My Project

beautiful :-)

love your garden !!

My 40 watt RGB LED just arrived.

and the 15 degree LED lens



Maybe a test lighting tonight.

First photos of a 40 watt RGB LED. Running all three colors at 16 volts - 700 ma's.
The 15 degree lens was crap - its gone.
I placed the LED at the end of the plexiglass light rod and WOW.
The LM317 regulators with the heat sink only get warm.
But the LED GETS HOT - ( I was running it without a fan for the photos though) will take care of that tomorrow.
Wonder how to attach the heat sink with LED to the bottom of the light rod?
Wonder if I will get the same brightness by running 4/5 3 mm fiber optic cable from the LED to the light rod?

Man you got to get one of these.

These photos are not retouched or are they a time exposure - the stream is really that bright - even from the side.

That is amazing! WOW! I'm very impressed! I was going to put 7 5W leds in my next fountain, but I don't need to now, I'll get get the 40W ledS!!!!! Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!

impressive

Where did you get that 40W led ?
I still think that sound to much for a LED

Anyway, the results seems great

Heres the complete list of all LED's
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?FS=TRUE&N=254227+4294758820+1323038&Ns=P_SField\

Look for all the LEDENGIN brands. Their website - www.ledengin.com

Here is the RGB LED
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?FS=TRUE&N=254227+4294758820+1323038&Ns=P_SField

Heres an RGB and Amber
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?FS=TRUE&N=254227+4294758820+1323038&Ns=P_SField

There are 12 LED's in my RGB unit - 4 of each color. Expensive if you trash it - but otherwise well worth the results and needing to only worry about hooking up 1 LED.

One quick question, are they the same size as the other LED stars?

The "regular" stars are around 22 mm in diameter and the led itself is around 5 mm in diameter.

The 40 watter's are 28 mm in diameter and the led itself is 9 mm in diameter - the "dome" of the led is also higher by around 3 mm.
Larger size but it does house 12 color chips.
It gets HOT!

Ike was correct - no more lighting for me until I get a CPU heatsink and cooling fan.
Man I love these things.

I did not make it to Fry's electronics today but still had to work on the heatsink problem.
Next best thing - steal parts out of my son's PC he left behind.
I could not have figured out anything better than what I found.
The copper plate ( which is the best conductive material for heat) on the heatsink was a perfect fit for the LED.
I also cut out the fan holder to use it as a LED holder - not installed yet.
Attached the heatsink fan - the LED base and the copper plate is cool to the touch but when the blue light
Is on the LED dome gets hot to the touch. I don't think that is anything to worry about though.



I would like to have LED right up on the end of the plexiglass light rod - maybe it could be housed in a piece of pvc tube somehow.

Suggestions welcomed

You can buy just the CPU heatsink clip that goes around the processor and holds the heatsink in place to the motherboard. I would buy one of those, attach it to the underside of sheet of PVC, cut out a hole in the PVC in the middle of the heatsink clip and centered on the plexiglass rod.

That would give you a secure base for your heatsink and LED and make for easy alignment with your plexiglass rod. You'd also get the benefit of easy removal of the heatsink and LED should you need to tinker with it. Just unattach it from the clip.

With the LED color chips being arranged in a scattered manner

http://ledengin.com/products/40wLZ/LZC-00MC40.pdf page #7

(except for the blue - which explains the blinding brightness) and the LED lens dome
being so large - even six fiber optic cables could not capture all the magnificent light.



The only way to get the full effect of 40 watts is to place the LED right at the end of the light tube.
I also feel that a 1/2 inch plexiglass rod is the way to go. 6 feet is only $6.00.

Its turning out to be harder than I thought to mount the LED, heatsink and fan to the light rod.
Also this setup has to be protected from H20. Next years fountains will have to be longer to enclose this light source.

Heres the finished setup.

That looks nice! Where are you mounting the LED?

For this season I am just mounting the whole setup in a 6 inch piece of PVC pipe, lining it up with the end of the light rod and screwing it down.
When I rebuild the fountains, during the winter, I will add around 3-4 inches to the length of the main tube and mounting everything in there.

I guess this summer is another of testing testing and retesting. Hopefully next year I can be done with this - oh I forgot - a cutter system.

I need suggestions for a thumper. Easy to build or right something off the shelf.

somebody had a really good suggestion, use the solenoid from a sprinkler valve. It's already water proof.

Today was around 95 degrees and I decided to put both fountains below the deck, out of sight - why did I do that? - it was hot!

Well tonight I hooked up the light and decided it was well worth it.

nice light !!

Really beautiful, wish it was dark like that here also

Finished install of below the deck fountains.

That is pretty awesome..
Seems like an OEM product :-)

What is that rings from? looks like a spot-light cover.

The are decorative covers to go around 2" pipes. There is nothing "off the shelf" for anything we want to build.
I spend way too much time walking around home improvement and hardware stores looking for things "that will work"

That's really neat! Indeed everything that I have used so far is modified something or rather. It's fun to re-purpose objects. Tell me where you got those rings. Those are very professional looking!!!

I was lucky enough to come across a real fiber optic cable. I polished the ends and made a holder to line it up with the LED.

Added a sprinkler solenoid "knocker" today. I made another LED Rainbow sequencing board - hooked the knocker to just one color on the board - that way I could choose
any sequence of knocks that looked good.

View My Video

The output from your 40w LED looks great. I am sure you are right to use a 15mm plexiglass rod. Are you prepared to share the part no of the LED you are using, there are several? Spending approx.£50.00 and then getting the wrong one is not a good idea. I know you are using 317 current regulators what current are you aiming at and hence the value of the ballast resistor. Any observations geatefully received! John Jarvis

Video does not actually show how bright the light really is - its great.
There are two LED you can get one is

RGB - http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/LedEngin/LZC-80MC40/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMt82OzCyDsLFCAJ84VWo9I9ki8A5XZixTI%3d
RGB and Amber - http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/LedEngin/LZC-A0MA40/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMt82OzCyDsLFGqf%252bUg042eRzV6TqqEYOzg%3d

I just went with the RGB - that produce 256 color combo's - but there are only around 6-8 colors that really show up well.
If you look at WET DESIGN and other laminar companies - they do not use too many colors - they keep it simple.

IF you look in the photo above ( with the light shining) you can see my three individual 700 ma voltage regulators.
VERY important - BIG HEATSINK and FAN and allow decent air flow into your enclosure.

Good Luck