DIY LEDs - The write-up

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i did a 24 led set up with 60 degree optics and its strong!! i tested it over one of my frag tanks and the coral responded really nice! i will be testing it over my 150xt (31"tall) soon so i can make up my mind better with what i am going to do from there..right now i have a pair of 250w radiums in diy luminarc reflectors..it should be a good comparison i hope
 
I'm interested in the results custom! My drivers are apparently ~6 - 8 weeks out so I have lots of time to plan!
 
Planning to go LED on a nano frag tank 20gal long to get my feet wet prior to doing anything with LED on a bigger scale. Currently into LPS and softies, but not set in stone on livestock...I'm running PC's on another tank and just not content with the replacement cost of bulbs and the PAR ratings I get.

Thoughts are 12 Cree XR-E Q5 Emitter on Premium Star (228LM at 1A) from http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394
and 6 Royal Blue Cree® XR-E Star Features: from http://www.ledsupply.com/creexre-rb.php


The 20 gal currently has a stock fluorescent hood, and I am toying with gutting it, putting the LEDS within, adding a small fan, or two. Lights would then be close to the water surface- one inch or so with 1/8" glass, and I am not intending to use optics. Since there's only going to be 18LEDs, was also planning on going with aluminum u channel as the heat sink & fans. Plan is to use three rows of LED's in the U channel to disperse heat.

Since so many here have done a project or two, I was posting for feedback on the plans prior to ordering LEDS. My old man is pretty snappy with electronics, so he'll be helping set up for dimming. I just don't fully grasp that...

Thanks for any thoughts regarding the u channel and number of LEDS and retro fit of the fixture.
 
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rickyjai8 said:
have anyone try the 30 watt led or the 50 watt led i know they only come in white
Click to expand...

You'll need to give us the model and make of the LEDs you're thinking about, or a link to them, otherwise it's hard to talk details.

captstinky said:
Thanks for any thoughts regarding the u channel and number of LEDS and retro fit of the fixture.
Click to expand...

LED count is probably about right - but I would rethink the balance of white to blue. Using that many white will lend a very white look to the tank - most people go 50:50 and consider that close to a 12k or 14k MH lamp.
 
Thanks der_wille_zur_macht. I was originally thinking 10w and 8 Royal blue, but feared mixing them in terms of arrays of 6 would be an issue if dimming them was required for reduced light/PAR output. Some pages back, it was mentioned the rb LED's didn't dim well, or that was my interpretation. LOTS to digest in the thread for a shade tree electrician. So, I came up with 12 and 6.

As I understand it, I put the LEDS in series of 6 per buckpuc. Mixing W and RB then is not a big deal if I end up having to dim?

Electronically- this is out on a limb for me, but I have some back up in the brain department. I just have to deliver the blue print. My old man is the wiz on the electrical. I'll be stoked when I finally figure it out and plug it in!

Again, thanks for the great info here
 
captstinky - It will be easier than you think. Just get the 3 buck pucks, and a 24 volt power supply which can provide ~4 amps in your case. This one is sure to work well:

http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17435+PS

Then you essentially hook the buck pucks up to the power supply, and wire 6 LEDs per buck puck like a string of christmas tree lights. Be sure to get the dimming buck pucks if you want dimming capability. These are exactly what I got: http://ledsupply.com/03023-d-e-1000p.php

One word of caution - I don't believe that 18 LEDs on one U-channel will provide adequate surface area for them to cool properly even with a small fan. If you see my build thread, I put 9 LEDs per 10" by 1.25" by 2.875" heavy duty heatsink with 2.5" tall fins, and when they are running at full brightness without air movement they get threshold hot to touch. So you might want to divide them among two or three of the U-channels and have a small fan.
 
captstinky,

The U-channel should work fine for your application.

Your 20 Long is 30" long so if you do 6 LEDs per U-channel & have three of them, that is 18 total.
If you start 4" in from each end & go every 4-3/8" apart you will fit 6 per channel.

You would want to stagger them some so they dont line up perfectly.

Also, I would go with a few more LEDs.
And check the cost of the buckpucks versus the Meanwells.

The Meanwells can drive 12 of these LEDs so your cost might be less once you add in the DC power supply required for the Buckpucks.

I find that the Buckpucks are only cost effective if you are using a huge number of LEDs. For your build, I am guessing Meanwell ELN-60-48s would be cheaper.

If you did 8 LEDs per channel & put 8 per driver, thats $120 in drivers.
That way you dont need an enclosure or a DC power supply.

Stu
 
Awesome, I cut and pasted into a file as I read through, must be the history teacher in me not wanting to go back and re-read 80 some pages lol...

Sounds as if the Meanwell would hit the mark, I did bookmark links for the Cree LED's and buckpucks, but I can't find a recommended link for purchasing. First look suggests that its a price wash out- about $60 either way BP, or MW.
 
Be sure you're pricing like for like - Meanwell ELNs are dimmable, but the dimming circuit requires some effort. Meanwhile, buckpucks are dimmable with a dirt cheap pot, or you can buy them with a wiring harness and pot already wired in.

And BTW the Royal Blues dim just fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong with mixing the colors. IMHO you will want 50:50, or even more blues than whites. Having more whites (as you were planning above) is gonna look funny, unless you like the look of "daylight" or 6700k light.
 
