Lighting WWWillie - COBs on the cheap or Such a deal!

[wwwillie]

Hey now!
This is pretty cool so I just had to share it with you guys. I just got into COB LED lighting on 4/20 this year and it's all @BigSm0 's fault. He was on site with a contest for one of his AutoCOB lights. I did not win but I did fall in love with them. So much so that I jumped on the sale and bought a kit of four. Loved them so much I bought four "partially done" kits. So now I have 8 of his great lights.
Now me being me and always getting carried away... I started looking around and buying sh*t; it's what I do, ya know. I came across some refurb CPU coolers on NewEgg and bought four of them for $1.99 each, shipped. Then one day bored at the office while waiting for some stuff to compile, I went browsing on AliBaba, a dangerous thing to do! I found these COB chips with electronics on board. Give them 110vac and away we go. I bought 6 for $11.67 shipped.
Now the fun begins. The chips arrived yesterday and I am sitting there looking at them trying to figure out what to do. I puttered about a bit and then I spied the CPU coolers and thought, what the heck, let's take a look. They looked like the would kinda fit so I popped of the protective cover on the heatsink goop and placed the COB pcb on it. It fit great but I couldn't think how to permanently attach it. I didn't want to drill and tap, that's what is holding up my other DIY COB project. Scratching my head I noticed the motherboard mounting bracket for the CPU cooler and thought, Hmmmm... Low and behold it fit perfectly and if I reversed it it would fit tightly enough to hold the COB pcb nice and securely. W00t!! I had a complete COB 30 watt 3500K 80CRI for just under $4.00 US! Dayum!!

Here it is all wired up and ready to fire.

From the top.

From the side.

Lit up and looking bright. Had to pump a ton of flash at it to get a good shot.

All the bits I used to make it. You can see the motherboard bracket bit and the heatsink goop on the CPU cooler. The COB pcbs are a great fit.

I fired it up and let it run for a while. At five minutes it was pretty hot about 110F after ten minutes it got to about 160F I will prolly need to use the fans so that adds a bit to the complexity and expense but even so. I need to make them safe. I am thinking about some hi temp silicone to pot the wires in and insulate them and as importantly anchor them. At line voltage you don't want those coming loose! It would be nice if they did not need the fans but I will come up with a power supply because I think that will make them perfect.
The only question now is how long the chip lasts and how well the light from them will grow my plants!

 

[Slater]

Hey now!
This is pretty cool so I just had to share it with you guys. I just got into COB LED lighting on 4/20 this year and it's all @BigSm0 's fault. He was on site with a contest for one of his AutoCOB lights. I did not win but I did fall in love with them. So much so that I jumped on the sale and bought a kit of four. Loved them so much I bought four "partially done" kits. So now I have 8 of his great lights.
Now me being me and always getting carried away... I started looking around and buying sh*t; it's what I do, ya know. I came across some refurb CPU coolers on NewEgg and bought four of them for $1.99 each, shipped. Then one day bored at the office while waiting for some stuff to compile, I went browsing on AliBaba, a dangerous thing to do! I found these COB chips with electronics on board. Give them 110vac and away we go. I bought 6 for $11.67 shipped.
Now the fun begins. The chips arrived yesterday and I am sitting there looking at them trying to figure out what to do. I puttered about a bit and then I spied the CPU coolers and thought, what the heck, let's take a look. They looked like the would kinda fit so I popped of the protective cover on the heatsink goop and placed the COB pcb on it. It fit great but I couldn't think how to permanently attach it. I didn't want to drill and tap, that's what is holding up my other DIY COB project. Scratching my head I noticed the motherboard mounting bracket for the CPU cooler and thought, Hmmmm... Low and behold it fit perfectly and if I reversed it it would fit tightly enough to hold the COB pcb nice and securely. W00t!! I had a complete COB 30 watt 3500K 80CRI for just under $4.00 US! Dayum!!

Here it is all wired up and ready to fire.

From the top.

From the side.

Lit up and looking bright. Had to pump a ton of flash at it to get a good shot.

All the bits I used to make it. You can see the motherboard bracket bit and the heatsink goop on the CPU cooler. The COB pcbs are a great fit.

I fired it up and let it run for a while. At five minutes it was pretty hot about 110F after ten minutes it got to about 160F I will prolly need to use the fans so that adds a bit to the complexity and expense but even so. I need to make them safe. I am thinking about some hi temp silicone to pot the wires in and insulate them and as importantly anchor them. At line voltage you don't want those coming loose! It would be nice if they did not need the fans but I will come up with a power supply because I think that will make them perfect.
The only question now is how long the chip lasts and how well the light from them will grow my plants!

Can't see the pics @wwwillie

 

[wwwillie]

Can't see the pics @wwwillie

OK Lemme see what's going on here. Sorry bout dat!

 

[L0wbob2017]

Can't see the pics @wwwillie

same for me

 

[ablankley]

All showing fine for me mate

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[L0wbob2017]

when i try to open it in a new tab it says:

"
The AutoFlower Network - AFN - Error
You do not have permission to view media within this album.
"

 

[BigSm0]

No pictures here either. I'm one of those... I need to see it type of special. Lol

 

[wwwillie]

I hear you folks.
It seems to be an issue with the album here on AFN. The powers that be are working on it. I am sorry. You will get a kick out of them I promise!!

 

[L0wbob2017]

Maybe you can give us some Model-Numbers of your 30W 110VAC COB chip.

I am thinking about something like this

So if i take the value u gave us ( 30W ) and combine it with the fact that AC driven COBs are less efficient than DC driven COBs,
then lets assume u got max 40% of the input energy is light and 60% of the input energy is heat.

FYI: This is just me assuming. So we got (40% of 30W is) 12W of light and (60% of 30W is) 18W of heat.
Your heatsink should to be able to cool at least 25W of heat ( i would rather go at about 3 times the needed wattage, so about 60W. The cooler the COB the more efficient it is ).

The problem with "fixing that damn COB to a CPU heatsink without drilling" is something i faced too in my "watercooled photosythetic research COB-LED Lamp" and i solved it by using a 2 component thermal compound that works like a glue and gets hard like stone after about 5 minutes. Just apply some weight until it is dry and the COB sticks to the heatsink like it is one piece. ( can be removed later )

 

[wwwillie]

Wow thanks @L0wbob2017 nice write up. Yup that's pretty close to the chip all right. Again sorry about the pics. I will reload when I get home tonight.
Nice summary on the output / input and wattage.
Yup the mounting is always the bear. That's what was so sweet about this project. I bought this stuff because because I like to fiddle and it was cheep as hell. The fact that it all fit together like they were made too was a complete surprise and a major bonus!!