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Milad's Bridgelux Pentium 2 canon build


Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

I had some free time on my hands while waiting on some LEDs for my NC 14g build so I decided to grab a old Pentium 2 heatsink and some Bridgelux LEDs and see what kind of magic could happen.

 

I know alot of people are always asking how many LEDs you can put on a heatsink, well this should convince you that as long as there is a fan blowing over the heatsink, you can just fill the heatsink up with 20mm star board LEDs.

 

Here we go....

Build list:

6x 455nm Bridgelux with 60 degree optics built in

4x 4500K Bridgelux with 60 degree optics built in

1x 660nm Deep Red with 60 degree optics built in

1x 495nm Turquoise with 60 degree optics *Updated 2011-12-02*

Pentinum2 heatsink found on a old computer

40w 700mA Inventroincs driver

 

Additional odd stuff

Thermal Grease

3-48 machine screws

3-48 Tap

Automatic center punch

Some extra 3pin fan wiring to connect LEDs to driver

Green tea to sip on while making the cannon

 

 

Drilling and tapping

Disclaimer: This build took about 3 hours because of all the fiddling I had to do with drilling and tapping (90% of the time went to tapping/drilling). I highly do not recommend drilling and tapping, I only did it because I had the taps and drill laying aorund and I may end up reusing the LEDs to do a bigger cannon at a later date. Use thermal tape and save your afternoon.

 

The Heatsink

IMG_1188.JPG

 

I tapped the LEDs together in a line to see where I needed to drill/tap the holes.

IMG_1187.JPG

 

Center punching while LEDs are taped to the heatsink

IMG_1189.JPG

 

What heatsink looks like after center punching. This makes it nice and easy for me to know where to drill

IMG_1190.JPG

 

Drilling away

IMG_1191.JPG

 

A few minutes later, ready for tapping

IMG_1192.JPG

 

Using a tapping block to tap. Highly recommended. I didnt break a single tap because of this block. It keeps the tap perfectly lined up so it doesnt break

IMG_1193.JPG

 

Mounting the LEDs

 

Throwing a bit of grease on where the LEDs are going. Too much grease = bad

IMG_1194.JPG

 

LEDs on and tightened up

IMG_1195.JPG

 

Another shot

IMG_1198.JPG

 

You cant tell that well from this shot but the ends of the LED are connected to a 3pin fan connector to plug directly into my 40w driver

IMG_1199.JPG

 

Tank shot from above

IMG_1201.JPG

 

Tank shot (Sorry for a bad tank but its really just to house a couple clowns until I move them to the larger setup. This tank has had 1 24w PC for a year)

IMG_1200.JPG

 

And the Par reading (I think the drop off is because of the ugly rock setup I have creating shadows)

IMG_1200-1.JPG

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
nice quick build!

 

Ya took me couple hours with all the drilling and tapping. Probably more like 15min if I didnt drill and tap.

Puts out alot of light as you can see. I even ended up removing the two fans on the heatsink and replacing them with a small 40mm fan. Without the fans, the heatsink was still doing its job.

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very cool. that little thing is a blast of light and the par readings from that far up is amazing.

 

i live how you reused an old P2 heatsink. i got a pc store nearby that i might go hit up and find some.

 

I want to put leds into my 12g jbj nano.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
very cool. that little thing is a blast of light and the par readings from that far up is amazing.

 

i live how you reused an old P2 heatsink. i got a pc store nearby that i might go hit up and find some.

 

I want to put leds into my 12g jbj nano.

 

 

Thanks. FYI because of how bright they were I ended up turning them all the way down. The color is just so amazing with the red 660nm.

 

If you have a techie friend, ask them for a old Heatsinks. I have a box full sitting on my desk.

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You can run case fans straight off the inventronics driver? Jeez. I blew out two cheapy cheap AC->4-pin molex adapters, and I'm temporarily running a whole computer PSU just to power my two 200mm fans. I have another AC->4-pin adapter arriving today, but it might be nice to just tap into my 700ma or 1050ma driver.

 

Ccool build btw. Very true about fans - a little air flow makes a huge difference.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
You can run case fans straight off the inventronics driver? Jeez. I blew out two cheapy cheap AC->4-pin molex adapters, and I'm temporarily running a whole computer PSU just to power my two 200mm fans. I have another AC->4-pin adapter arriving today, but it might be nice to just tap into my 700ma or 1050ma driver.

 

Ccool build btw. Very true about fans - a little air flow makes a huge difference.

 

No the Inventrronics drivers cant run them. I just had a 12v 2A power supply designed for fans that they just plug into. If you want a cheap one designed to plug fans into you can get a 500mA one here: http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/12v-500ma-power-supply-for-fan/

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So this build got me thinking about a real light to replace the CFL for my 3 gal.

 

What about using a DIM4 to control and drive 2 - Cree 3UPS. Would that be enough light for a 3 gal? Too bad I can't solder. You want to build one for me? ;)

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
So this build got me thinking about a real light to replace the CFL for my 3 gal.

 

What about using a DIM4 to control and drive 2 - Cree 3UPS. Would that be enough light for a 3 gal? Too bad I can't solder. You want to build one for me? ;)

 

 

That would work great for a 3Gal. Soldering is simple, took me like 10min to do all 10 LEDs.

You can also get some bjb soldreless connectors and use regular 20mm stars.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
How was the color blending? Was there any disco effects on the sand bed with surface agitation?

 

Because they are so tight together and high enough off the water surface, there is no disco that I can tell. The color itself is more of a purple color and I think thats partially because of the red. Ill be mixing some turquoise with it next week to see what happens. The Turquoise + Red will offset each other.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

Quick update on this. I found the color ratio was a bit too "dark" for my taste. I switched up one of the Royal Blue to 495nm Turquoise and I really got the tank to "brighten up" since mixing the 455nm, 660nm and 495nm gets you a white light. My corals still popping but overall the tank is whiter.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
Pics?

 

Here are some pics with the turquoise on it. Its hard to tell the difference from the pics by looking at the tank but if you look at the color of the wall you can see the difference.

 

Turquiose.JPG

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