Hi all, first real thread here on RC, however being in a hobby for a few years now. I've loved reading and finding so much guidance and help on here throughout the years but never really posted. But I guess now's the time as a fellow reefer asked how I made this monstrosity. I've been needing to upgrade my lighting ever since my nano reef 20g changed into a 100g with 30g/20g separated sumps after deciding I no longer wanted to use it for freshwater. So after shopping around as we all do, I came to find I needed to spend ludicrous amounts of cash to get the lighting I required, let alone the convenient functions of full spectrum multi channel independent brightness that can be automated time controlled with dimming fade up and down to mimic sunrise/sunset. So as a master frugalist and a doctorate in tinker toying around, I found myself on ebay building up a shopping cart of components from China for a fraction of the cost of what my ideal of the shelf light would cost. So after rounding up a about 150 3w leds, an Arduino, a power supply and some other odds and ends the build began.
So obvisouly you need a heat sync for bigger leds and since individual heat syncs can start to add up on the cost build, I decided to build the frame out of aluminum channel and alumiweld it all together so it was one large heat sync itself, and is actually quite strong. Attached all the led's with a thermal conductive tape from 3M to allow the heat from the 20mm star heat syncs that come with the LED's to the framework. Ideally would have used thermal epoxy but I already had the thermal tape.
Starting to add th leds and wire up each channel.
Test run on one blue channel.
The Arduino, real time clock, lcd displaying time and levels, power supply and handful of LDD-700h drivers.
All channels on at about 10% of full brightness, first time ontop of tank.
And all channels at 39% brightness. This is seeming to be a good level for now for my livestock to acclimate to for the time being. (forgive the tank mess/fallen frag racks :spin2
Currently the warm whites start the sequence of sunrise with the bright whites an hour after, blues an hour after that, and the dark/uv blues an hour after that. Each channel take 2 hours to reach full brightness. Same sequence for sunset in the evening. All timing lengths and triggers are set and changeable in the code for the Arduino which I modified and re-wrote for this application.
https://youtu.be/cfDHsAIz2MQ
https://youtu.be/3Pm5Qx-fsRA
and some quick vids the build so far.
So a total of 142 3watt leds with a 360watt power supply providing more than enough light. Still to do - add all the 120 degree lenses onto each led for even better depth penetration (although not really necessary for my tank, but if your deeper than 1.5-2ft, probably a really good idea), build a external frame around the internal aluminum frame (cant decide if I want to do some nice stained wood or black or smoke acrylic). Install the lower clear acrylic sheet to help keep moister out, build a small enclosure for controller so the light stays super nice an thin (only about 2" tall with outer enclosure). Yes, oh so sleek. Yes, I haven't mentioned a moon light as I have made a 12 hour lunar cycle light with a string of individually addressable LED's to mimic the moon as well as has a lightning program that will easily fit inside the main light. Maybe a write-up on that later.
And last the schematic I made for those who'd like to see how it all is wired.
If anyone is interested in the code or has any questions on how they can make their own setup I'd be happy to help. I'll continue to post pics as the build continues, hopefully sooner rather than later, but we all know what happens when we have too many projects.
So obvisouly you need a heat sync for bigger leds and since individual heat syncs can start to add up on the cost build, I decided to build the frame out of aluminum channel and alumiweld it all together so it was one large heat sync itself, and is actually quite strong. Attached all the led's with a thermal conductive tape from 3M to allow the heat from the 20mm star heat syncs that come with the LED's to the framework. Ideally would have used thermal epoxy but I already had the thermal tape.
Starting to add th leds and wire up each channel.
Test run on one blue channel.
The Arduino, real time clock, lcd displaying time and levels, power supply and handful of LDD-700h drivers.
All channels on at about 10% of full brightness, first time ontop of tank.
And all channels at 39% brightness. This is seeming to be a good level for now for my livestock to acclimate to for the time being. (forgive the tank mess/fallen frag racks :spin2
Currently the warm whites start the sequence of sunrise with the bright whites an hour after, blues an hour after that, and the dark/uv blues an hour after that. Each channel take 2 hours to reach full brightness. Same sequence for sunset in the evening. All timing lengths and triggers are set and changeable in the code for the Arduino which I modified and re-wrote for this application.
https://youtu.be/cfDHsAIz2MQ
https://youtu.be/3Pm5Qx-fsRA
and some quick vids the build so far.
So a total of 142 3watt leds with a 360watt power supply providing more than enough light. Still to do - add all the 120 degree lenses onto each led for even better depth penetration (although not really necessary for my tank, but if your deeper than 1.5-2ft, probably a really good idea), build a external frame around the internal aluminum frame (cant decide if I want to do some nice stained wood or black or smoke acrylic). Install the lower clear acrylic sheet to help keep moister out, build a small enclosure for controller so the light stays super nice an thin (only about 2" tall with outer enclosure). Yes, oh so sleek. Yes, I haven't mentioned a moon light as I have made a 12 hour lunar cycle light with a string of individually addressable LED's to mimic the moon as well as has a lightning program that will easily fit inside the main light. Maybe a write-up on that later.
And last the schematic I made for those who'd like to see how it all is wired.
If anyone is interested in the code or has any questions on how they can make their own setup I'd be happy to help. I'll continue to post pics as the build continues, hopefully sooner rather than later, but we all know what happens when we have too many projects.
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