5 channel Multichip Panel Group Buy

[Octoman4]

Played for an american tournement team, went to sweden, stayed at some local players houses super fun... I came home and played for the junior bruins in boston, then couple teams in canada, then moved back to so cal...

[Lasse]

Played for an american tournement team, went to sweden, stayed at some local players houses super fun... I came home and played for the junior bruins in boston, then couple teams in canada, then moved back to so cal...

I was afraid that you had play for DIF (Djurgarden) - but on the other hand - you had probably not mention the word hockey in that case

Sincerely Lasse

[tentacles]

I've been digging hard looking for suitable wire for these things, and the only thing I've been able to come up with thus far is 22AWG HDMI cabling.. There are other options of course, but nothing viable in black, as I don't need a $500 100ft (or 1000ft) spool, or $8.50/ft at mcmaster. 22AWG should be enough to handle the full current capacity if the white or blue channels are tied together, even if one connection fails and the remaining wire takes the full load.

HDMI cables are 19 pins (plus ground/shield), more than we need but I plan on using 5 channels + fan + thermistor + thermal cutoff so that's already 16 wires.

Digikey has suitable thermal cutouts (actually what I'm using is a 2-wire thermostat) for like $6.50 each. Thermal fuses are less expensive but if it blows you have to replace it.

Attached are some pics of a fixture I'm currently building around a 60w 45mil hybrid (that has yet to arrive). It's a 4" ABS pipe connector, I've modified it slightly. I removed the "stop" ring in the middle and glued in a 1/2" section of 4" pipe in place of it. The crossbar that is bolted to the heatsink bolts to that ring. The heatsink is a Zalman CNPS-7000Cu, obviously the fan is not on it in the pictures but it all fits in there nicely. At the bottom side there will be an aluminum ring with 6 420nm 3w emitters on it and some small heatsinks on the back. With the fan on cooling those will be no problem at all. I plan on making similar fixtures for the dream chips, but with a beefier heatsink, so I will probably have to get schedule 80 fittings that are thicker for bigger diameter.

Here's hoping the link works, the new google+ photos stuff is even worse than before! https://plus.google.com/photos/11826...61233?hl=en_US

[ronreef]

I've been digging hard looking for suitable wire for these things, and the only thing I've been able to come up with thus far is 22AWG HDMI cabling.. There are other options of course, but nothing viable in black, as I don't need a $500 100ft (or 1000ft) spool, or $8.50/ft at mcmaster. 22AWG should be enough to handle the full current capacity if the white or blue channels are tied together, even if one connection fails and the remaining wire takes the full load.

HDMI cables are 19 pins (plus ground/shield), more than we need but I plan on using 5 channels + fan + thermistor + thermal cutoff so that's already 16 wires.

Digikey has suitable thermal cutouts (actually what I'm using is a 2-wire thermostat) for like $6.50 each. Thermal fuses are less expensive but if it blows you have to replace it.

Attached are some pics of a fixture I'm currently building around a 60w 45mil hybrid (that has yet to arrive). It's a 4" ABS pipe connector, I've modified it slightly. I removed the "stop" ring in the middle and glued in a 1/2" section of 4" pipe in place of it. The crossbar that is bolted to the heatsink bolts to that ring. The heatsink is a Zalman CNPS-7000Cu, obviously the fan is not on it in the pictures but it all fits in there nicely. At the bottom side there will be an aluminum ring with 6 420nm 3w emitters on it and some small heatsinks on the back. With the fan on cooling those will be no problem at all. I plan on making similar fixtures for the dream chips, but with a beefier heatsink, so I will probably have to get schedule 80 fittings that are thicker for bigger diameter.

Here's hoping the link works, the new google+ photos stuff is even worse than before! https://plus.google.com/photos/11826...61233?hl=en_US

Looks good! Do you have the link to the hdmi cable? 22awg seems larger than usual for hdmi, but I'm unsure.

[Lasse]

@ Tentacles: How high current can I use at 36 V DC in a HDMI cable?

Sincerely Lasse

[gtfcniles]

Ron did you get chance to ask ACRC my questions or do you want me to email him directly?

Whats the timeframe we are looking at for these being made?

[tentacles]

Ron: monoprice.com has those 22awg cables, or you can check fleabay. Monoprice has good cables, though.

