TheFishMan65
New member
+1 one on mixing, but I would start with white and blue and then order what ever (if any) color you decide is missing.
DIY LEDs - The write-up
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Anyone know of a few websites with info on LED lighting in general? I am having some students do a whitepaper on LEDs for reef tanks and pointed them at this thread...but I am sure there are other areas that have info on this. Looking to have them get all the acronyms down, what they mean, then get into power consumption heat etc etc.
kcress
New member
Digikey produced a very nice LED lighting manual recently. Go to their website and look around for their magazines.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Or, tweak the bins on your white LEDs to get the color that's missing - this way you get it uniformly and at high efficiency, instead of adding a very small number of monochromatic LEDs and getting poor distribution.
In addition, the Wikipedia page on LEDs is a very good general resource:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
brassmonkyballs
BMB
been pretty slow here I see....and I've been absent as well....so here's some new discussion for the group:
I've been asked by a friend to assist him lighting some frag tanks in his reef shop and thought I'd throw this out there for comments. The tanks are 48x24x12 and I initially set off with a more traditional design of 60 LEDs plus some colors I like to add. I went whole hog HLGs, full heatsink profile, etc.
When we came up with the costs and then talked it over we recognized the real goal is illuminate the frags for sale nicely and accent them to get some color pop.... not concerned with growth in this situation where stock is turned over and rotated.
After some considerable thought I'm thinking a fixture comprised of a total of 36 LEDs....24 RBs, 6NWs, 6CWs would probably accomplish this goal nicely. Then chuck the full blown heatsink in favor of the commonly used aluminum channel and swap out the HLGs for 2 ELNs. End result being a low cost fixture with the ability to maintain frags in this environment nicely.
What do you guys think about this for the application?
I've been asked by a friend to assist him lighting some frag tanks in his reef shop and thought I'd throw this out there for comments. The tanks are 48x24x12 and I initially set off with a more traditional design of 60 LEDs plus some colors I like to add. I went whole hog HLGs, full heatsink profile, etc.
When we came up with the costs and then talked it over we recognized the real goal is illuminate the frags for sale nicely and accent them to get some color pop.... not concerned with growth in this situation where stock is turned over and rotated.
After some considerable thought I'm thinking a fixture comprised of a total of 36 LEDs....24 RBs, 6NWs, 6CWs would probably accomplish this goal nicely. Then chuck the full blown heatsink in favor of the commonly used aluminum channel and swap out the HLGs for 2 ELNs. End result being a low cost fixture with the ability to maintain frags in this environment nicely.
What do you guys think about this for the application?
TheFishMan65
New member
That will work if you have turnover. I was at a shop the other day and the frag tank is light by 2 fixture that I think have 1 watt LEDs. They have the $5, $10, etc sections and the $5 was at the edge. The $5 frags are small so a lot of the disk shows, which is fine when they are new. Well apparently they have been sitting a while and it looked like the plugs had algae (maybe it was just common reef crud), but because the light was limited (on edge) the corals did not pop well. So in the end I think they will be sitting there a while longer. They looked blah. So make sure you have even spread would be my advice, or maybe have more light in the middle and rotate the section through the middle for some growth.
S2minute
New member
LEDs
LEDs
Here are a few pics of my first build:
I started out with the HS bars Fishman has and ripped them down. Fishman built me some cat boards and i added HSs to them. The Aluminum frame is 6' and bent 15 degrees each end. The following pics are XM-L's on 3" sections of HS. Three ,6 XM-L strings,(3- T3 ww, 3- T6 cw each string 1.5 ma), run the length of the frame. The rest of the LEDs will consist of 24 XP-Gs(4 cw , 4 nw each section), and the rest XP-E RB. All XP-Gs and XP-Es, on 2" sections of HS, @ .7 ma. This will ratio 2-1 RB vs White and 3-1 RB vs XM-L. ATM, i'm still soldering the wires to the LEDS. The HSs are mounted on sheathed wire with eye terminal ends, stiff enough to hold the HS in place but, flexible enough to enable me to bend or twist each individual LED to just about any position i want.
