HEXLight, a DIY Studio Light Alternative

Hey everyone What's up!

So this is HEX Light

which is a DIY Studio Lighting Setup that consists of a total of 72 High Power Cree LEDs and they are powered by a 12V 5A SMPS. LEDs are driven by two separate LED Driver ICs and this whole setup cost less than 100$ to make which is still cheaper than other similar size studio light available in the market.

Also, huge thanks to PCBWay for Supporting this project, Check out PCBWay for getting great PCB Service at a relatively less cost.

Question, why did I make this huge studio light?

Well, the answer here is pretty simple, I required a proper lighting setup for my current maker setup and all I have were few LED Strips and a small studio lightbox that I recently made, they all were functional but not exactly great.

The main goal here was to increase the lighting setup by not spending much on commercially available lights and make my own version of this studio light with aluminum extrusion and 3D Printed Parts

These are the things that we need in our built

• LEDs JK3030 Cree
• 1.5 Ohms Resistance 1206 Package
• 0.47 Ohms Resistance 1206 Package
• 100uf Capacitor
• 63uH Indictor
• SS34 Diode SMA
• DC Barrel Jack
• Custom PCB (which was provided by PCBWAY)
• Custom 3D Printed body
• SIC9301A led driver IC
• Aluminum Square Pipe/Extrusion
• 12V SMPS Power Supply

A few weeks ago, I made this small yet powerful Studio Light Box, In that setup, I used SIC9301A LED Driver IC to driver 3V Cree LEDs.

Studio Light Box Project was pretty handy and useful but it was not enough to illuminate the entire room, that is because of its number of LEDs. I required more LUX which can be acquired by adding more LEDs.

But more LEDs mean more heat generation, so I prepared an Aluminum Extrusion based Light this time which is modeled in a HEXAGON Shape.

I first prepared the Basic Structure in Fusion360 by measuring the Aluminum channel first and then creating its Support Bushes that will hold two channels at an internal angle of 120 Degree. After that, I placed 6 PCBs on each Hexagon side and use its measurement to make a custom PCB in the PCB Designing suite.

To make any PCB, we first need to think about what we want to put in that PCB.

In my case, I required 12 LEDs which are arranged in 3S 4P Config. To drive those LEDs, I needed a constant LED Driver IC and to power this whole setup, I required a DC Jack or a battery connector.

After this planning, I started making the schematic of the main board then we Import the Netlist of our schematic to convert this it a PCB File.

All PCB Designing suit works differently but this is a universal step, we first make a schematic, then assign each component their footprint and then convert the SCHEMATIC file into a Board File.

After completing the board, I then exported the Gerber data for PCB and send it to PCBWay for samples.

I received the PCBs in a week and they were mind-blowing. PCB Quality was pretty great and I just loved it, PCBWay, you guys rock!

Check out PCBWay for getting great PCB Service at Less cost- The next Process is the PCB Assembly

• The First step of the PCB Assembly is to add solder paste to each component one by one.
• Then we gather everything we need (which are LEDs) and place them in the right order one by one.
• Then we Carefully lift the PCB and put that on a Reflow Hotplate, the Hotplate will heat the PCB from Below and the solder paste will melt as soon as the hotplate temp reaches the solder paste melting temp.
• Few LEDs were shorted so one end of the tweezer, we need to move the led back and forth, by doing this, the solder paste between two pads will clear up and the shorting will not occur.
• After this, I carefully removed the PCB from the Hotplate and check the PCB by supplying 12V to its VCC Pads.

Now, we required a total of 6 LED PCBs and two LED Driver Boards.

• LED Driver board assembly process is also the same, I first added solder paste to each component pad and then added the components to it.
• then I added it on the hotplate and let the solder paste melt and that was pretty much it.

The main Component here is the aluminum Square pipe or aluminum extrusion which I bought from a Hardware store and the 3D Printed Parts that I model in Fusion 360 which holds two aluminum Pipes at an internal angle of 120.

• I first marked and cut down 6 Pieces of aluminum pipe each 230mm with a hex saw blade.
• after trimming their edges, I used the 3D Printed Bush to mark both sides of every Square pipe.
• Then I drill holes in each aluminum pipe with a 4mm Drill Bit.

• I had to do this same process for all the aluminum pipes, which really took time but after this hard work, I put everything together.
• Now we add M4 nuts and bolts to each side of the square pipe to tightly secure the Square pipe and 3D Printed part together.
• At last, I added the seventh pipe which will hold this structure.

Also, I bought a cheap but great tripod to serve as a Hexlight base.

• I added HexLight on this tripod with the Tripod Mount (all the parts are attached including the Fusion360 File, Check them out for reference)
• Anyways, after making sure that everything is fine and dandy, I reassembled the Seventh Square Pipe so I could put LED PCBs on it.

we start first by adding the LED PCB to each side of the Hexagon structure and making its Mounting holes.

after marking a total of 12 holes, I used a 2mm drill to drill holes in all 12 holes. this took a while but after this, I used two 2.5mm Screws to tightly secure each of these LEDs with the aluminum pipe.

You could add thermal grease or thermal compound in between the PCB to improve the heat flow rate but I didn't have any of them so I just screwed everything together. Now the LED DrIver PCBs will be mounted on the seventh pipe in this arrangement. both of them will be mounted sideways.

To mount them, I used the same screws but I put these two washers in between the PCB and aluminum pipe surface to lift the PCB a little bit so it won't short on the aluminum surface.

After putting them on the Square pipe, I then reattached it with the main body and then secure everything together with M4 screws nicely.

By following the above wiring, I hook everything together.

This Light comprises two halves, one side contains 3 PCBs each 12 LEDs so around 36 LEDs on one side and 36 on the other. 3 LED PCBs are connected in parallel and then one LED Driver Board is used to drive these three PCBs.

For Powering this setup, I used an 12V 5A SMPS Mighty power supply.

To Toggle both segments individually, I have added a switch to each LED Driver Board so we can just Turn ON or OFF any two Light halves.

After Wiring, I added the whole light back on the tripod with its mounting bracket, and our HexLight Setup is completed!

Let's see few final shots of the Hex Light Setup now!

See how the lighting drastically improves when I turned on the Hexlight Setup to illuminate my table?

Right Now, this setup doesn't have any brightness control setting which will let us increase or decrease the light intensity by the touch of a button.
I will be adding this in the next version, Nothing really has to be changed for this feature, I will add a Mosfet as a Switch setup which will decrease/Increase the Light by PWM Dimming. But This is it, for now, Leave a comment if you need any help with this project.

Peace Out!