necessary a little how to description. So it also would be an easy calculation for you to get to the approximate total cost.
Materials and tools used listed.
2 x COB unit DC 12-14 volt - 15 watt - 6500K
2 x aluminium heatsink 100x50x10mm
10x10mm aluminium corner profile
10x10x8mm aluminium U profile
8x6mm aluminium tube
M4x6mm aluminium Blind Rivet nut
M4 x 10 stainless alen bolt
M3 stainless alen bolts different lengths
M3 metric tap
2.5mm, 3.0mm , 4.0mm metal drill bit
cordless drill
Mini hand saw
Mini pipe cutter
And some other obvious tools.
! point of consern you should note, i chosen 10x10x8mm U profile because it is meant to stand on a 6mm glass thicknes. And it also can stand on a 4mm glass thickness, but, than keep in mind you are measuring centre to centre. A 6 mm tank will be wider than a 4 mm tank.. So this means if you make something like this initialy on a 4mm tank, keep in mind to make it a few MM wider so it also fits a 6 or 8mm tank later on.
The stands are 8x6mm alu tube.. How to get thread in the tube? That where the blind rivet nut comes in. The M4 blind rivet nut is 6mm outside diameter and 11mm lenght. Fits snugly into the alu tube.. You can use a blind rivet gun to press them into the tube. If you don't have such a gun, you can glue them in.. One at each end of the standoff and you'll have M4 thread at each end of the 8mm tube.
The drilling part comes in the rest, mostly into the heatsink. All 2,5mm drill bit and taped M3 thread.
So all is screwed with little stainless screws, LED units are simply connected in serie.. You can make it with as much UNITS as you like or will fit over the lenght of the tank.
Used a few little pieces of M3 felt padding material 10x8x2mm to glue into the U profile for some glass protection. Anything else soft will do as well, whatever you have, cork, piece of a bicycle tire inner tube etc.
This is the raw proto type.. The top will simply be covered with some 4mm acrylic inlay into the corner profile, with some sticky alu foil tape glued to it, to make it look the same from the top. For the LED cover i need to bend some acrylic. Which actualy also isn't that hard.. But yet didn't come to that.. First wanted to know how warm it all gets when burning.. But till now it stays rather cool to the touch.. So i guess i'm good to go with that.. And will come back to it later on to show the finnished light stand.
And BTW, if you leave off the stands and only use the heatsinks and corner profile. You can make it hang on a wire and have a pendule light.. Ofcourse...
(and if you're from the UK i bet you do.)
Than making this will be peanuts for you.
It still only testing right now, so it still is a bit rough around the edges.. Still have to give it a nice sanded finish and a acrylic cover to protect the led from dirt and splashes. I'll come back to that later. But for now it tested perfect for the job.
Builded it for a future 40 cm cube tank with 6mm glass thicknes, which i obviously yet do not have.. So testet it on my 40x25x25 cm little plantbin. The cob units run on DC 12-14 volt and are about 15 watt each. In the picture it runs on 13.8 volt at it's max power.. These are dimmable with PWM. A simple pot. meter controlled PWM dimmer or a TC420. Obviously at 12 volt they are a bit less bright, but still enough for a low to medium lit tank. I must say, even if you put 14 volt on the TC420 the max output still will be a bit lower then 12 volt. So it will always be less in power on this device. For max power a manual PWM dimmer with a +12 volt input is required for full power option. Ofcourse you need a 14 volt power supply for that. If you have a 12 volt, measure its real output, if it is realy 12 and no more, you could consdider a Buk converter to step it up to 14 volt.
As said it's Mecanno style and the pictures are rather self explanatory.. I'll link to the materials used and give if necessary a little how to description. So it also would be an easy calculation for you to get to the approximate total cost.
Materials and tools used listed.
2 x COB unit DC 12-14 volt - 15 watt - 6500K
2 x aluminium heatsink 100x50x10mm
10x10mm aluminium corner profile
10x10x8mm aluminium U profile
8x6mm aluminium tube
M4x6mm aluminium Blind Rivet nut
M4 x 10 stainless alen bolt
M3 stainless alen bolts different lengths
M3 metric tap
2.5mm, 3.0mm , 4.0mm metal drill bit
cordless drill
Mini hand saw
Mini pipe cutter
And some other obvious tools.
! point of consern you should note, i chosen 10x10x8mm U profile because it is meant to stand on a 6mm glass thicknes. And it also can stand on a 4mm glass thickness, but, than keep in mind you are measuring centre to centre. A 6 mm tank will be wider than a 4 mm tank.. So this means if you make something like this initialy on a 4mm tank, keep in mind to make it a few MM wider so it also fits a 6 or 8mm tank later on.
The stands are 8x6mm alu tube.. How to get thread in the tube? That where the blind rivet nut comes in. The M4 blind rivet nut is 6mm outside diameter and 11mm lenght. Fits snugly into the alu tube.. You can use a blind rivet gun to press them into the tube. If you don't have such a gun, you can glue them in.. One at each end of the standoff and you'll have M4 thread at each end of the 8mm tube.
The drilling part comes in the rest, mostly into the heatsink. All 2,5mm drill bit and taped M3 thread.
So all is screwed with little stainless screws, LED units are simply connected in serie.. You can make it with as much UNITS as you like or will fit over the lenght of the tank.
Used a few little pieces of M3 felt padding material 10x8x2mm to glue into the U profile for some glass protection. Anything else soft will do as well, whatever you have, cork, piece of a bicycle tire inner tube etc.
This is the raw proto type.. The top will simply be covered with some 4mm acrylic inlay into the corner profile, with some sticky alu foil tape glued to it, to make it look the same from the top. For the LED cover i need to bend some acrylic. Which actualy also isn't that hard.. But yet didn't come to that.. First wanted to know how warm it all gets when burning.. But till now it stays rather cool to the touch.. So i guess i'm good to go with that.. And will come back to it later on to show the finnished light stand.
And BTW, if you leave off the stands and only use the heatsinks and corner profile. You can make it hang on a wire and have a pendule light.. Ofcourse...
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