View attachment 166690
View attachment 166692
LEDs
Here are a few pics of my first build:
I started out with the HS bars Fishman has and ripped them down. Fishman built me some cat boards and i added HSs to them. The Aluminum frame is 6' and bent 15 degrees each end. The following pics are XM-L's on 3" sections of HS. Three ,6 XM-L strings,(3- T3 ww, 3- T6 cw each string 1.5 ma), run the length of the frame. The rest of the LEDs will consist of 24 XP-Gs(4 cw , 4 nw each section), and the rest XP-E RB. All XP-Gs and XP-Es, on 2" sections of HS, @ .7 ma. This will ratio 2-1 RB vs White and 3-1 RB vs XM-L. ATM, i'm still soldering the wires to the LEDS. The HSs are mounted on sheathed wire with eye terminal ends, stiff enough to hold the HS in place but, flexible enough to enable me to bend or twist each individual LED to just about any position i want.
View attachment 166690
View attachment 166692
Need some assistance in trouble shooting one of my 4 white strings:
Noticed that string 4 was very dim compared to the other 3. String measurements came to:
1 - 425mA
2 - 421mA
3 - 414mA
4 - 24mA ???
When I turned the manual dial a little the string light up and the measurement jumped to around 250mA. I played with the dimming again and noticed the problematic string flicker ever so lightly.
I've done no further trouble shooting, thought I'd post up here to get some thoughts first as it's going to be a pita to take everything down to do some extensive testing...
Any thoughts? Could it be a faulty LED in the string? If so what do I look for?
Noticed that string 4 was very dim compared to the other 3. String measurements came to:
1 - 425mA
2 - 421mA
3 - 414mA
4 - 24mA ???
When I turned the manual dial a little the string light up and the measurement jumped to around 250mA. I played with the dimming again and noticed the problematic string flicker ever so lightly.
I've done no further trouble shooting, thought I'd post up here to get some thoughts first as it's going to be a pita to take everything down to do some extensive testing...
Any thoughts? Could it be a faulty LED in the string? If so what do I look for?
Need some assistance in trouble shooting one of my 4 white strings:
Noticed that string 4 was very dim compared to the other 3. String measurements came to:
1 - 425mA
2 - 421mA
3 - 414mA
4 - 24mA ???
When I turned the manual dial a little the string light up and the measurement jumped to around 250mA. I played with the dimming again and noticed the problematic string flicker ever so lightly.
I've done no further trouble shooting, thought I'd post up here to get some thoughts first as it's going to be a pita to take everything down to do some extensive testing...
Any thoughts? Could it be a faulty LED in the string? If so what do I look for?
Noticed that string 4 was very dim compared to the other 3. String measurements came to:
1 - 425mA
2 - 421mA
3 - 414mA
4 - 24mA ???
When I turned the manual dial a little the string light up and the measurement jumped to around 250mA. I played with the dimming again and noticed the problematic string flicker ever so lightly.
I've done no further trouble shooting, thought I'd post up here to get some thoughts first as it's going to be a pita to take everything down to do some extensive testing...
Any thoughts? Could it be a faulty LED in the string? If so what do I look for?
How many leds are in a string? and how many drivers do you have to power these leds?
TheFishMan65
New member
If it flickers during dimming it could be a bad connection o the dimming control.
MontyJack
New member
Driver help
Driver help
Hi folks,
Since a year and half I have now my DIY fixture running and I'm glad I build it myself and the way it is. Thanks to all here and the great information's!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19090346&postcount=60
But now it's time for al little upgrade!
From beginning I see a little esthetic problem and thanks to the LED Color Esthetics thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1885076 I know my way how to fix it for my needs.
Another problem is my drivers. I use 10 each MW ELN 60-48D drivers for 10 LED strings. Now it works fine. I didn't have problems with harmonics or power line heat. But what bothers me is the dimming characteristic (shutting on and off at 5% is still too bright and moon light is also impossible this way) and running 10 drivers instead of 1-2 is les economic.
Now I'm asking for help to find a solution for a driver system as I'm not so confident in driver electronics!
I would like to go with one or two power sources and buck pucks for each string of LEDs. The problem is, I cannot find dimmable buck pucks with spec. <1000mA <48VDC and 0-10V dimming. Since it could be easier to DIY it than a PWM one, I'm willing to build it.
