DIY LEDs - The write-up - (split again)

[der_wille_zur_macht]

PS - regarding fan placement - there's really no magic. The idea is to have an entry point, an exit point, and your hot stuff between them, such that air is actually forced over it. You don't want the air to "short circuit" and escape before it's done you any good. So consider your options and pick whatever will work best in your situation.

 

[reeferdale]

balancing strings

balancing strings

Hi guys, I am back. I finally got 2 replacement drivers with the B18xxxx serial numbers. I have all four drivers hooked up and wired and I have been trying to balance the strings most of tonight. This s#$ks! I have pretty much been swapping the same LEDs back and forth based on the hi/low swap method.

I did a mapping of the vf of all 5 strings LEDs and I am thinking of trying to balance the vf on paper then move these specific LEDs before I check the strings again. Before I do this, anyone out there that has tried this before? will it work or am I wasting my time to attempt this?

I am closer than I was when I started (391 low string and 708 high string) but I have 22 strings to balance and this is getting pretty harry.

Just a recap, 252 total LEDS, 4 HLG-240H-48B drivers.
driver 1 6 strings of 11 cree XP-G white (66)
driver 2 5 strings of 12 cree XP-E RB (60)

driver 3 6 strings of 11 cree XP-G white (66)
driver 4 5 strings of 12 cree XP-E RB (60)

I am just working on one of the blue drivers, here are the numbers I am at right now for the 5 strings. Each string has 3 regular blue LEDs (not royal blue) they are denoted below with a B, all others are royal blue

string 1 662 mA
3.224, 3.071, 3.296, B3.168, 3.239, B3.251, 3.056, 3.054, 3.074, B3.356, 3.212, 3.188

string 2 594 mA
3.017, B3.154, 3.021, B3.198, 3.237, 3.288, 3.349, 3.346, 3.070, B3.126, 3.087, 3.322

string 3 604 mA
3.134, 3.100, 3.248, B3.149, 3.364, B3.244, 3.169, 3.152, 3.270, B3.080, 3.020, 3.250

string 4 544 mA
3.391, B3.058, 3.258, B3.070, 3.298, 3.298, 3.050, 3.389, 3.043, B3.103, 3.259, 3.024

string 5 617 mA
3.137, 3.090, 3.215, B3.088, 3.466, B3.047, 3.075, 3.254, 3.426, B3.142, 3.116, 3.103

 

[brassmonkyballs]

Personally I would try to move strings 1 and 2 close together and then 4 and 5 closer together and I think they would all fall closer to 3...there are some much higher readings than I have been seeing on XPE's and XPGs....used to seeing 3.0 to 3.2V like many of yours do also....but you have many 3.3-3.4v readings...need to get them spread out

Hi guys, I am back. I finally got 2 replacement drivers with the B18xxxx serial numbers. I have all four drivers hooked up and wired and I have been trying to balance the strings most of tonight. This s#$ks! I have pretty much been swapping the same LEDs back and forth based on the hi/low swap method.

I did a mapping of the vf of all 5 strings LEDs and I am thinking of trying to balance the vf on paper then move these specific LEDs before I check the strings again. Before I do this, anyone out there that has tried this before? will it work or am I wasting my time to attempt this?

I am closer than I was when I started (391 low string and 708 high string) but I have 22 strings to balance and this is getting pretty harry.

Just a recap, 252 total LEDS, 4 HLG-240H-48B drivers.
driver 1 6 strings of 11 cree XP-G white (66)
driver 2 5 strings of 12 cree XP-E RB (60)

driver 3 6 strings of 11 cree XP-G white (66)
driver 4 5 strings of 12 cree XP-E RB (60)

I am just working on one of the blue drivers, here are the numbers I am at right now for the 5 strings. Each string has 3 regular blue LEDs (not royal blue) they are denoted below with a B, all others are royal blue

string 1 662 mA
3.224, 3.071, 3.296, B3.168, 3.239, B3.251, 3.056, 3.054, 3.074, B3.356, 3.212, 3.188

string 2 594 mA
3.017, B3.154, 3.021, B3.198, 3.237, 3.288, 3.349, 3.346, 3.070, B3.126, 3.087, 3.322

string 3 604 mA
3.134, 3.100, 3.248, B3.149, 3.364, B3.244, 3.169, 3.152, 3.270, B3.080, 3.020, 3.250

string 4 544 mA
3.391, B3.058, 3.258, B3.070, 3.298, 3.298, 3.050, 3.389, 3.043, B3.103, 3.259, 3.024

string 5 617 mA
3.137, 3.090, 3.215, B3.088, 3.466, B3.047, 3.075, 3.254, 3.426, B3.142, 3.116, 3.103

 

[reeferdale]

BMB thanks for the info, I will give that a try and see where I am. I would love to be able to get this wrapped up today.

Any ideas on why I have so many in the 3.3+ range? Is this just the charactieristic of these LEDs? Or could this imply bad solder joint or maybe a wiring issue?

 

[brassmonkyballs]

Seems a characteristic of the LEDs. The other thing I like to do to speed up the process is measure total string voltage and balance that. Add up the individuals and it should equal total string voltage. Then you can add and subtract in a what if scenario. It helps me get closer faster is all. Then rinse and repeat. Get those close and then check current.

