Fisch is building DIY 480watt Solstrip light!

[Fisch]

Hi there! I have been thinking a long time about building my own light But there was problem with money and I couldnt do it sooner. But thats past now

All of my components have arrived and I can start to build asap.

I ordered 12 X2 solstrips and 2 red/blue strips from @Baudelaire few months ago. And then I had to wait to earn more money to buy the rest

Here are the strips. I put them on my bed for now but thats how the light will look like. It will look like a ladder

Ligth dimension will be 90x90 cm (229"x229"). The red/blue strips will be in the middle row.

Here is the picture of heat sinks. They are prety big I might have gone for smaller ones these should take care of any exces heat

Here is the solstrip on the heat sink

I also got my self a dimmable driver to run all of the strips.

And I really want to have some good light where I can see the exact amount of power going in so I got my self the 4 in 1 AC 80-260V LCD Digital 100A Volt Watt Power Meter Ammeter Voltmeter that @anon58740919 recomended to me

So, yeah! The only thing I am missing right now is some wireing and the L-shaped profile to join all the heatsinks toghether I might be able to buy all of it today or this weeek for sure plus some screws and thermal paste.

DO I need to screw the strips to the heatsinks or the thermal paste will do?

Thanks!

[anon58740919]

Looking good brother. You need to use nylon m3x4mm screws to fix to the sinks and use thermal paste too. Surely you can get the channel local? And the wiring too. I’d recommend ordering some wago connectors for the harness too

[StrainVenator]

Looks good ! Can’t wait to see it up and running!! Been wanting to do this myself… @growmau5 Kinda got me onto it! he makes it look so fun !

[Sixteencountyseeds]

That’s sum cool Shi# man I love the DIY project’s.

[Fisch]

Ok guys!! Its about to start. The Last main component is in my hands, so I will start on weekend. So it should be done on Sunday night

I Just need to buy wires, wago clamps, some grommets and Thermal paste.

AND! I Have to drill about 75 holes!!! Which will be crazy! wish luck to my Hand and Arms

Here is the Light ready for assembling

Haha sorry I dont have banana for scale

Btw: the Light will really heavy about 15 kilos (30 pounds). Ups…

[Albannach]

That’s going to be a wicked rig pal, you’ll need strong hangers eh. I have more solstrips & sinks in the post from @anon58740919 to build my own racks. Think mine will be a bit lighter though

[Fisch]

Hello. Next update here So I finaly managed to drill all of the holes! It was diffucult task but its done. I wanted to put the Light together but I bought erong screws so I need to buy new today

But it shoud be done in couple of days. But I dont have to Rush because I dont have my new grow box yet. And I am not even sure when I will use that Light. Probably for my next grow in september? Who knows.

And btw. I didnt even showed you my current grow. Its the Francos Lemon Cheese from Green house seeds. I veged them 42 (normaly 35) days because I fucked the transposition to the flower box(I shocked them with too much Light)

They Just finished day 7 flower. Everything ok. PH 5,8. Ec 1800. Humidity 60-80, temperature 25-27.

They are absolutly beautifull

[Fisch]

Completing is done! Now the wireing few hours of work. Lets get it done

[Fisch]

First wireing 90% done. I Just need to drill holes for Grommets. And buy more wire. I forgot that I need to conect two sides

[Albannach]

That’s a very impressive build you have there bro. Looking forward to seeing some pics of it in use. I made my twins just slightly smaller i get around 400W in total so i’m happy and plants are growing
Albannachs LED conversion

[Pedro_Bann]

@Fisch

First wireing 90% done.

That wiring is artwork mate, well done.

[Fisch]

wow those lights look great Thsi is my first design so its not so perfect but I am already thinking a lot of new ideas in building light panels very easily. Do it simple so you just have all different components that you just plug together like lego Oh man. its the future

[Fisch]

Thank you I just need to secure them properly with zip ties

[Fisch]

Ok…you tell me what the fuck is going on, because I did every single thing right! I didnt even tight up the screws before I switched on the Light. And then this happend. Wtf? Where is the problem? I treated the strips with maximum effort not to damage them and they still dont work properly? I did not pay for this! How? @Baudelaire???

Explain pls because I am losing my temper…

[Northern_Loki]

Huh, that’s odd. Not that there might be a bad LED in a module but more to the point of where the failure seems oddly consistent across the modules.

I do not know much of about these strips but am wondering if you have everything wired in parallel or some combination of series/parallel?

[Albannach]

That’s a shame about those strips. I was thinking about your problem and i remember seeing this same issue before. The guy had attached his strips with steel screws instead of nylon ones and partially shorted them out. So i zoomed in close on your earlier build picture…Sorry mate i wish i could have given you some good news here but i recon that’s whats happened with yours too.

[Baudelaire]

Fisch, you’re making us look bad, man! You know I tested every one of those strips we sent you, personally.

You’ve got to change your attachment plan here:

Those steel bolts and hard nuts are shorting out the LED circuits (traces) underneath them, plain and simple. If the nuts aren’t crushing them, the threaded bolts are cutting into them. It’s that simple. It’s the same issue you had with the first strips, and it has the same solution: replace your attaching hardware with nylon bolts, nuts and washers of M3 size only. With any luck, you won’t have permanently damaged most of the traces, and many of the strips will light evenly.

Or just use double-sided thermal tape and forget the screws. Either way, the steel needs to go. You are killing your strips, and causing a dangerous safety risk to yourself by shorting those strips to your lamp frame. Please add a ground to your frame if you haven’t already.

You’ve got a beautiful rig, I hate to see it not working properly. Please take my advice on the screws, once and for all. No one has had the extent of issues with dead circuits that you have had, and in the two other instances where it occurred, nylon screws fixed it instantly. -b420

[anon58740919]

I’m going to have to second what @Baudelaire is saying here. There’s not even a nylon washer underneath bro. I wish I could say that it’s faulty goods but it’s certainly not. I can see from the pics the issues stem from the build. All apart from the screws is top notch work bro just pay attention to the minute details cos they fuck shit up

[Albannach]

I don’t have an axe to grind with @Baudelaire but going by my understanding. connecting the frame of a 24V DC appliance to mains earth is not something i would consider doing. Especially in places like the US where mains return and earth are common. You could make your rig live at full mains voltage if ANY other appliance shorts out. The distribution board breakers should trip but if something like a washing machine shorts to ground you could possibly have mains voltage at high amps across your lighting rig. COB rigs running at high voltage are another matter.

[Pedro_Bann]

I am going to have to pipe up here and say that if bolts cannot be put through the bolt holes then there is a design fault plain and simple.

Traces should not be near the bolt contact points, this is not user error.

I am sorry @Baudelaire the product is good but still needs a version revision.

Possible solution: distribute the strips already assembled with heatsinks.

Keep Smiling.