That for I need your help please!!!
I will stick to 0-10V dimming because my reef controller has this dimming option and I don't want to convert it to PWM unless it would be easier. Also I'm not willing to tear down the fixture to rearrange the strings to a lower voltage than 48V at 1000mA. Even if I run it now just at ca. 700mA and have a fV of 42V.
Thanks in advance
Monty
Driver help
Hi folks,
Since a year and half I have now my DIY fixture running and I'm glad I build it myself and the way it is. Thanks to all here and the great information's!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19090346&postcount=60
But now it's time for al little upgrade!
From beginning I see a little esthetic problem and thanks to the LED Color Esthetics thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1885076 I know my way how to fix it for my needs.
Another problem is my drivers. I use 10 each MW ELN 60-48D drivers for 10 LED strings. Now it works fine. I didn't have problems with harmonics or power line heat. But what bothers me is the dimming characteristic (shutting on and off at 5% is still too bright and moon light is also impossible this way) and running 10 drivers instead of 1-2 is les economic.
Now I'm asking for help to find a solution for a driver system as I'm not so confident in driver electronics!
I would like to go with one or two power sources and buck pucks for each string of LEDs. The problem is, I cannot find dimmable buck pucks with spec. <1000mA <48VDC and 0-10V dimming. Since it could be easier to DIY it than a PWM one, I'm willing to build it.
That for I need your help please!!!
I will stick to 0-10V dimming because my reef controller has this dimming option and I don't want to convert it to PWM unless it would be easier. Also I'm not willing to tear down the fixture to rearrange the strings to a lower voltage than 48V at 1000mA. Even if I run it now just at ca. 700mA and have a fV of 42V.
Thanks in advance
Monty
TheFishMan65
New member
Gee Monty, I think you maybe in trouble the HLG series have similar issues. You may need to look at the inventronic driver, but I am not familiar enough with those to say for sure.
You also might go read the DIY driver thread. They are testing a new chip that I think would meet your requirements.
You also might go read the DIY driver thread. They are testing a new chip that I think would meet your requirements.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
The LM3409 is the new chip in question. I totally love it. Very flexible. There are a few of us running them around 50 - 100w each, but it would be straightforward to design one that was more like 150 or maybe even 200w. It does require a fair amount of "effort" as far as component choice, though.
At any rate, to get moonlighting, you might be better off by adding a single small string of LEDs at a low current and controlling it independent of the main LEDs. It's hard to get realistic moonlight levels even with a driver that dims down below 1% when you're running your entire array.
At any rate, to get moonlighting, you might be better off by adding a single small string of LEDs at a low current and controlling it independent of the main LEDs. It's hard to get realistic moonlight levels even with a driver that dims down below 1% when you're running your entire array.
MontyJack
New member
Hi FishMan, I was reading the thread you mentioned but, maybe I'm mistaken, the things discussed there are all PWM solutions, aren't they?
DWZM, you're right. Moonlighting would be tough to gat with a 12x 3W LED string. I probably go with a COTS from the controller manufacture since I don't think I can DIY it with same functions for much less then they sell it.
DWZM, you're right. Moonlighting would be tough to gat with a 12x 3W LED string. I probably go with a COTS from the controller manufacture since I don't think I can DIY it with same functions for much less then they sell it.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
By default the LM3409 takes a PWM signal, yes, but terahz did a design based on it that will take an analog signal (of any reasonable voltage, there's a pair of resistors as a voltage divider to knock it down to the chip's desired range).
MontyJack
New member
But anyway, as I mentioned earlier, I would like to stay by 0-10V dimming and not converting it to PWM. The output to the LED string is PWM and not DC, isn't it?
So far I understand the matter, it will by easier to build a driver just analog, or not?
Did anybody build a analog dimming DC/DC driver?
So far I understand the matter, it will by easier to build a driver just analog, or not?
Did anybody build a analog dimming DC/DC driver?
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
I think I was misleading above - the way terahz has the dimming feature implemented in his design, it basically alters the reference voltage used by the chip across the sense resistor. It is NOT using the chip's PWM input pin. So you're creating a pure analog output at the desired drive current - it's not chopping a higher current with PWM to effectively give a lower average current.
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