By the time you finish these, it's probably easier to just buy the damn kit from roundeyes... but that is not as much fun :sonicjay:
First things first... you need some LED's.
How about some 3w Cree P4 XR-E's?
Here is a 5 pack for $21 shipped.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2134
I ordered 6 total, I really need 8. I will have to work that out later. :sonicjay:
Ok, here we go.
These LED's and stars get REALLY hot. They need a heat sink to properly cool, I figured I would make my housings thick enough to not have to worry about it.
This is a 2.5" wide chuck of aluminum drop from the local metal supply. It's .250 thick. I cut it to widths of about 1.25.
Milled a 7/8" hole just under 3/16" deep... I am not a machinist, so we are defiantly not talking in thousands here.
Milled a channel for the wires, and drilled some mounting holes.
Drilled and tapped some holes for the cover.
My test pieces, one clear, one I scuffed with 80 grit to try and get some diffusion.
Mockup.
Have a gap issue since the emitter sticks above the aluminum a little still.
Hard to tell in this picture, but I drilled a dome on the inside of the lens for the emitter to sit in, lens now sits flush.
It's a lot easier to see what is going on with a camera... when I took this picture the shop lights were on, and I still couldn't look at the damn thing. I am driving it with a 6v AC adapter for testing.
Test on the Cruiser since it was handy :sonicjay:
Clear lens.
Diffused lens. The camera changed the shutter speed on this picture. While the diffused lens does spread out the light slightly better, it is not brighter like this picture would make it appear.
That's it for now. I need to get some heat transfer paste, then I can epoxy the stars to the heat sinks and finish up the final lenses.
I'm driving them with a board that General Lee built for me, you can use resistors if you want as well... a driver board is just way more efficiant and better for the LED's.
I only had him build it for 6 LED's though.. so I kind of shot myself in the foot on that one.
First things first... you need some LED's.
How about some 3w Cree P4 XR-E's?
Here is a 5 pack for $21 shipped.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2134
I ordered 6 total, I really need 8. I will have to work that out later. :sonicjay:
Ok, here we go.
These LED's and stars get REALLY hot. They need a heat sink to properly cool, I figured I would make my housings thick enough to not have to worry about it.
This is a 2.5" wide chuck of aluminum drop from the local metal supply. It's .250 thick. I cut it to widths of about 1.25.
Milled a 7/8" hole just under 3/16" deep... I am not a machinist, so we are defiantly not talking in thousands here.
Milled a channel for the wires, and drilled some mounting holes.
Drilled and tapped some holes for the cover.
My test pieces, one clear, one I scuffed with 80 grit to try and get some diffusion.
Mockup.
Have a gap issue since the emitter sticks above the aluminum a little still.
Hard to tell in this picture, but I drilled a dome on the inside of the lens for the emitter to sit in, lens now sits flush.
It's a lot easier to see what is going on with a camera... when I took this picture the shop lights were on, and I still couldn't look at the damn thing. I am driving it with a 6v AC adapter for testing.
Test on the Cruiser since it was handy :sonicjay:
Clear lens.
Diffused lens. The camera changed the shutter speed on this picture. While the diffused lens does spread out the light slightly better, it is not brighter like this picture would make it appear.
That's it for now. I need to get some heat transfer paste, then I can epoxy the stars to the heat sinks and finish up the final lenses.
I'm driving them with a board that General Lee built for me, you can use resistors if you want as well... a driver board is just way more efficiant and better for the LED's.
I only had him build it for 6 LED's though.. so I kind of shot myself in the foot on that one.