Cody'sLab it also goes into what supplies, even for lighting, that you have available to work with. as a light bulb collector, I have all the bulbs I need, I just need to find myself more sockets, mounting brackets, ballasts for the gas discharge lamps, and whatever other required electrical equipment in which I also have yet to find and save up for
I remember a guy at a 'party' that had an inverter the size of a small fridge in the back of his mini van, it was running an old arc light from a theater. the huge light was mounted to the roof racks and it was rated at 20 K. The inverter was on fire and I told him, he didn't seem to worried as this was happening periodically. He did put the fire out, but did not stop running the light.
Impressive! I built a 1.6kW myself a few months ago, and I had to abandon the lenses because of that yellow circle. I thought it was an optical "stretch" of the light with the higher angle of refraction on the edge, but thanks a lot for the tip! Also, how did you fix the lens holders in place with the lenses like that? Thanks! :)
A few things you might want to think about Water wetter, it's not a type of anti-freeze, but it breaks down the surface tension of water, improving heat transfer Also, by chaining the water blocks like that, some array's will be getting hotter then others, possibly significantly so. Sections of copper tubing in the straight sections could help add some additional cooling and help with the sagging issue if your ever running those cooling lines again in the future.
Using manual exposure and then turning the LEDs off, leaving only the normal celing lamps, was a good idea. It really made it clear how wild those LEDs are. Cool stuff!
I admire your set up, layout, and workmanship. Most excellent. One feature you must add is the use of coolant instead of water. Should drop temperature about 15%. For 5KW, that is an outstanding array. I rigged a similar array for my wife in her art endeavors. I'd guesstimate 2 to 4 times incandescent power requirement for the same coverage. Here is a trick for you. We needed full or modified spectrum of color in her studio. I painted the entire ceiling with the entire spectrum rainbow. Then reflecting some of the light off the ceiling, six 500 watt portable halogens in my case, we could add some or all of the color spectrum as desired. Absolutely fantastic for getting to proper skin tone and color of the models regardless of their natural skin color.
I love how the normal florescent shop lights look so dim with the LED lights on. The camera is stopped down so far that the FL lights look burned out! Very cool.
If your application is for filming only, you could evaluate synching your camera shutter with a control circuit, which will enable (open) the current to the LEDs only when needed (24, 30, 50 or 60fps) and at a duty-cycle (DC) of your choice. A few opto checks will setup the DC for each shot. That will save a considerable amount of electrical power without compromising the light levels perceived by the camera sensor. You've done a remarkable project. My regards
I had thought of that, but these are being used for high-speed filming, with several cameras running at different frame rates. This makes is basically impossible to do this because the shutters never line up due to the different frame rates.
Awesome. -- I just saw a video where some had been tested and I was shocked at the lack of quality. Keep up the good work! -- Maybe think about running the coolant in parallel and use anti-freeze for better heat absorption.
tesla500 I was thinking instead of using tin foil to mask the edge of the LED chips, why not try a non metallic non stick oven cooking sheet. They are thin, easy to cut to shape and made to sit at very high temperatures for long periods.
Make yourself a little supply and return manifold so the cooling blocks are piped in parallel. I promise you that you will not be disappointed with your temperatures. Great build!
Perhaps automotive gasket paper could work as a mask too, designed for high temp & might be able to cut it with a laser. This stuff for example is good to 1200F www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/MRG0/77/N0488.oap?pt=N0488&ppt=C0137
Looks good. Make sure youre treating the water in the loop to prevent nasties from growing. Thatll be one hell of a mess to deal with if you have to pull it all apart and clean everything:)
This is insane! In a wonderful kind of way :D Love it! Nice to see people out there making practical innovations and putting together tech in new and interesting ways. Keep up the very interesting innovations! You've earned another subscriber. :)
Oh yeah, one more trick for your water system, try a product called 'water wetter' it's basically a surfactant that helps break the surface tension of the water in the boundary layer of the heat sink and heat exchanger. It's usually used in cars and it does make a difference, it's like 8 bucks for a bottle.
Awesome project! Wouldn't it be easier to use pc water cooling stuff and equip each light with its standalone cooling system and avoid the water distribution pipes all over the place? Thanks for the great content!
