Attempt at Bringing forth the light!

just saying this to prevent catastrophe, b/c i’m not informed on it…

:smile:

…i think all electronics innards are DC :thinking: generally speaking…and if they only have a + & a - term, then I’d say holdonamiit & “RTFM” :laughing:

:evergreen_tree: :zap:

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Are you talking about a driver? There has to be an AC side as it plugs into an outlet. There has to also be a ground as all the ones I have seen are 3-wire. I’m guessing it is grounded to the drivers case, but I have never seen the insides.

If you are talking about my setup, the COBs are “driverless” so they are AC from the plug to the COBs. That is why I am asking if I can ground to the muffin pan.

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I got a very similar 220V COB from eBay for £3.50 (for some reason cheapo chinese parts cost far more on eBay here) but it is 100W blurple. I fixed it to a CPU cooler and it seems fine, if a little hot. When I go back I will fit a fan of some sort to it :wink:

I am seeing what it runs like with some chilli plants before I do anything important. The basil found it too much but the chilli plants like it. They are a nice dark colour and are flowering nicely.

I would say not only can you, I would highly recommend it. Earth anything made from anything conductive that you may touch.

Remember, earths are there for when things come loose so don’t just earth places connected to powered devices (like your COB and the tray), earth anything made from metal or other conductors that you might either touch during normal use, or need to touch to take things apart like any framework you may erect.

I would run the live and neutral to your cob then run the earth wire to your baking tray making sure to connect to bare metal, not whatever is coating the tray, and also run a nice thick earth wire to any metal parts you may be using.

EDIT : Also get some CPU heat sink paste (TIM : Thermal Interface Material) from a computer supply place, it will allow far more heat to conduct from your COB to your heatsink.

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Mine are 110V (US) and I was fortunate that I got them for free. I had a buddy that had gotten a bunch to repair some flood lights and had some left over. He has had them running for over a year with no problems and only had 1 bad out of 12 he installed (he thought they would be crap so he ordered around 3 dozen to make sure he had 12 good ones). He knew I take other folks “Broken” electronics/ conmputer gear and fix to use or sell. I make a few bucks off it and they don’t have the hasstle of recycling or paying to dispose of it. A lot of times it isn’t really broken, which is great.

I thought that was the right way to do it. My experience is more electronics than electrical. There is always a grounding spot, usually to the case, if metal, on the AC side. I just wan’t sure if I should do it at the end (the pan) or at the box where the regulator will be. I thought that would be tough as it will be plastic.

Didn’t think about the coating. will make sure to remove it at that spot.

Already have a tube of it.

Thanks for the advice

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Yeah, no point in grounding that.

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That’s one thing I do remember.

Hey, if anyone knows where to get a cheap latching telco box, maybe 7" x 4" x 3" or so, please let me know.

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Have not been able to work on the light, but I did make a few changes. When I did the “template” I just marked the holes to mount the COBs on the polystyrene board and used a drill bit to punch the holes. This didn’t work that well, as it drifted and made some weird holes. I decided to cut out the entire 60mmX40mm spot and just use one of the COBs to mark the holes with a ultra fine marker.

I also have thought about losing the Wagos and going back to my first idea, a terminal block. I need (6) load connections and (6) neutral.

Using this 12 position, I can use half for each. Here’s the question I have, I know that you can use the strips and make it just like a wago (bring your main into one contact, put the strip on the other side and push out 11 connections from the remaining).

Is it possible to strip some of the insulation off the strip, solder your main wire to it and split off from the other side? What I want to do is tie 6 together for the load and 6 for the neutral, using one strip. I just don’t want to have to connect 6 wire to the block and have to connect them all to the wire coming from the “plug”. I have used these before, just with DC and just one to one, like in the top photo. Can it be done?

Anybody out there that has the electrical know-how to give me advise on this???

Sure, if you have the jumper block, simply tie the input into one of the open screw terminals. All of the other terminals will then be shorted to the input. I assume each “position” are tied together in this block (e.g. two screws for each position are shorted on the block). You also don’t need to limit the number of wire to a single wire at each position, just make certain it is torqued down so that you can’t pull them out accidentally.

If you want to split the terminal block, you could cut the jumper in half with some tin snips potentially. Or, like you are saying solder onto the jumper. But, I’d just put two wires into one of the screw positions (input + load) then short the remainder terminals from that with the jumper (for the additional load terminals).

Not sure if I understood what you are asking… Something like?

I am planning to split it (6 Load, 6 Neutral). I see how you did it with one terminal being an input and an output, and that may be how I have to do it, but I wanted to try to figure out a way to bring the input into one side and output on the other. That is why I wanted to see if I could remove some of the insulation on the barrier (red) and solder the input to that. Then, I was going to try to use some of that “insulation dip” to re-insulate it. Is this doable?

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Should be ok if the plating on the jumper accepts solder. Just be sure to strain relief the wire in some fashion. Yanking on solder connections of that type should be avoided. You may need to clean the area you want to solder well and use some flux. Also note, heat from the iron and the amount of heat required may cause some of the nearby plastic/rubberized coating to melt. Try keep the soldering operation short and sweet (just enough to avoid cold solder joints) with everything well prepped before hand.

You can also put the input wire under the lug on the jumper side, too. Torqued well, of course. Or, better yet, get some crimp spade connectors and crimp onto the wire. Then two spades on a jumper side position (crimped spade on top of the jumper).

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-175-Count-Butt-Splice-Wire-Connectors/999953658

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It’s possible to get terminal blocks/buss bars that have a single common terminal on each side for load and neutral. Often these will come with a connecting bus that can be removed. They are commonly used on boats. This would save you the effort, and trouble of having to solder and re insulate.

This one is in oz but it should give you and Idea.

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Good idea. Give you an idea about how scatterbrained I am, I never thought of that. Would be so much easier as I wouldn’t have to deal with soldering or making sure it is covered with insulation. I will still probably have to insulate the end cuts, if I can’t find 6 position barrier strips but that should be simple.

Now, if I could actually WORK on it, it would be great :laughing:

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Well, I actually did some work, on the light, on Saturday. I put the template on the pan (tape) and marked all the holes for the LED’s. Of course I didn’t take any pics, but hopefully I am going to drull out and try to tap the holes tomorrow. That is if I have enough energy left from mowing the lawns… MY GOD!!! When WILL THE RAIN END!!! (sorry, in SoCal it doesn’t rain in the summer and everything dies… It’s so nice)

I will have some pics of that (the drilling, not the mowing) to post as soon as I do it and hopefully will wire up the LED’s, with just drilling and tapping the aluminum block to attach to the pan and the fans to it.

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