chinese led lights

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bhazard451 said:
Going to give a second pair of drivers that I ordered a try when I get them. If they don't work 100% the way I want them to with 0-10v dimming, I'm gutting the led boards and installing Crees with Meanwells.
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good luck with the new mod.

man with all you have put into this unit, you are not far off from the cost of a sol or ecotech. right? or are you still gonna come out ahead?
 
jfeva0049 said:
good luck with the new mod.

man with all you have put into this unit, you are not far off from the cost of a sol or ecotech. right? or are you still gonna come out ahead?
Click to expand...

If I wasn't so dead set on getting 0-10v dimming working, I would have been happy with the lights as-is (although I would have gone 2:1 rb:w with some violets).

Would still come out ahead, and would handily beat a Radion at $200-300 less. The Maxspect Razor might be too big for my tank, so I would DIY build something equivalent, or even more powerful. 36 Crees in that little box running at 1300mah would be quite a light.
 
Stopsignhank said:
Well I e-mailed Sam and he was honest and said that 120 watt was overkill on a tank my size, which I know, he said go with the 50 watt, which still might be too much. I like the fact that with the D120 there are 2 dimmers so I can play with the lighting to get it how I want it.

However he also threw in this.

120degree LED are not available since last week. We are not going to produce 120degree LED.

So you can throw that option out the window.
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remember they are dimable you should be able to run them at less wattage and be fine. And i have 90degree LED angle.

I have mine at 100% on a 29g and all corals doing fine.
 
kbell2433 said:
remember they are dimable you should be able to run them at less wattage and be fine. And i have 90degree LED angle.

I have mine at 100% on a 29g and all corals doing fine.
Click to expand...

KB, that is why I like these lights, that they are dimmable. I like the ones that Dobbs posted because the are closer to the shape of my tank, but I was also thinking the first number would be a 3 and it looks like KV confirmed that. A bit too steep for me.
 
Me too asked for 31 reef blue, 2 violet,, 2 red, 2 green on dimmer 1 and 18 14000k white on dimmer 2. Full spectrum.. good color, i'll put them on timers, and run with a wavemaster on pumps on my 30.
 
I feel that I have narrowed it down to one of the below two links or a Nova series. Looking for some insight on which to choose of the below two links.

1. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/317...20w-23-blue-4-violet-and-19-white-9-blue.html

2. http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/546432064/2012_dimmable_led_aquarium_light_with.html

I do like these builds, but I don't know enough about the red and green spectrums LEDs on the second link.

Also, is the Nova series of these black boxes the only one that allows for individual replacement of single diodes/lights? The others from what I have read are all soldered in, and if one goes out the other still function, generally speaking?
 
JJIM said:
I feel that I have narrowed it down to one of the below two links or a Nova series. Looking for some insight on which to choose of the below two links.

1. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/317...20w-23-blue-4-violet-and-19-white-9-blue.html

2. http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/546432064/2012_dimmable_led_aquarium_light_with.html

I do like these builds, but I don't know enough about the red and green spectrums LEDs on the second link.

Also, is the Nova series of these black boxes the only one that allows for individual replacement of single diodes/lights? The others from what I have read are all soldered in, and if one goes out the other still function, generally speaking?
Click to expand...

You can't replace single diodes on the nove either.
 
Yea you can't replace a single led but I do believe if one goes bad you can easily replace that whole cluster of 12 and be good to go. Bhazard prob knows better
 
I do like these lights and would consider them but I don't like the way it's wired with all the LEDs on one switch and moonlights on the other switch. I wonder if they could add a third switch for either the blue LEDs or white LEDS. Then I could use a timer and have the blue turn on first and then the white instead of all at once. Make sense?

. http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/54...ight_with.html
 
Travis1787 said:
Yea you can't replace a single led but I do believe if one goes bad you can easily replace that whole cluster of 12 and be good to go. Bhazard prob knows better
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The leds in all the fixtures, d120 and novas, are on PCB boards. They are made with voltage regulating ICs in the leds so if one fails, it doesn't kill the whole line of 20+ leds.

You can replace the leds individually, but they cannot be on those star boards that rapidled and other sites sell them on. You would have to use the same type of bridgelux leds that were used originally, as the pcb board traces and solder pads were designed for them.

For example, I want to add 4 violets to my Nova. I would get them from the company that made the light, de-solder 4 white leds off their pads on the pcb board, and solder the violets onto those pads.
 
bhazard451, do you have pics of inside the case? Is there any room to drill a hole and add 4 leds. Not on the circuit board but along the edges out side the splash cover. In other words is there a space inside the housing between the side of the housing and the circuit board when looking down on the fixture? Maybe run power from one of these... http://www.rapidled.com/moonlight-driver-350ma/
 
MarcBergmueller said:
I added one to my DIY leds and love it. I used 2 uv and 2 regular blue. It brought out much more color.
Click to expand...

There are lots of pics of the inside of the Nova units way back in the thread.

No room to add more leds (circular cutouts). Soldering them in would be easier.

If the 2nd sample of drivers I'm getting doesn't dim the way I want, I'm very interested in converting this into a Cree XT-E DIY unit.

I'm also going to compare multiple chinese units and sell off the ones I don't want. I was interested in the Reefbreeders color selection with red,green,blues,violets,uv, so that's the next one I'm trying. I'll run it while making the Cree unit.
 
Dobbs1101 said:
I do like these lights and would consider them but I don't like the way it's wired with all the LEDs on one switch and moonlights on the other switch. I wonder if they could add a third switch for either the blue LEDs or white LEDS. Then I could use a timer and have the blue turn on first and then the white instead of all at once. Make sense?

. http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/54...ight_with.html
Click to expand...
dobbs, i contacted ada regarding this unit to customize. she was very helpful and quick to respond. i was able to get them to commit to making an external switch for the moonlight. switch 1 and dimmer 1 would power b1, b2, 4 violets. switch 2 and dimmer 2 would power red and green LEDs. switch 2 and dimmer 3 would power whites, remaining blues, and 2 violets.

LEDdesign.jpg


i wanted the reds and greens to be on a separate dimmer to control in case any unwanted algae started to grow. just not enough info on red and green LEDs.

but i decided to wait because the pricing was not right for me to take the risk. no one has posted any pictures of their tank with this light and there is just not enough info about the long term effects over a reef tank. also based on the pricing i received, i felt it would be better to wait and buy the ai vega or ecotech radion at the end of the year depending on what happens between now and the end of the year. that's when i have to decide to buy new MH bulbs or switch over to LEDs.
 
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