You could use that setup in a large venue to help people who suffer with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD for short), it's as bright as a sunny summers day, that's a given!! :D
Now this, THIS is why you don't tell the engineer to crank it up to 12. Have you considered using more powerful LED modules(500W?) for the man-portable version? They cost a whole lot more, but they can be a lot more compact.
They look like much larger modules. Might be good for your floods, but not the spots yet. www.aliexpress.com/store/product/High-Power-LED-Chip-150W-200W-300W-500W-Cool-Warm-White-LED-COB-Beads-Bulb-Light/1913069_32632947360.html
I wouldnt say they cost a whole lot more, for the same watts, they are less than 2x as expensive, and some sellers have them for around 50usd, which is basically the same price as 100w leds at 10usd per chip
The sagging issue with the tubing underlines an potential of it failing or developing leaks. Fiber reinforced Tygon tubing that is rated for hot water applications may be in order for your needs. Also, you may want to consider re-plumbing and making it all parallel instead of series, using a valving manifold. This will also solve your cooling issues as well.
One thing you could do to get a bit more radiator area is to replace some of the tubing runs with copper pipe. It would actually clean up the way that it looks, and the tubing itself would effectively become another radiator.
I like to only be a Patreon for my top 3 favorite channels but I went to check your Patreon out and I cant believe you only get $39 donated to you casue (SO I had to throw a few buck your way, keep up the cool videos) ... I love you tear downs and even more your builds like this....
That was impressive! Those floureschent lights in the ceiling look like they where off - and those usually give off quite much light compared to "normal" indoor lighting. I also know those tube halogen lamps of 1 kW - now think of LEDs thats so much more efficient. Each module is like 5-6 times that light, LOL! Perfect for high speed filming.
So this is how you got all those Slo Mo vids with your cam....That cam was awesome btw....I wish I could be an intern in your garage,...lol...im not joking btw
Wow. Nice. Although, I should mention that your cooling system should be connected in a "star" configuration rather than in series. The way it's shown in the video, that last set of LED's is going to be running WAY hotter than the first set.
I'd recommend doing what DIY Perks did on his LED. Sand the flat side of the lens to get it frosted, it will still focus the light, but the yellowish ring will be blended into the rest of the light. Your current settup, while also viable, wastes that light for heating the paper.
this has probably been mentioned, but just in case it hasn't, i feel it's important for me to inform you about the importance of bonding your non current-carrying electrical components to ground via that green wire that seems to be cut short, and or hanging loose in the vid. $0.02
If you add some coloured LED's to the clear cooling hoses that run around your garage, you be well on the of making a Star Trek Borg TV set😉, great project always enjoy watching someone pushing technology to its limit's.
If those are lit up at night like that in your garage and a cop drives by and sees light leaking through the garage door he's gunna get a warrant and raid your house for growing weed lol
Curious as to the power efficiency (light output versus input power) of your array against lighting used in television broadcast or stage work. I know little about either, but imagine with the proper colour temperature that perhaps the LED array might out-perform other types in certain aspects. Would you care to comment on this or perhaps viewers in the know might chime in here?
That must have been extremely satisfying to watch the first time that you turned the pump on and watched the air being purged from the cooling circuit...If you find yourself struggling for thermal capacity, a cheap way to get a stupid amount of cooling might be to use a car radiator? Might find that you can then get away with very little requirement for fan cooling in this case, and you could find one then with an integral header tank to simplify things a bit.
i think water supply which is connected in series can be an issue with light connected at last and second last. may be it could reach its working temperature. but i suggest to have all water lines in parallel discharge and return connected header. and to enhance same setup for lower temperature you can add thermo-electric cooling plates .
I would be interested to see if you get any 'phase banding' or 'flicker' from these lights when shooting at very high frame rates for slow motion, have you shot any tests yet?
This is perfect for a Photo studio (Yes, sometimes fixed lights are better than flash). I get problems with the Room temp when i run my current setup with 5x 2000 Watt MHL Lamps @250V. Mount it on movable heads (maybe with some servos? :D), perfect. I would buy some ... or try to build it myself.
Use a beer flash cooler that has a cold water circulation pump. You'd be able to keep the temperature extremely low. Only downside is that it wouldn't be portable! Either way, you could set up a massive LED rig and not have to worry about it overheating.