JJREEF
Are you using U channel or bar stock for your strips? How wide?
I plan to build strips like yours. I plan to have all blue on one strip and all the white on the next one, alternating colors. I am planning to have mine controlled by dimmable Meanwells run by my Aqua controller. Each Meanwell should be able to power 4 strips of 12, keeping the cost down significantly. My plans may change as I go. The first lights will be for my frag tanks, but I am planning to replace the lighting on my 240 once I sort out the design and come up with enough money for the LEDs.
 
laverda,

The strips in the pic above are 1"X1" U-channel.
Each strip has it's own meanwell to drive 12 LEDs.

So the statement "Each Meanwell should be able to power 4 strips of 12, keeping the cost down significantly.", is confusing to me.

You must be using a different LED than the CRE XR-E.
AND driving strings in parallel is tricky but you probably know that.

Stu
 
captstinky said:
not in response to JJREEF, but
http://www.instructables.com/id/Circuits-for-using-High-Power-LED_s/

Any reason not to do this DIY driver for about $3 ?? rather than a buckpuck or meanwell?

We may go ahead and try it out, will report back...
Click to expand...

Low efficiency, poor stability, not as readily controllable. I've built most of the "look at this cool way to power an LED" drivers on instructables or other similar sites. IMHO, they're not worth it, except perhaps as a fun experiment. Especially when a DIY driver based on a purpose-designed IC (ideally a constant current switching regulator) is only a few bucks more, with none of the drawbacks.

Efficiency might not seem like a big deal, but consider this. There's tons of thought put into which bin of LEDs to pick - the differences between the top bins is usually 10% or less. So if you slap them on a driver that's 80% efficient instead of 90% efficient, you've just lost all that carefully-fought-for (and expensive) efficiency.
 
laverda said:
JJREEF
Are you using U channel or bar stock for your strips? How wide?
I plan to build strips like yours. I plan to have all blue on one strip and all the white on the next one, alternating colors. I am planning to have mine controlled by dimmable Meanwells run by my Aqua controller. Each Meanwell should be able to power 4 strips of 12, keeping the cost down significantly. My plans may change as I go. The first lights will be for my frag tanks, but I am planning to replace the lighting on my 240 once I sort out the design and come up with enough money for the LEDs.
Click to expand...

the strips on the pics are not mine that is just so you can get the idea of what i am going to do
 
Stop the presses! New driver chip...

Stop the presses! New driver chip...

The 3D printer kit is missing a part, so I was looking at the LED-driver circuit while I wait for the manufacturers to send me my pre-drilled washer (!)...

There's a driver we've not considered to-date, the CAT4101 by OnSemi. Looking at the datasheet (http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/CAT4101-D.PDF) I think it'd cost approximately $0.36/LED in components. Add in $0.25/LED for the PSU and another $0.29/LED for the PCB for a total of $0.90/LED, and we may have a winner...

Driver circuit cost breakdown: (assumes 24v / 6-LED circuits @ 0.7A) <center><table border=1
<tr><th>Component</th><th>mouser #</th><th>Cost in 1's</th></tr><tr><td>CAT4101</td><td>698-CAT4101TV-T75</td><td>1.90</td</tr><tr><td>768R resistor</td><td>660-RK73H2BLTD7680F </td><td>0.05</td</tr><tr><td>1uF capacitor</td><td> 77-VJ1206V105ZXATBC </td><td>0.11</td</tr><tr><td>0.1uF capacitor</td><td> 581-12065E104M </td><td>0.11</td</tr><tr><td colspan=2 align=right>Total</td><td>2.17</td></tr></table></center>

The circuit is truly minimal (according to the datasheet): 2 capacitors, 1 resistor and the driver itself. It does need a 5v power supply, so perhaps a voltage-regulator for the whole device might be needed, or the 5V/12A MPJA "17425 PS" @ $16.95 would do for almost any conceivable number of drivers since it seems to take a few mA to actually power the driver chip itself. Hell, a wall-wart would be good enough...
 
100 lumens/watt AC powered LED

100 lumens/watt AC powered LED

I'm only half way through this thread so I apologize if this has already been posted but what do you all think of the new Acriche 100 lumens/watt AC powered LED?

I tried to post the link but I guess it is against RC's rules. You can find the link on a thread posted on Feb 2, 2010 on reefkeeper's site
 
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stugray said:
laverda,

The strips in the pic above are 1"X1" U-channel.
Each strip has it's own meanwell to drive 12 LEDs.

So the statement "Each Meanwell should be able to power 4 strips of 12, keeping the cost down significantly.", is confusing to me.

You must be using a different LED than the CRE XR-E.
AND driving strings in parallel is tricky but you probably know that.

Stu
Click to expand...

Stu
Thanks for the information. I did not realize that was your LED strips. Nice set up. That sounds like about the size U-channel I was thinking would be needed. I am waiting for my LEDs to come in. Do you have lens shields on your set up?
I was thinking fluorescent light protector tubes might work. They could be cut in half and screwed to the channel on the sides or the U-channel with LEDs could be slipped inside and then air blown through the tubes for cooling.
I will be using XPGs and XR-Es I am planning to do it based on a post by Kcress in answer to questions by Skeptic 07 and myself starting at post #1496 on page 60 of this thread.
TheFishMan65 also added in a slightly different way of doing it.
I am not exactly sure how I will do it yet. I am still reading, learning and planning. If it works, it could save me $300.00 or more on drivers based on a price of $26.00 each.
 
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