S2minute
New member
Fishman the site would be www.superbrightleds.com they also carry IR LEDs anyone ever think of trying them?
DIY LEDs - The write-up
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Fishman the site would be www.superbrightleds.com they also carry IR LEDs anyone ever think of trying them?
laverda
Well-known member
You can HLG 240H 48B. Mean well also makes a HLG-240H-24 or you could have something like HLG-120H-24B and run 9 strings of 6 LEDS. That would get you close to the high efficancy der wille was saying you want. Another benifit is the lower/safer voltage around salt water.
It seems to me the HLG series are the drivers we have been waiting for for our applications. Plus they now have a 5 year warranty
S2minute
New member
Hey Laverda
, 9 strings of 6 leds on a HGL-120-24B sounds good. That`s 54 LEDs per section so i would need 3 HGL-120-24B. Series right?, i`d rather stay away from parrell.
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kcress
New member
No! You can't run more than 12 or 13 LEDs on any of these drivers if you don't go parallel.
If you insist on staying away from parallel and still want umpteen different types of LEDs then you should go for a large PFC DC supply and a bunch of Buck Pucks or better yet, go to the bother of building the favored DIY current controllers you see in the Driver Thread. You can order the blank boards from the site listed.
Just don't run a bunch of ELN60-48! Unless you want to parallel them and run precisely three strings at 433mA per string. This is pretty much hazard free. If one string opens you still don't over amp the remaining two. That would get you about 12 or 13 LEDS x 3 per driver. It would also get you some decent efficiency. It would allow you to have your crazy LED mix with all the same driver type. It would cut down the number of drivers to something sort of reasonable.
laverda
Well-known member
You would have 9 parallel strings of 6 in series. I don't know why everyone is so afraid of parallel strings. I think it is fear created by one person, yet several people are running them that way and I have not heard of any real life problems yet. That is what these drivers they are designed for.Hey Laverda
TheFishMan65
New member
How are you cooling that Sun?
I have a Biocube14 and I am about to purchase the parts for a diy led setup. Can anyone help me out with what Cree led's to get and what color combo/ratio I am looking at a total of 12 to 14 led's. I was wanting to do the whites and blues on separate dimming drivers so I can eventually hook it up to my audrino board for a nice lighting system or do you just do all on one driver and and not do just actinic but dim all led's in the morning and get brighter through the day?
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
MeatWad, already answered in the other thread you asked this question in...
CJO
New member
I'm running parallel strings. I think that the main reason that many suggest against parallel strings is that there are a few more steps you should follow- bin your LEDs so that the strings have similar forward voltages and either add quick blow fuses to your strings or make sure that the remainder of your strings can handle a voltage increase incase one of the LEDs fails in a "short" condition.
CJ
HeneryH
Henery Hawk
I'm running parallel and am not having any problems at all. Visually you can't see any variation in any of the parallel strings. Mathematically people think there is a high probability of brightness variation but I personally think the vodoo of LED I/V characteristics and the current limiting drivers auto-magically balance things out. I dim using a 0-10 dimmer and even under dimming conditions I see no variation.
I have three drivers each pushing (3 strings x 7 LEDs/s).
I'm quite happy with the parallel config and fit many more LEDs per driver.
Your mileage may vary and don't come a' complainin if you see different results.
I have three drivers each pushing (3 strings x 7 LEDs/s).
I'm quite happy with the parallel config and fit many more LEDs per driver.
Your mileage may vary and don't come a' complainin if you see different results.
TheFishMan65
New member
Henery, you need to remember that the eye will only variations of around 50%. So even if you had LEDs at the neds of the scale, I am not sure you could tell a difference with your eye.
chathaway417
New member
Power Supply Help
Power Supply Help
I have been reading all the DIY LED threads and now I can't find the formula for figuring the power supply that I need :sad2:. I have not started my build thread yet but I have ordered materials and will hopefully be starting my build in the next couple of weeks. I have a 125g and have ordered 120 Cree XRE's CW, NW, RB, BL, and will be using 2-3 of the 8 driver CAT4101 boards. My current plan is to use 96 of the LED's and have spares for "just in case", but I may just go ahead and use all 120 that I have ordered. Will this power supply work? It is the Meanwell PSP-600-27.
http://download.siliconexpert.com/pdfs/2008/10/05/urlc/mwe/psp-600.pdf
Thanks for your help!
Power Supply Help
I have been reading all the DIY LED threads and now I can't find the formula for figuring the power supply that I need :sad2:. I have not started my build thread yet but I have ordered materials and will hopefully be starting my build in the next couple of weeks. I have a 125g and have ordered 120 Cree XRE's CW, NW, RB, BL, and will be using 2-3 of the 8 driver CAT4101 boards. My current plan is to use 96 of the LED's and have spares for "just in case", but I may just go ahead and use all 120 that I have ordered. Will this power supply work? It is the Meanwell PSP-600-27.
http://download.siliconexpert.com/pdfs/2008/10/05/urlc/mwe/psp-600.pdf
Thanks for your help!
TheFishMan65
New member
Not the best. You will want to turn the voltage down closer to 22 volts and that one only goes to 24. Turning the voltage down keeps them cooler and more efficient. The -24 would be good choice even at 80% it would drive 20 string or 120 LEDs.
chathaway417
New member
Thanks FishMan! The reason I was wondering about the 600-27 is because I have found an "open box" that I can buy for $75, whereas a new 600-24 will cost me $165.
So is there any way to compensate for the higher voltage of the 600-27? Can I put a resistor in line or add 1 more LED to the string? Sorry if that question is a dumb one but I am still learning about this, and I would love to save that extra $90 as I still have to figure out what to do about a controller and the budget is quickly shrinking!
Just found this one that might "bridge the gap"
PSP-500-24 puts out 16A and is adjustable from 20.0-26.4V. I could get it for $115.
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TheFishMan65
New member
Try ebay - that where i got mine. If you use the 27 turn it all the way down. The CAT4101 is rated for 25 volts.
In theory a power resistor would work but 4 volts (maybe more) at 20 amps is 80 watts of wasted energy.
In theory a power resistor would work but 4 volts (maybe more) at 20 amps is 80 watts of wasted energy.
HeneryH
Henery Hawk
FWIW, here is my rig just completed this week. It goes on the tank tonight and we'll see how well it does with a BTA and varied SPS.
Three Meanwell 60-24 drivers:
That is a 61RB:39W ratio.
Mounted on a single 24.5 x 36" Heat sink (882 in2). Coverage of 1 LED / 16.33 in2. FYI, this heat sink was $215 shipped from Aavid Thermology (or something like that).
Whites dimmed by an Apex V1 port. Both RBs dimmed by the Apex V2 port.
I'll have to wait it out to see how well it performs...
Three Meanwell 60-24 drivers:
- Driver #1 - Whites, 3 x 7 Cree XPGs = 21 Whites
- Driver #2 - R-Blues, 3 x 7 Cree XPEs
- Driver #3 - R-Blues, 3 x 6 Cree XPEs = 33 Royal Blues
That is a 61RB:39W ratio.
Mounted on a single 24.5 x 36" Heat sink (882 in2). Coverage of 1 LED / 16.33 in2. FYI, this heat sink was $215 shipped from Aavid Thermology (or something like that).
Whites dimmed by an Apex V1 port. Both RBs dimmed by the Apex V2 port.
I'll have to wait it out to see how well it performs...
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