DIY LEDs - The write-up

[Garage1217]

I plugged an eln-60-48D in just now with no leds hooked up and the dimming section drew 2mA at 10vdc and went down as I lowered the voltage. I did not have any leds hooked to this unit as they have not arrived yet so not sure if that plays a part. The dimmer circuit should be isolated from the rest of the power supply draw wise so I guess another member that has leds being driven with have to verify.

 

[swannking]

I plugged an eln-60-48D in just now with no leds hooked up and the dimming section drew 2mA at 10vdc and went down as I lowered the voltage. I did not have any leds hooked to this unit as they have not arrived yet so not sure if that plays a part. The dimmer circuit should be isolated from the rest of the power supply draw wise so I guess another member that has leds being driven with have to verify.

Thanks man. That's what I am looking for.

 

[swannking]

If I want to test the max. current output from the aquasurf, can I hook up the output from it to a 1K ohm 0.5W pot and use the multimeter to measure the current of the circuit. (without anything else connected to it other than the pot) Starting from 1K ohm resistance, I should get 10mA and if I turn the pot and lower the resistance, the current should go up until it reaches it full current capacity, right. I don't want to fry my aquasurf by doing this.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I would NOT suggest testing max current in that (or any) manner. Since you don't know the protection features built in to the Aquasurf, you can't predictably hit it's maximum current with any guarantee of not causing damage.

In other words, if you set out to test max current, you may successfully determine what the max current is by hitting a current limit "wall" as you're proposing. Or, you may trip an overcurrent feature that shuts the device off. Or, you may just let out the magic smoke. Since the vendor doesn't publish the protection features (if there are any) we don't know which of these three scenarios will occur, and since the third one means your unit is hosed, it's not worth the risk IMO.

 

[swannking]

I plugged an eln-60-48D in just now with no leds hooked up and the dimming section drew 2mA at 10vdc and went down as I lowered the voltage. I did not have any leds hooked to this unit as they have not arrived yet so not sure if that plays a part. The dimmer circuit should be isolated from the rest of the power supply draw wise so I guess another member that has leds being driven with have to verify.

Thanks der_wille_zur_macht. Can you also comment on the above. The current drawn by dimming circuit should not be affected by main circuit of the meanwell, right?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I would assume not, with a very high certainty, but of course we can't be 100% sure.

 

[XSiVE]

For those of you who used the Arctic Silver thermal epoxy to set your LEDs onto a heat sink, how many LEDs did you affix per tube of epoxy?

 

[terahz]

For those of you who used the Arctic Silver thermal epoxy to set your LEDs onto a heat sink, how many LEDs did you affix per tube of epoxy?

First time I did it, I used a bit less than 2/3 (not 2/3") of each syringe for 12 LEDs

For my last build I used a little less than 1/2" of each syringe to do 48 LEDs

Point being if you are careful how you do the mixing, you can do a lot of leds with one set.

 

[wfournier]

I think I used half for 50 Leds.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm still on the first tube I got when I stopped screwing LEDs down and have probably made around ~100 connections with it. If you think you have just enough, you probably have about three times more than you need.

 

[XSiVE]

Thanks guys, I'll probably order 2 or 3 for my project with 72, just to be safe... I just didnt want to have to order 5 or 6 or some ridiculous number :hmm5:

 

[Iwishihadgills]

4 x CREE MC-E on round PCB For only $63 a piece. What do you guys think?

 

[TheFishMan65]

It is a lot of light. I would worry about spotlighting and heat dissipation.

 

[Iwishihadgills]

How can you have to much light . Yeah the spotlighting was my worry also because the only optics they have for them are 46 degrees. But if you ran them at 700ma i dont think you'll need optics with all those lumens be put out. But idk what ratio of blues you would put with it to drown out all that white

 

[saf1]

63 a piece? I would have to think the initial cost is over the top vs single units. I would be interested to see how wide the light distribution is first because that may indicate how many you need and the spacing between them.

Initial investment would be my main issue. Longer term return is another story. But upfront cost would be scary depending on the number you need.

 

[Iwishihadgills]

63 a piece? I would have to think the initial cost is over the top vs single units. I would be interested to see how wide the light distribution is first because that may indicate how many you need and the spacing between them.

Initial investment would be my main issue. Longer term return is another story. But upfront cost would be scary depending on the number you need.

Scary? Each one of the four emiters produces 430 lumens at 350ma. That is four times your efficiency of normal leds people are using. So in theory you would need less of these to light your tank then your normal xp-g's. Yeah the heat will be more but i dont think to much that a better fan can't handle. $63/4= $15.75 per 430 lumens per emitter only driven at 350ma. And the lumens put off by each emitter is 430-480 lumens, 430 is the minimum output. Each mc-e emitter from rapidled is $25 which is already a good price.

 

[Iwishihadgills]

Here are the stats from the place where they are selling them-


4 x Cree MCE4WT-A2-WG-M0 on round PCB

Diameter: 44.0mm
Viewing Angle: 110°
Emitting Color: white
Lumen min.: 1720 lm for all dies :eek1:
Lumen max.: 3008 lm for all dies
Kelvin min.: 5000
Kelvin max.: 10000
mA test.: 350 mA each die
mA typ.: 350 mA each die
mA max.: 700 mA each die
V typ.: 12.8 V each die
V max.: 15.6 V each die

 

[saf1]

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for LED's and in fact have a build with them now but I'm using CREE XR-E's. I guess "my" concern is how many would you need and the spacing. I am in no way thinking they are junk or not efficient. I mean buy 10 of those things and you can sort of see the $$$ number, no? I don't know if that would be more or less say than if you are using hte xr-e's or something else.

By the way - I love Rapid LED. I just picked up a bunch more cree's during their last sale.

 

[Iwishihadgills]

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for LED's and in fact have a build with them now but I'm using CREE XR-E's. I guess "my" concern is how many would you need and the spacing. I am in no way thinking they are junk or not efficient. I mean buy 10 of those things and you can sort of see the $$$ number, no? I don't know if that would be more or less say than if you are using hte xr-e's or something else.

By the way - I love Rapid LED. I just picked up a bunch more cree's during their last sale.

No i get where your coming from but 10 of these would be soooooo much light lol If i plan on using these ill probably only use like five of them. Which will be $315. Yeah that alot of $$$ But the amount of light it will be putting out is unreal. I plan on getting a par meter too. But my problem is i dont know how to power them. Or how many blue leds ill need to compete with all that white

 

[tahiriqbal]

Iwishihadgills.... Not a bad choice but still poor lumen output when compared to XPGs, mind you who gives a damn when surely many of us would probably be toning down their XPGs as they are too bright and loosing few lumen from the efficiency point of view is not really a big issue (someone shoot me NO). Good luck with your purchase.

It would have been nice if Cutter gave their customers the choice of having 2 x MCE and 2 x MCEW on the same PCB with option of individual on board drivers. This way you could have mix the colour quite nicely. I am giving a serious thought to have 4 x Cree MCEW LED, mounted on my future PCB style LED tile project. This way I could drive them at very low current for the sunrise and sunset mode. Once they have done that, I could push them harder to mix with my remaining 10 XPGs and 10 XPE LEDs per tile. Remember currently I have 30 LED per tile from which 15 are XPGs and 15 XPE, however this could change to 5 drivers per tile. This will enable me to have 2 drivers for the whites, 2 drivers for the royal blue and 1 driver for the MCEW (commercial potential)