(Another) DIY LED Build - Linear Design

[katchupoy]

Ok wow I just totally changed direction with that link. I want a few of those chips rather than 300+ 3w stars for sure! In fact why would anyone use all single 3 watters when you can use a couple/few multi-led chips instead?

Those chips look WAY brighter and really just the ticket I need for my big tank.

Thanks for the link katchupoy. Not that I know what I'm doing now but at least I have hope!

thats good that you have another alternative. But you will still need some RB crees to be the dusk / dawn effect??

this one also recreates the MH look, since its a one big single source light.

 

[Biggar]

My problem with CREE LEDS

My problem with CREE LEDS

Please check out how my cree LEDs have effected my color. Im stumped

Light Specs
All Cree 3 watts. both white sets are on stronger Ma driver(1000ma)s. all blues on 700ma's

Cool white- 24
Neutral white-12
Royal Blue- 56
Blue- 14
most on 80 degree optics, some on 60 degree.

70 blue, to 36 white. I only run 12 whites as a high noon effect (4 hours per day)



May be more than 20k in blue

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2168032

 

[katchupoy]

Please check out how my cree LEDs have effected my color. Im stumped

Light Specs
All Cree 3 watts. both white sets are on stronger Ma driver(1000ma)s. all blues on 700ma's

Cool white- 24
Neutral white-12
Royal Blue- 56
Blue- 14
most on 80 degree optics, some on 60 degree.

70 blue, to 36 white. I only run 12 whites as a high noon effect (4 hours per day)



May be more than 20k in blue

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2168032

Did you acclimate your corals to your lighting? Im almost in my 17th month and still at 80%. Havent gone 100% without bleaching my corals.. Other than that, really cool.

 

[Biggar]

Did you acclimate your corals to your lighting? Im almost in my 17th month and still at 80%. Havent gone 100% without bleaching my corals.. Other than that, really cool.

I dont have a dimmer on mine, but the frags came out of other hobbiest tanks running very high MH wattage.

I think im going to shut down some strips and see what happens. Even coral on the sand are fading. They are growing fine, but losing color

 

[katchupoy]

lessen the blue side. they look dim to you but we are talking about very concentrated specific spectrum here. a lot of people under estimate the intensities of these leds. put a screen or raise your rig up, or turn some sets off.

 

[Biggar]

lessen the blue side. they look dim to you but we are talking about very concentrated specific spectrum here. a lot of people under estimate the intensities of these leds. put a screen or raise your rig up, or turn some sets off.

Is it the blue that might be fading the corals if its a spectrum issue?

I always read the blue gives the color. Example: the 20k halides are known to produce deep color?

Hmmmmm

 

[madkat]

Almighty LED gurus,

I am about to embark on a LED build. Take a look at this and tell me if I am off base.
I have a 180G 72x24x24 Mixed reef

HLG-185-48B capable of running 3 strings of 14 XP-G white leds up to 1.3A,
HLG-240-48B capable of running 6 strings of 11 Royal Blue LEDs & 2 UV Violet LEDs up to 833mA.
So this would be 66RB,42W & 12 UV - Violet for a total of 120 LEDs.

Design can be found here http://mycomas.com/tmp/LED HOOD.pdf

 

[TropTrea]

So much to absorb, so confused as to what I'm going to do. Actually doing it seems to be the easy part.

Figuring out what you are going to do is the hard part. How many led, cree or bridgelux, what to use for heatsinks, rows or clusters, where to put the different colors.

Literally making my head spin. I've asked in a couple other threads...some advice would help.

300g 31" deep 8ft long...what would you do? I'm literally at the point of just trusting one of you guys that has done it a few times and seems knowlegable to tell me what to do. I really don't want to spend 700 bucks or whatever and find out that I could've done it much better for less.

Last I "decided" I was leaning towards two 120 led kits from aquastyle but they are bridgelux. http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/120--LEDs--DIY-Dimmable-Kit.html

If I can have fewer crees to provide the same amount of light maybe that would be better. BAH! so undecided and ignorant really that I'm frozen from making a call one way or the other. SO my little 4ft T-5 fixture continues to sit there doing a crappy job.

I asked the same question in a different thread so if you answer me there I will see it, no need to post again. I'm just trying to get this figured out so I can get started! THanks

Color balance is realy a personal thing. My advice is to start with a system that has a 1 Neutral White to 3 Blue combination. With your tank I would recommend about 120 3 watt LED's with lenses. But to start off put in 24 Neutral White LED's, 30 Royal Blue LED's and 30 Blue LED's. Then evaulate the color per your personal taste and add the additional LED's is phases to slowly balance the tank to your personal color taste.

 

[TropTrea]

Is it the blue that might be fading the corals if its a spectrum issue?

I always read the blue gives the color. Example: the 20k halides are known to produce deep color?

Hmmmmm

It has been proven the excess light in the 685 nm range will cause clor bleachiung in many corals. This is at the high end of the RED part of the spectrum. So the question is what is your White to Blue ratio? And also what type of White LED's are you using? I perfer Neutral Whites as they give a strong spectrum of red at about 630nm but fall of to near nothing by 685 nm.

Then there is the possibility of the light being overall too intense as some have said before. But this is very less likely.

