I was bored after getting home from work tonight so I decided to grenade my 10w LED for everyone here to see. My goal was to see how hard it would be to just use the components from this light in different applications. After taking it apart and putting back together again I am sure this will be a valuable piece of equipment in my upcoming tank build. Enjoy!
First thing I did was remove the mounting bracket. It was only finger tight when I received it so this was real easy.
Next I opened up the box with the driver in it. There are only two wires going to the driver and no wire grounding to the case. The wire connections are wire nutted together and then hot glued.
The driver, notice how it say 9w max output at 300ma.
Next I removed the nut from the power wire bulkhead. There was a nice silicone plug in there keeping it all sealed up nicely.
Then I started removing the screws that attached the driver's box to the light heat sink.
Since I planned on separating the the two components for a lower profile I then cut the wires going from the driver to the LED. Be sure to leave enough wire on each side to work with if you plan on doing the same.
Next I removed the glass from the front.
This glass is thick! I measured it at 1/8". There is no way a small light like this can penetrate this amount of glass without a huge drop in efficiency. I will be going out to the store tomorrow and trying to find a picture frame with a similar size glass but thinner. If you don't care about reassembling it as waterproof as it came or plan on using it above a glass top then you can just run it without the original glass (a lot of leds are run without protection from water, please correct me if this is out of line).
When I tried to remove the reflector I stripped the screw out. Since I don't really care I just cut it out with some snips. There were only two of the four screws in my unit holding the reflector in place.
With the reflector removed you can see the led panel.
I pulled the red and black wires I snipped earlier into the unit.
I then added an extra length of wire between the led and the driver. Any wire should do the trick but try and match it closely to what the manufacturer used. Here you can see how I attached it inside the led housing. Hot glue to hold the wire in place wouldn't hurt.
The reflector goes back into place (optional)
I reassembled the driver box next with my cord going straight into the box and the new light wires coming in from the top. I could have bypassed using the metal box again but I prefer to keep my chinese electronics somewhat contained in case of sparks. If you were to use some silicone you could cover all the excess holes and make the system waterproof again.
A picture of everything put back together but not sealed up and waterproof.
A profile shot to show how slim this makes the unit.
I can definitely tell it is brighter without using any light detecting equipment other than my eyes. The glass used in the unit is way to thick. I am running it without the glass and no protection between the led and the water right now. I am doing this to see if it causes any problems but I don't foresee any. Please let me know what you think of the write-up.