pg18
think I will stick to the electronics end of things, the light wave physics is starting to hurt my head.

Re Procyn power supply. Ryan is smart enough to design one from scratch. My guess is that it is a one-off design. However, if someone with a Procyn is able to pop the hood and take a look, please let us know.
Physics, you are a brave man working with Rebel emitters. I would suggest not reinventing the wheel by making your own PCB. Check out AsianSignals Controllers. Please order some, I need a guinea pig to see how good they work.

I will be finished with the 660nm setup later today and will post construction pics.

didn't quite get finished on the 660 nm array today, but have some pics that might be of interest to anyone interested in building one. I always like to scrounge through junk that I accummulate at swap meets and had a bunch of these cheapy 2x2 inch computer fans kicking around. I decided to mount them on a piece of copper that I will cut to accomodate 7 LEDengin 5 watt 660nms.

The bottom of the heat sinks had a lot of scratchs plus I suspected they weren't perfectly flat. Having a good smooth surface with out high and low spots is essential to good heat transfer across a junction. I used a magic marker to color the bottom of the heat sink. I then laid fine emery on top of the cut copper bar. Lightly rubbing the bottom of the heat sink across the emery I was able to see the high spots.
I then leveled them out using the emery paper and polished with crocus cloth. I did a final check of the heat sink surface by coating it once again with Magic Marker and then applying a very light coat of fine automotive valve grinding coupound. I then rubbed directly on the copper plate in order to get a good mating surface.
After both the copper and heat sink were free of flat spots I eliminated the fine scratches with metal polishing compound.

This is the most tedious part of the construction, but is probably well worth the effort to keep things cool

This is the fun part. I did a layout to see how the components would fit and then drilled and threaded the mounting holes.
I decided not to mount the fans with screws since I was in a hurry but to fasten them on with Artic Alumina Adhesive. I don't know if this was a good idea or not. I will know when I start doing thermal testing.
Caution, if you are working with copper, go real slow with the small taps and back them out every quarter turn. Copper likes to grap taps. I managed to break off two 4-40 taps.

Everthing is now mounted and ready for wiring and LED installation.
I decided to go with a couple of aluminum side reflectors to keep the pattern tight. I prefer this to using focusing lenses.

Question: Does anyone know if the bottom of the LEDengin stars is electrically isolated. Their emitters are not isolated but it seems like the base on their stars are isolated. Nothing ohmed out. I could find no info in their data sheets. Would like a confirmation from someone.

I will post the final steps, along with testing in a few days

Thanks for the link. I had read them but couldn't find anything regarding stars. I am pretty sure that they are not conductive. I am going test them after I mount two of them. I will use grease and screws instead of insulating adhesive. Just hope they don't explode in my face.
No plans for EBay, they take too darn long to make. Plus shortly there will be a flood of Chinese knockoffs hitting the market at low prices. Someone is already copying the Procyn even before they have proven successful.
I'm just having fun playing around and experimenting I have made a few for friends. I try to make each one different and improve upon previous designs. I save a lot of metal scraps and electronics parts and try to design with what I have on hand.

Did you already buy your 660nms?

Physics, I have no idea what it is going to dissapate. My design criteria is to have at least 9 square inches per watt for passive heat sinking. But I like to run fans regardless, just as a back up for that extra edge and to add to room circulation.
Since these LEDs are so damn expensive, I will try to run at plus 4 watts each and will test all the way to 5 watts. I will give complete details on my thermal testing methods once I get to that stage.
To be honest, I probably screwed up by mounting the fans with adhesive instead of screws. I could not get the surfaces to mate as good as I wanted. I should have used 6 to 8 screws on each fan and torqued them down. Plus grease (Artic Silver) is a better thermal conductor then the adhesive.
I was just not looking forward to drilling and tapping 30 to 40 more holes. I spend so much time making these things, I am always looking for shortcuts. Since I was concerned, I did use aluminum instead of my usual galvanized steel for the reflectors in order to help with the heat sinking. Picked up an extra 90 square surface inches. I will probably keep using aluminum.

Lots of questions. I looked at the high power LED drivers and would be curious about price. I noticed they are 12 volt which is a little weird. The lighting industry is pretty much gravitating towards 24 volts. The more you can string in series the better.
Holy Crap, that 500 watter can belt out 40 amps. You are going to need power line cable to hook all your arrays and some heavy duty connectors. I really don't see how it would be workable.

For most people 100 to 250 watt power supplys running at 24 volts are probably the most practical answer.

Veggi, yes, I got some extras I want to get rid of. I had to buy a complete lot. Lets figure out a way to hook up and I will get you details. I don't want to get black balled for selling stuff on the forum.
The nice thing about LEDs is they lend themselves to a wide variety of configurations to fit a variety of situations. That is why I have been custom building them.

Next question,
Are 660nms worth the expense and effort? I will let you know in about 3 to4 months. I will be starting some comparative tests next week. As you have probably figured out, I am not much for theory, but more of a hands on guy.
I visited a lot of forums and read a lot of papers about plants and light waves. So many different opinions floating around but no one is testing them. It is probably going to take at least a year before we figure out what are the most efficient light combos.

Yes, I do use the red Luxeon K2 at 625 nm. I chose it over other brands because of the wide bandwidth. Check out the SPD curve, it does a far better job of hitting 660 then any other red.
At this time I have pretty much been covering my bases with lights, even using the different whites. As time goes on, I will see what can be eliminated and added.

The copper strip is 2.25" x 12". I would't want to run more then 7 on it. I think it is better to build 2 units with 7 each. I will dig up the url of my online metal supplier if interested.
If you go with the LEDengins buy the stars. I usually use emitters, but they aren't that much extra. I think they were about $11.50 from Mouser.

K2s vs. Rebels: All things being equal, I would go with the K2s. Simply because I can paste those babies right on a heat sink and hand solder them (I made some very tiny clamp-on heat sinks to clip on the wires).
I am going to try some Rebel emitters very soon because some colors have better efficiency then K2s and are a bit cheaper. The Rebel Stars are a rip-off, that is why I have avoided them. I will get some of the boards from Asia Signals and try to mount some emitters. I do have a hot air reflow soldering system and some good soldering paste in the frig next to the ketchup, so I probably won't screw the Rebels up too badly.

I do like the idea of a new string that is focused on practical building techniques, where we can share ideas, sources, experimental results and see how we can make better units then ones commercially available.
And keeping the theory to a minimum.

Veggii How do you start a new string?