flatfourfan Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 I've had a plan to add some floodlights outside the property as well as also make some floor mounted units to light up flower beds and trees. All I needed were casings as I was going to toss the rest, but I was getting bummed as no-one was throwing any away...until I saw boxes and boxes of blown units in the basement of my employer, I mean LOADS of boxes. In the end I picked up 37 units ranging from the small ones to the big buggers. I made my own 12DC light a while back with a draw of about 4.5 watts, so I know I can do it. Those were made using commercially available strips. That was fine with 1 light, but the plan is to make something a bit more badass. They're a mix of the following. Plan of action is to use the easily available 10w 12v DC rectangular units from communica, ( I think they're about 40 bucks for a 900lm ones) and then retrofit them into the housings that I scored. Stay tuned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 I have three or four of these blown lamps too. Usually the LED chip goes, but in one case the SMPS in the back went. I got LED chips from a guy on bidorbuy and this guy ships so quickly that if you order tonight you might have your stuff by noon tomorrow! I also got some cheap SMPS units from him before, which I use to run the under-counter lighting in the kitchen. I'm thinking of using such a combo to make a 12V lamp at some point. flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeinTheTerrible Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 I highly recommend "led select" on BoB. Very nice guy and he sells good quality stuff at decent prices! flatfourfan and ___ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 So, @flatfourfan, I assume your daily drive is a scooby? flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted December 22, 2016 Author Share Posted December 22, 2016 Looking up led select as we speak...........way cheaper prices....even with shipping. actually flatfourfan comes from vintage Porsches. Close though..... ___ and HeinTheTerrible 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted December 23, 2016 Author Share Posted December 23, 2016 So I stripped one down last night and I cannot see how they dare charge the better part of R800 for one of these things. The LED driver is your random waterproof unit that’s about R80 and the actual LED is a 100w chip for a flood light that’s about another 80 bucks. The LED paste that was used was literally a drop and also in one corner, 4 holes to screw down the LED chip, nah, lets only use 2 screws on opposite corners. So it seems that the rest of the R800 charged for one of these lights is all down to the actual housing. I love the simplicity of it all, the rear ali housing is used as the heatsink for the LED chip and so mounting an LED for 12v use will be pretty easy. I already put in an order with David @ LED select and I should hopefully have it next week. If the set up works and I can use a 10w LED chip and it works as expected, then I’ll go gung ho in the new year and buy enough supplies to make the other 6 units that I want to make. I should be into each light for about R80 a piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeinTheTerrible Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Did you order LED drivers for the 12v chips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeinTheTerrible Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 2 hours ago, flatfourfan said: So it seems that the rest of the R800 charged for one of these lights is all down to the actual housing. Those 10w LED lights normally sell for about R45 each in a crate of 100. The R745 goes into the fancy box and marketing. flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted December 23, 2016 Author Share Posted December 23, 2016 Oh I know that the 10watters are probably even cheaper than that. I'm the end I'll just need 10 or so. No led drivers needed for the one that I'm going to be using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeinTheTerrible Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 3 hours ago, flatfourfan said: Oh I know that the 10watters are probably even cheaper than that. I'm the end I'll just need 10 or so. No led drivers needed for the one that I'm going to be using. Most of those chips don't like voltage fluctuations. The drivers are cheap as chips anyway! flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted December 23, 2016 Author Share Posted December 23, 2016 Yup. I've heard that. This first light will be the test unit and I'll see how it goes from there. If I have to go with a driver then it's no train smash. I've gutted and cleaned the first unit a few minutes ago and now I'm just waiting on the parts. David confirmed that they were shipped today... So I'll probably get them next week sometime. HeinTheTerrible 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverNodashi Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 On 12/23/2016 at 9:08 AM, flatfourfan said: So I stripped one down last night and I cannot see how they dare charge the better part of R800 for one of these things. The LED driver is your random waterproof unit that’s about R80 and the actual LED is a 100w chip for a flood light that’s about another 80 bucks. The LED paste that was used was literally a drop and also in one corner, 4 holes to screw down the LED chip, nah, lets only use 2 screws on opposite corners. So it seems that the rest of the R800 charged for one of these lights is all down to the actual housing. I love the simplicity of it all, the rear ali housing is used as the heatsink for the LED chip and so mounting an LED for 12v use will be pretty easy. I already put in an order with David @ LED select and I should hopefully have it next week. If the set up works and I can use a 10w LED chip and it works as expected, then I’ll go gung ho in the new year and buy enough supplies to make the other 6 units that I want to make. I should be into each light for about R80 a piece. I used to manufacture some custom electronics some time ago. PCB's and components are generally the cheap part of the product. The casing, branding and packaging generally makes up 40-60% of the product price. IP66 and higher rating products also generally have more expensive casing material. i.e. UV rated paint is much more expensive than normal paint. If it's a molded case like this, you could easily expect to pay about R30,000, or more depending on "features" just for the die. So even if the case then cost R50 or R100, you need to recoup the die (or tooling) cost. Then it still needs to be painted / hot dipped / sand blasted / etc (depending on preference) flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Well………they work and damn, they’re bright. David said that they are 900-100 lumins and I’ll hold him to that. I thought that the size of the chip was going to be an issue as you can see it’s about a ¼ of the size of the 50 chip that came out of it. I made a plastic trim piece that holds it in place as I didn’t want to drill and tap the casing for something that wasn’t going to work, but they work alright. I may end up buying 10w led chips that use the driver as I did notice that they are a bit iffy when it comes to voltage as someone said up top. Still I’m mounting the first ones up this weekend with the 12v day/ night switch and we’ll take it from there. Ps, dealing with David from led select that a real pleasure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Hobson Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Thanks what a garage should look like! ___, Sidewinder and flatfourfan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 An update on this. I pulled out the 30watt LED chip that was in there as I tried mounting 4 x 1.5watt LED strips in there. So total pull is 6watts and it's damn near just as bright. I have this thing at the bottom of my driveway and it lights a good 15 meters. So it's a no brainer, pulls less than 1/5 of the current. Had it running this way now for over 2 months and my battery is still charged the following morning before 8am. I've made 4 more lights by retrofitting the LED strips in them too and I just need time to pull the wires through for that lot and hook up another 12v day night switch. Pictures to follow. ___ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 18 minutes ago, flatfourfan said: mounting 4 x 1.5watt LED strips in there. I'm totally going to try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfourfan Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 5 hours ago, plonkster said: I'm totally going to try that. Here's a picture. I arranged 4 strips in a zip zag fashion to get as much reflection off the reflector as possible. SilverNodashi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohfamous Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 I highly recommend "led select" on BoB. Very nice guy and he sells good quality stuff at decent prices! flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 1 hour ago, mohfamous said: I highly recommend "led select" on BoB. Very nice guy and he sells good quality stuff at decent prices! Yes, I've recommended him before and some forum guys here have bought from him. I've bought from him more than once, and everything I bought still works. Unlike some stuff I bought from other suppliers including some "reputable" building suppliers. flatfourfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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