There are still a lot of lighting parameters I don’t know. I’ve tried to work out a general wiring mechanism that will hopefully be expandable and reasonable to both install and service.
The shortwave light is big, clunky, and complete. I have it wired with ventilation fans and I have it able to be removed before the shelf is removed.
The top section is getting to be a bit like a game of Tetris to get everything in there. It has to be done in the right order.
Part of the electrical wiring is getting that so it can expand for work and then fold up into that space. It means extra wire but it also means I can put most of it up in the top.
I really miss Visio that I had at work for making a visual schematic. I probably have a tool that I haven’t thought of to show a schematic, or at least a wiring layout.
In the top section I start out with a breaker. I’m working with 18 gauge wire and higher so I put in a 10A fuse. That’s not a super help if I short a low voltage section but it should trip before the main breaker does if something cross connects.
The primary wiring uses terminal strips. I didn’t quite order the strips I thought I did at first and got a different assortment. That turned out to be a happy error because I used all of the strips.
These strips came with buss bars for one side. I was able to make buss strips for 120V, Neutral, 12V, 24V, and DC Ground. I have the terminal strips mounted on a couple of sections of wood flooring sample I had lying around. With the rest of the strips I tried to organize the wiring to minimize some inter-board connections. Basically I have switches all landing on a couple of strips (AC and DC strips), and functions such as individual lights on another set of strips. The button strip will have a wire going somewhere on the same board (some form of power) and the function strip will have a wire on that board (some form of ground) so there is only one wire that goes between the boards to complete the circuit.
I also have a master switch on the whole thing that cuts of the AC before it goes to the rest of the strips.
The strips are also really nice because they have a plastic cover (that I can label) that safely covers the terminals.
Going down to the lights I have some 22 gauge black AWM wire. That should camouflage under a shelf much better than a red and white wire, particularly since the white wire probably fluoresces. To make the shelf disconnect able I’m using JR style connectors. It’s taken me a bit to get the crimp done reliably on those connectors and if I had it to do over again I probably would have used a Futaba style because it is a bit more keyed. My first try reaching back to assemble blindly had me plugging it in backwards. Those JR connectors don’t have much of a key.
I had originally planned to have to switch 120v to a LED current driver for a 365nm 10w array I got. The Chanzon driver gave up just as soon as the return window closed. That’s unfortunate, but it does probably simplify my wiring. I’m trying to keep 120v segregated from 12 and 24 volts and fewer 120 circuits makes that easier. I got stuck with 24v because the LED strips I bought used that and I liked the light too much to trade it for a 12v system. Plus the 24v can act as a supply for some of the LEDs I’m trying.
My current switch panel is a $2 cutting board from WalMart. I wanted to make sure I had a final configuration before I started poking holes in the lid to the switch box.
The UV lighting is turning into a real R&D fest.
Some 275nm LED chips I bought almost 2 years ago I finally got working with the 24v source that came with those LED strips and a DC voltage/current regulator. It only takes 100ma. Could I have built that? Probably. I got 5 of those things for $12 from Amazon so it’s hardly worth designing myself.
I’m going to have to use another one of those constant current boards to power the 10W 365nm longwave LED that the Chanzon driver was supposed to run. I have some other LEDs to experiment with of varying short and mid wave lengths. Several of those are single emitter chips on board and some are 4 emitters on board.
Once I figure out how to power them then I have to see how much light they put out an if it’s worth doing the rest to make a display light out of it. They have to be mounted to a heatsink, have visible light filtered, have the light mounted in the shelf and wired and whatever electronics to support it needs to be mounted. I’m flat out of space for more things in the upper compartment so I suspect those electronic drivers will need to go in the top of the drawer area.
For ventilation, I have the top compartment fans that come on when the Shortwave light is turned on and another pair of fans blowing over the bulbs themselves. When I ran the light and felt the air blowing on the outlet the air was noticeably warmer. Not hot, but there was definitely some heat being produced by 4 x 60w bulbs.
I never got a quote from the plastics company I was looking to order the OP2 from so I will have to try another company.
I can at least do some function testing and see some rocks glow now!
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