Diy led
- Thread starter amheck
- Start date
maroonman
New member
Don't feel bad, I was all geared up to hear this talk about the LEDs, And I missed the meeting too. Wifey & I went to the Purina Dog Challenge in St. Pete & didn't make it home till 7:00. I'm doing ALOT of research to try and understand. I'd like to see one come together from scratch myself.
josephv
New member
I went to the meeting and it was very good information. I am thinking of building a led for supplemental lighting similar to the coral sky 12 light strip. Just need to gather the funds and pull the trigger. I want to build a light 68 inches long by 2 inches wide using 48 wide optic royal blue cree leds. I know where to get everything yet in still nervous about doing it.The wiring is simple but I have no experience with soldering.
amheck
New member
I was hoping the presentation would kick a bunch of people into doing this, and this in turn, would kick me into doing it. I maybe was just hoping if a few of us got something going, it might be beneficial to us all. It's all of the wiring and electrical that scares me the most.
I've been searching around today looking for 20" fixtures that I could retro into a LED setup. Came across the 20" Orbit and Satellite and with legs, those look nice, I'm just not sure yet if there's enough room in one of those.
Maroonman, how was the dog exibition? We were at the art fair (not by choice) right across the way. I wanted to make it to the dogs, maybe even to check out to see what the SPCA brought, but we never made it.
I've been searching around today looking for 20" fixtures that I could retro into a LED setup. Came across the 20" Orbit and Satellite and with legs, those look nice, I'm just not sure yet if there's enough room in one of those.
Maroonman, how was the dog exibition? We were at the art fair (not by choice) right across the way. I wanted to make it to the dogs, maybe even to check out to see what the SPCA brought, but we never made it.
C4DC
New member
I just dove in today and ordered what I think is all I'll need. Been doing lots of research here and the vendor sites. I'm doing a retro with 6 white and 6 blues in my 12 nano hood. Had to use 3 different sites to get all the equipment. I'm hoping that I got everything needed and it works as I want. I used this as an excuse to get a drill press, so that's a side bonus. Can't wait to get it up and running.
maroonman
New member
amheck,
The Dog Event was a blast. We had bleacher seats right in front of the ( long jump ) into the pool contest. And the 30 pole weave race was CRAZY...those dogs are fast. But the Freestyle Frisby contest was the best of them all.
Back to the thread ( LOL ) Sorry didn't mean to hijack ya thread.
I'd love to see what some of you guys have in mind. I think Im gonna start out small. Just doing a dimable moolighting. Cause frankly my moonlights are a bit too spotty for me. 4 beams in a 6 foot tank doesn't look the best to me. I'm gonna do 20 beams with multiple angle & dimable if possible.
The Dog Event was a blast. We had bleacher seats right in front of the ( long jump ) into the pool contest. And the 30 pole weave race was CRAZY...those dogs are fast. But the Freestyle Frisby contest was the best of them all.
Back to the thread ( LOL ) Sorry didn't mean to hijack ya thread.
I'd love to see what some of you guys have in mind. I think Im gonna start out small. Just doing a dimable moolighting. Cause frankly my moonlights are a bit too spotty for me. 4 beams in a 6 foot tank doesn't look the best to me. I'm gonna do 20 beams with multiple angle & dimable if possible.
somdinwong
New member
i just build my bc14 retro and will be building one more, just gotta get the dimmer in and will be done. then onto the next project, a light that will cover a 30x30 cube, will be controlled by thr rke
alle cree xpg and xpe's driven by meanwells.
heatsink will be 21x21 holding about 70 leds
alle cree xpg and xpe's driven by meanwells.
heatsink will be 21x21 holding about 70 leds
somdinwong
New member
the alc for the cube build.
having a manual dimmer built for the bc 14
having a manual dimmer built for the bc 14
leftcoastreefer
New member
Its cool to see a lot of diode action around here, I love me some leds. I will save myself the embarrasment of trying to take a picture with them on, its just a blue blur. But here's my newest retro, thanks a lot to the help of a local reefer here. I'm running it attached to a clip on fan on the back of the tank. This may be a good option for someone with a solana or something similar rimless/open top. 2"x5"x1" aluminum heatsink, 6x cree xre(4RB,2CW), 1x 700ma buckpuck, 1x dell laptop charger. Probably cost me 60-75 to build this. I plan on adding carclo wide angle optics so I can focus the light to the front of the tank and also cut down on the light resonating around the tank. This light can be really hard on your eyes. Just 6 crees light my whole living room up let alone the tank. Gives a nice 20k look.
amheck
New member
C4DC
New member
I was going to go with them, but they don't carry the buckpucks, only the Meanwell drivers. I wanted to have 6 white and 6 blue and dim them seperately which, from what I understand, is easy with buckpucks. The meanwell drivers seem to want to run 12 3 watt leds at a time. I'm sure there is a way around it. There is also the power supply which rapid said needs to be 10V which is hard to come by (most are 12v). So, I went with ledsupply. Called them up and made sure everything was matched up for what I want to do and they were great. Rapid was great in the Email conversations we had, but seemed to be a more complicated setup in the end. We will have to see how it goes when I get into the job...
amheck
New member
Yeah, I'm still reading up on the buckpucks or the meanwells. I saw a thread on the Digital Aquatics forum where the Meanwells seemed to work better with the dimmer module they have. But again, I could just see myself going with the Maxspect unit too. 
might be a lot less complicated.
might be a lot less complicated.
C4DC
New member
Yeah, I'm still reading up on the buckpucks or the meanwells. I saw a thread on the Digital Aquatics forum where the Meanwells seemed to work better with the dimmer module they have. But again, I could just see myself going with the Maxspect unit too.
I "think" the Meanwells are a better choice for a larger application. They have 2 types of dimmable models. One is a simple dimmer with a pot, and the other one is a PWM (pulse width modulation) that is much more programmable from what I understand. The problem is you have to put together the components (resistors/caps/circuit board/etc) from radio shack or some where else and that is too much for my little nano setup. These would probably work with the apex and AC models, where the buckpucks wouldn't.
somdinwong
New member
there are 3 meanwell
the non dimmable
the d model(0-10v)control
and the p model which as stated is the pulse modulation model
the eln30-27d controlls 6 leds in series at 1000ma fine, the eln 60-48d controlls 12 leds in series which is how you wanna wire these as. the d models are very easy to control with the alc unit from rk, all you do is conect 2 wires and you are ready to go, can do ramp ups and downs for sunrise sunset applications. really neat
personally with all the rading i have done the buckpucks are nice but seem to pop to often when driving the leds, meanwells are hard to come by but worth the time from my readings
the non dimmable
the d model(0-10v)control
and the p model which as stated is the pulse modulation model
the eln30-27d controlls 6 leds in series at 1000ma fine, the eln 60-48d controlls 12 leds in series which is how you wanna wire these as. the d models are very easy to control with the alc unit from rk, all you do is conect 2 wires and you are ready to go, can do ramp ups and downs for sunrise sunset applications. really neat
personally with all the rading i have done the buckpucks are nice but seem to pop to often when driving the leds, meanwells are hard to come by but worth the time from my readings
somdinwong
New member
oh and my understanding is you can controll 4 eln 60-48 per chanel of the alc from the rke for a total of 8
leftcoastreefer
New member
With the ALC, what port are you using to control the LED driver?
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