.gif)
DIY LED lighting MkII
23rd May 2010
The final step before putting this unit over the tank was to transfer the electrics over. My photoperiod starts at 2pm so I had from 9am to 2pm to complete it.
First step was to dismantle the old unit. The way I had done it before, the LED stars were stuck to little memory chip heatsinks with thermal pads and then screwed down to pieces of cut up reflector. All I had to do now was remove the heatsink and thermal pad. Then I spread some thermal paste on the back of the star before positioning it on the new heatsink. Once in position I then dabbed some superglue around the edge of the star to stop it sliding off the paste. I then left the glue on all 5 series to dry
While I was waiting, in went the perspex moonlight covers. I just used a thin line of sealant all the way round to fix them and seal the join.
A couple of hours later the LEDs were put into position. The lenses are basically push on ones and therefore the LEDs 'clip' into place. Each series was done seperately and then tape was used to hold the wires down. sealant was then blobbed onto parts of the cable for a more permanent hold on the wiring.
Then the Cold cathodes went into the unit. The ends of these are square blocks so they were simply glued into position. I used some pieces of a nice thick black carrier bag so that when the unit is in position you can't see all the internals through the perspex slots.
The fans were screwed on and then the final part was to reconnect all the LED series, moonlights and fans to the power cables. I use simple +/- connectors for this. The sort that comes as a line of 12 and you cut them into 2's (or 3's if you have Earth.)
Once sorted the unit was hung in place. You can see in the pictures it looks quite smart but it isn't finished yet. I put the vent covers on for the final shot you see but these had to be removed again because for the next 4 days I will be wiping Tung Oil on the unit. Then there will be four more days to let the oil cure before returning the vents.
