Lightning help for non-weed setup

solid construction man.
you can take ethyl alcohol too for sure, brake cleaner (its cheap) is a good cleaner too.
sure nylon screws are absolute fine as long you can tighten them enough, with m4 i guess its fine, i normally use m3 steel with nylon washers.

instead of the thermal tape you can for sure use the paste, as you could use more or less any stronger doubble sided tape.
there is tons of surface for just a few watt to conduct, unlike with cpus, who have a lot watt on a quite small area.

@cobshopgrow thanks for the response. i already ordered IPA (isopropyl) like 99.7%, it's from local shop so i think i will get it next week, no worries, also it's cheap (the shipping cost is non-negligible compared to the price itself, but whatever, i also ordered some epsom salt from them just to have some around and justify the shipping cost a bit better).

i'm still hesitant about the paste vs tape vs nothing options. tape is certainly the easiest (esp looking at gg's videos), but i think i can handle the paste just fine (i did my fair amount of pc building, again i am more like an software guy, that said i had maintained all kinds of servers and desktops). being able to disassemble is a big point against the tape though.

so currently i am in more favour of either paste or nothing at all. for nothing i see posts/threads like this especially from @Randomblame (who seems to be very well respected here) https://www.rollitup.org/t/led-strip-thermal-paste.963450/#post-14219900 saying no tape or paste is needed (and he says that about F strips which i have, i have double rows at like 6-800mA vs his single row 500mA). but again i guess i should take that as "it's fine to run them without tape or paste with only pcb to alu contact, but paste is most likely better, it may be negligible".

i checked i can get 45-65g of mx-4 or mx-2 for reasonable prices (cheaper than as5), i am not sure how much i would need for 9 pieces of 2ft (56cm) long strips.

sure, even without paste it will be fine.
take what you have, i wont spend a fortune on this.
even the cheapest paste is fine, its no cpu.
i would probably opt for, cheap generic thermal paste (outside of the pc world it becomes cheap) and a can of cheapest brake cleaner or any other solvent i have on the shelf.

@cobshopgrow thanks, i can look for cheaper pastes no problem, i think i will go with paste as @Airwalker16 said "do it right". i'm still wondering how much grams do i need per strip (2ft or 56cm long, 4cm wide).

cobshopgrow said:

sure, even without paste it will be fine.
take what you have, i wont spend a fortune on this.
even the cheapest paste is fine, its no cpu.
i would probably opt for, cheap generic thermal paste (outside of the pc world it becomes cheap) and a can of cheapest brake cleaner or any other solvent i have on the shelf.

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The only reason I didn't use tape is that I considered my build experimental and wanted the option of easy removal.
I used zip ties and dirt cheap paste from ebay, more than adequate.


Like cobshopgrow said "there is tons of surface for just a few watt to conduct, unlike with cpus, who have a lot watt on a quite small area. "

Barristan Whitebeard said:

AFAIK the HLG 320 watt CV + CC AB models are the exception to the rule in that they have no onboard voltage adjustment.

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That explains a lot! Early on I found pictures of AB drivers with both one and two onboard pots, now I finally understand!

@1212ham thanks for the response, i can find cheap pastes locally (my problem with ebay & amazon that they have horrible delivery length, for example the thing you have linked says "Estimated between Wed. Jul. 1 and Tue. Aug. 4" so 1-2month) and i already did, i just really don't know how much i would need roughly (for 9 strips, each 56cm x 4cm). would 10g (as per your link) be enough for all of my strips? 15g? 30g?

no clue tbh, therefore i would simply buy some generic cheap stuff.
as always a thin layer should be fine, even prefered, less then a g per strip should do it or?

@cobshopgrow thank yeah, i don't need an exact figure, i just want to know if i should plan with 1-2g/strip or rather 4-5g/strip, so eg 20g vs 50g total. so i guess i should be shooting for something like 20-30g (and it should be plenty still). again it's hard in this country, the cheaper stuff don't have online presence (or delivery is more than the price itself) and you are usually presented with limited options (only a single size from a single brand). that said i am comfortable i can pick up something. sadly i have much time, the local meanwell distributor said the driver will only arrive friday next week to them, so i guess it will take around 2 weeks until i get it. again appreciate it.

youre in the UK?
if yes, may a few tubes of these.
they dont even name a thermal conductivity, but it should contain some grahite, should be fine.
i mean without graphite will do too!
but at this price.

@cobshopgrow hah no, i'm in hungary, well as i said i can't link cheap stuff really, but look at this: https://www.soselectronic.com/products/ag-termopasty/thermal-compound-hpx-art-agt-128-300069 (this is like 10$ another 5$ for shipping) and it says like 2.8W/mK which i guess is way more than enough for me. also this is like 100g. so again cheap good enough is not a problem. i visited like 3-4 electricity shops around my area, most are focused on AC and etc., but i couldn't grab paste (the best shop esp for DC just came back from holiday, so they are out of stock almost on everything). and we also have conrad here (but they are seriously overpriced i think). and i can order the pricey stuff (mx-4, pk-2, etc.) anytime and it will be delivered next day. so i have plenty of options and plenty of time (sadly). i will think about it but i may just order the 100g one. anyways thanks very much for all the time and energy, really appreciate it.

that paste is for sure good enough and also enough paste for many strips, no idea how many one really need.

@cobshopgrow yeah i figured. the only thing keeping me from ordering it was that i thought i will pickup something while i'm shopping around in the small shops, but didn't have luck. i also wanted some small things (knobs, scale plates for potmeter, grommets, etc.) which i didn't find in right sizes so ended up simply ordering from tme.eu. they have the same paste for similar price eg https://www.tme.eu/en/details/pasta-hpx-100/heat-conductive-compounds/ag-termopasty/art-agt-128/ for 9USD. thanks again, now remains the waiting.

last weekend i had some hours to spend so i've applied the paste and fastened the strips with nylon bolts, but i haven't posted pics

today the hlg driver arrived lastly so i could hook up everything, sadly i haven't took much pictures, i was very cautios at fist only measuring with a multimeter first, then trying to see how it goes with all the potmeters down and slowly adjusting them.



currently i have both the potmeters on the case cranked to maximum, but my gf already complained (bc the amount of light) at around 3-4A (for all the 9 strips), so i will get some silver diamond mylar sheets or something similar.

i have a shit tons of other stuff on my plate but hopefully i will start the lettuce seedlings soon.

eLod said:

today the hlg driver arrived lastly so i could hook up everything, sadly i haven't took much pictures, i was very cautios at fist only measuring with a multimeter first, then trying to see how it goes with all the potmeters down and slowly adjusting them.

View attachment 4603154View attachment 4603155View attachment 4603156View attachment 4603157

currently i have both the potmeters on the case cranked to maximum, but my gf already complained (bc the amount of light) at around 3-4A (for all the 9 strips), so i will get some silver diamond mylar sheets or something similar.

i have a shit tons of other stuff on my plate but hopefully i will start the lettuce seedlings soon.

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It turned out very nice. Dope channels

Airwalker16 said:

It turned out very nice. Dope channels

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thanks man, i've got plenty of help and i'm really thankful, very nice community