Lasse: 22AWG @ 4A in a 10 foot run (20 feet round trip) drops 1.3V, which to me is acceptable for our purposes.. Certainly if one tied together both blue channels, or whites, you could still use just one wire. My plan is to use seperate wires for each channel even if I do tie them together in the end. One thing to consider on voltage drop is not so much the wires heating up as the headspace the driver has for voltage. A 36V meanwell is good for maybe a few volts over 36 by the specs. Overvoltage protection on a LPF60-36 is 41-49V but at some point it will be derating the current. I'd figure they're good to 38V or so.

Lasse: What do the multichips you've worked with usually come out to for forward voltage?

[ronreef]

Hi guys, i'm also one of the guys from RC, but my normal home is on ultimatereef.com (it's a UK based site).

As discussed before ron, put me down for 2 chips. Do you know if ACRC will offer additional chips at the same price for people who bought in first? I want to check the chip is right for me before I buy 6 or 8. Is he offering a complete solution (Driver/Heatsink/LED) ?

There might be quite a bit of interest in the UK i'll post the information up and see what response I get and let you know.

Thanks again,

Chris

Time frame: When 50 total pcs are reached for the order and ac-rc is paid. Then the build will start immediately.
I'm sure ac-rc will be reluctant to offer the same price to the group buy buyers after the initial buy.

[ronreef]

Ron did you get chance to ask ACRC my questions or do you want me to email him directly?

Whats the timeframe we are looking at for these being made?

Update: According to ac-rc, there would have to be another group buy to take advantage of the discount price. They will not be making any spares.
Only what we order. HTH.

Ron

FYI: Currently, we are at 44 pcs.

[ronreef]

Update: Now at 46 pcs.

[Lasse]

Lasse: What do the multichips you've worked with usually come out to for forward voltage?

It will vary according to current. In my experiments with 10 and 20 watts - the highest FV is only valid att max current. I run my 10 watts (not epistar) at 900 mA and FV is around 8.5 - 9.5 V. For 20 watts running at 1800 mA (epistar) it is around 20.5 V. With my 100 watts 20 000 K chip (epistar 45 mil) I have measured the FV at two different curents 3.02 and 3.48 A. FV was 32.7 and 33.1. For the hybrid chip it was 30.5 and 31 V. Spec. says 30-36 V.

I think that we have to calculate with FV around 31 - 33 V if we run the dream chip around 700 - 900 mA/channel. I´m a little bit afraid of that we are going to have some smaller differnces of FV between the different channels. If we run several channels with the same driver I think its wise to start with 700 mA / channel (two channels parallel - 1400 mA) and measured up the actual current per channel.

Sincerely Lasse

[gtfcniles]

Thats a shame. Well I guess i'll still just take two, it will be up to him if he wants my business or not after that cos I won't be paying 175 for one thats for sure. He told me that the max watt on each leg will be 50.4w, I think i'm going to run the chip at 150w rather than the max with a 300w heatsink. What are you lot going to run yours at?

[ronreef]

Thats a shame. Well I guess i'll still just take two, it will be up to him if he wants my business or not after that cos I won't be paying 175 for one thats for sure. He told me that the max watt on each leg will be 50.4w, I think i'm going to run the chip at 150w rather than the max with a 300w heatsink. What are you lot going to run yours at?

Please send me your email address. Thanks.

Ron

[ronreef]

Group: It's possible to do 12 leds per string instead of 10. 12 series x 10 parallel.
Though, personally, I believe over my tank that 10 series x 10 parallel is more
than enough running at nominal current of 350mA per 10 series string.

Also, ac-rc reminded me that they will only sell the 5 channel chip after they have developed
and are ready to sell the 5 channel driver.

Ron

[Lasse]

Group: It's possible to do 12 leds per string instead of 10. 12 series x 10 parallel.
Though, personally, I believe over my tank that 10 series x 10 parallel would more than enough running at nominal current of 350mA per 10 series string.

Ron

Not a good idéa cause it limit the choises of drivers - it will be a FV at 42,5 V max instead of 36. It will also take away that solution that many of us in Sweden want to do according to drivers. There is a guy - Janne88 working on a MB for driving 5 channels and 36 V is max for that soultion. This solution will have a small footprint (around 10*10 cm), two temperature probes, a fan controller, 12 V for fan, 5 V for regulation card. 5 drivers with true PWM, an adjustable constant current 0-1400 mA (through software) FV 30-36 V. To this there is allready a control card with 4 timers and delays. Because of its small fotprint - it wil be possible to mount it in the pendant and let the same fans that cool the chip also cool this card. 10*10 is just now optimal for us in Sweden at least.

Sincerely Lasse