What are you guys using for cheap frames and heat sinks for led strip style lights like the bridgelux EB series? I’ve got some EB at a inch width and some kingbrite style that are 2inch in width two strips in one. The last time I built my EB light I used aluminum flat bar that I ordered from the internet and chopped down to size for each strip. The two inch wide flatbar is too expensive. I looked at heatsinks from heatsinkusa.com and dam $$. I was wanting to build a decent frame and have each strip on a heatsink to help make them last longer.
3 Likes
I didn’t use heat sinks with my Bridgelux led strips (2’) and haven’t had a problem with them running hot, warm it the lights are running close to 100%, but not hot. Save your money.
3 Likes
I used 1" aluminum angle.
That was simply for structural purposes only as a heat sink is not required.
Cheers
G
3 Likes
Interesting, I used 1/16 aluminum flat bar strips to sink each led strip to on my last build and they pulled out a ton of heat. Hot enough to where it wasn’t pleasant touching the bars when in use. I used the same to build the square frame then mount each bar onto the frame with tap screws. Worked great but since covid everything is so much higher in cost. I’m surprised your strips handle it at full power. Anyways, I have some 60W strips on the way and figured I’d look into sinking them to something.
Thanks for your input.
2 Likes
My light is 2’ x 4’. I have two 1” 90 degree aluminum bars running lengthwise so the light strips are attached to the frame at four points.
1 Like
Gotcha…just surprised that’s all. Like I was saying the last one I built the aluminum bars get fairly hot and seem to pull a lot of the heat out. They are the EB series Gen2 3500k, I did it by default and never tried to not sink them. I had 9 of them each sinked,thermal tape, to their own bar running about 80-90% or about 180/90 watt total for the array. I guess I’m just shocked to hear people running them without any sink at such high load because my sinks were pretty dam hot and I never thought the led would last without proper thermal management. I think I also remember, it’s been a few years, that proper thermal management by sinking not only helped the led/s last longer but helped maintain their spectrum. It was thought that the hotter they got the spectrum would skew.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bridgelux/BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3/7907663
3 Likes
Here’s what I built before, flat bar used for both the sink and frame. Before covid it wasn’t too expensive for raw metal flat bar…but prices have really went up.
2 Likes
I used an aluminium c channel and glued the strips on with thermal cement. I’ve also used silicone with aluminium powder added and it worked fine also, it has the advantage of being able to run a razor under it to remove it if needed… I used to fix them all with machine screws but it’s way easier to glue them. It’s not as thermally efficient as thermal paste and screws but I’ve also run those strips without any heat sinks for ages and they rarely fail, I’ve found the bridgelux is slightly more prone to failure than the Samsung strips but they are also a lot cheaper and they are all pretty reliable.
If you make the channels a little longer than the strip then all you need is some L sections at each end and then it’s a full rig.
2 Likes
I used thermal tape to put those in the pics on…no screw and it worked like a champ. It was quick, easy and they are not coming off while transferring a lot of heat into the metal.
Edit: Just to be clear…the frame has a screw in each corner and each bar has one screw at each end attaching itself to the frame but the led strips are just using tape.
1 Like
Yep that’s the go, I looked at using that too but it was stupidly expensive for the 50 strips
I was doing at the time. Bridgelux strips run at pretty high lumens to the watt so they are efficient enough that they don’t produce scary amounts of heat anyway and as some have mentioned, they will run fine for extended periods without them.
I’ve run mine way over their spec too and they can definitely take some abuse, I’ve had them running at 200% for days without a problem lol.
2 Likes