Diy led

R

reign

Member
SO I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE ASKED TO MAKE A SMALL LED SETUP FOR A AQUAPOD..SO HERE IS WHAT I'VE DONE SO FAR..
It is very straight forward in the regard that it is non dimmable ..
I just received my order from rapid led..
I have 12 royal blue crees and 6 cool white crees ..driven by 2 mw lpc35-700ma ..I have some pieces of aluminum channel laying around so a heatsink was not necessary to buy ..yesterday I cut the aluminum used for heatsink and glued the stars to the "heatsink" .
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5120065.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5120065.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I have never really soldered anything so this next part was interesting..THANK YOU to my wife for holding the wire still while I did this (I did not buy one of those wire holders with the clip BUt do need one)
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5130068.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5130068.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
I turned on the first wired string (7) royal blues and holy crap these things are bright..Now I am realizing this may be overkill for the tank in question.
I will hopefully finish the other strings tomorrow and be done to retrofit this in the tank this week..
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5130071.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5130071.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Just thought Id share this ... It is really pretty simple to do and would encourage anyone to try this if interested!
 
dude your my hero. i love electronics and DIY projects but have yet to learn or tinker with the LED spectrum. Nice work and cant wait to see the finished product.
 
Cool deal :-D I've done lots with LEDs and they are fun. Since you have never soldered, check out what a "Cold Solder" is. It's bad and easy to do (and fix) if you don't have much experience with it.
 
I agree on the cold solder joints. Use youtube and learn how to do a simple sweat solder joint. In that style of circuit layout if one star/base goes dead (open) do you lose the whole circuit?
 
looked up cold solder looks cool ..I already have a reg. gun now..maybe down the road..sg yes you would lose the string...This is standard for most (if not all of the diy that are done at this point) led setups on here (rc)..
Im not reinventing the wheel here just doing a small project..
 
Eric, how much does that DIY kit cost? I need to buy some lights for my 36g bowfront I am currently cycling. I would love to put some LED's on it and could use your recent experience with them.
 
They have diy kits on the website(including pretinned wire and adhesive)..I opted to do my own so I just put the order together for everything I needed..I think I have around $170 into it with everything ..I did get optics (40deg and 55 deg) for every led if I didnt get the optics it would come out to around(idk if I will end up using them or not) $150 for 18 leds with drivers..
 
This is awesome. Very talented! Do you take orders? ;) We want to upgrade the lights on our 90 gallon and I love an all LED set-up because of the "no heat"! Post pictures of the final product!
 
So I finally can post my pic..My photobucket didnt want to upload for a few days...
Finished connecting my other 11 leds..(6cw,5RB)..As you can see it looks a lot cleaner..Now I just have to put the fan on the back and Im done..I am not dressing this up with a cover since it will be retrofit and I will use the existing splash cover from the aquapod..
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5180080.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5180080.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
These things are really bright so I am probably not going to use the optics
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5180077.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5180077.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Note:this picture was taken at 1:45pm with the room light on and showing the outside through window for reference!
 
I ran this for around 30 minutes and WOW it is hot!! Ran over to radio shack and did not find what I needed so I had to go to walker electric. nice guys had some good fans
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5180072.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5180072.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
and bought a coax. adapter for the dc fans...
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=P5180078.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/P5180078.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Now I have been running leds and the heatsink is barely warm to the touch..Made a world of difference and not much noise..
Ready to retrofit on the aquapod!!
 
thx...I had a funny thing happen yesterday...I walked upstairs and picked up the setup..The static from me walking was transferred to the leds they actually came on for a split second very dimly!!
 
I've had similar things happen :-D. Tempted to sell of my old led setup (which I barely used lol) and start a new one :p DIY addict.
 
UPDATE: I installed the led setup in the existing aquapod ..it took me longer to get out the old junk lights then it did to put the new drivers and leds in..surprisingly enough it takes up way less room then the old stuff as well even with the drivers in there..I was able to use the old power cords in there so besides the crazy bright light and four small screw head on the top It still looks completely stock. I forgot my camera and my phone wont (for some reason ) email me the pics ..Ill try to do it some other way..
 
thats awesome dude i cant wait to see. i may just run out and start my own DIY LED for fun lots of reading though i have no idea where to begin with LEDs. the soldering part yea im ready for that, been tearing down and rebuilding computers and actuators long time. no stranger to burnt fingers with a soldering iron lol.
 
Be careful with bleaching all your corals :p IME, for the same apparent brightness, the LEDs toss out more usable photons.
 
Yeah thanks I am aware ...I put the rb string on for like 4 hours and the cw rb string on for 2hrs starting...here are some pics the rb doesn't do it justice it is more like a purple light
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=IMG_0276.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/IMG_0276.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=IMG_0275.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/IMG_0275.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/?action=view&current=IMG_0277.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/reign555_2010/IMG_0277.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
i am hoping that since i did not do the lens' this will help matters since the light will not be focused...
Gomer really nice build..SO you went the dimmer route? how was that did you have to turn up the internal pots?
did you use the resistor route on it ? REALLY NICE BUILD MAN!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dr. Reef
Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact
Replies
3
Views
335
jcarlilesiu
J
Easygoing1
PFO Aquatics SOLARIS Rebuild And Questions
Replies
8
Views
380
oreo57
oreo57
JCOLE
DIY Rocks for new aquascape
4 5 6
Replies
105
Views
4K
JCOLE
JCOLE
R
Ph Control Set Up
Replies
0
Views
148
rdavidw
R
D
Help me, any 56v led controller?
Replies
7
Views
763
oreo57
oreo57
Back
Top