LED Resistor Calculations ...

[EasyGoing1]

Re: LED Resistor Calculations ...

But are the thermal via boards electrically isolated like the aluminum boards?

No, apparently what you do with the standard PCB boards, is you have an area on the backside of the board with an exposed pad that has vias connecting the pad on the LED where the heat is dissipated. THEN, you use a heat sync and attach it to the backside of the board.

Of course, this would make your heat sync electrically connected to the anode ... so it would be important to not have the heat sync close to anything that could cause shorting ... like a cassis cover etc.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: LED Resistor Calculations ...

But are the thermal via boards electrically isolated like the aluminum boards?

I suppose I could see an advantage to using the aluminum board since heat is evenly distributed throughout the aluminum, you could then attach different heat syncs to the aluminum without having to worry about placement using that CPU thermal epoxy. That would at least let you hodge podge heat syncs you have laying around or just use a few smaller and less expensive heat syncs instead of buying a large one cause they can get pricey as they get bigger.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: LED Resistor Calculations ...

That first aluminum panel where I was taking temp readings from ... I had it sitting on top of a glass face down while it was running and I didn't notice until after I disconnected it and let it cool down ... that the damn thing got so hot, that it messed with the components as you can see:

[eccerr0r]

Re: LED Resistor Calculations ...

[EasyGoing1]

Re: LED Resistor Calculations ...

So the whole reason why this project even started in the first place was that I mounted a dartboard in an area that has very little light and it makes it impossible to see where the dart hit when it's close to any number border. So I figured I could just make my own light because it would be fun to do.

I designed a shroud for it in Tinkercad ... as you can see, I used the version of the panel that is NOT aluminum and I attached a 12 volt fan to the housing but to be honest, the fan doesn't move much air ... you can't really feel any air moving around the light, but it's good to have it moving air anyways in my opinion.

After leaving it running for an hour, the housing is a little warm, especially at the boarder of the two halves of the housing, but certainly not HOT by any means. And technically, this is the same panel as the aluminum PCB ... only without the aluminum so I'm not sure why this one doesn't get as hot...

Here are some pics...