Seems like one big problem, I really could use some help!

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

Just bypassed one led (The fourth one) and all the other seventeen leds went up and bright, so bright I've got a thousand floating points in my field of view now.
God damn.
Two hours and a headache later... and it's probbl just faulty wiring. I say that cause the led does lit up when tested individually.
Won't touch it for now, though. I'm tired of this. Tomorrow. Ahahahahaha
Thank you so much!

great news!!!

Foto0014.jpg

Well, this is the crude workaround I used.
Gotta say they look bright for 1-watters (I know this doesn't mean anything concrete, but they do seem brighter than the ones in the UFOs I've seen)
The pic was taken using my cellphone, so all kinds of artifacts show on the lights.

Thanks again!

I just realized I made a terrible mistake and 4 leds are burnt because of that. None of them were bad in the first place, the thing is:

All the poles in the star are able to conduct power! Even if there's one ledchip (as opposed to rgb leds p.ex), ALL the other 4 poles bring power to the diode in the core. When I bolted them down, the bolt head made a connection between negative and positive poles creating a short in some diodes. Since the bolt is also connected to the aluminum tray I'm using for a chassis, it created some nasty interference.
I just wish I'd thought about that before.
What is the solution? Do I have to isolate the bolt heads from the poles in the star or just rotate the star in a way the bolts connect equal polarities?

Foto0018.jpgFoto0019.jpg


So, basically, all the 90 leds are shorted by design. Hahahaha
That was really stupid, in hindsight. I might use some silvertape on the edges to isolate them, should that do?


Btw, this illustrates what I'm saying:

Foto0022.jpgFoto0023.jpgFoto0024.jpgFoto0025.jpg

Unpowered, directly on the led "legs" (middle pair), upper pair, lower pair.

The bolt was lifted on this one eliminating the short.

You should redesign your attach so that the bolt is not in contact with the connectors. You could use insulating soft washers for instance.

And the next time, maybe not use the pads where the LED is solder on for the wires connection but the ones marked +/-
(no need to risk overload the LED's on temps when soldering heavy wires)




Good project btw.

nb. your avatar is making me dizzy.

How well would hot glue perform as an insulator? What about insulating tape? It's been hard to find plastic covers that fit the bolts I'm using.
Thank you all for your comment and advice, I have 90 more leds on the way and waiting to buy the final 36 or so. Hopefully I'll have a box of light with 2 top and 4 side lamps.
I kinda feel lucky for only having 5 burnt diodes after shorting, well, 90.