There is no space for vents - its all LED strip or wooden sides. The lights don't really heat up in less than 5 to 10 minutes so either someone pulls the plug out, or I get this DMX board wired into a case.

Once I get the lights and a smoke machine switched with DMX, we will probably have the most advanced arena lighting outside of the Battlebots studio.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

It seems the heat is in the LEDs. not really spreading out. An slightly thicker strip of Ali under them might be enough to help dissipate it.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

The cooler part of the photo is the wooden sides on the light fitting - the aluminium back panel goes the full width and its fairly evenly hot across its width. I was hoping that 1,650 square CM of aluminium back plate would be enough heatsink but maybe not...

If I can find some U channel for the remaining lights, I will add that and like Miles said, its easy enough to just turn them off.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Are these strips and drivers compatible with the LED dimming circuits? If so, you might be able to dim them to 50% power in between matches and then crank them back up during the fight.
Could potentially automate it with your arena controls.
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

I don't think the power supplies are compatible with PWM dimmers. They don't mention PWM at all but I remember a LED dimmer project from Silicon Chip, where they mentioned that tests with PWM and a constant current LED supply like mine resulted in a melt-down.

Dimming would be the ultimate but I would probably have to make a bulky linear PSU for dimming to work. Perhaps that is something for next year; I could make a large central PSU and dimmer with low voltage leads to the lights. The other thing I would like to try is a high power white light with two lower powered colours down the middle (ie UV and amber). There are cheap 3 channel PWM controllers that will let the lights be faded from white to a funky twilight colour. If you have flown Virgin, I'm thinking something like that.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

It won't be DMX compatible but TZ85As will do the trick. If there is an arduini DMX sketch then can drive all of them from that.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Won't the TZ85A PWM still potentially screw the power supplies? Would adding a crapload of capacitance smooth out the PWM into an average voltage? I wouldn't mind trying it, but if I fry a PSU before the event, its too late to replace it.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

what if the lights were just up off the poly carb a bit more? then they wouldn't melt the roof or are you worried that the lights them selves will burn out from heat?
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Only the LEDs and the aluminium get hot - the sides are 30mm high and the plastic on the front isn't likely to get more than warm. 60 deg. is not that fatal in the short term but I want the lights to be as reliable as possible for as long as possible.

UPDATE:

I just found a spec sheet for the LEDs and the maximum operating temp is 85 Deg. C, so 60 is high but far from critical. Just switching the lights off between matches will be fine.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

cool…the hardest bit will be remembering to turn em back on i guess
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

That's easy - if you aren't squinting, you need to turn the lights on!
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Should be fine its no real different than running a battery charger or something else which uses PWM.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

OK, I can use the existing FET circuit from the arena display to PWM the LED strips before I finish assembly. If that works, then I can add DMX dimming to the lights later on using an off-the-shelf module.

I will add some heatsinking to the back of the remaining lights like this:



Two 25 x 25mm U channels more than doubles the area of the heatsink and should let the lights run full time without serious problems.

I like these lights so much that after the event I want to make a set for the workshop and they will need to run all day in summer temperatures, so testing the arena lights with extra cooling makes sense.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

what do they have on the back of those leds is it plastic or metal? I got a big ass 10watt one in my film transfer machine. its got a metal back and it died after a month- i think cause i didn't have that thermal paste stuff on the back to transfer the heat.
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

The strips are made of flexible circuit board with thin double sided tape on the back. The individual LEDs a not high power but with so many packed in they get toasty. When I put the C channels on I will try to use heat transfer paste.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion