XSiVE's 120 in-wall

[XSiVE]

As promised - here's the build for one of my two LED pendants. I started with an idea of approximately what I wanted... drew it up in google sketchup:


LEDs - x36 CREE XR-E Q5 & x36 CREE XR-E RB mounted on star PCB from rapidLED.com
Drivers - x6 MeanWell ELN-60-48D also from rapidLED.com


Got my two 8.46"x16" heat sinks from Heatsinksusa.com these things are deceptively heavy.


Some 1/20"x96" Aluminum L-stock from Lowes/Home Depot, relatively cheap and very useful if you're doing some light structural stuff.


Line things up and mark them for drilling


Drill your pilot holes


Make sure you clamp everything together once you get to the second heat sink if you're putting two together like I was. I also found on my second pendant that it was easier to drill from the other side of the heat sink so I could get a nice centered hole between the fins.


Bolt it all up.


Clean the heat sink off with rubbing alcohol to remove any machining lubricant that may be left on then measure out and draw your grid on with a sharpie, don't worry about how exact it is, it's just gotta be pretty even / close.

[XSiVE]

Mix up your epoxy if you're using that. I decided to go with this stuff as it gives the best thermal transfer as compared to using a thermal paste + screwing them down.


Use just a little bit of epoxy on the bottom of your LEDs.. a thin blob about 1/4 the size of the mixing tool.. here I used too much.


This one is just about the right amount.


Blues all stuck down.


Wire them together, positive of one to negative of the next.


Test firing the blues.


Here are the blues dimmed as far as possible using my current dimming circuit, as you can see, the driver is putting out 50 mA at this point and they will still make you see spots.


This is the dimming circuit I put together - courtesy Evilc66 in a thread on RC.

[XSiVE]

Repeat blue steps for white LEDs.


Since I went with 72 total LEDS for my system, I ended up with what amounts to an exrta half a string(only 6 instead of 12) of each blue and white per pendant so I made a sort of "50/50" string.. It has trouble dimming, I assume because the different fV or something.


Bracket made from more aluminum L stock, and a little bit of 1/8" bar stock. these pieces are just bolted into the main L bracket with m3 nuts and bolts.


all ready to do a full test.


hanging.. holy crap I didnt think a light could be so heavy.. it's probably 20-25lbs!


yay! all lit!


and from underneath.



I'll have more of this LED build to come, I have to condense all of the wiring into something that can easily connect to these.