Electrical product advice needed

1. Thanks Clive, A right riveting read :fatigue: Actually it may be relevant as the LED driver pictured on page 1 is the one (or very similar) we are using. I realise that CE could mean 'Chinese Equivalent'.

2. Yes Nick, I realised that. We still have tests to do to see temperature rises, but the LED is on a heatsink with plenty of free air (a fan would detract from the artistic aspects). As far as melting is concerned, I have no worries over the cast iron or bronze, but start to get a bit wary about the aluminium. My main concern is the driver and LED chip going pop in flames. There is a 20mm fuse holder which will be furnished with a 1A glass fuse.

No I am not being sarky! I am just knackered after a hard day watching my son do some grafting. I have just had to resort to painkillers (Bacardi and coke). Thanks mates, for taking onboard this issue and providing me with some meat to chew.

Cheers,

Rob

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Originally Posted by cropwell

My main concern is the driver and LED chip going pop in flames..

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Yes, that's the bit that will get hotter than normal before it burns ;-)

Here's some pics of the lamp base. Don't forget that is only a prototype to test the idea out, nowhere near a finished product, so if you see anything that needs to be changed, please say.

My desk isn't normally like that, I tidied it up to get some space to take the photos :applause:

Attachment 19138Attachment 19139Attachment 19140Attachment 19141

Having looked through the photos, I can see one thing that needs attention - the mains wires input to the driver !

Cheers,

Rob

Rob I am not an expert But I would put some mica or other suitable material under the mains choc block so as to make sure no strands of wire will touch the ali base.

edit I don't see the frustation hammer on the table

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Originally Posted by Clive S

I would put some mica or other suitable material under the mains choc block so as to make sure no strands of wire will touch the ali base.

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You are right, the mains shrouding will have to be attended to. All things electrical have to be quadruple safe, just to protect yourself from twats. I hope the sculpture itself will be expensive enough for owners to keep brats with paper clips off it. But you k-never k-know. If people are daft enough to try and dry off a poodle in a microwave and then successfully sue because the manufacturers instructions didn't say not to, what hope is there for the intelligent world ?

TTFN

Rob

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Originally Posted by cropwell

Here's some pics of the lamp base. Don't forget that is only a prototype to test the idea out, nowhere near a finished product, so if you see anything that needs to be changed, please say.

My desk isn't normally like that, I tidied it up to get some space to take the photos :applause:

Attachment 19138Attachment 19139Attachment 19140Attachment 19141

Having looked through the photos, I can see one thing that needs attention - the mains wires input to the driver !

Cheers,

Rob

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Why don't you show this to a local, CERTIFIED electrician and ask his/her opinion? It may cost £100-150 if you want a written report also, but can't be that expensive if you only wants an opinion. Anyway, it is money well worth spending if you have this as a serious business idea.

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Originally Posted by A_Camera

Why don't you show this to a local, CERTIFIED electrician and ask his/her opinion? It may cost £100-150 if you want a written report also, but can't be that expensive if you only wants an opinion. Anyway, it is money well worth spending if you have this as a serious business idea.

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Most Part P sparkies are not only CERTIFIED but CERTIFIABLE. To get any valuable advice or opinion, I would have to go to the IEEE to find a suitable Electrical Engineer. The most sensible testing, at this stage, is PAT*, coupled with common safety sense. We know from experience in this forum, that errord are easily made, and often missed in review. It is like having a document proof read, you probably won't spot your own mistakes, but someone else sees them immediately because they go in with a different mindset.

If the idea of an underneath lit glass sculpture has any artistic appeal and serious commercial possibility, then we will go the whole hog with a CE driver and integral switched mains cable and a plug suitable for the destination country, and go for the IEEE cert, but that costs mega bucks.

Cheers,

Rob




* which we need to have done anyway, as the exhibitions won't accept anything plugged in, without a green sticker.

++ did you spot it ?

Post removed.

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The reason I am saying it is that I can see several very basic mistakes in your design, which are pretty simple to to fix, but are very important from the safety perspective. I think that what you may regard "common safety sense" is not the same as what a qualified person would, and it is always a good idea to ask for their opinion.

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If you can see them would it not be nice if you stated what they are as that would be more helpful.

Let me give you an idea of what we are doing.

Stuart Akroyd http://www.stuartakroydglass.com/ is a good friend who asked me to develop an idea for lighting a sculpture piece he does. For the moment, we are making about 6 for show at an exhibition and the piece will be offered for sale if enough interest is shown, when the electrics are fully done and tested.

It will be a limited edition, so no production run of 1,000's and no big budget for production testing. We will be switching on and leaving it on until we get to a steady state temperature and we will be testing it in a kiln to see how it copes with ambient temperatures up to 60deg C. We are currently testing a piece to see if the resin that embeds the glass into the base deteriorates or softens at temperature and currently we are at 70deg C with no problem.

Just to put perspective on things.

Rob