DIY LEDs - The write-up

[bourbeaue]

The 30w LEDs they're using put out a lot of light in the absolute sense, but they ARE consuming 30w! They're just nowhere near the efficiency levels you can reach with XP-Gs or even XR-Es and you're getting all your white light from a small point - which is probably far from ideal for most people. I really wish they hadn't used those 30w LEDs because now I get several PMs a day asking if people should be using them in their DIY fixtures. As far as I'm concerned, the answer is no, for most cases anyways.

Plus, for any reasonable measure (cost/watt, cost/LED, cost/lumen) those fixtures are more expensive than even the most expensive DIY options. They put out nice PAR numbers, but many DIY fixtures blow them away in that respect if you compare apples to apples.

Plus, they're locking you in to THEIR ideas about optics, positioning, etc - vs a DIY fixture which lets you pick what's best for you.

Your comments on the 30w make a lot of sense. I notice Maxspect are alos including 405-410nm wavelength (true actinic) LEDs along with the RBs most people are using now. They claim this will add in some UVA light to the tank, together with the 455nm royal blue LEDs, the coral coloration will be enhanced.

Is this a good idea ?

thanks.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

GGGRRRRRRR! my stupid solder wont stick to the stupid stars. gr. what you guys think im doing wrong???


ugh i feel like throwing this crap all away. i get the little ball of solder on the star, then when i try and put the wire on it the ball falls off and leaves a huge black spot on the star.

Are the stars mounted to the heatsink yet? If they are, and it's via screws, take them off and tin them first. Tinning them off the heatsink is easier since there's less mass to suck the heat away.

Touch the tip of your iron to the pad on the star for several seconds, then touch the end of the solder wire to the pad next to the iron (NOT to the iron). Hold it like that until the pad gets hot enough that IT melts the solder, then pull the solder and the iron away - you should end up with a nice shiny little hump of solder on the pad.

Once the pad and the wire are both tinned, hold them together and hold the iron on the joint until the tinning on the two parts melts, then touch the solder to it.

Make sure your iron tip is clean and well-tinned. Make sure it's a high-enough wattage iron and make sure the temperature is set appropriately if it's controllable. The factory plating on the star pads varies considerably in quality, sounds like you got some tough ones.

If you're trying to do this with a RadioShack pencil iron, cross your fingers and hope for the best. :lol:

 

[wfournier]

GGGRRRRRRR! my stupid solder wont stick to the stupid stars. gr. what you guys think im doing wrong???


ugh i feel like throwing this crap all away. i get the little ball of solder on the star, then when i try and put the wire on it the ball falls off and leaves a huge black spot on the star.

Make sure you are tinning the pad first by heating the pad and touching the solder to the pad/between the pad and the iron. When the pad is heated properly the the solder should flow into a pool on the pad and not be clumped up. You don't want to over heat the star, but the point is to heat the pad so that the solder melts when it comes in contact with it rather than just the iron.

Edit: I type too slow.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I read up on the PFO law suite. So how come people like Maxspect and all the others are still able to sell their products in the USA ?

Good question. AI has licensed the patent. But the terms of the patent strike me as rather ambiguous and hard to defend, so maybe Orbitec figures it's not worth the effort? Who knows. I'm not a patent lawyer and I didn't even stay at Holiday Inn Express last night.

Your comments on the 30w make a lot of sense. I notice Maxspect are alos including 405-410nm wavelength (true actinic) LEDs along with the RBs most people are using now. They claim this will add in some UVA light to the tank, together with the 455nm royal blue LEDs, the coral coloration will be enhanced.

Is this a good idea ?

thanks.

Potentially a good idea but not strictly required IME. The royal blues give a pretty incredible pop on their own, and growth is good under most LED fixtures, so I don't think we're "missing" anything spectrum-wise.

Still, a typical LED fixture puts out a pretty different spectral plot than a typical MH or fluorescent fixture. Different might mean "better" or "worse" but so far it seems to mean "the same" in terms of growth and coloration of corals. Some people have reported corals to change color under LEDs vs other lighting systems, but again - that can happen when you switch corals from MH to T5, for instance.

 

[100%hydrophylic]

whew! finally got it! lol. it aint the purtiest LED set on the web, but all the lights are soldered together

thanks guys! now, i just need to attach the power cord...

....and... yay!!!!!!!!! they work!!!!!!

 

[captstinky]

Hoo-rah! I got my first string of 12 LEDS set up. I am still waiting on arrival of my meanwells, so I could only power up 12 with power sources I had around. Man are they putting out some light! Driving at 500mA, I think my u-channel heat sink is too small, it got hot to touch after a couple hours running...but the 12 LEDs are almost as bright as the PC tubes that I've been running.

My Q: Any reason not to connect several u-channels together for added surface area? Or would I be better to drive the LED's at a lower power?

 

[kcress]

I read up on the PFO law suite. So how come people like Maxspect and all the others are still able to sell their products in the USA ?

The patent is rather specifically directed at an aquarium light. These lights may be "plant" lights or some other non-aquarium lights that individuals are (gasp) using on their aquariums.

