thecowkid Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 Thanks Evil for the spacing advice. I should have this sink drilled and tapped by tomorrow morning. Stupid stupid work. Thats gonna keep me from having all the LEDs mounted and soldered up until probably mid week. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 well???? what was the final decision on the spacing? lol i must have read the last 2 pages twicw but i didn't see the spacing. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 Oops that was taken care of via PM. Didnt mean to leave you hanging Dennis. Evil / I decided to go with 2.5" on centers. I took the sink to the hospital today and punched the holes into it. I should hopefully have them all tapped by tonight. Then I am gonna drill a buncha more holes just to hide the wires. Thats been one of my biggest quams about other builds. I hate seeing wires. No punches intended towards anyone who has wires showing. Just my personal OCD problems. Pictures to come. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Well here is the sink with the LED's mounted. Drilling and tapping went about as good as could be expected. I had the tap snap with two holes left. Luckly the tap snapped off deep enough that I could rechase the threads and use a screw that was cut short by 5 threads. So now I have to go tomorrow and purchase a new 4-40 tap. I used a dubro tap used for hobby service. I lubed it with Fluid Film. Google them and sign up for the free sample of that stuff. Great stuff. Here is a pic of the sink with the LED's mounted and the wiring diagram sketched on the face. The wires will be threaded through the sink and hid on the back side. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 WELL........ ....I am so over tryin to tap the final friggin hole. After breakin three taps on the dang thing I am giving up on it. Seriously. I have tried to drill/tap 3 different locations for one of the LEDs and have snapped every friggin tap off. I am sure that this d@mn heatsink has a hard spot in it. You could not have been any easier on the taps. Hell I am even gonna have to go get a 4th tap just so I can mount the sink into the hood. This time I am gonna buy a spiral fluted tap. No more of the three fluted straight taps for JP. Positive notes. I did rough in wiring on the leds. All fire great. I did how ever forget to wear my welding hood when I lit these dudes up. How come NO ONE warned me on that one. I am seriously not feeling the love on this one. But hey the little yellow dots should keep me entertained for a few days. The wire that I purchased yesterday was solid. Stupid mistake on my behalf. So tomorrow I am gonna go get stranded wire and try to get the holes drilled in the heatsink to chase the wires through. That is if there are no satanic hard spots anywhere else. Hopefully by the weekend I should be able to start figuring out fan placement and whatnot. Oh I am not including pics of wiring that is just for testing purposes and leds lit up. By now I hope that all of us have seen them. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 hahaha! the no warning on the lights is like a hazing! welcome to the club(if you can still see to find it!) it is easier to use stranded wires but i used solid on all of mine. it is fine Link to comment
wickeddd Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 I did how ever forget to wear my welding hood when I lit these dudes up. How come NO ONE warned me on that one. I went through the exact same thing -__- And the box that your Aquapod came in is awesome Good luck on the LED setup! Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 Thanks for my induction Dennis. Good times. With my wires being snaked I think I am gonna go with stranded. That way the unidirectional movements that the wire will be placed in will not cause undue wear on the jacket. Yea I liked that box alot. But my pod didnt come in that. My rock came in that box. I thought about keeping it and cutting a few holes in it for my 2 year olds halloween costume this year. Momma said nope! Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 21, 2009 Author Share Posted August 21, 2009 , . .. . . I am so damn mad at the moment. I spent the last 3 hours snaking wires, soldering them to the LEDS....Then I hooked up the only untested puck I had. I had used one puck to test the LEDS last night. One string at a time. This is how it went. LED's fired, dim. I adjusted the pot. Not much change. THEN the puck started with this durn high pitch tone LEDS went CRAZY BRIGHT then out. This all happened within what I would say was less than two seconds. Well faster than I could unplug the powersupply which was right at my left hand. Now I am left with two burnt out blues and one burnt out white. Dont ask I soldered one white into the line of blues. Forgot to mark that one.. Oh that puck was so hot I could barely touch it. I tested each led and they were all isolated from the heatsink so there were no shorts to be found in the circuits. What the heck could have caused this run away puck? Dennis save me some leds bro. Looks like the gremlins are gonna eat mine. I think I am gonna walk away from this project for a few days. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 Well I talked to Zack at Luxdrive today. He is gonna replace the LEDs and the puck. Along with a fellow member, he and I are baffled at why the puck didnt completly fail and fuse itself to save the LEDs. Now its time to really look into the setup and see if I have missed anything that could have caused this. