DIY LEDs - The write-up

[sammy113]

Ugh, alright so I'm asking a question I KNOW is already answered but I spent about 30 minutes trying to find the answer on my note pad from reading the whole thread.

So I have 24 XPG and 48 XRE RB. I'm looking at wiring it where I want the XPGs spaced out so that there isn't a spotlight effect. Is there any special way to wire the XPGs so that they are hooked up to the same meanwells but are far apart?

Here is an example

XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG
XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE
XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE

This isn't my actual setup but lets say it was. Is there a way of wiring it so that I get my XPGs all together on the same driver so that I can dim them independantly from the Royal Blues?

Or, is it ok to run XPGs and XREs on the same meanwells, and does it affect either of the XREs or XPGs negatively?

You'll probably want to just wire the XPg's together to run them at higher mA depending on the drivers and like you said, to dim them separately. There's is no "right way" to wire it, just run a long wire from LED to LED

 

[tahiriqbal]

Ugh, alright so I'm asking a question I KNOW is already answered but I spent about 30 minutes trying to find the answer on my note pad from reading the whole thread.

So I have 24 XPG and 48 XRE RB. I'm looking at wiring it where I want the XPGs spaced out so that there isn't a spotlight effect. Is there any special way to wire the XPGs so that they are hooked up to the same meanwells but are far apart?

Here is an example

XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG
XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE
XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE

This isn't my actual setup but lets say it was. Is there a way of wiring it so that I get my XPGs all together on the same driver so that I can dim them independantly from the Royal Blues?

Or, is it ok to run XPGs and XREs on the same meanwells, and does it affect either of the XREs or XPGs negatively?

XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XPG
XPG-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE
XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XPG-XRE-XRE-XRE-XPG
May work out better.....As sammy said you may need to resort to long wiring for such layout. Good luck

 

[Dannyrotorpilot]

Alright, so I am finally finished with my first unit. Took me longer than I expected but esthetics were important to me. I wanted it to look like a finished unit. I am going to have to play with the optics a bit because the XP-G's are on frosted lenses so it takes away a bit from the white.

I am running the blues at 700mA and the whites at 800mA right now. I learned a lot and the two other units will come together faster and easier to make as I made all my mistakes with the first one. The temperature is nice with these fans. They pull air thru the sides and over the fins and then out the top quite well. The air also passes over all the drivers which are inside the unit above the heatsinks. I also have a 8V power supply in there to power the fans. They come on when you plug the unit in. The pull 78CFM each so the flow is good and directly diverted over the entire fin area. Looking to get started on the other two once I finish moving into the new house!:dance:

 

[Dannyrotorpilot]

A few more

 

[sahin]

A few more

Wow, that looks awesome. Looks professionaly built.

If you were in the UK, I would seriously ask you to cut out the plastic bits for me to build my own one.

 

[dnahas]

A few more

Nice job, looks clean! let me see the insides!!

 

[MontyJack]

Dannyrotorpilot,
that looks really professional! Applause from Czech to! I know what you mean with “esthetics is important” I also care a lot. But what is the little thing in the middle of all the LEDs? One moonlight LED, ore temperature probe, or a fancy PAR meter? :lmao: I’m curious…:twitch:

 

[Dannyrotorpilot]

Thanks for the input! That little thing is just a screw that holds on the bottom cover to the LED's! Gave me some ideas though! I might add some moonlight LED's. By the way, that white and red wire stuck in the heatsink is for the dimming option to the Reefkeeper system. I shoved it back in there for the picture.

I will post pics of the guts soon. I just put it away as I am preparing to move next week into our house they just finished building. We close on Thursday and I am supposed to be packing and preparing and wife has been giving me the evil eye :thumbdown. I am going to do a complete write up on my next two including a DIY on the actual making of the exterior plexiglass work. I do a bit of plexiglass work and love working with it. It is a great material and looks sleek specially black. Just got to have the right tools to work with it. :thumbsup:

 

[Windy Miller]

Really nice job there Danny!

 

[ando88]

I'm still pretty lost with LEDS.. I would like to make my 29 gallon tank run on leds.

I currenty use a 250 watt MH above my tank. I can't seem to figure out how many white and blue LEDs I would need..? Can someone point me into the correct direction.

Maybe point me into teh direction on everything I need to run some LEDs.


Thanks!

PS. I won't be building this... But my father is a electrician so he will be putting it together. I jus need to know what to get and I would like the lights to be dimable.

 

[MontyJack]

Dannyrotorpilot,
I think that you don't need extra LEDs for moonlighting. It depends on how you wired the RBs to the drivers and if there're dimmable and than if you can dim and operate them independent from the rest of the LEDs. IMHO 12 RB on one driver could do the job"¦or not?

But again, you did a very nice job and it is motivating!:thumbsup:

 

[Dannyrotorpilot]

I'm still pretty lost with LEDS.. I would like to make my 29 gallon tank run on leds.

I currenty use a 250 watt MH above my tank. I can't seem to figure out how many white and blue LEDs I would need..? Can someone point me into the correct direction.

Maybe point me into teh direction on everything I need to run some LEDs.


Thanks!

PS. I won't be building this... But my father is a electrician so he will be putting it together. I jus need to know what to get and I would like the lights to be dimable.

