Lighting So it begins, the DIY COB addiction

[iampepe]

All 4 40" angles bolted to the 16" ends now. All the mounting holes are drilled and the porterhouse is soaking in some of my ladies marinade...

 

[iampepe]

All the heat sinks are mounted.

 

[iampepe]

ceasing production to celebrate the new year

Happy New Year folks!

 

[iampepe]

The porter house was most excellent! My lady and I kicked in the new year with a few dabs of Mephisto's Menage a Tyrone. Very potent herb! I was out by 12:30 lol

All the cobs are mounted on the heat sinks with Artic Silver 5 thermal compound.

Cob spacing - 12" wide center to center and 17 1/2" long center to center We'll see how well this works :smoking:

 

[iampepe]

I'm doing all this at home on our old kitchen table with a cordless sawzaw and drill so the quality isn't the greatest compared to what I could do at the shop. This is simple and effective that's what I'm after and to show that anyone who can read a tape measure can make their own light.

Made a couple cross bars to mount the Driver. Attaching them with [HASHTAG]#10[/HASHTAG] machine screws. I drilled the main frame with a 3/16 bit and the cross bar with 11/64th, slightly smaller to get good thread engagement from the screws.

Drilled 11/64th holes into cross bar to mount the driver with # 10 pan head machine screws.

 

[iampepe]

Now it's time to burn a fatty and to figure out how to mount the junction box.

 

[BigSm0]

Damn man that looks amazing! Can't wait to see the final product

 

[iampepe]

Damn man that looks amazing! Can't wait to see the final product

I plugged it in and pressed the switch and nothing! I said damn....hmmmm so started looking at the wiring to the cobs as I touched the potentiometer and BLAM!! I'm freaking blind! Seriously that was a mistake that I'd rather not repeat again. This thing is super duper bright and I'm very happy at the moment as I see spots.

 

[iampepe]

For the junction box I just made another crossbar and attached with [HASHTAG]#10[/HASHTAG] screws. I then screwed the box down to it with a washer on one screw to use for the ground inside the box.

Drilled the holes for the cable glands and installed a couple. The beige cord is the power cord repurposed from my old PC. The ground to the Driver and from the power cord are secured to the frame.

 

[iampepe]

Finished the rest of the wiring. Soldered the dimming leads from the driver to potentiometer and a ground to the frame. Installed a press button spst switch for On/Off. Last thing was to run the wiring for the cobs, red wire from the driver to the positive on the first cob and then from negative to positive all around the cobs back to the driver.

Let there be light!

:smoking::smoking:
Minimum power

Giving all she's got captain!

The difference is minimal in the pictures but at full throttle in person this baby is crazy bright. I dare say it's putting out more light than my 600 hps.

Drilled a couple holes in the lid for the on/off switch and the dimmer.

Now to put a couple hangers on it and give the old HPS the boot!