Simple Low Cost Light Build

[MindSoup]

Hello chums 

Just finished a little light build and thought I'd share the process for anyone who might be thinking of doing the same. Its simple, cheap and requires no special skills or tools. Its basically a slight development on MIGROs cheap light build.

 

Materials: 

8x 1-4Pack LED COB Downlight Ceiling Lamp 7W 10W 15W 30W Warm/Cold white LED Light (10 watt version, come with their own individual drivers)

 

Some wire (make sure its thick enough to take the load) 

 

A 2 wire power cable with a 3 amp fused plug (like one from a tv or even a lamp) 

 

Car electronics piggy back connectors 

 

Plywood

 

Self adhesive foil/mylar

 

Double sided sticky foam

 

Cable ties

 

These are the lights, they're for mounting in a ceiling and come with their own (non dimmable) drivers.

 

 

First of cut your board out, my build is to go round my existing Invisible Sun ISH100 hence the big square in the middle.

 

 

Then cover it in the reflective foil, you could use paint or Mylar, but this was cheap and I'm a messy bugger with paint. 

You can be neat if you want, but it doesn't matter. Once its all one remove the stuff covering the holes. 

 

 

Then onto the wiring 

 

First fit the lights in the holes

 

Then tape 2 wires round the perimeter and fix one piggy back clip to each for each light

 

You then crimp the spade connectors onto the drivers and plug them in, it doesn't matter which way as the feed is A/C. But I still put them all the same colour on the same wire just because. Then tape it all down to secure it in place

 

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the finished wiring, but its pretty self explanatory. I used some double sided sticky foam to mount the drivers. 

 

I used the same connectors to fit the power cable after cutting the connector off it. Make sure you insulate the redundant ends of the wires with heat shrink/tape for "safety". 

 

Congratulations, you just built a light! 

 

Obviously your layout can be different, you could put them closer, use more or less powerful downlights etc, but the basic principle is the same, all that needs to change is possibly how thick wire you use, and what fuse you put in the plug. 

 

Here's mine in the tent, with the ISH100 in the middle, I used 4x 3000k (warm) and 4x 4000k (natural) hence the different colours. Its just fixed together with cable ties.

 

As you can see, now each plant has its own light directly above it, happy days. 

 

 

Disclaimer: I am by no means an electrical engineer, just a guy with half an Idea, follow my footsteps at your own risk and do your own research. I have been intentionally vague to encourage you to get an idea about what your doing beforehand.