I made my own LED array! Photos and some info about it.

[iVAN]

After finding out about RLT I decided this was something I wanted to try.
I wanted a large array that would do my whole face.
However, the commercially available ones such as the Dimalux were
tooooo expensive. :shock:


I was going to purchase a bunch of panels from 'V' the ledman and mount them in some sort of enclosure, but then thought what the heck, I may as well make it myself since I am fairly handy. I knew mechanics but not electronics so I had to learn a lot of new things.

I got some information from IowaDavid to get me started.
'V' the ledman was very helpful and I appreciated that very much.
I also studied as much as I could online.

Anyway, here is my array. It consists of 1008 super bright
660nm leds. They are mounted in a stainless steel enclosure I made.
There are 4 fans to keep the led's (and me) cool.
You simply lie down on the bed and place the enclosure over
your face. The led's are held about 2 inches away from the skin.
The brightness is adjustable from 15mA to 25mA.
It was quite a project to tackle and I learned plenty about
electricity and electronics!

Now time to start using it and see if it helps me :D

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/i_carumba/SS1-1.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/i_carumba/SS2.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/i_carumba/SS3.jpg

[Twickle Purple]

Brilliant. That looks absolutely brilliant! Where did you get the fan components? Would you be able to share the approx cost, and hours to do this? Nice metal fabrication. You certainly utilized a few different skill sets here!

[iVAN]

Glad you like it TP!
I know you have plenty of experience with various
light therapy devices.
The fans are 60mm slim type from a computer store.
The fan guards were picked up at an electronics supply store.
The fans were approx $9 each and the guards were $3 each.

My cost for parts was a bit under $500 CDN.
That includes an adjustable power supply as
well as the enclosure.
So not exactly cheap, but still affordable.

Hours to build?
Not sure.
I didn't keep track but it was quite a project.
I made it high quality and it is quite time consuming
assembling so many pieces!
Also several hours were spent with testing and some
trial and error as well.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out :D

[fut]

Now if that LED doesn't "burn" your face off then I don't know what will. :lol:

Good luck :wink:

[redhotoz]

Fantastic work Ivan!

What do you mean by "super bright" in terms of LEDs? Are 660nm considered to be "super bright"? Sorry, I'm just not sure what this term means. Is there a dull 660nm LED? Do they come in varying brightnesses?

Thanks

Jen

P.S. Did you check out my array in the photo area? Having mine mounted on the wall above my bed makes it so easy to use.

[iVAN]

Thanks Redhot :D

"Super Bright" is I think a term used to describe LED's that
are very bright. They are usually either regular LED's or
superbright.

The brightness or intensity is measured in mcd.
Mine are 2800mcd TYP at 20mA.
I think anything over 1000mcd in red would be considered
super bright.

Another thing you have to consider is Viewing Angle.
Mine are 30 degrees. As the viewing angle gets less,
the intensity increases, but the light beam from the LED
becomes narrower.

The 660nm is the peak wavelength. It is simply the colour that
the LED is. When off they are clear. 660 is deep red.
630 more of an orangy-red. 590 is yellow I think and so on.

Does that make sense? :?

[redhotoz]

Thanks for that Ivan. Will have to give it a bit of time to absorb! :lol:

Jen

[iVAN]

Oh and yes I saw your array in one of the threads Redhot.
I saw it and thought "thats cool, maybe I could make one"
So actually yours is the one that got me inspired to do this project.

The one thing I did different on mine from most I have seen
is to not have a flat panel in the centre. I figured you would have
to have you nose touching it if you wanted your cheeks close
to the LED's. So I made a shape with cardboard that kinda follows
the contours of a face, then made it out of metal.

[redhotoz]

Ah, well it was TP's unit on a massage bed that inspired me to have mine mounted above my bed. It's actually long ways, so the light reaches under my chin. The unit sits just above my head at the closest point and just off my chest at the lowest point. I get a very good coverage. The central panels are further away than the side panels, so my nose definitely doesn't touch the LEDs.

You might want to ask someone in your house to see which gives you the best coverage with your unit. That is, sideways or long ways. I hope that makes sense! I guess with your set up, you can choose which way to place it above your face.

Jen