The Sun 80Watt configurable area light

[VidPro]

Ok here it is my latest proof of concept light. i am calling it "The Sun" for now, because of all the brass (yelowish) parts
and well cause you would swear the sun is still out

This uses 10, 16W (called 20) high powered leds, it is (dangerously) running off of 110V ac converted to 167V DC,
and has zero flicker of any sort. It uses no transformers, no drivers, no resisters, only a bridge rectifyer, and high voltage caps,
3-4 parts total to the circuit, there is hardly any losses of power of any sort.
It is fused at 1A, and is drawing about 60-80W max right now, and is comperable to 2x40W florescent bulbs,
minus the fact that it "cast shadows" much more than a florescent would.

in this first pic, way up in the left top corner of this pic, you can see a standard chandalier electrical box cover cap
all of the electronics needed for the leds are fully fitting in that small cap.

10 seperated 9inch by 2inch aluminum angles are hinged to a 12inch acrylic plastic round,
each with a "toybox" friction slider, which allows each arm to assume a different position.

as you can see here this is the "tower" postition, the IDEA here is the light could BECOME any type of "chandalier" light,
a convex , concave , or straight up and down, or some futuristic swirl.

or as you can see you could have different legs in different postions,
so no mater where the light is mounted, hung or stood, the light can be directed to where it is most usable.

This shows the mechanical inner workings of the friction sliders and hinges.
Right now it is nut and bolted together, so it can be dissasembled, it potentially could have been riveted.

Some sort of "beam shot" it is aimed UP to the ceiling, and on the celing there you see a 60W resessed lighting flood reflector bulb.

this light is capable of lighting the entire living room all by it self, but i have not yet finished the mounting aspect of it.
If my calculations are correct, it should be able to hook to any standard dimmer or motion sencor, or other "normal bulb" control items, and act very similar to a normal bulb.

 

[Ken_McE]

:twothumbsWell done I say, well done!:twothumbs

 

[havand]

That's pretty awesome. Are those window / cabinet sliders? I assume they have enough tension to hold the aluminum legs where you put them? What kind of ac-dc converter are you using?

 

[VidPro]

yes i guess they could be used as window friction sliders too, they are generally sold for box lid sliders, so a lid doesnt slam back down on you.

the friction is adjustable via the 2 plastic/teflon washer things that get squashed between the rail. so they can be made to grip tightly or to slide almost totally freely.
the aluminum angle pieces are actually very lightweight, the whole contraption thanks to all the hardware junk makes it weigh to much for what it needed to be.

there is no Ac-Dc converter persay, its just a 400Volt bridge rectifier, and 2 large 300Volt capacitors. the idea was to be as direct drive as possible , with the least losses of conversions.
when you rectify the 110AC voltage, to DC it makes it about 170V, and i checked my math with the electronics guys in this forum, and that is about right.
spikes in the voltage, could potentially ruin the leds, so a "Fast Acting" high voltage glass fuse Very close to the total amperage will pop easily in a surge or a problem, the power is relativly clean here, so i anticipate mabey 1-2 blown fuses on it over 5+ years of time.

i am putting the top on it now, and some slats for strength, and will get some more pics of it when its all dry and assembled.

i had attempted this feat previously with 55 1Watt luxeon emitters, and the whole project went in the crapper, when i discovered the hard way that the emitter bases were not isolated.
i always test in small sections, again and again with lower voltages, before applying the final high voltage juice, and discovered the dang bases of the emitters were connecting stuff, i should have used stars insted of emitters, i Hate emitters anyway, they were just cheap.

and AGAIN on these high voltage high powered leds the base is NOT isolated :-( so a person would be unwise to grab the aluminum :devil: on 2 sides of it, as they would get quite a shock.
the 1Amp fuse should insure that even if somone does grab the aluminum there wont be enough amps to actually keel them.
there are no kids here, or people with no common sence so nobody will be touching it, but i must note that its not UL listed, it is unsafe in the present configurations, and NEVER will be unless the aluminum is insulated or the whole light is covered somehow, both of which could be done.

