210 Upgrade Build with LED Build

nuclearheli

nuclearheli

Member
Hopefully this build thread will end in success, but one thing for sure, it won't end before April. Before I get going credits are due. These forums and all the top notch reefers are in some way responsible for my build.

Current tank: 90 Gallon mixed reef, store bought black stand, LifeReef Sump, Bubble Master skimmer, Chiller, heater and all the extras. Sump under tank. Picture for reference:

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Upgrade Build: 210 Gallon Tank, custom built stand to match kitchen, basement sump with refuge, ato, dosing tanks, skimmer, chiller

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The tank was purchased in November 2010 and stored in my pool shed/bar. The picture above was taken 4 days ago with the delivery of the custom cabinet built by a friend of mine at his house.

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The build started with the cabinet. Over the holidays a friend of mine started building the custom cabinet. The design goal was to get the cabinet to match as closely as possible our custom kitchen. the room the tank is in is adjacent to the kitchen.

The kitchen for reference:

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The cabinet build at my carpenter friend's house.

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Current status of the build.

After many discussions and lots of deep thought I decided to buy a custom built sump from Life Reef. The rather large sump will have a built in Refug, external pumps, circulation loop, 30" protein skimmer and three reactor's. Pictures of the sump will follow upon delivery, early March.

Next is the light bridge. The light bridge is going to be an all custom built LED with a suspended bridge to match the cabinet.

First the cabinet:

The bridge cabinet for the LED's is a basic framed box with a 3/4" piece of plywood set into the middle of the bridge leaving a 5" and 3" top and bottom cavity. The bottom cavity will house the LED light grid, the top cavity will have a support structure and the electronics.

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Later when the bridge is finished it will be faced front and both sides with a custom built cabinet face:

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The LED build:

The LED build will be a linear 6' build consisting of four Aluminum T-Slotted Framing members with two side members. I selected this material because of it's hollow star design giving ample surface area for cooling, and the availability of accessories that connect the members and other neat mounting accessories:

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The idea is to arrange these components in a grid. One of the ideal aspects of this material is the ability for me to make the bridge modular. As I will show later I am using 4 linear strips each containing 34 CREE Stars alternating between Royal Blue and Cool White. Once the system is built and tested if I find I need more lighting all I need to do is build another linear run, attach it to the grid, and plug it into the planned connections on my wire bundle.

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What's the green stuff? For reasons I will go into in the next post I am extremely concerned about electrical insulation and isolation. The green material is called G11 (Garolite) which is an epoxy and glass resin that is has excellent thermal properties and superior electrical insulation properties. I purchased a single sheet, 1/4" thick, and ripped it into strips that will be attached to the frame using nylon screws.

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Why so many screws? Nothing else to do. My LEDs are still in transit, I had the screws, and I believe in safety. The object of the G11 and the nylon screws is to completely electrically insulate the LED's from each other and the heat sink.
 
So why go through so much trouble to make sure the LED's are insulated? Because I am the nut case that is using only two drivers for this entire build. The drivers are Thomas Research 700mA 295VDC dimming drivers, 0-10 volt dimming current.

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Ok so I already posted these drivers in another thread and seem to have a pool of people betting on when I am going to electrocute myself. I will say this once, I have experience in high voltage systems, electrical safety for very high voltage systems, and complete knowledge of what I am doing. I appreciate all the anticipated concerned and comments on how crazy I am but trust me, I will still be with you to see the end of the build.

The next step was to countersink 1" holes into the G11 about 2/3 through the material.

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As you can see in this test sample with the mockup of the star, I intend to cement the star into the recess after attaching my wires. Once all testing has been completed I will fill the cavity with epoxy resin completely covering any contacts.

Why do this? Two reasons. Safety, so nobody can ever come into contact with an energized terminal, second to eliminate creepage and clearance issues.

Reprinted: When evaluating spacing, both clearance and creepage distances need to be addressed. Clearance is the shortest distance between two conductive parts, or between a conductive part and ground, measured through air or other insulating medium. Creepage distance is the shortest distance separating two conductors as measured along the surface touching both conductors.

The general guideline of 7,500 to 10,000 volts per inch is affected by the shapes of the conductors. Sharp points will require greater spacing, and large radii surfaces will require less spacing.

Arcs or flashover can occur along the surface of some materials at distances much shorter than the flashover distance in air. Therefore, it is extremely important in high voltage designs to look for places where creepage can occur.

The short of it is that there is not enough distance to eliminate creepage or clearance issues on the star between conductors. One accepted standard method to eliminate creepage and clearance when distance cannot be increased is to insulate the conductors. It's that simple. Hence, I will cover the contacts of the stars in epoxy.

Shots of all the cross member completely drilled and ready for wiring.