 

[TheFishMan65]

madkat,

Can the UV take .8833 amps? I thought they maxed out at .5 amps. I have no experience with UV so let us know how it goes.
I would also use XMLs to save electricity rather than the XPGs.

 

[TropTrea]

Hi Dennis, Ceasar,

Thank you so much for your inputs.

I actually managed to get hands on some heatsinks... 1.5 inch x .5 Inch with 5 fins.
That gives me 1.5 x 2.5 inches of surface. These are 4 feet in length.

My plan is to have 6 channels with 12 led's on each channel. Each channel is 48 inches in lenght.

The tank is 48 inches long with 2 inches euro braces on the ends and a 2 inch brace in the center. The 2 braces at the end will reduce the lighting area by 4 inches length wise. That will give me 44 inches of open space on the surface of the tank lenght wise.

With the above details following are my questiosn :
1) Is it advisable to cut the heatsinks to 44 inches since the reduction lenght will reduce the total weight.!

If your cutting 4" off of them that is negligable for weight and your just making more work for yourself than you need.

2) What would be the ideal spacing between two LEDS..!

Ideal is simple even distribution over the entire tank. With your heat sink you need 16 inches square of surface are per LED minimum without fans. So measure the crosse section of your heat sinks and duvide that into 16 to get the minimum spacing.

3) Is it possible to mix blue and white leds.. have six blue and six white on a single channel driven by a single driver... the LED's I am going to use are XP-G R5 LEDs CW and XP-E RB..!

Both the XP-e and XP-g's are rated to run at 1,000 ma now. So this mixing should not be an issue. But there will be a slight difference in actual voltage across each LED type since they are not 100% identical electricaly. but they are close enough not to be an issue as long as yur friver is set for 1050 ma or less.

i will be back with more questions....

Thanks again for all your help !

 

[TropTrea]

madkat,

Can the UV take .8833 amps? I thought they maxed out at .5 amps. I have no experience with UV so let us know how it goes.
I would also use XMLs to save electricity rather than the XPGs.

You cannot mix XP and XM on the same driver, the electrical characteristics are to far apart unless you running them at 1050 ma or less. The advantage of the XM's is you can run them at 1,500 ma for roughly 5 watts compared to the 1050 max on XP for 3.3 watts.

 

[Dave & Monica]

So I ordered from Rapid LED the other day, used this thread so much for design and other information. Still very good info within. Recent note, CREE XT-E RB are now 5w (1200-1300ma opperating current), same as the XP-G. XP-G2's will be out shortly, but they aren't anything to wait for. I ordered 50/50 RB to NW. I have 2 -250W MH (14k pheonix HQI bulbs) and the 48 LEDs are just to replace my T-5 and supplement. I'm going to control the whites and blues with the APEX variable ports. Can't wait to get started.

 

[katchupoy]

Dave, thanks for the update.

 

[wrx1908]

I love your setup this is my setup hope you like it too
http://youtu.be/159ToI7Lpf0
http://youtu.be/h5UeSnhOv_8

 

[bigguyuk]

Very nice very nice indeed

 

[Ermin]

I followed this thread last year and have successfully build 4 sets of LED fixtures with parts from Rapid LED.......thanks again for the great info Katchupoy!

From another thread regarding DIY LED:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1751598&highlight=led

kcress mentioned in the first post to add a 1A quick blow fuse to the positive wire that powers the LEDs. In case one of the LED burns out in the string, the LEDs in the string closer to the driver won't overpower the LEDs and burn them out.

Katchupoy's diagram on page 25 uses a resistor. Would this work the same as adding a resistor?

I'm about to build another 5 sets, so I am wondering if I need to modify my wiring and add a fuse to each.

 

[katchupoy]

I love your setup this is my setup hope you like it too
http://youtu.be/159ToI7Lpf0
http://youtu.be/h5UeSnhOv_8

Amazing!!! I really like it.... winner!!!


With those video you posted. How long have you been using the LEDs on your tank?
Thanks.

 

[katchupoy]

I followed this thread last year and have successfully build 4 sets of LED fixtures with parts from Rapid LED.......thanks again for the great info Katchupoy!

From another thread regarding DIY LED:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1751598&highlight=led

kcress mentioned in the first post to add a 1A quick blow fuse to the positive wire that powers the LEDs. In case one of the LED burns out in the string, the LEDs in the string closer to the driver won't overpower the LEDs and burn them out.

Katchupoy's diagram on page 25 uses a resistor. Would this work the same as adding a resistor?

I'm about to build another 5 sets, so I am wondering if I need to modify my wiring and add a fuse to each.

Totally different function.

The slow blow is needed when you are doing parallel. Meaning maybe 2 sets of 12 in one driver. 1 set = to 12 LEDs in series.

The resistor in my diagram, is only needed when you want to check once in a while the current you are using for your string. Remember, at first we used it to setup the SVR2 so we dont over current our string. Now several months later, if you want to check it again you just use your volt meter and check it.

But if you think you will not do this process again, you can remove the resistor. It really goes very hot when in use.
Remember : if you decide to remove it, then make sure everything is unplugged from the power outlet.

Hope this helps.

 

[jgwinner]

Or build in a shunt ... which would be pretty cool.

Undo the shunt to measure.

Not sure how much an IDC header will take, but that would be really handy. You could solder up a pigtail for measurement.

== John ==​