Status: Complete

I (River) bought a COB LED module from aliexpress for 1.45. It claims to be a “full spectrum” grow light, and 50W.

I soldered some wires onto the aluminum board using the hot plate as a preheater and finishing with a soldering iron. Earth connected to heatsink with an anti-shake (jaggy) washer to get some bite through the aluminium oxide. Earth is critical as live only separated from heatsink by microscopic dielectric layer on board.

I fitted it to a heat sink with thermal tape and laser cut a cover which slotted into the heatsink.

I've been using the light for a week or so now. It gets hot - too hot to touch, at about 75C with ambient ~25C, but not too hot for the electronics I think. Efficiency seems questionable.

Otherwise it seems to work well. It is pink.

The camera shows the flicker from the unfiltered bridge rectifier. You can also see some of the LEDs in this image.