Just finished my first 'Home made". Heat !!!!

Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

Just finished my first homemade. I decided to make a task lite using a Lux III and a wall wart. I chose the Nflex driver.

Being a machinist, I had no problems with the can.
Used loc-line and a simple base.

Now being a newbie, I have spent considerable hours reading many posts on the forum.
From these posts, I was confident that I could make all the bits function together.

The one snag was heat. Even with a large can with cooling fins machined all over, the Lux III generated a 140° F temperature in the housing. And that was with the adjustable driver ( Nflex from George ) set at 750 ma. Never got to try 1000ma.

I was disappointed in so much heat being generated. I had read very little in the posts about such high heat. Now I realize that a task light can be switched on for a few hours, but many people are talking about LuxIII's in Mini Mag lites. Surely they would produce the same heat?

Or are they all running at 350 ma.

So hear I am with a huge lump of finned aluminum that I can not comfortably take to 1000ma.

My Bin on the Lux was TWAL. Would a 'K' bin run much cooler?

Any and all comments appreciated.

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

1) A K bin will run cooler.

2) If it levels off at 140 degrees it's within the safe zone for a Lux III.

3) Most minimags are not run for extended periods and/or are not run much above 500ma or so. Holding it in your hand keeps the heat from being excessive by using your hands as a heat sink.

Having posted this, you are now obligated to show us your new light!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Congrats on taking the plunge into home mades.

Daniel

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

Well here it is. The reflector is part of the housing, polished' and the item it is designed to illuminate is 12 inches away, so I wanted a flood beam . Apart from a dark ring around the edge of the beam, it worked out quite well.

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

That looks real nice. I made one for my lathe using a 1 watt low dome and a left over wall-wart. I used an LM317 (???) to limit the current. The LED's mounted in a 3 inch long 1/2 inch aluminum rod that's finned.

Mine's nowhere near as pretty as yours. It looks preofessional!

Daniel

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

Thanks.
Well I have allot of heat and am going to deepen the fins tomorrow and play with the reflector to try and eliminate the dark ring.

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

Anglepoise,

VERY nice light. If possible, I would suggest reducing the drive current to 500mA. You'll get about 80% of the light with far less heat.

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

Here's why you should be proud of your work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

My attempt:


And the light in use





Daniel

Re: Just finished my first \'Home made\". Heat !!!!

[ QUOTE ]
Chop said:
Anglepoise,

VERY nice light. If possible, I would suggest reducing the drive current to 500mA. You'll get about 80% of the light with far less heat.

[/ QUOTE ]

I took your advise and dropped it down to 500ma.
Light output is still more than satisfactory for the required illumination level and the stabilized temp has dropped to 110° F and I can live with that no problem.