Better cooler would be to use a car radiator and plumb it in, with 4 of those large fans to shift air through it. Would improve the performance greatly. Plus add as well to the coolant some antifreeze, as otherwise your thermal transfer will become degraded with corrosion inside the milled blocks. If you are going to leave the coolant in there a long time seal the system as well, as you will get a bacterial film growing inside the tubing and parts, living off the plastic and seals. Seal the system airtight and it will last longer, or do what I did and run around 0.5% KI in solution as a disinfectant, with no antifreeze. Remember as well that that clear PU tubing will degrade with time, better to replace it with the same size nylon tubing which will not be clear and which will be stiffer. Use push in pneumatic fittings to make the bends as well then, they are actually cheaper than the hose barb fittings.
Hose should be black to prevent any kind of algae growth. In having ran aquarium algae scrubber for a 4yr run I can attest to that. Maybe stick some propylene glycol (Safe pink rv antifreeze) in the water and try to keep covered the reservoire. Btw you'll get a brighter tighter spread with the Ledil Angelina reflectors and them masks may have better chance to cool on the front side. ;)
The idea with the masking is pretty neat. I have to try this. Have you measured the actual temperature directly at the led in this setup? A water temperature of 70°C is pretty high and even while your led mounts seem really good, the leds are probably getting a bit too hot for long term operation.
Adding the thermal cutout is a good idea. However, I would not place it on the back plate of the water cooling cavity, but instead either on the side of the front, or on the front between teh LEDs. The way it's placed now will protect you if the water flow stops, but it will complete fail to work if you got a water leak, because then you'll have quite a bit of air between the back plate and the front that has the LEDs on, and it'll take way too long for the thermal sensor to notice the rise in temperatures. Your LEDs will be long dead by that time :)
Led lighting becomes impractical when you need a ton of light, but I would be interested to compare the equivalent amount of leds to an IMAX size xenon arc lamp. How much surface area would you lose and how much energy would be wanted on cooling if leds were used? I'm guessing it would be less, but you never know.
This LED setup produces almost as much light as a 15kW Xenon lamp like those used in IMAX projectors. Xenon lamps aren't that efficient, but they do produce vastly more concentrated light than LEDs, which allows better focusing. Imagine all the light from these LEDs being produced in a 3x10mm area. There's no way you could run an IMAX projector with LEDs, at least with current technology. In terms of cooling, the Xenon lamp is more complex than cooling these LEDs. Those large lamps require two water cooling loops (one for each electrode) which are electrically isolated, plus powerful air cooling as well.
No, it's not - semiconductors will die in flames, if you try tu concentrate even 1 kw in small area like arc of xenon lamp. In headlights there are arrays of tiny leds with lenses.
I wonder... Why won't you use automotive radiator as a cooler? They come with 12V fans, taking a big one with two fans and running them at lower voltage would provide plenty of cooling and quiet operation.
@2:50 you could find thin gasket material such as for automotive use. Although it may be to thick for this application. The nice part is the heat range it can tolerate .
Should not use series connection for cooling. By the last light block, the input water temperature will already be too high. Plumb it in parallel and you'll get better cooling performance.
I've cracked LEDs like these cooling them with liquid nitrogen, so yes XD "Reasonable" temperatures should be fine, the limit is probably having them get covered in condensation or frost. This LED stack would melt about 600g of ice per minute, so it would take a lot of ice too.
I love it finally a garage where I can change my fucking oil in the middle of winter be warm and have some light thank you. Pretty good pretty good job on the technical shit2 props
You have literally made purgatory, like that scene out of pirates of the Caribbean. Also do you notice trixxie bumping into objects randomly since making this video??
I have an idea. You can use the heating radiators inside the home. You can connect the water cooling system there so that all heating from the leds will be transported to the radiators and warm the home too.
Use an aluminum Honda Civic radiator, you can find them for super cheap on ebay. Also maybe think about painting or covering the whole area in something WHITE so you get better, more even light performance
You should freeze water bottles and throw them into your water tank - you can re-freeze once they melt, indefinitely. Should significantly help with the cooling.
amazing lights! thanks for description about thermal breaker, my microwave oven have a same one... and this is a my problem - which dont turned on a oven ))) i just replace this small device and my microwave - bake against!
