My First LED project, outdoor security light

[egghead2004]

Most of my orders are in, just awaiting on the 60W 1.4A Meanwell LPC-60.

 

[blasterman]

Those neutral or cool Bridgelux 400's? I take it you're going to run to two parallel legs off the Mean Well?

Just make sure you put something over the LEDs to protect them from long term moisture. I know there's some LED protectant sprays out there, but I'd still feel better with a physical shield. I use 1/16 plexi on my reef lights, and Hobby Lobby carries this for about $1.00 a sheet.

Not sure if you're fired this up yet, but +3,000 plus lumens of Bridgelux is scary bright, and it's intimidating as hell at nigth :devil:

 

[egghead2004]

Blasterman,

The six outer ring stars are 4100k / 400 lumens @ 600mA, but I'll be running at 700mA, so 460 lumens?
The two center stars are 3000K / 460 lumens @ 700mA.
Just under 3700 lumens total.
I will be running 2 parallel legs (2p * 4s) with a 1A fuse on each leg.
Plexiglass will be mounted, just not sure how thick the gasket layer will be yet, I might install some reflectors to narrow it to 60 degrees.

Who knows, I may buy 2 smaller warm whites that will stay lit all night on a different driver for a little ambient light in the driveway.

I'll update as I make progress.

Thanks

 

[blasterman]

Just watch the over-driving with the Bridgelux. Because they are arrays, a little bit more current results in a really big increase in heat. I was surprised at how much difference this made with the 400s. Also, keep your parallel legs symetrical if you are mixing LEDs, but you probably already know this.

You'll probably end up doing what I did, and that's run them as high as the 'Sink will handle. The Mean Well will make this easy with it's current trim pot.

If you have neighbors close by, get ready from some 'what the **** is that?' questions.

 

[egghead2004]

:thumbsup: can't wait to get these mounted and running. I've never seen high power LEDs before.

Will 18g stranded wire solder to these stars easily?

 

[blasterman]

I've never seen high power LEDs before.

:huh: Dude, those 400's are scary by themselves. Too bad you don't have any cool-whites in the mix because they are the brightest, but the neutrals aren't dogs either. You've basically got a small metal halide going there, and when you fire this beast up out-side at night it will take a chisel to get the grin off you face.

18g should be fine. I prefer to use speaker cable myself, and just pull it in half.

Oh yeah. What I would do when you start putting this thing together is turn the Mean Well current down about 1/2 way. Then, you can use the leads off it to check either a single LED, or whole string and not have to worry about hurting anything. With a lot of LEDs being soldered and wired it's easy to get some sloppy solder shorting somewhere, and you can't visually see where the problem is. So, you use your power supply to test different parts of the string, but if it's turned up too high you could burn them. I do this all the time so I thought I'd save you some grief. Then, when you have both parallel legs checked out and working turn the supply up until the sink starts getting warm after about an hour.

 

[egghead2004]

Slowly making progress. It's been years since I've tapped threads, and I forgot about the cutting oil, duh (this from a guy who made a living threading piping for oil tanks), broke tap after tap.

Now I have my 8 stars mounted with the thermal paste. Just need to solder the wire to the stars, insert 1 amp fuses, and hook up the Meanwell for testing.

turn the Mean Well current down about 1/2 way

How do I do that? I only see 4 wires, AC in +/- and DC out +/-.
I don't see any other adjustments onb the driver.

Additional ideas.
Once I test these 402s and get an idea of brightness and beam pattern, I'll have a better idea of what this will finish up as.
I would like to order the medium reflectors to tighten the beam pattern. This light will be for the driveway/basketball court. I do want a motion sensor on this array as well.
Since I have 8 stars mounted lighting for the driveway, I do have room for 4 more stars using a different driver. I was thinking of having four 240s @ 3000k lit all night. Two mounted on angle so they face down the side of the house and doorway/deck, the other two facing the driveway just to give a little ambient light. These 4 stars would be on all night controlled by a light sensor, sort of an outdoor night lite (16w).

 

[Illum]

8 bridgelux 400s?!
How high is your roof?!

subscribed, definitely

 

[deadrx7conv]

Outdoor lighting needs mega lumen lights.

3700lm and maybe 3500 OTF after you put the plexiglass on it, will still be very bright depending on driveway size.

How big of an area are you lighting?

 

[egghead2004]

Well I want to light a 40' wide by 80' deep area. As I found out tonight, these LEDs are floods, they light everything up, I can only imagine adding reflectors.

Here is the driveway with the array sitting low on the porch railing. There are two 50 watt halogen MR 16s up high above the hoop...You can see hoe they dwarf in the power of the LED array

Here is the shed, 80' away. This is a 20'*14' shed, so you can see that it is in the distance.

Here is a look directly into the beast from 35'. Above is a 50 watt halogen MR 16 25 degree light.

