5x5 LED grow light, part 2

In the last post I showed the schematic and explained the components. Now I will show the prototype I built on some Radio Shack perf board. First pic is the business end of the grow light.  It is a 5 by 5 grid of 25 LEDs.





The view from above shows the LEDs glowing through the back of the pcb.  You can see that the orange lights are arranged in a pinwheel formation.  The two blue lights are visible in the center also.  Point to point wiring on perf board was used instead of etching a pcb.  Took about 1 hour to solder together.





The array is rated at 210 mA and 2607 mW.  For a power source I have a 120 VAC to 12 VAC plug in wall transformer from a toy train set.  In order to use it I had to put a bridge rectifier to convert it to DC.  I realize I did not need to do that since the LEDs are diodes but in my experience it makes the LEDs last longer.  Last but not least I had to have a system to raise and lower the height of the grow light for when the plant grows.  It is about as low tech as it gets.  A piece of wood that the grow light is screwed to with a clamp holding it in position.