80 gallon, xxtechxx DIY 60 LED BUILD

[xxtechxx]

well i started my LED build from the LED group buy. this project already took me 3 trips to homedepot.... and i hope i dont go back again.

here is the box.. kinda damaged but everything was in good condition.

unboxed everything and put everything on my workbench.. my work bench is so small i can barely fit everything so a lot of stuff are missing. i barely have space to work..

here are some more components

for my led build im going with total of 60 LED
24 royal blue cree xpe
24 neutral white cree xpg
12 blue cree xpe

one thing i have to say is compared to the XRE that did a build on one year ago. the quality of the xpg and xpe is nowhere near the XRE. the build quality of the XRE is a lot better. the lens fit on the cree bulbs a lot better. the new xpg and xpe there are a couple with a huge solder joint thus causing the lens to not even fit correctly on the bulb. i hope these new xpg and xpe bulbs are really better. and of course you will see a huge difference in size

here is the comparison of the two. left being xre and right being xpe

 

[xxtechxx]

okay so here is the circuit for the fan controller and power supply for dimming the LEDs. controlling the voltage of the power supply with a potentiometer will control the fan speed. The other power supply will output 10 volts. using pots again.. in a voltage divider circuit will give us the signal we want for the meanwell drivers. 2 switches are used to select which voltage to display on the volt meter

 

[Enjoy]

Looking sweet, I'll be following

 

[xxtechxx]

looking sweet, i'll be following :d

thanks !

 

[xxtechxx]

okay now i started to lay out my components and soldering my controller.
here we have a standard pcb board where i soldered a RJ45 connection to it. this will be used to hook up a network wire for data transfer from the potentiometer. this is the port where we can have a separate external controller to control the lights and fan speed just like the vortech's pump controller.

here we have the dimming and controller circuit half done..

i realize im still missing some components so i decided to put this circuit to a halt and started making my network wire.
here is a standard cat5e network wire with a rj45 connector.

remove the outer shell and expose the wire ready to be crimped.

crimped wire and ready to go.

this was mentioned before... the wire will be used to transfer data from my controller to the controller/dimmer circuit

 

[xxtechxx]

spent a whole day today trying to complete the dimming and fan controller circuit along with my external controller.

obtained a project box from my local electronic store

placed the components on top to test fitment

drill away!

here we have all the components screwed in. i really needed to get a new dremel took me 1 hour to get that volt meter in place. i was somewhat satisfied but this ebay volt meter was deformed to begin with.

and the final product =] left white knob controls white, middle controls royal blue, and right controls blue. the green knob will be controlling the fan speed

 

[josh1182]

Tagging along!!!

 

[dirt-nasty-510]

holy crap now that is a build what did that run you?

 

[Kain]

Nice, can't wait to see the completed product.

 

[xxtechxx]

holy crap now that is a build what did that run you?

because of the LED group buy i saved a lot of money. i calculated a total of ~$615 with all parts and components

 

[OG Reefs]

tagging along!

 

[Six2seven]

Very nice! Ill be following.

 

[jadette]

Wow! This is awesome. Love how clean the controller looks in the box. I envision mine as a circuit board with tons of wires stuck in a tupperware box.

Great job!

 

[xxtechxx]

Wow! This is awesome. Love how clean the controller looks in the box. I envision mine as a circuit board with tons of wires stuck in a tupperware box.

Great job!

haha i didnt have time to post picture of inside the box!:lolspin:

THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE KIND WORDS

 

[xxtechxx]

here we have the internals

getting messy....using a L78l05 regulator that max at 100ma to power the volt meter and this thing got hot quick.. so i decided to change the regulator

to fix this problem i changed to bigger bother of the regulator a LM7805 that max at 1.5 amps. also added heatsink to it.

plugged everything together and tested the output of the dimmer and fan controller circuit. IT WORKS!!
i used an oscilloscope to measure the output because i want to measure the output over a given amount of time to see if there is any fluctuation in the output. it turns out that i have a extremely clean dc output.

 

[lowbudget]

John you got some mad skills

 

[bennyinca]

you sure know what you're doing, the build is looking great!

those diagrams remind me of college physics

 

[cocoaandme]

Wow very cool build thread. Probably the most advanced I've ever seen for DIY leds. Did you get the voltmeter from a store on ebay or from just a private seller? I would like to get one for my build as well if you don't mind. Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

[nguyentri]

Wow u look like a pro .

 

[xxtechxx]

John you got some mad skills

THANKS

you sure know what you're doing, the build is looking great!

those diagrams remind me of college physics

haha im still in college studying computer engineering =]

Wow very cool build thread. Probably the most advanced I've ever seen for DIY leds. Did you get the voltmeter from a store on ebay or from just a private seller? I would like to get one for my build as well if you don't mind. Thanks for keeping us updated!

i got this voltmeter from a private seller, but they do have them on ebay and amazon. if you want an advance multimeter this one i feel is comparable with the fluke. however if you just want a simple multimeter a harbor freight 3 dollar multimeter would work just fine. i got 2 of the harbor freight centech multimeter myself.

Wow u look like a pro .

THANKS


im almost going to build my enclosure soon. any ideas or input on the enclosure!??!?! will be greatly appreciated.