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A\/enger said:
How does that green stuff do with heat transfer?
Click to expand...

That's one of it's best qualities. It will tolerate heat without deforming, expanding, breaking down or ashing up to 300 degrees F while making for an excellent transfer medium for heat. It will easily transfer the heat load to the AL bar without loosing any of it's electrical insulation properties.
 
Everything is designed in a modular fashion so my current task is wiring. I am creating a wiring harness which will contain 6 high voltage pin and sleeve connectors capable of handling up to 600 V and 20 Amps. Each array of LED's will have it's own harness and connect on the end to the main harness. The two drivers will connect to a single harness with one connector on top of the bridge. Very clean and neat. The 0-10 volt signal will also connect with a similar connector to my Apex controller. Both drivers will be connected to an Apex 4 port power plug. Lastly there will be two fans controlled by an Apex temperature probe.

All in all it should be very clean and simple with a distinct lack of wiring. Very few places for failure.

That's the build so far, everything in progress. I started posting before it was done because people have been asking me to. If your interested please follow along and please be patience is the key.
 
Aluminum has almost twice the thermal coefficient of expansion. I'm not sure what will happen when they all heat up. It might try to bend the channel in a U-shape or it might try to shear your G11/Al bond.

I'm also concerned about your thermal conductivity through the G11. G11 while taking heat pretty well conducts it poorly. Aluminum is 68 times more conductive than G11. If your G11 is more than a few thousandths thick it will represent significant thermal resistance to your stars dumping their heat.

I would suggest you go to the effort of making a test fixture that is identical to your build with a single star. Epoxy and all. Run it with a power supply and a variable resistor if you don't have an adjustable supply. Run it with the current 10% higher than you expect to run your rig. Leave it running for a few days and monitor the temperatures. See how it works. It would be horrid to have your nice rig all epoxied only to find you need to make a change...
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Thanks for showing your build.

I watch with interest.
 
Is that a drill press I see in one of those pics, is that what you used to countersink the holes for the LEDs? Do you think there's any other way to accomplish that without the drill press?

I was considering a similar type of build for my 210, but was thinking of making it so that those cross members can be rotated. My thinking was that it would allow me to focus the light more towards the back of the tank and less towards the front - essentially where the light is needed. Do you think there's any merit in going to the extra trouble of making them able to rotate by say 45degrees?
 
kcress said:
Aluminum has almost twice the thermal coefficient of expansion. I'm not sure what will happen when they all heat up. It might try to bend the channel in a U-shape or it might try to shear your G11/Al bond.

I'm also concerned about your thermal conductivity through the G11. G11 while taking heat pretty well conducts it poorly. Aluminum is 68 times more conductive than G11. If your G11 is more than a few thousandths thick it will represent significant thermal resistance to your stars dumping their heat.

I would suggest you go to the effort of making a test fixture that is identical to your build with a single star. Epoxy and all. Run it with a power supply and a variable resistor if you don't have an adjustable supply. Run it with the current 10% higher than you expect to run your rig. Leave it running for a few days and monitor the temperatures. See how it works. It would be horrid to have your nice rig all epoxied only to find you need to make a change...
2iaxvrt.gif
2rcyb6e.gif



Thanks for showing your build.

I watch with interest.
Click to expand...

Don't expect it to get that hot but a test might not be that bad of an idea. We use the G11/Al combination at work all the time with pretty high heat loads without any issues.

I thought about the conductivity issue and re-drilled the recessed holes. The thickness of the remaining G11 is about 1/32. Also plan for active cooling with two 7" fans on the top. Small computer fans on steroids. Yes I turned them on and they are very quiet.
 
Cuervo said:
Is that a drill press I see in one of those pics, is that what you used to countersink the holes for the LEDs? Do you think there's any other way to accomplish that without the drill press?

I was considering a similar type of build for my 210, but was thinking of making it so that those cross members can be rotated. My thinking was that it would allow me to focus the light more towards the back of the tank and less towards the front - essentially where the light is needed. Do you think there's any merit in going to the extra trouble of making them able to rotate by say 45degrees?
Click to expand...

yes, used that drill press to drill all the holes. Not sure I could make the holes that accurate with a hand drill but I believe they make a guide rig for hand held drills to make accurate holes. I used a Carbide-Tipped wood boring tip.

the particular framing members I used may be of interest to you if you want to rotate them front to back. If you look at the end of the member it's drilled. Also have lots of interesting attachments you can use to make the bars rotate and move.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#structural-framing-systems/=azswc6
http://www.mcmaster.com/#structural-framing-systems/=azsx93
http://www.mcmaster.com/#structural-framing-systems/=azsxh6
http://www.mcmaster.com/#structural-framing-systems/=azsxoh

Check out these pages for the bars, may find something interesting for your build.
 
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