Diy led build

[lighthouze08]

hopefully i'll have some time to work on the build, i can't wait to finish the build myself lol.

been working on the mount, painted it black

mounted the drivers

didn't have much time lately to work on anything, hating this time change thing and all the new shows on tv!!

 

[lighthouze08]

finally the violet LEDS arrived last night, they look huge compare to the cree b/c the 60 degree optic is built into the leds

got done soldering all the leds last night, did the rest of the wiring between the 2 modules, 20+ wires with the same color are hard to keep track of. All i have left to do is the dimming pots, should be ready to fire it up in the next week or so

 

[Devaji108]

very nice work so far! I will be tagging along too, as I am DIY a led setup for my 75. in the process of making my refugium light first...

 

[lighthouze08]

got all the strings wired up, including the violet

wired up the dimmers and adjusted the voltage, 1000ma for white and 800ma for royal blue

violet string refused to light, still trying to troubleshoot it

royal blue and white strings on

reflection on ceiling

strill trying to figure out what's going on with the red/blue/violet string, double checked everything and there's no short

 

[lighthouze08]

stayed up late last night trying to figure out why the violet string didn't light. after a lot of cussing, cutting wires, testing, i think i found the problem. I believe it's the dimming pot that is bad. Rapidled sent me a bad pot? i didn't know the potentiometer can go bad. I'm going to pick up another one after work today from radioshack

got done with the second fixture, put everything back together, here's a shot of the finish product

I'll grab another pot after work today and wire it up, if everything goes well i should be able to finish it all up tonight, getting near the end now :thumbsup:

 

[110galreef]

very nice. You get the Violets/ reds figured out??

 

[lighthouze08]

i think so, i used the pot from my white to test the violet/red string and it worked perfectly. I'll pick one up after work today. They DID send me a bad pot.

 

[lighthouze08]

95% done, i recorded a little video for you guys, i was testing the dimming pots
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/81s7Y0ozA2A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[lighthouze08]

all done !!!!!! got it mounted and fired that baby on..looked great, i recorded the video with my iphone, it looks awesome in person. i think that red led hit the spot

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6f4MKj6sMVs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[110galreef]

Very nice. So you are doing the dimming of each channel via the potentiometers on the housing?

Have you looked at the acctinic only with RB only and RB & TV? do you like them..recomend them or go all TV? I know still early.....BUT???

Also what mA did you ned up driving everything?

 

[lighthouze08]

Very nice. So you are doing the dimming of each channel via the potentiometers on the housing?

Have you looked at the acctinic only with RB only and RB & TV? do you like them..recomend them or go all TV? I know still early.....BUT???

Also what mA did you ned up driving everything?

yea i'm dimming it with the pots, would have been easier if i dim with my reefkeeper but i didn't feel like spending more money on the module. ended up running the whites at 1000ma, royal blue 800ma, and red/violet/blue at 600ma. Seems like the driver can drive 14 leds at 1000ma just fine, didn't get hot or overheat.

Didn't have much time last night to test anything else, i adjusted the colors a bit, i like the royal blue/blue combo. everything was turned up 1/3 of the way. That red led gives it a nice warm color that i have in my current T5 setup, as for as the violet... IDK, didn't give off that much light so i think it got drown out by everything else.

I'll play with it more over the break and let you know.... so far though, i'm very happy with the white/royal blue/blue/red ratio and the control-ability of it, and the light spreads evenly, no spot lighting effect ect.

 

[lighthouze08]

and the total cost of the project came out to be around $600 for 200watts, that's $3/watt. the ecotech radion is 118 watts for $749, that's $6.34 per watt. I guess you save half doing it yourself plus you have more LEDs

 

[koddyVT]

Is there a warranty from the manufacturer on any of the parts?

 

[lighthouze08]

Is there a warranty from the manufacturer on any of the parts?

standard 1 yr on everything, 18 months on drivers

 

[lighthouze08]

 

[Johnny351]

wow awesome build... I am really thinking about building my own fixture for my 75. where did u order your LEDs from? I really like the little touch of red.... looks great!

 

[lighthouze08]

i'm def glad that i added a couple of reds, loving it so far. I got some 80degree optics coming soon b/c i want to raise the fixture up a bit . I ordered everything through rapidled.com, heat sink from heatsinkusa.com. very fast shipping from both

 

[Johnny351]

awesome... im glad i came across your post... i was planning on paying the big bucks for the AI sols but i think this could be much more fun and way cheaper lol. i think i will place an order sometime this week... just have to figure out which color combo to go with...

 

[lighthouze08]

you def get more bang for you bucks doing it yourself. as for dimming you have the option of manual dimming or alc module from reeefkeeper ect.. color combo lol, i would go with 1.2 royal blue/blue to 1 cool white/warm white and red. or something similar to that. It's pretty flexible when you dim each color individually

 

[Johnny351]

very cool.... i plan on investing in a reef keeper very soon so that makes even more sense now... is there an adjustment on the drivers themselves or do i need a separate controller? and how are u liking the strength with the amount of LEDs u went with? im thinking between 60 - 70 for myself but id like not to go way over board if i dont have to