So I was at a local scrap metal place and found some industrial size heat sinks, the one pictured under the reflectors here is 6kg! I thought this would be a perfect time to move up from XM-L2’s etc and make something impressive and useful with all that heat dissipation potential so went on a bit of a spending spree and ended up with:
XHP35 HI 6500k
XHP35 HI 5000k
XHP50.2 5000k
XHP50.2 4000k
XHP70.2 5000k
XHP70.2 5000k
XHP70.2 4000k
XHP70.2 3000k
2x 6v 32mm copper pads for XHP70
Aaand:
4x 20mm reflectors
4x 41mm reflectors
2x 68mm L6 reflectors
2x 86mm reflectors
What I’m really curious about is what you would all do in terms of reflector/emitter type/colour temperature combinations. For example, would you try and throw a warm white XHP70 with an 86mm or is trying to throw 70’s pointless when I have XHP35’s… Would you put all XHP70’s under small 20mm reflectors for an absurd excess of flood with the XHP35’s or 50’s doing the throwing? I’ve also read a lot on warm vs cool tint for throwing/flood and am no more the wiser.
Whatever this turns in to, it will probably be mounted on a tractor for night work and used for scanning large paddocks (need throw, just under the 1km mark would be ideal) and close up work (need very wide flood).
I’ve done a bit of testing (blown at least 3 70’s in the process :innocent: ) and I think I’d be able to run all emitters direct drive without any drivers/voltage regulation.
Ahh well seeing as no one cares I’m just going ahead with some random(ish) combinations of LED’s and reflectors and I’ll turn this into a bit of an experimental build thread.
I decided a 6kg heat sink was stupidly big and I didn’t like the square shape, so cut her in half and gave them a bit of a polish up with a grinder.
The surface isn’t as smooth as it could be, any suggestions for polishing it up a bit? I think the surface is flat enough anyway and with a spot of thermal paste under each star it’ll do the job.
For a start I’ve separated the throw reflectors with the flood’s in the middle. I figured if they’re that far apart the beam should be slightly separated/wider and more useful than a single spot.
My logic for led/reflector combinations could be questioned. The basic logic is try to get a lot of usable light at all distances rather than throw some small led’s for miles while overkilling the flood with big led’s. Left to right: XHP35 HI, XHP50.2, 2x XHP70.2’s, XHP35 HI, XHP70.2.
My logic was put a XHP35 under an 86mm reflector for some serious throw, and under the other 86mm use a XHP70 to throw a LOT of light a reasonable distance. Under the 68mm reflectors I’ve got another XHP35 and a XHP50 which should also provide some decent throw. In the middle are 2x XHP70’s under a 41mm and 20mm reflector for plenty of close up flood!
My next problem to solve is how to contain it all and secure the stars/reflectors to the heat sink. I’m thinking the easiest solution might be to buy some 30mm dia aluminium bar and mount each star on that to raise the smaller reflectors to the height of the 86mm reflectors.
Might need a suggestion for a more suitable title!