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share Posted August 25, 2009 Well after looking indepth at the wiring I found nothing at all that would have triggered any failure. I even went so far as to remove all the wires, resolder new wires in and retest. With the 1st puck and the remaining LEDs. All worked flawlessly. So who knows. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the damaged goods into the mail and get this thing finished. Sorry for the dull post, but busted LED's dont make good pics. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Not to worry dude. There have been many such odd failures of Buckpucks for no seemingly good reason. If it wasn't for the fact that there aren't any other good alternatives, I wouldn't use them any more. When they work, they work. When they fail, it's a mystery sometimes as to why. Oh, welcome to the bleeding eyeball club Link to comment
CaliberGSD Posted September 5, 2009 Share Posted September 5, 2009 any updates? I have a aquapod12 myself and am looking forword to seeing yours before i start.. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 5, 2009 Author Share Posted September 5, 2009 Sorry not any yet. Hopefully in the next few weeks this project will be wrapped up. I am waiting on LuxDrive to return the damaged goods. Link to comment
CaliberGSD Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 How/Why did you pick the size of the heat sink? Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 8, 2009 Author Share Posted September 8, 2009 How: I asked Evil and Deepvrnarq what size I would need. Then I think we finally decided to stuff as big of one in as we could. Why: If you dont have one big enough the poss. of blowing your LED's gets greater. Link to comment
CaliberGSD Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Did you figure out on how to get the lid off? It seems as if it doesnt come off to be put back on. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 9, 2009 Author Share Posted September 9, 2009 I found this. If you open the lid about half way and pull up the hinges will come apart alot easier. I have had my top off so much that it will snap apart much more easy now. Gettin it back on is a bit of a pain, but nothing a little bit of force cannot fix. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 .....I have had my top off so much that it will snap apart much more easy now. Gettin it back on is a bit of a pain, but nothing a little bit of force cannot fix. slut! Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share Posted September 13, 2009 Ha Ha you got me Dennis. Okay for all the three people that are following this thread..Here is the update. Luxdrives customer service at the moment is unexistant. I cannot get any returned phone calls, or emails. So at this moment they have one of my pucks and two of the LED's. I am not going to hack into the hood b4 I have all the supplies back in my hand. As its looking at the moment I may have to buy more stuff due to Luxdips not wanting to play nice. Link to comment
Needreefunds Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Ha Ha you got me Dennis. Okay for all the three people that are following this thread..Here is the update. We are watching buddy. Luxdrives customer service at the moment is unexistant. I cannot get any returned phone calls, or emails. So at this moment they have one of my pucks and two of the LED's. I am not going to hack into the hood b4 I have all the supplies back in my hand. As its looking at the moment I may have to buy more stuff due to Luxdips not wanting to play nice. ....bastids. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 16, 2009 Author Share Posted September 16, 2009 LOL I am glad you got my back Richie! Luxdrive. I was just telling my wife today that I was thinking about starting a thread about the poor customer service that they have. I am now up to 6 phone calls w/o the first response. I am sure that with all the problems that they have had with their drivers that the thread would be explosive. Once it grew up into a nice little thread I would Email the link ZACK @ Luxdrive "wink wink". I am not sure, but I think that would get some little attention. Link to comment
Needreefunds Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 LOL I am glad you got my back Richie! Luxdrive. I was just telling my wife today that I was thinking about starting a thread about the poor customer service that they have. I am now up to 6 phone calls w/o the first response. I am sure that with all the problems that they have had with their drivers that the thread would be explosive. Once it grew up into a nice little thread I would Email the link ZACK @ Luxdrive "wink wink". I am not sure, but I think that would get some little attention. Unfortunately that may just be the best way to get a response at this point. Also a good way to let fellow reefers whats up and what to expect. Sux this is taking so long for you....sweet looking build so far. Link to comment
thecowkid Posted September 16, 2009 Author Share Posted September 16, 2009 It has been unleashed. Thanks Richie. I was sure wishing to have this thing done weeks ago. Now thanks to some uncapable incomp I have a really nice looking pile of stuff. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 holy cow dude! i forgot to send you the LEDs. i will send them today or tomorrow. haha pun intended Link to comment
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