let there be light!
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@Mr.Sparkle is it actually worth wiring up both sides? I just finished doing 1 side and I reeeeally dont want to do the other side. These connectors are such a pita!
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To make sure everything flows similar yes you can run into a situation where one side is hotter and flows more than the other which could lead to issues down the road just safer to do so.
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ok ok ill wait for my fingers to recover first then i’ll do the other sides 
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Looking good man… I have a box of 50 of these strips I am going to be putting together shortly so I will most likely document it here also… My plan instead of drilling and screwing them to the ally channel, I am going to ‘glue’ them on with high temp silicon filled with 200 mesh aluminium powder and thinned out with naptha to make it more workable. Silicon because it will fix them in place but unlike epoxy they will be removable with a razor blade if required, worth understanding that it’s not the most efficient of thermal compounds but sufficient for the purpose and fucktons easier than drilling and screwing hundreds of screws 
My plan is to run them as pairs in series. so 40v from a 36 v psu via a CC step up converter and 1.5 amp per pair with 12 pairs per light bank.
A bootlace crimp and ferules are the go, it will save you a shitload of stuffing around twisting/soldering wire ends…
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When you say both sides… you litteraly mean + to - on each end of the strip? Or am I missing something
yeah connecting it on both side as in doubling it up, now thats depending on ones driver and how your circuit needs to run off of it but say you had an arbitrary 5 in series but you only connected them on one side going positive to negative the electricity will want to take the path of least resistance through that which will be essentially just running along that one edge sure everything still lights up and will be fine, but there will be a slight increase in resistance for the led’s that are furthest away from the edge you supply the power on as the electricity has to flow along the copper pathway to get to the chips at the far end. Now this is ignoring that chips will have slightly varying resistance themselves and how warm or cold they are too, but the doubling at least for the longer strips ensure you cam make it as even as possible.
Its one of those needed no but better and safer options for strip longevity.
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That makes sense. Never would have thought of that, thanks!
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Dammit now I got to do more wiring lol at least it’s only 32 strips. Contemplating doing another 32 4’ when I upgrade to a 4x8 tent. May go with 76 2’ strips on 4 2x2 frames to adjust them differently if needed but that seems like a mess of hangers
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that’s a good idea for sure. solid core would have been better to have used to begin with but I have a spool of wire already so may as well use it up before buying any more.
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Anyone have experience with these boys?
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they just run at double the amperage at nominal compared to the regulars, but i would harbor a guess that one would probably want a little bit of heatsinking capabilities with those
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Say a guy was a few screws short for securing the middle point of the strips. Is there any reason he couldn’t use a little dab of 2 part epoxy? There’s no reason these strips will need to come off unless they die
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I can see a possibility of the joint failing over time - depending of the epoxy. But it is an easy repair.
Cheers
G
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thats no big deal to fix. Its Gflex marine grade epoxy so it should hold for awhile lol
I’m having a slight issue sourcing metal and figured I’d ask the experts here to weigh in.
Build is 20x Blux EB3 4’ strips 90cri 2700k split across 2 fixtures. Each fixture is going to be 10x strips in parallel ran by a single hlg-320h-42a because the ab aren’t in stock anywhere. This is gonna be running the strips at slightly above nominal current at 100%, but not ridiculously so. Normal operation will be run around 85% for max efficiency and about 500w from my 120v outlet.
Anyway, the 1x1x1/16th angle 6063 aluminum for the frame (the cheapest I could find with most rigidity) would create two fixtures 46" x 20" each and cost $250 total for all the metal from the cheapest local supplier, Metal Supermarket.
But, if I go with a 44.25 x 20 x 1/8th sheet 5052 aluminum I can make both fixtures smaller and simpler build for $140 from the same supplier (again the cheapest I could find after calling 25+ places). Each fixture is still only around 10.5lbs so not super heavy, but there’s considerably more metal mass for heatsinking purposes.
What do you experts think? Sheet or spend the extra for the angle and have a more complex and larger fixture?
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I would go with the sheet since its cheaper, simpler, and has more heatsinking properties. If that price is the cut price, I would say it’s a no-brainer.
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Yeah that’s cut price after tax. I can’t believe how expensive aluminum has gotten. Just a couple years ago I got twice as thick angle for 1/4 the price of today. It’s the most ridiculous inflation I’ve ever seen.
I’m leaning the same direction Reiko. It seems worthwhile but it’s a different style of build. Hopefully the shearing is nicely deburred. I’ll prolly still file down all edges and wrap them in some sort of rubberized tape to protect the tent walls.
I’m thinking a few holes between every other strip with grommets to protect the wiring. Lag bolts pulled in 12" on the long dimension and 6" on the short dimension from each corner to hang, so there’s no sheet sag.
I’m thinking mount the driver on top of the sheet with I guess metal standoffs so it remains “grounded.” I will want the extra heat in the tent this winter, and consider adding longer wires for next summer if I need to take them out.
Guess the next issue will be mounting the strips. I have 3m thermal tape, the spendy shit, but I think I might need to fasten the strips with plastic screws + nuts. What do you think? Should I drill 3x thru-holes lined up with each end and one middle mounting hole locations in the strips? Goddamn that’s a lot of work without a shop and/or a drill press.
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I went through the same exercise, my Metal Supermarket order was dropped off this morning .
The thing for me was rigidity. The angle is a lot stiffer than the sheet but so long as your driver is mounted externally, it will work.
You have another option using the HLG-320H-42B (var. 10% - 100% remote dimming).
If you are in the GTA I can make a suggestion where to get the requisite parts cheap.
Cheers
G
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Thanks man. I was thinking about it a lot and I think that I can prevent sag by hanging from those lag bolts mounted within the sheet like I mentioned, not at the edges. Any sag would be from the lag bolts to the edges of the sheet, and I think that’d be minor. Am I way off base here?
For the driver, my thought process was that 1) I’ll never be running this less than 50% available with the HLG-320H-42A driver, so dimming down to 10% was immaterial to me 2) the A version was cheaper than the B version by a $10 per driver at Mouser compared to all other sites and 3) I don’t have to buy and wire a dimmer this way.
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