Aquastyleonline.com LED questions.
- Thread starter RotaryGeek
- Start date
nemosworld
New member
that really comes down to your wallet, cree is better, but aquastyle on a tank your size will get the job done and grow any coral, but how high you hang them and the optics you choose will also factor.
nemosworld
New member
honestly i think it depends on what you plan to keep, if you are keeping a fowler the 36 would mostlikely do.
lps and softie 48 leds
sps and intense light requiring sps i would go with 72.
18 per heatsink or 36 per.
if you go with channels, 18 per channel wil be great.
good news is that I'm back in MD at least. Ordered up some goodies to complete the test circuits. I'm hoping my meter will be back this week so I can finish it. Was due for calibration so had to send it back to fluke or it won't be accepted as test equipment on some of these jobs.
Also sat down with our training engineer (who has a strong background in microcontrollers as well too, far beyond anybody else I've ever spoken with) and nailed down the design concepts of a few other things. Gotta order 2 transformers this week, bridge rectifier and a few other components, but that should make a very low cost, low power VFD. Another thing I've wanted to do for awhile
Also sat down with our training engineer (who has a strong background in microcontrollers as well too, far beyond anybody else I've ever spoken with) and nailed down the design concepts of a few other things. Gotta order 2 transformers this week, bridge rectifier and a few other components, but that should make a very low cost, low power VFD. Another thing I've wanted to do for awhile
Silkyslim
New member
Thanks for the input nemo. I have Lps/sps and a clam
firefightered66
New member
What optic would you suggest. I will barrow a par meter when I decide to hang the light. And thank for the input Nemo.
nemosworld
New member
the standard 60's are a sure bet, or 60's on the outside and 40's on the inside if you start to hang high.
reefstricken
New member
how intense are the reds?
based on some of the feedback here, I'm trying to plan a wider spectrum.
85 RB
25 10000k
20 6500k
15 4500k
10 Red
10 UV
10 Violet
130x18x20(t)
To start I'll be supplementing t5's if this isn't enough.
thoughts?
cheers
based on some of the feedback here, I'm trying to plan a wider spectrum.
85 RB
25 10000k
20 6500k
15 4500k
10 Red
10 UV
10 Violet
130x18x20(t)
To start I'll be supplementing t5's if this isn't enough.
thoughts?
cheers
Last edited:
firefightered66
New member
All right Nemo I have pretty much decided on a 36 led kit. I am also considering building my own controller (Aduiro?). Which driver would you suggest so I can dime the leds dusk to dark. I am also going to put the leds on c channel. Any suggestions on spacing? I have a 46 bowfront.
I'm excited to here any news on this project it will be a help to the community and help improve my soldering skills or pitching skills:eek2:
Is this going to control just one driver?What about blue and white is ther e enough pins on board to run multiple boards and do the other things you wan to do? VFD for cooling fan? How much power is going through the dimming circuit?
nemosworld
New member
you are going to need the meanwell drivers for what you plan to do.
nemosworld
New member
yes, they will assemble for $10 dollars extra, not sure if it's per fixture, mostlikely it is, not sure if the price went up or if it's the same, but $10 was the quote i got from ray, when i asked last year.
Theoretically you could use digital pots with the arduino to control the maxwellen drivers.
I'm interested in the schematic once completed, I'm thinking of implementing maxwellens with arduino control myself.
I'm already working on it, even had the digital pots in place and programmed. Problem is there are no digital pots on the market that are anywhere near the resolution we need for the dimming circuit of the maxwellen driver.
The pots which ship with the drivers are 22ohm linear pots. At 22ohms resistance it's 36ma current, at 12ohms it's 58ma at 2 ohms it's 230ma. The majority of the current is done at 0-1.5 ohms, which takes it from 230ma out to 680ma, so you'll need a series of .1 ohm steps for a smooth transition.
If you go back in previous posts on this thread I went into more detail with resistance/current on these drivers.
The pots which ship with the drivers are 22ohm linear pots. At 22ohms resistance it's 36ma current, at 12ohms it's 58ma at 2 ohms it's 230ma. The majority of the current is done at 0-1.5 ohms, which takes it from 230ma out to 680ma, so you'll need a series of .1 ohm steps for a smooth transition.
If you go back in previous posts on this thread I went into more detail with resistance/current on these drivers.
Hey nemo thanks for the information. I have a 300g 31" deep tank and reading through this thread trying to figure out how they will work for me has been trying at times.
My tank is a FOWLR but I may add some corals in the future. Do you think 2x120 kits would be ok for me or is there more to it? Knowing what you know, what should I do to make my 8ft 31"h tank pop?
2 of these? http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/120--LEDs--DIY-Dimmable-Kit.html ...gg 700 bucks before heatsinks.
This is going to be expensive nomatter how I do it. 300g is 300g. *sigh*
nemosworld
New member
to be honest with you, on a tank that big, i would use a mixture of xml warm white and cool whites and cree xte's for the royal blues.
if money is going to be a issue, then the 2x 120 kits would be the way to go, don't use channels, instead go with heatsinks, this way you can cluster the leds closer together and get better par out of them. also try to bix the inner rows of leds with 40 degree optics and then the outer with 60's. this is for the aquastyle setup. for a cree build, i think 60's would be good.
if you read back a couple of post, you will see that i started adding cree's to my build because my tank is so wide and deep. so to reduce the amount of leds and drivers i use, i went with cree's.
you do not want to have too many drivers on one circuit starting up at the same time, not sure how much load they can take, but from what i have read forward voltage is an issue when using too many drivers, you can overload the wires. the options are to run the leds in parallel or have them on timers, so not all of them turn on at the same time.
another option you can do is to get a 120 kit and then get 4 heatsinks from rapids site along with xml's and xte's to give you a high noon effect, then you can ramp them down or turn them off after a certain time.
so you would have cree's on heatsinks in the middle and aquastyle on the outsides via channels.
hope this helps.