The entire heatsink gets luke warm...I got 50 watts with about 450 square inches of surface. I can put more power to this thing easy.
This also gives me ideas about using 3 1202s which are way cheaper per lumen.

I just need to order the reflectors and plexiglass .

Happy so far!

Thanks for the help everyone! this is just the beginning.

 

[deadrx7conv]

Looks awesome.

My browser couldn't see the pictures here so I went to the flicker site. Weatherproof it and you should be good.

 

[blasterman]

Here's the fixed link to the pictures if you don't get around to it.

Took me about 5minutes to stop laughing when I saw the pic of the shed 80' away. Yup, Bridgelux are lots of fun. Who needs halides :laughing:

The 1202s are nice because they run at an amp and deliver absurd amounts of firepower for the money. It would take four XP-Gs driven hard to beat it, and they would cost quite a bit more.

Me bad on the driver. The LPC doesn't have adjustable current, but if you know what you're doing you don't need it.

 

[purduephotog]

Here's the fixed link to the pictures if you don't get around to it.

Took me about 5minutes to stop laughing when I saw the pic of the shed 80' away. Yup, Bridgelux are lots of fun. Who needs halides :laughing:

The 1202s are nice because they run at an amp and deliver absurd amounts of firepower for the money. It would take four XP-Gs driven hard to beat it, and they would cost quite a bit more.

Me bad on the driver. The LPC doesn't have adjustable current, but if you know what you're doing you don't need it.

I didn't laugh- I said "Holy Sh..." and then shared the photo with some folks.

Too impressive.

Bman- you have any of the low level bridgelux ones? I hate to buy just one.

 

[blasterman]

Nah....just a couple 402's, and I use them all the time for testing. I've got some reef light projects planned for some 1202's, but I'm having trouble finding blues to keep up. I think Newark sells the c1202s for $17.30.

 

[Blazin_Jason]

Those output pics made me have to sign up and learn more about these high power led's. Started to get me thinking on what projects I want to attemp. Looks great.

 

[purduephotog]

Nah....just a couple 402's, and I use them all the time for testing. I've got some reef light projects planned for some 1202's, but I'm having trouble finding blues to keep up. I think Newark sells the c1202s for $17.30.

Darn.

I'm thinking of picking up 3x 403s and then that nearly 100V CC driver from DX. Even if I didn't go that way, I could modify the 320 ma driver from DX to lower the current slightly using a different sense resistor and probably power the array- 28.6V isn't that much higher than 26. It would also give me about 33% more flux...

I think it's good to see serial connected arrays- stops me from worrying about the current inrush.

 

[blasterman]

Array type LEDs are fairly immune to current/voltage inrush because they are themselves small arrays......in my experience.

I've never lost a Bridgelux (or satistronics) array via connecting it to a hot driver. Unlike single LEDs' where I've lost dozens. I'm not saying it can't happen, but so far so good.

I'm building a reef light with two 1202s and it looks like four 10watt 445s to get the right kelvin value. Trust me....some night yard shots will be made with that beast. :thumbsup: I still think it would be cool to build an outdoor motion detector light with about 3000lumens of Bridgelux. Power cycles will obviously not bother it, and when that thing pops on in a dark alley it will be like getting hit with a shock grenade.

 

[purduephotog]

Array type LEDs are fairly immune to current/voltage inrush because they are themselves small arrays......in my experience.

I've never lost a Bridgelux (or satistronics) array via connecting it to a hot driver. Unlike single LEDs' where I've lost dozens. I'm not saying it can't happen, but so far so good.

I'm building a reef light with two 1202s and it looks like four 10watt 445s to get the right kelvin value. Trust me....some night yard shots will be made with that beast. :thumbsup: I still think it would be cool to build an outdoor motion detector light with about 3000lumens of Bridgelux. Power cycles will obviously not bother it, and when that thing pops on in a dark alley it will be like getting hit with a shock grenade.

I had my prototype 3x XR-E 1A driver (3A total) out while my electrician was replacing my panel. He had a behive array on- and the spill from the reflector wiped out his array- the spot was the sun in comparison.

He was impressed

I've still got some arrays I need to design to- the 28V driver requirement seems easily obtained with the cheap drivers from DX- 5$ a driver, 8$ array, heatsink and fan- should be good to go.

 

[egghead2004]

I still think it would be cool to build an outdoor motion detector light with about 3000lumens of Bridgelux.

That is exactly what this array will be doing, or at least most of it. Four new stars will be on all night with a light sensor, the other 8 stars will have a motion sensor. I used it last night while working in the basement...it is blinding.

 

[egghead2004]

The reflectors and 4 additional stars are in. Tomorrow I add the stars and reflectors and wire the new circuit. Then fabricate a mounting bracket. Just waiting on the Deal extream driver. I may forget about that and order a meanwell Monday, I gotta get this thing all lit up.