Tutorials Cheap DIY LED strip build

I wanted a small bar light but nobody seemed to make them so I decided to build my own. Hopefully this will be helpful to someone wanting to do something similar. There's lots of helpful tutorials out there. 

Part of this plan was to keep costs as low as possible so I went with the 280mm Bridgelux EB Gen 2 strips in 3500K.

Parts list
8 x Bridgelux EB Gen 2 LED strips
1 x ELG-150-C700A driver
1 x 300x400mm 3mm thick aluminium plate
1 x waterproof connector
18 AWG wire
Bootlace ferrules
25M of 30mm thermal tape
1 x AC side 3A plug and wire
2 x wire connectors
Cable ties and electrical tape

I had a couple of bits already laying around so only spent £73.10. With those added you're probably looking at about £80 All in.

So for my space I was aiming for about 60W with the option for higher power. The strips nominal current is 350mA and the chosen driver is adjustable 350-700mA. As I'd be running the strips fairly soft I decided not to bother with a heatsink. Some may argue against this but that's the choice I made. Would be easy enough to mount them on some aluminium strips if you desired. Some people have even mounted them onto upturned cookie trays.

Here's some voltage and power calculations for the strips wired in series with the constant current driver.

Current calculations

1. I cut two 300mm x 30mm and two 280 x 10mm strips to create a frame for the strips to be mounted on with a 15mm gap between each strip. Excuse the wonky one I lost concentration for a second and that thermal tape is like super glue. The push fit quick connectors on the strips make the wiring really easy. I drilled a few holes into the frame to mount hanging cables too. 

Here's the driver.

All connected up I tweaked the internal dimmer until I had 60W on the socket meter. Then tested the voltage across the 8 strips which read at 152.6VDC. So the current should be around 390mA. After running for 30 mins I could still hold my hand on the strips or frame no problem and testing several spots around the strips and frame the temperature didn't exceed 32.2C.

This light worked great from seed to harvest and ended up being used to produce this mainlined Gorilla Glue in a little 40x40cm tent. It was wall to wall bud. Ha ha.