chinese led lights

[TropTrea]

View attachment 197774

here is what they suggested to me on my 80 piece led

I personly would not like it, after experimenting with different combinations over the last year.

First off eliminat both the red and the UV's. The shortest light you want is 420 nm and reds do encourage Cyno Algea. You have enough red light comming from your 10,000K LED's.

I do like the fact your getting 430-440 nm and 460 nm (455 to 465) LED's. as well as the green 515 nm (500 to 530 nm). but I do not like the ration. I would go with:

20 430 to 44 nm LED's
24 455 to 465 nm LED's
12 525 green LED's

For the whites I would go with simply the 10,000K which give a more balanced white spectrum. The 14,000K LED's are realy nothing more than 10,000K with the blue part of the spectrum kicked up a little higher. Your Blue LED's will do this for you only better. So I would get

21 10,000K LED's.

This would basicly give you a ration of 2.7 Blue to 1 White. Personle taste varies between 2 blue to 1 white to 4 blue to 1 white. I persnonly prefer slightly over a 3 to 1 ratio.

 

[bhazard451]

Does anyone have a lead on some China's that are apex VDM dimmable? I've been looking but can't track it down. I've seen the taotronics 120w blackbox and we've measured good par and have gotten good growth and color out of it on a frag tank, however I want more control for my display.

If I can't source them reasonably for a 180g display I will go with a DIY multichip build.

Thanks guys!

None of them are except for the Apollo Reef Led SolarBlast, which is a US company. The chinese boxes can be converted to Apex dimmable lights, but its a bit of a pain, and requires new drivers that can handle up to 100volts for some models. There are some with built in controllers as well.

If you were comfortable in swapping drivers, you could probably just build your own DIY light using better Cree and Luxeon leds like I did for around the same price.

 

[livingseas]

None of them are except for the Apollo Reef Led SolarBlast, which is a US company. The chinese boxes can be converted to Apex dimmable lights, but its a bit of a pain, and requires new drivers that can handle up to 100volts for some models. There are some with built in controllers as well.

If you were comfortable in swapping drivers, you could probably just build your own DIY light using better Cree and Luxeon leds like I did for around the same price.

Where did you get the drivers to make them apex dimmable? How much did they run you? Thinking I'll take d120's and make them controllable.
You have to buy one driver per channel you want to dim I assume?

Not sure of the electrical charastics of these 3w led bulbs. How much voltage do they need?
so they run at 2w. So I at least need 2x 60w driver per d120?

Would these work?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/571149182/MEANWELL_80W_Single_Output_Switching_LED.html

 

[bhazard451]

Where did you get the drivers to make them apex dimmable? How much did they run you? Thinking I'll take d120's and make them controllable.
You have to buy one driver per channel you want to dim I assume?

The drivers I used wont fit in the d120. They fit in the Nova though. You have to rewire the fans to their own outlet as well. I made instructions way back in the thread. 2 drivers needed.

I had the drivers made from China too. Company was called Plus Tech. Was around $55 total for 2, with a better discount if you got 4.

http://pspcba.en.alibaba.com/

Coleen Hu
coleen@pspcba.com

For the Nova, they needed to be:

up to 90-100 volts (Nova uses 88v)
630mah
0-10v analog dimmable. (turns off under 10%)

Driver looks like this. Try to get one with less height, as it was a pain to fit.

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/bhazard/?action=view&current=ebf713a0.jpg

 

[mlott132]

Well I finally had time to look at my Twilight fixture. Looking at Bhazards pictures mine looks a little different. Also, like Bhazard I am not getting a good color mix. The left side is blue while the right side is red. When I hold it over my tank I feel like I need to wear 3D glasses because it has this weird color effect. Going to contact Lyn this evening to see what can be done with this. I am still waiting for my other fixture so I will be real curious to see if they were build the same way. Bhazard, just wondering what they said to you about fixing your light?

 

[downbeach]

It also appears that there are a few that are not lit. Are they on a different driver?

 

[mlott132]

Yes, those are my moonlights which I have set to off right now.

 

[Zoanut]

mlott132 - Are the whites dull like bhazards?

 

[bhazard451]

They would send new leds to me to put into my fixture if I ordered another fixture. The problem is, the leds are poorly blended. There shouldn't be two vertical patterns of blue to 1 white, because blue ends up overpowering the weak whites. Having reds on one side is a poor design choice too, because now, like mine, one side of the tank is red.

Even though the leds are in parallel and this might not work, its best just to buy some $1.99 bridgelux whites, and solder them into the blues and reds to make the fixture look acceptable. Its a shame, because I love the controller.

 

[mlott132]

So basically change out the colored led's to just blue and white?

 

[mlott132]

mlott132 - Are the whites dull like bhazards?

They seem bright. The only problem is that you have to set the blues quite a bit lower because they do overpower the whites. Still on the fence about these. Have to wait for my second fixture to come in before I make a decision on whether I want to keep them. Just hoping that Twilight will be helpful in getting these fixed.

 

[mlott132]

Here are a couple pics of the other fixture they sent me that was not mine. This unit has the built-in controller as well as manual dimmer control knobs. Nit sure what the specs are on this light but the whites do seem really bright.

 

[Chicago]

Mott. U sure that s a knob controll dimmer and LCD dimmer and trimmer. Twilight oasis could not o both

 

[mlott132]

The unit is setup such that the timer just controls on/off of the lights and the knobs control the brightness.

 

[bhazard451]

I'm going to see if removing the optics helps a bit first

 

[mlott132]

Might help brighten the whites, but won't change the overall color of the light. Going to talk to Lyn tonight to see what can be done. I was thinking of changing my red to a violet and then swapping a green and orange. Think that might help mix the colors better.

 

[ghrorick]

Finally getting around to posting some pics of my 3 d120s over my 135. Corals are looking better than ever. My 120gal with the nova a6s is doing great. The pinkbirdsnest is finally getting its color back. The d120s have 4 red, 4 green, 4 violet, 15 white, and 28 blue. The rack is temporary until I get my 180 set up. Sorry the pic isnt the greatest (not really that blue) the tank is a little dirty and it looks like edward scissorhands was maintaining the tank (scratches everywhere).

 

[mlott132]

What do think about this LED layout? The only other thing I can think of is to remove all colors and just do blue and white. The top chart shows how the light is setup now. The bottom shows the changes I was thinking about. The only thing is that I would need to get another violet from Twilight.

 

[bhazard451]

It still wont blend right. Take a look at ghrorick's middle picture. That's how it should look for a good blend. You should have alternating blues and whites like that. The new design still has two banks of all blues to one bank of whites. It still wont look good.

I don't like that they made no effort to make the light actually look good, compared to what Evergrow can do.

 

[Zoanut]

Will be interesting to see how my one turns out then when it arrives with just the blues and whites. I might have to go back to my original idea of making my own cree one with a dimm4 as the controller.