Current LED build

So i had ordered the 36 DIY kit from aquastyle a few weeks back. Its arrived and have already soldered the dimmers/power chords to the drivers. My current issue is that I avoided spending the large amount of money required for the heatsinks and I think i am going to go to a large computer recycling store located near me and purchase some. I will likely try to buy a bunch of desktop computer heatsinks that are all uniform in size and shape and then will mount them inside of an aluminum channel and adhere them using some sort of construction ahesive/cement. I will then mount my LED's to this channel so that it is a flat surface. Does anyone see any problems with this? I am all ready to begin and get this done.

One other question i had was once I mount the heatsinks inside the aluminum channel, can i use some sort of spraypaint/primer to paint the fixture black? Would the heat from the LEDs have any affect on this? (I have two fans also)

 

You cant just use any old construction adhesive to bond the heat sinks to the aluminum channel. You have to use a thermal adhesive to get good heat transfer.

 

Cool, I ordered the 72 LED kit from Aquastyle and just finished putting together two 18 LED modules for my 40g reef tank. Going to get something to hang them up with over the tank tomorrow.

 

Okay well he shipped me 3 tubes of thermal adhesive, so I will try to use it sparingly and see if everything solidifies quite nicely.

 

Yup, had the same thought when I read that part.


Also, in regards to the black paint, really the best way to make them black would be have them anodized at a local shop which will do that sort of thing. However, considering it looks like you're trying to keep the cost low, that's probably not an appealing option to you. I'm not entirely certain what/where you're wanting to paint, but so long as you have a very thin coating of spray paint, it won't significantly affect anything. If you use too much paint, it will act as a thermal insulator in that it conducts heat poorly and will change the convective heat transfer coefficient.

 

What sort of aluminum channel are you using? You might be able to forgo the heatsinks and just use that. I have seen a couple builds using just aluminum "C" channel from lowes or home depot.

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I will likely usE tue standard aluminum c channels from home depot if they are wide enough. 5 to 7 inches preferbaly. Ive only seen 3-1/2 thus far tho. I will likely still buy heatsinks to mount inside of the channel though. One though i had, how is it that heatsinks and these aluminum channels do not become conductive through wiring the leds and placing them on the metal heatsinks/channels?

 

LED emitters are electrically isolated from the aluminum stars they are mounted on. You have to be careful when you solder so that you don't create a short to the heatsink. Check every star with multimeter continuity.