jkopp36
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Where can I find the specs for these?
DIY LEDs - The write-up
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Where can I find the specs for these?
D5HP
New member
I'm hoping to drive the LEDs right over 3.3V...how realistic is that? Well I'll have to get some of the satis LEDs in my hand to figure it out.
Worst case I can drop it back to 15 total per string and still run 90 total.
Another option I'm considering is using one 120W for blue LEDs and an 80W driver for the whites and going with 1W LEDs...so I could just get a TON of them on there.
I have a pretty weird idea for my build I'm really considering.
Instead of using one big honkin' heatsink slab...I'm really thinking about using lots and lots of 4"x1" heatsinks and staggering them around two aquascape islands and angling them down so that very little light is actually being directed at the front glass. I won't even use optics on the lights that are over the rock structure.
This should enable me to get a really uniform light over the whole tank. By using two separate drivers I could slowly ramp up the lights over the day and reach a minimum color temperature of about 10k and then slowly drift back to sunset. This will also let me really knock out the main shadow that is currently caused by my 10" wide glass center brace on the oceanic tank. I want to have 16 LEDs directly over this (maybe more with 1W) and then two more strips of LEDs on adjacent sides with a bit of angle on them such that their beams meet on the sandbed.
I'll get some diagrams up this week to explain this a bit better.
I'd love some input!
D5HP
New member
One more question for everyone....how serious would my heat problems be if I had 4 3W leds running at 700mA on a 4"x1" heatsink with fins?
They would be mounted via allen bolts and arctic silver...not that adhesive stuff.
I plan on having 6 120mm fans with this controlling five of them.
They would be mounted via allen bolts and arctic silver...not that adhesive stuff.
I plan on having 6 120mm fans with this controlling five of them.
brassmonkyballs
BMB
no way to know to be honest. i have experience with similar LEDs from FEDY mounted on a solid sink profile from heatsinkusa and without fans running its gets too hot to touch. I have many stories however with people running them on aluminum channel without fans and they are fine. It comes down to density of LEDs on the heatsink and how hard you drive them.
In my case I have 20 FEDYs and 10 Cree RB on a 5.88 x 15 heatsink. With just the fedys and no cree on it gets too hot to touch when driven at 700ma. Not counting the Cree that works out to 1 LED per 4.41" and it gets too hot to touch....In practice I have the Fedys dimmed less than 50% and the Cree at about 80% and its warm.
I have several tanks and my experience is that my large fixture over my 120 is all Cree and there is no heat running them where i do. My other 2 tanks have Fedy mixed with Cree and fans are mandatory. However, others experience varies.
My Fedys run 3.4v when driven at 700ma. I would expect your satis to be similar....but I recommend you drive them less than 700ma.
D5HP
New member
Thanks a lot for all that.
I'm actually really considering going with 100+ of the 1W LEDs and doing something a little different.
Does anyone know if I'd have problems keeping an anemone with those? For reference...there will be about 50 LEDs per 14"x14" section on each side of the tank and another 30 or so over the center brace...as a rough estimation.
I know it's massively overkill and I'd run them between 275-325mA to keep them a bit cooler. I want to create a stadium-seating-esque heatsink array that is custom to my rock structures...not just my tank size.
This would allow me to have the heat sink strips a little lower towards the front of the tank and use optics. The heat sink would be slightly tilted to aim the LEDs down towards the bottom of the rock structure and away from the front glass.
This should not only eliminate a bit of algae on the front glass but I'm hoping it will make the whole tank appear to be lit completely evenly.
I am building a wood canopy for the tank that will be a skeleton of sorts. The actual LED assembly will be mounted on a lightweight frame that is attached to drawer sliders inside the hood. This will allow me to slide the entire light assembly back a few inches to open up the glass tops on the tank and feed the fish.
Another goal I have is to make the canopy as thin and low profile as possible. There will four 120mm fans on the top of the hood pulling the hot air out and two on the sides pulling air into the hood.
Does that even make sense?
ReefEnabler
Premium Member
SPCP??
I guess I am just confused as to why the pot is dropping my voltage so much. I am using 2 more of the same pot on my 10v power supply to dim the meanwell signal, and the range there is the same as the supply voltage, 0-10.2v
Is it normal for one pot to have such a difference in resistance? Does this sound more like a cold solder joint perhaps?
I am using the same method to control the speed of the fans that cool my T5s, but they are only 80mm fans so the lower start voltage of them must be more forgiving. I will look into getting PWM fan controller, thanks!
------
One more question for you Kcress or anybody else:
Is there any harm in having power to the 0-10v dimming circuit on the 60-48d meanwells, while there is no AC power? So leaving the 10v signal always on and only hooking the AC supply to timers.
D5HP
New member
No issue at all.
In fact...I've been doing that for more than a year on my ELNs.
Meanwells are amazing little drivers!
kcress
New member
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Pots.
You would need to use a much lower value of pot. Like a 500ohms or a 100 ohm pot. Now think about that..
100 ohms across 12 volts all the time. Power = 12x12/100
P= 1.4watts. Most pots freak at about 250mW. This would put you into rheostat land.
