blasterman
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,802
After I figured out the recipe to build cheap DIY LED heads (see my prior thread on this), I've been looking for a reason/excuse to build a higher powered array. Among other things, I support the light show for a large Bowling Center's busy 'Rock -n- Bowl', and given their aging 300/250-watt halogen based gear I decided to this would be a good chance to experiment a bit.
Another reason for the DIY approach is I'm not thrilled about commercial LED based DJ lights. Most are either underpowered junk, or, the more powerful fixtures are almost exclusively wall washes (blah). Since I have smoke machines to work with I figured the narrow reflectors that produced nice beams with the previous project would look extremely cool if clustered and cranked up. Plus, I saved a huge amount of money.
For this project I stuck with the BeshHongKong 3-watt ProLights. Not the best choice for neutral lighting, but their red and blue emitters are obnoxiously bright, and cheap. With my previous heads I just used steel pipe fittings and rare earth magnets for mounting, but for this project I wanted better heat management and didn't need magnetic mounts. So, I found a 2 foot scrap piece of 1" copper pipe left over from a plumbing upgrade, and used a pipe cutter to trim it into 4" pieces. A dab of super glue on the stars attached them to the pipe, and I epoxied the 10degree reflectors to the tops of the stars.
Since I wasn't quite sure how many heads I would use in the array and wanted it modular for future tweaking, I elected to power it 'ghetto style' with a 12-volt computer PSU and the usual assortment of radio shack power resistors. I also wanted to run the heads *at least* 700mA, which computer PSUs are great at delivering the high current loads. Speaking of which, I think I'm the only guy in the Midwest who actually goes to Rad-Shack to buy electronic parts rather than a cell-phone or plasma TV J
Anyways, I mounted half a dozen heads on a 6' length of light track I wasn't doing anything with. The slot in the middle being perfect to seat the pipe fitting and run wire, and attached with rubber bands I could slide the heads around to see where they worked the best. I then bolted the rig to the 16' ceiling about 2/3 down the lanes, and angled the heads down towards the foul line (about 30 degrees). This was also a good spot to catch drifting smoke from one of the fog machines.
When I flipped the breaker on and stepped back I wasn't prepared for how bright the thing was. Even with house lights on the six LEDs are dazzling. Brighter than any LED fixture I've worked with or seen commercially under $500. The $1.00 reflectors on the ProLights at 700mA concentrates an absurd amount of light that when viewed from even a few hundred feet away they can be overwhelming if the only the blacklights are on. Add some smoke from the foggers and the array looks closer to pro class HID lights I've seen at concerts and orders of magnitude more brilliant than the older 300watt moving spots. For the $50-60 bones it took me to build it…. get the frik outta here.
I'm still playing with the array – adjusting beam angles, and I want to try a red K2 and blue Cree in a few days because at least their specs say they'll match the ProLights. Reason being those emitters have tighter angle acrylic lenses available while the ProLights don't, and I woulnd't mind even tighter beam angles. I'm not planning on being over-whelmed by the K2 though. Thought about playing with a tri-head blue or red Rebel, but in all seriousness, I'm already as bright as I need to be, and that's a pleasant surprise. Crowd loves the thing.
Oh yeah...copper pipe fittings / stars don't even get warm.
Another reason for the DIY approach is I'm not thrilled about commercial LED based DJ lights. Most are either underpowered junk, or, the more powerful fixtures are almost exclusively wall washes (blah). Since I have smoke machines to work with I figured the narrow reflectors that produced nice beams with the previous project would look extremely cool if clustered and cranked up. Plus, I saved a huge amount of money.
For this project I stuck with the BeshHongKong 3-watt ProLights. Not the best choice for neutral lighting, but their red and blue emitters are obnoxiously bright, and cheap. With my previous heads I just used steel pipe fittings and rare earth magnets for mounting, but for this project I wanted better heat management and didn't need magnetic mounts. So, I found a 2 foot scrap piece of 1" copper pipe left over from a plumbing upgrade, and used a pipe cutter to trim it into 4" pieces. A dab of super glue on the stars attached them to the pipe, and I epoxied the 10degree reflectors to the tops of the stars.
Since I wasn't quite sure how many heads I would use in the array and wanted it modular for future tweaking, I elected to power it 'ghetto style' with a 12-volt computer PSU and the usual assortment of radio shack power resistors. I also wanted to run the heads *at least* 700mA, which computer PSUs are great at delivering the high current loads. Speaking of which, I think I'm the only guy in the Midwest who actually goes to Rad-Shack to buy electronic parts rather than a cell-phone or plasma TV J
Anyways, I mounted half a dozen heads on a 6' length of light track I wasn't doing anything with. The slot in the middle being perfect to seat the pipe fitting and run wire, and attached with rubber bands I could slide the heads around to see where they worked the best. I then bolted the rig to the 16' ceiling about 2/3 down the lanes, and angled the heads down towards the foul line (about 30 degrees). This was also a good spot to catch drifting smoke from one of the fog machines.
When I flipped the breaker on and stepped back I wasn't prepared for how bright the thing was. Even with house lights on the six LEDs are dazzling. Brighter than any LED fixture I've worked with or seen commercially under $500. The $1.00 reflectors on the ProLights at 700mA concentrates an absurd amount of light that when viewed from even a few hundred feet away they can be overwhelming if the only the blacklights are on. Add some smoke from the foggers and the array looks closer to pro class HID lights I've seen at concerts and orders of magnitude more brilliant than the older 300watt moving spots. For the $50-60 bones it took me to build it…. get the frik outta here.
I'm still playing with the array – adjusting beam angles, and I want to try a red K2 and blue Cree in a few days because at least their specs say they'll match the ProLights. Reason being those emitters have tighter angle acrylic lenses available while the ProLights don't, and I woulnd't mind even tighter beam angles. I'm not planning on being over-whelmed by the K2 though. Thought about playing with a tri-head blue or red Rebel, but in all seriousness, I'm already as bright as I need to be, and that's a pleasant surprise. Crowd loves the thing.
Oh yeah...copper pipe fittings / stars don't even get warm.