 

[VidPro]

ok it is almost finished, one led is fried, that makes 2 of them that CAME from the dealer that were bad. it is effecting it but not much.
NOW you see it "right side up" although it will function at any angle, the previous pictures actually showed it upside down.

here are the electronics in the top cap, the bridge is heat sinced to the cap, by thermal adhering it to it.

here is the fuse block, it is "external" so to speak, mounted so it can be gotten to easily, as it would pop on any surges.

this shows the rest of the framing, another 12" plastic round on the top, and 5 slats that go from the top to the bottom, providing strength.
then a 5" added round is under the cap, providing strength for the 2 Cap screws that hold the whole thing to the cap.

this shows the top Cap, and a messy gluing job :-( and the fuse block on the back side.

now that it is hanging, it is in a standard shoot down and around configuration, usefull for hanging it high in a vaulted ceiling type area.

Folded up, it is 12" high and 12" around, folded out its as large as 30inches, its as large as a fair sized candelabra chandelier when folded out.

you can see all the nuts there on the bottom.

 

[VidPro]

this is the Hood Configuration, which lights what is under it very harshly.
all of these pics of it hanging are done with the Flash ON on the camera, otherwise everything but the leds is black.

then this is back to the tower position, Swirls did not work at all, there was no way with only 10 items to do some artisic waves .

 

[coolwaters]

doesnt the plates thats the LEDs are mounted on get really really hot???
i had a rebel on a small heat sink and after just 10 seconds i was burning my fingers...

lol can we see the LEDs? its hard to see when their on...lol

 

[VidPro]

they are those DealExtreeme china high powered ones, claiming 20W at 18V or something, but they run more at 16Volts.

it doesnt get hot at all, first its running lower than its alleged spec max, so it much more efficent, and mounting about any of this stuff on aluminum SEEMS to get the heat to the air rather fast, you can only feel the heat spread a few inches away.

the bases of the leds were Tinned Copper, so i stripped off the tinning, and mounted the copper to the aluminum, using special copper loaded arctic silver epoxy that i concoct here from lab grade copper dust.

this is using a "chimney" effect , which is good for passive sincs, about any way it is aimed or directed, or sitting, convection air movement occurs from the heat, pushing the heat off. (something like that, its art not science ;-)
Heat rises, and no mater how its positioned the rising heat . moving air , can pass air more rapidly.
for example in the tower position , the heat can rise even if it wasnt an Angle aluminum, but in the flared out position the Side angle of the aluminum still incuurs the chimney effect. (ok so its some science

from what i can tell, the aluminum could have been 1/2 the size it is, even if they were driven at 2/3 total or 15W , if they were driven at 20W (as they claim) i think they would just die to soon, unless there was a copper spreader first , then the large dissipator.

These LEDs might work in an asperical flashlight to, put one on a hotlips, run 4 protected li-ions and the standard asperical and it would be,, well mabey we can finnaly start a fire with leds

 

[James S]

since the electronics are so simple, no real power supply, does that mean you could put it on a dimmer?

It looks great by the way, what fun!

 

[VidPro]

since the electronics are so simple, no real power supply, does that mean you could put it on a dimmer?

It looks great by the way, what fun!

i am trying to replace the chandelier in the house , and the chandiler is already on a dimmer, sooo i will find out soon. (cant wait)

i am having trouble finding a Inline AC disconnect of small size that is "correct" for AC and wouldnt leave a hot line exposed. that way i can switch in and out any of the hanging lights without using wire nuts and other hard to operate/change from ladder methods.

i have 3 lights that "hang" from the ceiling, and want to put a quick ac disconnect on all 3 , so they can be taken down. but locally i cannot find anything but HUGE screw-on AC extention cord connectors.

the dimmer that is already on the chandalier (using incan) uses either a SCR or a TRIAC, and that means it "chops" up the sine wave , then the capacitors will be having a hard time charging? soooo, i donno for sure what a (electronic type) dimmer is going to do. but i really want to put it in place there and find out, , , like yesterday already.

If anyone has any ideas for a Quick Smaller safe inline AC disconnect, for fat wire, do tell, so far i might have to go with bullet or spade connects, and that isnt "right" methods for ac.

-----------(]= |)------------ one of deez

 

[hank]

It's gorgeous. Does it also work as a bug-zapper with that exposed voltage?
Too scary for me to build, but I'm glad someone else did.

Is this the kind of thing that Einstein meant when he said everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler?

 

[TOOCOOL]

Very impressive ! now add some R/C servo's to the arms and It would be even more fun :thumbsup:

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Add some servos and it becomes a work of kinetic art! Very nice job, VidPro.