Thanks to all for the kind words. Couldnt have done it without the help of the forums.

Hey ando,

Each one of my units will be replacing (1) 250W MH 14K. I was told to use 16 Royal Blue XR-E's and 8 Cool White XP-G's. You would need 2 ELN-60-48D's for a dimmable unit but....you wont be able to dim the blues and the whites independantly because you will be running some blues and whites off one of the units. 12 per ELN is what you will be running. I went with a 36 LED setup but that was because I wanted more coverage as my tank is 24" front to back and wanted to spread them out more.

16 XR-E Royal Blues
8 XP-G Cool Whites
2 Meanwell ELN-60-48D's
Optics (Your choice)
Heatsink 8x16 or so
Dimming Circuit (10v Wall powersupply) Radioshack sells an adjustable powersupply 1.5 ~ 12V
Thermal Glue
Some Plug to wire your ELN's to 110V
Time and patience


Monty,
Thanks on the compliments! about the moonlights, youre right. I have all royal blues independantly wired to 2 ELN's and the whites are on their own ELN so I think I can lower them to moonlights with the reefkeeper system! :bigeyes:

:dance:

 

[Giga]

I'm drilling and tapping the holes in my heat sink-what do I used to mount the leds when I screw them down. Do I use arctic silver from radio shack(silver container?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Any quality thermal paste (not adhesive). The Arctic silver paste would be fine, but it's super pricey.

And keep in mind you only need a TINY TINY bit. You just want it to fill tiny voids or scratches in the surfaces, you don't want it forming a continuous film between the parts.

 

[Tron87]

Well I have a question. Don't worry picture candies at bottom of post.

What are people doing to include failsafes so that if the fans go down the system shuts off? Without my fans the fixture will overheat in about an hour but the fans keep everything nice and cool. What are the budget friendly ways to protecting the fixture after both fans have managed to fail?

Also, with the fans wired in series, will the second likely fail if the first motor does? Will the wiring stay sound? Will the second one burn out anyway as it would then be receiving all 24V?

Oh yeah, picture candy . . . .

Went from this

To THIS!

 

[Giga]

Well I have a question. Don't worry picture candies at bottom of post.

What are people doing to include failsafes so that if the fans go down the system shuts off? Without my fans the fixture will overheat in about an hour but the fans keep everything nice and cool. What are the budget friendly ways to protecting the fixture after both fans have managed to fail?

I have on my fans that if any of them fail and stop spinning a annoying alarm goes off that can be heard through out the house. I told my wife that if she hears it to unplug my lights

 

[wld1783]

Any quality thermal paste (not adhesive). The Arctic silver paste would be fine, but it's super pricey.

And keep in mind you only need a TINY TINY bit. You just want it to fill tiny voids or scratches in the surfaces, you don't want it forming a continuous film between the parts.

Depending on the suppliers the paste or adheasive is rather cheap 5-8 bucks.

I prefer the artic silver two part adheasive as drilling and tapping the stars is a lot of wasted time.

der_wille_zur_macht is right
You only need a little. I just finished a 48 LED fixture with 1 two part artic silver and have some left over.

Bill

 

[wld1783]

I'm still pretty lost with LEDS.. I would like to make my 29 gallon tank run on leds.

I currenty use a 250 watt MH above my tank. I can't seem to figure out how many white and blue LEDs I would need..? Can someone point me into the correct direction.

Maybe point me into teh direction on everything I need to run some LEDs.


Thanks!

PS. I won't be building this... But my father is a electrician so he will be putting it together. I jus need to know what to get and I would like the lights to be dimable.

A lot of opinions here.

This is what I replaced...250 Watt 10K XM...Lux at 12" 214

48 CREE LEDs 24 Cool White Q5 24 Royal Blue w 70 degree lenses.
4 Mean Well LPC-35-700 Drivers on a 24"' x 8.46" heatsink.

LUX at 12" 209 but at 133 watts. Colour is perfect. Corals look great.

If you KISS and use non dimmable drivers just have them come on in banks.

Lots of ways to skin a cat...

Lots of ways to do it right...

Bill

 

[sammy113]

I'm still pretty lost with LEDS.. I would like to make my 29 gallon tank run on leds.

I currenty use a 250 watt MH above my tank. I can't seem to figure out how many white and blue LEDs I would need..? Can someone point me into the correct direction.

Maybe point me into teh direction on everything I need to run some LEDs.


Thanks!

PS. I won't be building this... But my father is a electrician so he will be putting it together. I jus need to know what to get and I would like the lights to be dimable.

You could probably get as much light as that 250w MH with fewer LEDs than 48. Thats way too much for a 29g Tank

You could hit those same PAR leves or even more with just 24 LEDs and 40~60 degree lenses. Gotta think of coverage too. Depending on the tank dimensions, you may want to add a few more or go with more spacing between them but be careful with more spacing and tighter lenses.

 

[trentdingo]

Is an accessory required for a dimmable driver such as this: http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-41/Mean-Well-ELN-dsh-60-dsh-48D-dimmable/Detail
or is the ability to adjust the led's built into the driver itself?
Also, what is the difference between the 48D and the 48P above