Back yard lighting idea - 27W LED Off-road lights

[mvisconte]

Hey CPF'ers. It's been a long while since I've been around.

I like LEDs, and CPF was my first home.

Back in the day, I toyed with the idea of building my own LED flood light, back before China started flooding (!) the market with them. I've seen lots of good tear-down videos of the LED floods on YouTube, and lots of comments on quality, components, and how hard the cheap flood lights aren't driven.

And I never got over wanting to hack something.

We've got an old dual-head motion-sensor halogen light under the 2nd story eaves to light the back yard at night. One of those typical lights from 15-20 years ago, and ours hasn't worked since the bulbs burned out some years ago. I'm not allowed to climb two-story ladders (per SWMBO), and I don't have quick access to one, so we've just lived without the light. But every time I hit homedepot or lowes, I have to wander by the outside light collection and look for replacements. The LED lights they have in the stores look very anemic - and usually are missing some of the LED emitters. If these burn out in the hardware store, that puts me back in the spot I'm in now.

And I never got over wanting to hack something.

So here's what I'm thinking - and I'm depending on you guys who get to actually build things to tell me if I'm off base or not.

While looking at LED things on Amazon, I found some 27W LED off-road lights. These are 9 LED, in metal housing, and are 9-32V. With the wide voltage range, I assume (!) that they have constant current supplies inside.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLW18T2/?tag=cpf0b6-20

These are basically commodity lights.

Most reviews are pretty good. Some have some technical details. They note that these are NOT "spot lights", and definitely not "pencil beam". At 30 degrees, I wonder if they are still too narrow.

I think I can find a 120v to 24v 3A converted that will fit inside the housing of the old halogen fixture. If they don't have CC supplies inside, then I will have to poke around in the internals and find a couple 120v to ??A CC supplies instead. For the price ($17) and the wattage, if they do work, I can use four of them (two on each side) aimed individually and get targeted light for different areas. These are sealed against water for off-road use.

I think it would beat paying $70 or more for the cheaply made LED motion sensing lights that I see at the hardware stores. We don't run them all night long - they run on the 3- or 5-minute motion-triggered cycle. I think I stand a better chance of mounting these to the old housing than I do at putting up the cheapy China floods.

So, how bad is this for an idea? Anybody have any experience with these types of off-road lights? These are pretty cool lights, spec'd at 6000k. Is that too "blue" for lighting grass and yard at night? Halogens are pretty warm, and I don't have anything to compare against them.

Anyone? Anyone? Beuhler?

Thanks,

Marc

 

[magellan]

Welcome back and good luck with your project.

 

[SemiMan]

I work in the industry and I would still just buy one of the off the shelf ones. There are 2000+ lumen versions with multiple heads.

There is no guarantee the motion sensor on your current light works.

Odds are the 120V/24V supply will not fit into the current housing.

Definite chance you could run into an issue where startup current for the 12/24V work lights is beyond what your 120/24V unit will supply even though it is capable of meeting the operating current requirements. That could prevent it from turning on.

If you are doing it for fun, great. If you are doing it to save money, that is not going to happen. If you are doing it for performance, I would consider a different approach:

- Get a new standalone motion detector
- Put the power supply in a plastic outdoor utility box
- Oversize your supply to ensure you don't have startup issues
- Run low voltage wire to the lamps you place where you want

 

[mds82]

Take a look at this thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?338995-Custom-made-LED-Flood-lights-for-my-house

I recently re-made these lights with 15 Cree XP-L LED's and a 100 watt LED Driver instead ( RACD-100) . i used 4500K LED's and they are absolutely incredible.

 

[mvisconte]

That looks pretty cool. You must have known I was haunting the hardware store websites looking at anything aluminum as heatsink... and thinking that the shiny aluminum would make a good reflector.
Stop spying on me!
I went to the FB page, and the pictures are awesome... if I put something like this up, will my grass turn out as lush? That would be worth it right there.