 

[reeferdale]

Seems a characteristic of the LEDs. The other thing I like to do to speed up the process is measure total string voltage and balance that. Add up the individuals and it should equal total string voltage. Then you can add and subtract in a what if scenario. It helps me get closer faster is all. Then rinse and repeat. Get those close and then check current.

thanks BMB,
when you say total string voltage, do you mean from + pad on 1st LED to - pad on last LED in the string? (not the reading from the resistors)

Just wondering how close I need to get these? I have heard within 50 and also within 30. Any one have a tolerance that seems to be acceptable?

I was wondering last night if I were to try to use each LEDs vf and then mix and match them to try to get equal strings, but I was going against trying to balance the reading at the resistor. I think this is what you are saying is get each first LED to last LED string voltage and try to balance to this number?

 

[brassmonkyballs]

Correct

 

[reeferdale]

OK, I think I have 1 driver (5 strings of 12 balanced). I have been trying to get within 30 mA. Not sure what the acceptable tolerance actually is? I remember reading that anything within 50 mA is OK?

I would like to get them a little closer, but for now I am going to move on. Once I get all the rest fairly close, I will let the entire rig run and check the strings every day and log the results. After a full week or so, I figure I will have to adjust some of them anyway.

Here are the final numbers I have for my first driver of 5 blue strings of 12 LEDs,please let me know if this is acceptable. If I use 600 as the target number then each strings difference is shown in parens.
597 (-3), 596 (-4), 624 (+24), 600 (0), 584 (-16)

 

[brassmonkyballs]

those look pretty good to me

 

[thomashenig]

Need Help with LED layout for 17(L) X 19(W) X 27 Deep tank

 

[TheFishMan65]

What do you want to keep?

 

[thomashenig]

Lps & sps

 

[TheFishMan65]

24 would probably enough, but I would probably do 36 since it is deep (you will probably dimm them down anyway). 12 NW XM-Ls and 24 (run in parallel) XT-Es. Two ELN dimmable drivers. How high above the tank do you want to mount these?

 

[thomashenig]

I will build a canopy so they will be maybe 4” from the water

 

[Eltonka]

Ill be working on a new LED setup in a month or so and have created what I hope to be a proper setup.

Its for a 4ft long 55gal Tank

Drivers
4 - Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver

Lights - total of 48 lights
16 - CREE XP-E Blue 3W
08 - CREE XP-E Royal Blue 3W
16 - CREE XP-G R5 Cool White 3W
08 - CREE XP-G Neutral White 3W
I might add an extra 2 on the front to the left. Mainly to assist in lighting an area that might get the lighting blocked by the overflow, I added a graphic of my tank to give you guys an idea of what I'm talking about with the overflow.

Attached is a setup of my arrangement of the lights. Let me know what you guys think of the arrangement or if you have any suggestions. Are these enough lights or is it overkill?

 

[TheFishMan65]

I would reverse the order of the blue and royal blue. IMHO you want more royal than regular. I would also get half the number of white in XM-L unless you plan to be real close to the surface.

 

[Eltonka]

I would reverse the order of the blue and royal blue. IMHO you want more royal than regular. I would also get half the number of white in XM-L unless you plan to be real close to the surface.

Oh thanks for catching that. That was a typo on the blues. The diagram is correct but not the listings. I do plan on having the 16 royal and only 8 of the regular blue.

As for the XM-L, I will have the setup on the the canopy so the lighting would probably be about 9 to 11 inches from the surface. Would you still recommend the XM-L? Do you know if the same driver works on those or do i need a different driver for those?

If yes is the answer to that then i guess i would go with this setup.
16 - CREE XP-E Royal Blue 3W
08 - CREE XP-E Blue 3W

08 - CREE XP-G R5 Cool White 3W
08 - CREE XM-L Cool White T6 3w
08 - CREE XP-G Neutral White 3W

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

That's gonna be reeeeeallly warm unless you run the XP-Gs and XM-Ls at very low currents and at that point you might as well save money and use XP-E for the white LEDs. It's hard to suggest specific color ratios without considering drive currents.

XM-L is available up to U2 bin in cool white, I'd shop around and see if you can find someone with that in stock.

You can run the XM-L on the ELN drivers but you won't be able to use their full potential.

 

[Eltonka]

That's gonna be reeeeeallly warm unless you run the XP-Gs and XM-Ls at very low currents and at that point you might as well save money and use XP-E for the white LEDs. It's hard to suggest specific color ratios without considering drive currents.

XM-L is available up to U2 bin in cool white, I'd shop around and see if you can find someone with that in stock.

You can run the XM-L on the ELN drivers but you won't be able to use their full potential.

Thanks . Well I guess I should ask this since it may make a difference on the amount of lighting I should even use.

I Plan on more fish than coral at least for the next couple of years. This I should have originally mentioned since I know it can play a big part on lighting.
I would probably just have some of the following. Lavender Mushroom, Button Polyp or a colony Polyp, and a mushroom. I will also have an anemone, all else will be fish and a couple of shrimp.

This being mentioned should i still continue with the current lighting setup or change anything else? I will verify if i can allow for any more distance between the water and the lights.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

The anemone will be difficult, most clownfish-hosting species require very intense lighting. The rest of the stuff you listed needs very low light.

If you really want an anemone, keep your current plans (possibly with some adjustments between ratios to create a bluer look if you want it). If you can live without the anemone, or would be happy to upgrade or add to the light rig if/when you get one, you could probably drop to half the number of LEDs and be just fine.