DIY LEDs - The write-up

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I see. Chains are a bit clunky and dated.

I am still having a problem with what's happening at the ceiling. Having to run wires to each of the three (or more) ceiling hangers seems hard to do without major ugly.
 
Ceiling has not had a lot of thought yet. I am thinking of using conduit and bending it to form a bar above the tank and attaching to that. Option 2 is I have the ability to go in the wall if needed to get the wires up there.
 
Clear me up on the general design. LEDs and drivers/types and where are they. (don't care specifics on the LEDs)
 
24 (36 if needed) per pendant. CAT4101 driver in pendant. Arduino controller either under tank or one in each pendant - still considering the pros and cons. The LEDs will be mounted on 4 or 6 bars similiar to this design:
picture.php
 
OK, the reason I ask is that if you are running PWM down those wires you are asking for all sorts of radiated noise issues. The circuit represents a loop. The more distance between the loop wires the more radiation pumped into the ether. By physically separating them you are increasing the radiation by leaps and bounds.

If you are only sending DC down them that doesn't greatly pulsate you shouldn't have a problem. If you intend the power PWM to the LEDs I would avoid it - stick with wires as a twisted or very close pair.

Perhaps you need to find some sort of great looking conduit. You can get that stainless braided hose for hydraulics. you can get it in chrome. You can get it in fake chrome netting that you put over your regular hoses and pipes too. Then you could use small chain or cable or quality rope like 6mm jumar rope for mountain climbing. You can find all sorts of small high quality ropes at boating chandeliers and climbing shops.

Another thought would be 1/4" or 3/8" soft drawn copper tubing. Use the standard brass swage fittings on the ends. Run the wires down that as a conduit. It would also simplify the ceiling issues. You could run a standard box in the ceiling with an ornamental cover that's painted or brass like the swage fittings.
 
With a good fan and good fins you could probably manage just enough to mount the squares. Say 18 square inches. With low enough current maybe no fan.

I did some testing and had just enough or a little more sink to cover the star and it seemed ok up to about 700ma, but it was completely in the open and tested in the winter when the house was colder.
 
Thanks kcress should have said that lst night, but wanted to think about it a little. I should have thought about the radiation/noise on the PWM so thanks for pointing it out. Looks like the arduion will be in the pendant. I will see what I can find for conduit.

Thanks
 
I'm looking at ordering the LEDs for my setup and I have found the following:

Cree XP-G Cool White (XPGWHT-L1-1B0-R5-0-01)
Cree XP-E Royal Blue (XPEROY-L1-D40-16-0-01)
Cree XP-G Neutral White (XPGWHT-01-5B1-R4-0-01)

I'm thinking about running Blue:White in a 3:2 ratio with a single neutral white (no optics) in each string of cool whites.

With Cutter I've found decent prices on all of the above mounted on 20mm stars.

But what I'm having a problem with is optics. Are the optics for the Cree XP-(GE) series LEDs really going to cost about $7 each? The XR-E optics seems to run about $1 each...
 
Does anyone know if the controller for the Apex is capable of doing the same automated dimming for the LED's as the AI units as long as you are using dimming Meanwells?
 
wesley6610 said:
Does anyone know if the controller for the Apex is capable of doing the same automated dimming for the LED's as the AI units as long as you are using dimming Meanwells?
Click to expand...


The short answer is YES. But I am not familiar with the various dimming functions of the AI units. You can do some simple automated dimming with the aquasurf also using the other aquacontrollers like the AC3 or AquaJr but the command lines are not as versatile as the APEX.
 
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