Do you have any updates? Lessons learned or pictures of the assembly? You have no pictures of the lights!
"I'll get some soon" ;-)

 

[mvisconte]

Sadly, you raise valid points.

I didn't think that startup current would be an issue for a CC supply and LEDs, but it's been a while since I've actually done that level of research.

But, you did leave me a couple of outs...
Do it for Fun! (and For Pony!)
and
I can find a new basic motion detector flood light frame for less than $20.

I evidently need to get back into actually building stuff...

Thanks

 

[brickbat]

I'm all about encouraging tinkering. But, I wouldn't take this on myself. First, based on the few Chinese LED 'Off-Road' lights I've seen, prepare to be disappointed. The power rating (27 W) is often for the pair, not each. And even if it was per light, who cares? Lower input power is better. What you want is lotsa light output, and they guarantee nothing.

IME, it's hard to beat a couple of 3000K, 1600 lumen Cree PAR38 lamps...

 

[mds82]

That looks pretty cool. You must have known I was haunting the hardware store websites looking at anything aluminum as heatsink... and thinking that the shiny aluminum would make a good reflector.
Stop spying on me!
I went to the FB page, and the pictures are awesome... if I put something like this up, will my grass turn out as lush? That would be worth it right there.

Do you have any updates? Lessons learned or pictures of the assembly? You have no pictures of the lights!
"I'll get some soon" ;-)

I never did take pictures of the actual light, i guess i will try and do that soon. They are mounted pretty high up on the house but i can still get some.

With the newest version i used thicker aluminum as well. 1/4 thick to make sure there was enough metal to dissipate the heat. I'll try and get pictures later today

I'm all about encouraging tinkering. But, I wouldn't take this on myself. First, based on the few Chinese LED 'Off-Road' lights I've seen, prepare to be disappointed. The power rating (27 W) is often for the pair, not each. And even if it was per light, who cares? Lower input power is better. What you want is lotsa light output, and they guarantee nothing.

IME, it's hard to beat a couple of 3000K, 1600 lumen Cree PAR38 lamps...

the light i built is about 14,000 lumen , and there are 2 of them.

 

[mds82]

Here are the images of the light bar finally

 

[mvisconte]

Ashidanza!

"Hey honey? I need to order some more LEDs and parts!"
"Sigh... Not again!"

 

[FRITZHID]

Mds82, Ty! Between these pix and the others on your other thread, my wife now says "hunni, that's what I want over the garage! Warmer tint than that but same style. Get what you need to build them. They gotta be better than that crap at Lowe's/HD!"
Again, carte blanche from the Mrs. on another build! Yay!
That really is a beauty of a build.

 

[mds82]

Mds82, Ty! Between these pix and the others on your other thread, my wife now says "hunni, that's what I want over the garage! Warmer tint than that but same style. Get what you need to build them. They gotta be better than that crap at Lowe's/HD!"
Again, carte blanche from the Mrs. on another build! Yay!
That really is a beauty of a build.

awesome to hear. I used the stovepipe reflector because it worked well for what i needed. I needed a light pattern that was long and narrow rather than spot or flood, so it was perfect. If you need any help in getting parts or materials for this let me know and i can help you out. Depending on the beam pattern you need you may want to use optics or just leave the LED's as is for a complete flood.

I have a small band saw so i ended up cutting everythign myself including the aluminum housing. I found that the 4500K color was perfect for outdoors at night since it looks very natural but not too warm.

 

[nitebrite]

just have a few of these in back on photo eyes that screw in the base. http://www.menards.com/main/electri.../p-2425679-c-7482.htm?tid=-636888069854165517

serious light from these. ugly, yeah. not much sense in making anything anymore. you can buy anything pre-made now. my time is not worth it. back in the day there was no choice.

oh, no hard feelings. my wife will not allow me to purchase any more flashlights! have over 100 high end ones though so content.

one warning to people. I would not light up your home too much. can attract attention having reverse of intended effect. I see these multi million dollar homes all lit up and they look like they are just begging for problems.