 

[VidPro]

Ok i found AC inline disconnects, and got it up hanging off the ceiling.
they are "leviton" brand, polarised, with screw terminals for the wires.

put the DIMMER on and because its a SCR dimmer , it did not work correctally AT ALL. it strobes, its low, just a total disaster to dim with a cheap in wall dimmer :-( the low doesnt look terrible, because the capacitors can keep up with blending out the hacked up sine wave, but even at low, its strobing.
and because on High they are still going through a half (sine) wave SCR , the dimmer switch itself doesnt go to FULL power ever. :mecry:

it is possilbe that a TRIAC dimmer, would work ok, but they still chop up the sine wave, and are great for slow reacting incadescents. to fix that I could put a HUGE capacitor on it, but because of the voltage it would have to be huge, and cost lotsa money.

so the only dimming choice , is resistered dimming, or a Variac, or wire wound pot or something.

so now i need to find a 2 Position standard wall switch, lol standard 2 postition, thats an oxymoran. standard sized, with Double throw, center off.

 

[VidPro]

Very impressive ! now add some R/C servo's to the arms and It would be even more fun :thumbsup:

lol, servos, and a remote control huh, instant reconfiguration, and how about a motion sencor following curcuit, hey a little more light over here WwwwRrrrrrrr . . .

 

[PhotonWrangler]

so the only dimming choice , is resistered dimming, or a Variac, or wire wound pot or something.

There's always pulse width modulation for dimming, although that could re-introduce flicker. :thinking:

 

[VidPro]

There's always pulse width modulation for dimming, although that could re-introduce flicker. :thinking:

that would work on the DC side, but on the AC side it still might chop up the sine wave to much making it hard for the capacitors to charge , which is what occurs with the SCR.

it gets its "peak" voltage from the top of the sine wave, if the device would bend the sine wave then the peak voltage would be different, and it would dim fine. if it gives me choped up pieces of the sine wave, then the Peak still exists but not good enough for the AMMOUNT of capacitors.
in a perfect world something that lowered only the peak of the sine wave, would be ultimate.

i donno for sure, but i find out the hard ways often :green:

if its on the DC side, then i would need the remote control, as long as its hanging in the air like it is now. i suppose finding 200+ volt 2+ amp mosfets is do-able. then i would want some 300htz or faster PWM, like 1000htz would be best.

if PWM was on the DC side, the capacitors would have no trouble staying charged, or staying at some level, and the leds would just use less bits of the capacitors charge instead. so if my thinking is right that would work ok.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Sorry I wasn't clear, VidPro - yes, I meant on the DC side. You could always go with a prepackaged product like the Advance LED ballasts. They have dimmable models available for high power LEDs.

On the other hand, if you prefer to build from scratch I completely understand. Mosfets are more fun to design with than regular junction transistors, IMO. They're easier to bias and their high input impedance makes them easy to interface without worrying about fan-outs of drivers.

 

[VidPro]

ok a resistor works to dimm it, and very nicely. while resisters are rated for Watts, at such high voltage its not a lot of amps passing through, and so i figure about a 10W resistor will work, at about 20ohms for nice low lighting.

i tested putting in a 40W halogen bulb as a resistor, worked great, bulb was just glowing.
then a 1W 10ohm resister, and it worked but its getting to hot.
then i just happen to have a 16ohm 5 watt wire wound variable resister, and it worked ok, but would probably get to hot for long term usage, didnt dim enough.
i have a 2watt 100ohm variable, but seeing what is occuring, i am not trying that.

i bet they bend the sine wave instead of break it.

 

[VidPro]

On the other hand, if you prefer to build from scratch I completely understand. Mosfets are more fun to design with than regular junction transistors, IMO. They're easier to bias and their high input impedance makes them easy to interface without worrying about fan-outs of drivers.

gee i understood about 1/2 that you realise i am not an EE right, i just slop stuff together, as simple as humanly possilble, and the simpler the better. i have replaced , must be about 40+ failing ballasts in my life, and i dont even like them any more. florescent and CFL ones at least. and i also dont like many of these cheap drivers that dont take abuse and long term use.
another example is the laptop light failures, a friend of mine gets laptops off e-bay for pennies on the doller, and all that is wrong with some of them is the CCFT ballast, it didnt live past the life of the phosphors in the bulb even.