Thanks Zach. So if I go with the better drivers and wire them not parallel do I just run more drivers. I like diy stuff but other than car stereo and home audio I am an electrical idiot.
You are correct, you would just need more drivers just as nemo pointed out. generally people use 12 leds per meanwell driver though many have done 14 or more, it just depends on the LED and alot of other factors. 12 is a safe bet when using the bridgelux leds as they have a bit higher forward voltage than other LEDs. If you can handle home and car audio and are up for a LED build you could probably handle the parralell string concept as well. I'ts just more research and a bit more work. but everyone around here is really pretty helpful when it comes to figuring all that out. Kcress has a lot of good threads that get into the parralell string technical stuff that are rather interesting and informative.
So if I just use what they send will it still be controlable.
if you order the dimmable kit it will allow you to controll the relative brightness of each driver via the included potentiometers. I think this is discussed in the first couple of pages of the thread. You could then have the drivers turn on and off with timers like you would with t5 flouescent. dimming though is manully controlled. So far the maxwellen drivers don't seem to be compatible with conventional controllers that are on the market. back earlier in this thread some diy options were suggested but they havent' been figured out completely yet. stay tuned......
If you have them substitute dimmable meanwell drivers then yes they will be conttollable but it will cost a bit more. You might email them and ask what the charge would be to do that, they have been quick to reply to my inquires about substitutions on the order I placed a week or so ago.
My rock only goes just over halfway high in the tank.
you could probably get away with just using the 80degree optics maybe using 60s around the front and sides. Nice thing is you can get some of each, and as I understand their optics kind of snap in place over the led star so they will stay in place with out glue while you figure out where you want to use which optics. and if you like the look with no optics better they can be easily removed.
I will be getting a controler probably right away. Does it matter if I get a neptune lite or da lite. Thank you everyone once again. I know I keep saying one more question but its like one answer leads to another question lol. I just want to do it right.... As for mounting I was thanking about getting a piece Of aluminum and hand polishing it then use piece of very thin plexi or lexan over the lights
I'm not that familiar with either controller so maybe others can make a recommendation. as far as how they controll the lights I beleive the both use a 0-10volt signal to controll dimmable Meanwell type drivers. so either would work the same. If you plan on using all the other controller functions of these things (temp, wave timers, heaters, ph probes, ATO, etc) then these are probably a good solution.
But if you only need to controll the lights and don't need the other features then there are other less expensive DIY type options many of which out there that work better as a light controller IMHO. many of them are more or less off the shelf ready to go, just need to find something to enclose them in and provide a power supply.
as for mounting what do you mean about the polished piece of aluminum? LEDs need to be mounted to heat sinks like the C channel that nemo posted alink to. a flat piece of aluminum might not work very well.
the lexan's a good choice and is a must to keep the salt water from splashing on them.
. Those ones are on the bigger side, and no clue on how expensive they are, but if you find a cheap motorized potentiometer that takes a 0-10v analog signal to run the servo then bam, you could hook the dimmer circuit to the wiper and a leg and control it that way, and that would be with a dim4.
