Thread: Workshop Led Strip Lighting.

Originally Posted by RayG

.. to me the pictures look the same, but in real life the led+fluoro is much better...

It will be because your camera is set to AWB (Auto White Balance), soit's correcting everything it sees to an average White Balance. The only way you can show the difference with a camera (and it will be quite exaggerated) is to set the camera to Daylight (and depending on the camera, you may not be able to do this).

What will happen then is that the fluro lighting will be as green as all get out, and the LEDs will be much warmer than they rally are.

However, the difference can be seen in the two light sources, even with (in fact, because of) the AWB. Look at the fluoro tubes in the left hand lower pic, compared to the right. The left tubes are warmer in colour, because the AWB has compensated only for the gren fluoros. In the RH pic, because there is the warmth of the LED as well it hasn't corrected as much, and so the fluoros look colder/bluer.

Hi Ray

what sort of camera do you have
white balance will only let us see the colour difference you will also need to set the camera to full manual and turn the flash off
the flash is why your top shots look the same

cheers
Harty

Yes, reckon you might be right there harty, and well spotted. There appears to be flash in all but the last pic, and the camera turned the flash off there because the floodlight itself actually being in the shot was so bright. That means that when the flash is activated there are three different light sources of three different colour temps and spectrums happening. Good to see another fan of complete manual overide.

Are they 100W or 10W Ray? I've never seen a 100W LED flood light that small. Or is that an inch ruler?

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Hi Ray,
Have you measured the input power as yet?
I see so many W numbers but rarely the input. I assume with something like that light if the LED is 10W there wont be to much power going into driving it. some of the other LEDs that just use resistors make me wonder.

Stuart

Hi Stuart, LED's need constant current, so if you have a constant voltage source, (like a battery) you need series resistance to limit the current.. These high power leds use a constant current source power supply, so that there are no series resistors in the main current path. The open cct voltage on these is 30+V. But to answer your question, no I haven't measured the mains input current, I'll probably get set up to do that in the next couple of days...

Originally Posted by Jack620

Are they 100W or 10W Ray? I've never seen a 100W LED flood light that small. Or is that an inch ruler?

Hi Chris, they are 100W, and yes that's an inch ruler.. they are approx 14" square..

Originally Posted by harty69

what sort of camera do you have?

A cheapie.... Nikon coolpix, I think there is a white balance setting somewhere... I'll check..


Regards
Ray

With my coolpix if you goto menu there is a wb option, there are a number of auto setting and one where you can pre set the wb.
Or give it to one of the grandkids, they will have it sorted in seconds.......
Cheers,
Ew

Hi Ray,
I don't know if these are any good to you but you can buy the globe. There might be some savings if you plan to install lots of lights.
100W Cool White High Power Super Bright LED Light 100 Watt Lamp Bulb Chip | eBay

Originally Posted by rodm

Hi Ray,
I don't know if these are any good to you but you can buy the globe. There might be some savings if you plan to install lots of lights.
100W Cool White High Power Super Bright LED Light 100 Watt Lamp Bulb Chip | eBay

Thanks Rod,

I'm investigating that option as well, since I'm thinking I'll need to build a boost smps to run these leds off a 24v supply.. The 250watt panels are best suited to 24V battery operation.

So a 24v system makes the most sense, but these LED's need 30-35V .. to get the right current.

For Stuart, 3.5A at 30V ( give or take ) is approx 100 watts, so that's DC input power, the quoted lumens is 9000-10000, so that's 90-100 lumens per watt.. not sure how to translate that into terms that make any kind of sense, Not sure this guy helps... What-Are-lumens.mp4 - YouTube

Regards
Ray

100W Cool White High Power Super Bright LED Light 100 Watt Lamp Bulb Chip | eBay

These are 6000-6500* Kelvin, so still pretty Alpine cold.

Ray, it's sounds like your pretty happy with those floodies that you have (just a bit tricky to photograph for our benefit), but if you are still looking:

I was just looking back at the links that Zaphod posted in the other thread (and without trying to overly complicate or confuse things):

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Here is what you need for good space lighting:
12W 3500K 800LM Warm White LED Emitter Metal Strip (12~14V) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
They're warm white, but MUST be mounted on some aluminium (steel would be OK - use silicone adhesive) for heat sinking and MUST be used with either a current source or a limiting resistor. As for Lumen outputs, the general rule-of-thumb is that standard IC (Incadescent) is around 5 ~ 15 Lumens/Watt, Halogens are around 20 ~ 25 Lumens/Watt and high quality LEDs run from around 80 ~ 130 Lumens/Watt.

It has these specs:
- Quality aluminum alloy material
- Ultra bright high intensity warm white light LED light
- Working voltage: 12~14V / 12W
- Working current: 900mA
- Color temperature: 3000~3500K
- Luminous flux: 700~800 lumen

The second link that Trevor posted was once again 6500*K, so I'll not worry about that one, but it lead (LED?) me to this one:
DIY 100W 3000K 9000lm Warm White Light 100-LED Module - White (DC 32~34V) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

which has these specs:
- Material: Copper + Silicone + Resin
- Color: Silver
- Total emitters: 100
- Power: 100W
- Color BIN: Warm white
- Rate voltage: 32~34V
- Luminous flux: 8000~9000lm
- Color temperature: 2800~3000K
- Suitable for spotlights and street lamp light source

Thanks Brett,

Zaphod, is on the right track and that's the way I'm progressing.

The led's I'm getting are these... 100W Warm White High Power LED Panel 9000LM 100 Watt Lamp Light | eBay

And the current source boost supply is this one.. 100W Watts High Power LED Driver Boost Step UP Topology Garden Street Light | eBay

The heatsink and mounting I'll sort out something when I see exactly what I have to work with.

The power supply takes 24V DC input and generates constant (adjustable) current output, also has a pwm input for dimming control.

Best Price I've been able to get on the fully assembled floodlight is around $100 ish.... This component level approach will cost around $35 each 100W floodlight. plus heatsink etc..etc...

More to come when the bits and pieces arrive...

Regards
Ray

Ray,

any further progress? it'd be great to see how this has progressed. Any more pics?

Originally Posted by TimberNut

Ray,

any further progress? it'd be great to see how this has progressed. Any more pics?

A little, I've now got all the bits and pieces, I just need to shuffle it up the list of projects..

Regards
Ray

I'll be building a new colourbond shed in the new year (probably 100sqm or so), and will be looking for lighting options (doesn't need to be solar powered though). I was thinking LEDs might be a better option than flouros (cheaper to run).

any suggestions?

Originally Posted by TimberNut

I was thinking LEDs might be a better option than flouros (cheaper to run).

any suggestions?

Far better light quality too, esp, if you go warm white LEDs