Heatsinks for Samsung influx strips.

This shit truly is addictive. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I decided that the board in my veg tent was running too hot in there by itself. I want to turn it down and I also want to throw in some cooler light for tighter internodes and keep the PAR about the same or possibly even better.

I ordered two of these Samsung H-Influx S04 strips in 5000k. They look pretty sweet and I think they’ll be awesome for replacing the light I’ll lose by turning the board down.


I’m having trouble sourcing heatsinks for them. I want some nice black, machined aluminum ones. I reached out to Atreum to see if they could sell me some of the stock material they use for their bars, but I‘ve only talked to their marketing guy and not the person in charge of fabrication and shit. I’m sure they’ll hook me up because they’re super cool but I’m wondering what all of you who use these strips use for heatsinks. They’re 22 watts, 22 volts each so I’m getting a HLG-40h-30a for it. Nice cheap driver. I mostly want the heatsinks for aesthetics and to tie them into the board with some aluminum angle. Can anyone tell me more about the heat management requirements of these strips?

Not gonna be black, but will be a perfect fit for you.

www.heatsinkusa.com

Dammit these fuckers and their product codes. I had to ctrl-f the datasheet and it turns out I got the 4000k one. Oh well. The color temp isn’t as important as the heatsink and driver temp. I’ll check out that site. I’d really like the black machined aluminum to match the heatsink on the board, so we’ll see if Atreum can sell me some of their stock. Otherwise I’ll have to order something from this site. These influx strips look pretty sweet. Not as high lumen/watt as my boards, but totally respectable and these strips were cheap. You could build a monster light with 10 of them.

Well I checked them out but I’m not down with their shipping. $9 and change for 2 12 inch sections of 2” extruded aluminum, and $15 in shipping and tax. Since it’s light and small enough to send first class (no problem doing it that way for the strips) and I don’t need it any time soon. I’m going to wait and see what Atreum says. I never like it when the shipping exceeds the cost of the item and I want to see what other options there are.

I just bit the bullet and paid for them. I guess the $5 handling is reasonable since they cut it to length. I could have just ordered a 2 foot piece and cut it myself but I just don’t care all that much. I still need to drill and tap it anyway.

Any of you know if these smaller strips need thermal paste? I’d imagine they’re just like boards and conduct heat into the aluminum pretty well. I wanted to keep this under $100 but I also have a lot of extra money right now so fuck it.

When I added F strips as outriggers on 2x 125" aluminum strips, I used the thermal paste on the back of the strips and then riveted to the backing.
Works perfectly.

Riveted, huh? That’s a good idea. I was gonna drill, tap, and screw. I’ve got a rivet gun so this is a much better idea. I’ll get some thermal paste. I have a little left over from the last PC build I did but there’s no way it’s enough.

TerrapinBlazin said:

I just bit the bullet and paid for them. I guess the $5 handling is reasonable since they cut it to length. I could have just ordered a 2 foot piece and cut it myself but I just don’t care all that much. I still need to drill and tap it anyway.

Any of you know if these smaller strips need thermal paste? I’d imagine they’re just like boards and conduct heat into the aluminum pretty well. I wanted to keep this under $100 but I also have a lot of extra money right now so fuck it.

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Always use thermal paste my guy. Always.
Glad I could help you out. Sorry it was a bit more money than you'd expected. At least it's done though. Problem solved

TerrapinBlazin said:

Riveted, huh? That’s a good idea. I was gonna drill, tap, and screw. I’ve got a rivet gun so this is a much better idea. I’ll get some thermal paste. I have a little left over from the last PC build I did but there’s no way it’s enough.

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Do not rivet. Use screws. You want to be able to control the amount of pressure on the strip and have ease of access to remove them if needed in the future.

TerrapinBlazin said:

Riveted, huh? That’s a good idea. I was gonna drill, tap, and screw. I’ve got a rivet gun so this is a much better idea. I’ll get some thermal paste. I have a little left over from the last PC build I did but there’s no way it’s enough.

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One bead down the center of the strip, starting and ending an inch from each end is all you'll need. You spread that shit thin as hell. Use a credit card and spread it all over the back. Thin thin thin.

I build PCs so I’ve used the stuff before. I liked the rivet idea for simplicity but you make a good point about the screws and the rivets putting tension and pressure on the PCB. Actually I decided screw the thermal paste. Double sided thermal tape is way better for this, and I scored a 20mmx.15mm x 20 meter roll for 10 bucks. Never gonna have to buy heat transfer material again. I think I’m going to dispense with the tap and screws altogether since I’m using thermal tape.

