Rob's Homemade LEDs - Hardware

This was the original idea - bolt the LEDs to Berocca tubes (hence the green) and then into 20x20x1.5mm aluminium angle. That's then fixed and hinged to the transparent box behind (83x54x30mm) which holds the control electronics.

To overcome the difficulties in the first design (where the bracket holding the LED tubes is wider than the control box) this appeared.

Bolt LEDs to Berocca tubes (hence the green) and then into 20x20x1.5mm aluminium angle. The bottom part (with three tubes) is then fixed and hinged to the transparent box behind (83x54x30mm) which holds the control electronics.

The fourth and final LED is fixed atop the first bracket. Not sure I like this really as it's looking a bit vulnerable to impacts with tree branches.

This is Stuart's take on how things should be. He thought a 2x2 stack of lights would be better than the spread out designs I'd been talking about.

This design didn't fly because I thought it would be too high and looking back on things, would have been very tricky to mount heat sinks too.

Although on the other hand, if you could find a nice square heat sink that the tubes could have been bolted directly too this would have been a good plan.

This was the fourth idea idea I came up with. It's a hybrid between Stuart's 2x2 and the others I guess.

Am liking it a lot because the end two LEDs can be adjusted independently of each other and the middle two (which are fixed together, but that's good).

The LEDs are bolted to Berocca tubes (hence the green) and then into 20x20x1.5mm aluminium angle. For the middle two they are then fixed and hinged to the transparent box behind (83x54x30mm) which holds the control electronics. The end two are hinged through the same centre of rotation but can be moved separately. You could even bend the aluminium angle a little for these end two, so as to change their direction horizontally.

Berocca tubes scrub up nicely (with P280 wet and dry)... astute readers will notice this is Indonesian Berocca

Initially I thought using a Dremel (rotary tool) with disc cutting wheel would be a good idea, but no - stick with the hacksaw here (using finest blade you can find).

Don't press too hard - the tubes are quiet thin and bend easily.

A single lens in Berocca tube (with 8x25 degree diffuser that we won't be using) - fits perfectly.

Note the gap around the edge where we'll be sealing the lens in later.

Use the MCPCB as a guide and drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the Berocca tube. These have to be really very accurate - the lens won't fit if it's more than probably half a millimetre out.

The bolts (screws) here are 2mm and as you can see, there's hardly any clearance, but just enough, between their heads and the LED contacts.

I had a couple of accidents trying to bolt through the aluminum where the holes behind were not perfectly aligned. That meant the screw heads were not perfectly flat on the MCPCB and cut into it causing a short. Very bad, but if this happens repair it with nail varnish.

Make the back plate for the middle two lights... starting with 100mm of angle measure and cut 20mm into both ends.

After cutting down the corner of the angle, make another cut on the correct side (that's not the side cut first off) and bend back what's left at 90 degrees.

Repeat at the other end. Then, make another one and cut it down the centre so each half becomes the back plate for the end LEDs.

Make sure the part you just made fits the electronics enclosure - using spare aluminum as spacers (the uprights will fit here).

While doing all this, try not to chop up thumbnails like some

Measure, cut and bend some more angle for the uprights. I used a bit of clear plastic (top of a yoghurt pot) as a template for where to drill holes for the hinge.

Make sure it's all fitting nicely... Can you tell what it is yet?

These L2 Optics, although made for Cree LEDs don't account for any connections made atop the MCPCB the Crees I bought came mounted on.

Not that big a deal - get the Dremel (or knock of rotary tool) out and mill the bottom a bit. The adhesive that's fitted bottom of these does nothing but get in the way of that process though - so chop out where you'll be milling first.

Oh - stuff something (tissue here) in where the LED goes - don't want hot plastic shavings getting in there.

An L2 Optics lens after a bit of milling - fits the MCPCB a treat now.

Ah - because of the way the middle two LEDs connect one of the remaining corners will also be removed for each of the centre lenses.

Drill and mount Berocca tubes with Lenses to backplate. Round off the aluminum corners a bit too.

These sinks came with self adhesive tape, but bugger that - we're using bolts so drill some holes.

Apply some thermal grease and fix the heat sinks. It's dirty stuff and will squeeze out of the sides of the joins so don't over do it.

Everything bolted up - there are LEDs inside each of these tubes although you see the left one is the only one with a wire at this point.

The wider hole on the right isn't an accident - the middle two tubes have a single wire entering/leaving the bottom of each (they have a wire between them at the other side - out of shot), whereas the end two need room for two wires in and out the same hole.