Frankly that patent seems absurd but then a lot of absurd patents are being granted by the morons in the patent office these days.

hydrophylic

what? lol theres only 3 cables on my cord. 2 get connected to the Driver and the green one does what? i need to figure a way to connect it to my heatsink? what does that do?

here is what i see on the powercord

??? Those are WIRES in your POWER CORD. The green one is the ground and and should be connected to your heat sink.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

My Q: Any reason not to connect several u-channels together for added surface area? Or would I be better to drive the LED's at a lower power?

IMHO, run the LEDs at the current you need to get your desired intensity, then heatsink accordingly.

Are you using a fan? If not, adding one might solve the problem. or better yet - two fans, so if one fails, the whole thing doesn't blow up.

 

[100%hydrophylic]

??? Those are WIRES in your POWER CORD. The green one is the ground and and should be connected to your heat sink.

oh ok. it looked like you were saying plural but theres only one. oh and yea wires not cables, going too fast and the first word i thought of came out.

thanks for all your help!!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The patent is rather specifically directed at an aquarium light. These lights may be "plant" lights or some other non-aquarium lights that individuals are (gasp) using on their aquariums.

Frankly that patent seems absurd but then a lot of absurd patents are being granted by the morons in the patent office these days.

Maxspect has no US distributorship, patent doesn't come into play in other countries so they were OK. Pacific sun or whatever their name is sells a "Agricultural Grow light" that isn't subject to the patent, at least that's how it was explained to be. All it would probably take is a bigger company with time and money enough to tell orbitech to go eat worms. PFO didn't lose, they went broke.

 

[sammy113]

oh ok. it looked like you were saying plural but theres only one. oh and yea wires not cables, going too fast and the first word i thought of came out.

thanks for all your help!!

I'm almost sure he said those wires referring to the one in your power cord and the one in the driver.

I've never used the ground wire though. But I'm pretty sure the green should be wired from your power cord to the green in the meanwell, then from inside of the meanwell to the heatsink? Don't know if meanwells actually have ground inside or if is it even attached somewhere inside. If it does, then from there to your heatsink. Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[bourbeaue]

Maxspect has no US distributorship, patent doesn't come into play in other countries so they were OK. Pacific sun or whatever their name is sells a "Agricultural Grow light" that isn't subject to the patent, at least that's how it was explained to be. All it would probably take is a bigger company with time and money enough to tell orbitech to go eat worms. PFO didn't lose, they went broke.

A number of other companies are selling marine LED products in the US through (Reef Central Sponsor) distributors. Not sure why the patent doesn,t apply to them or why no legal action is being taken.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

The Meanwell ELN drivers don't have provision for a supply-side GND connection. They have brown and blue wires on the supply side (AC line and AC neutral respectively) and red/black on the output side (+ and - respectively). The dimming connection is blue and white (DIM+ and DIM- respectively).

 

[The Grim Reefer]

A number of other companies are selling marine LED products in the US through (Reef Central Sponsor) distributors. Not sure why the patent doesn,t apply to them or why no legal action is being taken.

Integrated controller, that is what was unique about the Obritech patent

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The Meanwell ELN drivers don't have provision for a supply-side GND connection. They have brown and blue wires on the supply side (AC line and AC neutral respectively) and red/black on the output side (+ and - respectively). The dimming connection is blue and white (DIM+ and DIM- respectively).

If someone is mounting the drivers to the heat sink it might be worth it to use the green to ground the heat sink just in case. Doo Doo occurs

 

[joseney21]

what if the drivers are not being mounted on the heatsink??

 

[100%hydrophylic]

I'm almost sure he said those wires referring to the one in your power cord and the one in the driver.

I've never used the ground wire though. But I'm pretty sure the green should be wired from your power cord to the green in the meanwell, then from inside of the meanwell to the heatsink? Don't know if meanwells actually have ground inside or if is it even attached somewhere inside. If it does, then from there to your heatsink. Please correct me if I'm wrong

no green wire in the meanwell. or atleast the one i have. just one extra dangling wire coming from the power cord lol. thats why i was confused because it really has no where to attach. but i figured it out

thanks guys!

oh and bleach is the BEST!

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

If someone is mounting the drivers to the heat sink it might be worth it to use the green to ground the heat sink just in case. Doo Doo occurs

I definitely agree - was just pointing out that there's no way to ground the driver itself, since it has no provision for it (i.e. there's no GND wire sticking out of it!)

We've had the grounding debate a few times, and IMHO, it's worthwhile to ground the heatsink regardless of where the driver is mounted. The LED wiring itself isn't the only potential source of ground faults - imagine if you had a power cord running to a fan, or a pump, or something else in the tank and it rubbed through on the edge of the heatsink.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

what if the drivers are not being mounted on the heatsink??

Assuming you have a circuit short out we are not talking all that much current being applied so it wouldn't be a safety issue like there would be with 110v present. By not grounding the heat sink you might actually prevent the driver from being damaged. If the hot wire were to contact the heat sink it would be no harm, no foul. With the sink grounded you produce a direct short and would probably let the magic smoke out of the driver or maybe other LED's.

 

[100%hydrophylic]

Grim Reefer, grounding the heat sink is attaching the green wire from the power cord to the heatsink like people suggested for me?

if so, it sounds like you just said thats a bad idea lol.... or maybe im talking about something different and im just confusing myself?

sorry to be a bother, i really dont want to fry anything though.