ah.. you want a professional DIY project but know nothing about the numerous/vast subjects involved in what a laymen would deem "just a circuit board with leds attached to it"

Making the circuit board is the simple part (NOT cheap though for a 1-off DIY thermal clad).. Ensuring proper heat dissipation in the PCB/LED is tougher. Getting it produced at a reasonable price to make it even worthwhile is the hardest part.

Start here to get a basic understanding of heatsinks/heat dissipation/thermal resistances
http://sound.westhost.com/heatsinks.htm

Then you've got SMT soldering (stencils/placement/reflow oven) process and equipment involved.

Then design your schematic which will include a constant current driver IC

Then learn a PCB package to do the design/layout.

Then find a fabrication house to build your PCB and even take care of the assembly.
Then realize your wallet is now a few thousand dollars lighter.

Then go back to star mounted LED's like everyone else uses to DIY.

See where I'm going here..

 

ah.. you want a professional DIY project but know nothing about the numerous/vast subjects involved in what a laymen would deem "just a circuit board with leds attached to it"

I see what you mean but I'm 20. I have time to learn. If I don't have an end goal that is set high how can I expect to achieve anything worthwhile? I'm on here because I know nothing about PCBs (as stated in my first post) but that doesn't mean I can't learn. As far as the cost its not about money. I want to be able to sit in my living room with my friends and say watch this then show them my sunset and all the other cool tricks my light can do.

You're really smart MCGYVR and you're really smart in an area that most people can't even begin to understand but that doesn't mean you have to call out those people that are trying to learn and basically say you're to dumb for this project. Don't forget that at one point you knew just as much about PCBs as I do (now that might have been when you were 10 but you still had to learn it and I intend to do the same).

I hope we can move on with this thread as I am still interested in figuring out this light.

MCGYVR
Thanks for the breakdown of what I need to research. Do you have any sites that you would suggest for the other topics?

Cheers
Ben

 

I have one PCB house in my bookmarks which can do Aluminium PCBs:

http://www.ezpcb.com/ezpcbweb3/order/Ord_EzAdv.php

Never ordered from them, though.

On the back side, you could for instance mount VGA coolers.
These are cheap, and have integrated 12V fan.

 

Totally sorry.. did not mean to put you down at all.. Just mean that what your asking to learn here is WAY more than anyone should be asked to write/respond to in a single forum topic. I just meant its time for you to start "googling for knowledge" on all the points I discussed above.

It would also help if you clearly spelled out your intentions/desired functions for this light.
Typically sunrise/sunsets are "usually" done with increasing/decreasing the brightness of full strings of LED's not individual LEDs which is much more work/more complicated as each LED needs its own driver IC.

A simple "start" is 12 x 3W LED's and a meanwell dimmable driver. They have some which just need a 100k potentiometer now for dimming. Simply turn the knob and it dims up/down. Then you can move on from that and get a micro controller that will do the dimming automatically.

Or look into "buckpucks" with dimming ports.

 

Takao
I like the VGA cooler. Is Zalman a good brand? They seemed to get good reviews online but could just be secret marketing.

Mcgyver
Its alright; I'm sorry for misunderstanding you last post. I agree that I need to start doing research.
The only other function I want to have this light do would be able to simulate thunderstorms. Have all the lights dim with just a little 454nm shining through then have a either a warm white or a cool white flash on randomly.
Would you suggest buckpucks over a dimmable driver? I looked into buckpucks a little and found some that are rated for 6 3W leds Would that allow me to control groups of 6 rather than 12 with the drivers?

Cheers
Ben

 

To determine the "output voltage" rating for the driver you need to just add up the max forward voltage ratings of the leds you intend to use.
So for example you pick an led with a max forward voltage rating of 3V. And then you decide you want to run 6 LED's per string. So you need a driver with an output rating just above 6 x 3V = 18V. Then you need to know how much current you want to run through the string.. (lets use 1 amp as the example) You can use buckpucks or dedicated led driver IC's or meanwell type constant current power supplies. Its up to what works for your application.
Now assuming a meanwell you could use the LPF-25-24 which has an output voltage rating of 13.2 to 24 VDC (so 18V fits there) then it has a current rating of 1.05 Amps..