TerrapinBlazin said:

I build PCs so I’ve used the stuff before. I liked the rivet idea for simplicity but you make a good point about the screws. Actually I decided screw the thermal paste. Double sided thermal tape is way better for this, and I scored a 20mmx.15mm x 20 meter roll for 10 bucks. Never gonna have to buy heat transfer material again.

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Thermal tape will NEVER be better than Paste for any reason, in any situation, for whatever circumstance. That shit is a nightmare to remove after its heated and cooled a few times. Do-able with some isopropyl, certainly, but not worth it in the first place when paste transfers heat nearly 3X better. If you're going this far to heatsink your strips, do yourself a favor and do it right, man. You'll thank yourself later.

You don't need to drill and tap for every mounting hole the strip has. Just use one on each end, maybe one or two in the center depending on whether they're 2 or 4 foot, and you'll be set.

Airwalker16 said:

Thermal tape will NEVER be better than Paste for any reason, in any situation, for whatever circumstance. That shit is a nightmare to remove after its heated and cooled a few times. Do-able with some isopropyl, certainly, but not worth it in the first place when paste transfers heat nearly 3X better. If you're going this far to heatsink your strips, do yourself a favor and do it right, man. You'll thank yourself later.

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Yeah I’ve used it before for computer parts. Usually on small components. It seems good for this application because I don’t plan to ever remove the strips from the heatsinks and the strips aren’t gonna be all that hot. They use thermal tape a lot for commercial LED lighting. I work for a commercial general contractor and see all this stuff.

Since the strips aren’t gonna be on full blast and this saves me a step, I think I’m still going to do it with the tape but I may change my mind.

Airwalker16 said:

You don't need to drill and tap for every mounting hole the strip has. Just use one on each end, maybe one or two in the center depending on whether they're 2 or 4 foot, and you'll be set.

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These are one foot strips. They’re just for some small outriggers in my tent. If I was doing something more heavy duty I would be approaching this differently, but we’re only talking about 40 watts here. Plus I’m super OCD about screws. I want chrome, pan head, t15 #6 machine screws and I can’t exactly pick up 12 of those at Lowe’s. I might just use some self tappers and call it a day because I want to keep this simple. I’ll cancel the order for the tape and get the paste. I really didn’t want to drill and tap these but if I layout the holes on the aluminum and go straight into the heatsink with the self tapper I can take it out and screw the strip on. Good old arctic mx4 and self tappers.

A good several oz container of arctic silver is less than $20, and you'll be hard pressed to use it all in a lifetime if you're just using it for hobby applications. Or just get a few gram full syringes for this project for a couple bucks and be done with it.

Use paste for your strips if they're being heatsinked. Don't sell yourself short right at the end.

Airwalker16 said:

A good several oz container of arctic silver is less than $20, and you'll be hard pressed to use it all in a lifetime if you're just using it for hobby applications. Or just get a few gram full syringes for this project for a couple bucks and be done with it.

Use paste for your strips if they're being heatsinked. Don't sell yourself short right at the end.

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Yeah I got a 4 gram syringe of mx-4. Silver seems like overkill because this isn’t an overclocked processor. Self tappers solve the whole issue of why I was looking for alternatives to paste in the first place.

TerrapinBlazin said:

Yeah I got a 4 gram syringe of mx-4. Silver seems like overkill because this isn’t an overclocked processor. Self tappers solve the whole issue of why I was looking for alternatives to paste in the first place.

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Looks like you're gonna have a well built proper diy addition here in a few days. Excited to see it. "@" my name when you get it done and post pics eh?

You bet! I’m excited to try this. I wanted some outriggers for this light but realized I would have to do it more or less from scratch to make it the right size. I’m pretty sure this will be the best way to achieve my goal of tighter internodes and less heat. I was always a little intimidated by strips just because of how many different options there are and what a clusterfuck digikey is in general. Once I settled on influx strips it became a lot simpler. Still got the driver from mouser since they seem to have the best selection and their prices are really good. I was just getting that 120h-54a from amazon because I needed two and they have prime shipping.

You don't need arctic silver.... You can get a nice toothpaste sized tube of the white stuff from an electronics supply place for that kind of money.
I also use rivets these days. got tired of turning in 180 screws a day. riveting not much faster but I'm about to jump for a $200 pneumatic rivet gun.