I suggest you jut get a wallwart that's a 9V one and run with that, skipping pots and rheostats entirely.
D5HP
New member
156 total 1W LEDs and optics -- about $180 after shipping
6 total ELN-30-48D drivers -- $150 after shipping (gotta find them in stock though)
These heatsinks would be about $60 after shipping.
I got four of the six fans from work today. I just need two more 80mm ones.
Here's my mock layout. Now each red strip represents a 1" wide heatsink in varying lengths. The ones towards the front of the tank will be tilted towards the rock structures in my tank and will have optics. The ones towards the back will point straight down and will not have optics.
I had an hour after work and figured I'd do a to-scale version over the top down view. Each of these sinks will be mounted with two L-brackets and can be tilted as needed. Wiring will be hard to get looking good but I can do it. Trust me.
It's hard to get an idea of what this actually is without me there to walk through it...but I think its sufficient to say that it will be a combination of a PITA to build and WAY INCREDIBLY bright.
There are going to be three 'sections' in the tank. Right, middle, left.
Each will have control of the whites and blues in that section.
I plan on starting on one side of the tank and firing up the blues at 10% and then moving across the tank...raise those to 20% then bring on the whites. Those will come on across the tank as the blues continue to raise in intensity. Then bring them all back down at the end of the day in the opposite order. I'm sure it will take some fooling around to get it looking reasonable but I think it could be really awesome.
So you think I'm crazy?
6 total ELN-30-48D drivers -- $150 after shipping (gotta find them in stock though)
These heatsinks would be about $60 after shipping.
I got four of the six fans from work today. I just need two more 80mm ones.
Here's my mock layout. Now each red strip represents a 1" wide heatsink in varying lengths. The ones towards the front of the tank will be tilted towards the rock structures in my tank and will have optics. The ones towards the back will point straight down and will not have optics.
I had an hour after work and figured I'd do a to-scale version over the top down view. Each of these sinks will be mounted with two L-brackets and can be tilted as needed. Wiring will be hard to get looking good but I can do it. Trust me.
It's hard to get an idea of what this actually is without me there to walk through it...but I think its sufficient to say that it will be a combination of a PITA to build and WAY INCREDIBLY bright.
There are going to be three 'sections' in the tank. Right, middle, left.
Each will have control of the whites and blues in that section.
I plan on starting on one side of the tank and firing up the blues at 10% and then moving across the tank...raise those to 20% then bring on the whites. Those will come on across the tank as the blues continue to raise in intensity. Then bring them all back down at the end of the day in the opposite order. I'm sure it will take some fooling around to get it looking reasonable but I think it could be really awesome.
So you think I'm crazy?
Yea. But I want to do the same thing
My only thought off the top of my head is that you may have overlaps and 'hot spots' but it looks like you arranged the strips specifically to do that and have the light angled.
I had a small idea the other day - instead of blowing a lot of money on LED's and drivers, most Arduino's have easy interfacing to R/C servos, so maybe I just hookup a motor and crank the fixture across the tank
I found a PWM shield that has more dimmer outputs, although your driver cost may add up. Still looking at alternatives to that myself. I think my relay idea is a good one but you could only light up a few at a time, not the whole tank for high noon.
== John ==
D5HP
New member
Yea. But I want to do the same thing
My only thought off the top of my head is that you may have overlaps and 'hot spots' but it looks like you arranged the strips specifically to do that and have the light angled.
Yeah... I thought about this too. I think I'll be okay though since I will be able to easily tilt the LED arrays around if necessary and since they are the 1W LEDs I don't think I'll be absolutely scorching anything even if I have 10 pointing at the same spot since some people are using MUCH higher output LEDs with good results.
My main goal is to have a really full and fluid coverage of the tank with minimal light being directed at the front glass.
I had a small idea the other day - instead of blowing a lot of money on LED's and drivers, most Arduino's have easy interfacing to R/C servos, so maybe I just hookup a motor and crank the fixture across the tank
I found a PWM shield that has more dimmer outputs, although your driver cost may add up. Still looking at alternatives to that myself. I think my relay idea is a good one but you could only light up a few at a time, not the whole tank for high noon.
== John ==
Great idea...my concern is that I want a solid 4 hours of the day to be FULL lighting and I don't want to have to move my fixture around.
Servos are great for that sort of thing...if you want some more ideas PM me.
I have a pretty fair amount of experience doing that sort of thing and I'd be happy to help you out...especially since you're crazy too. :lolspin:
SC Reefaholic
Member
Money is in the bank and ready to order my Drivers. Want to make sure these arent going to be too much.
HLG-100-36B rated at 2.65A running 2 strings of 8 XP-Gs = 1325 mA each string
HLG-120-36B rated at 2.9A running 4 strings of 8 XP-Es = 725 mA each string.
My concern is that with the ELNs it has been documented that they are rated at 1.3 A but have put out over 2A when you run below their max voltage. Do the HLGs have the same issue. My forward voltage is only going to be around 28 - 30V so I dont want to have to worry about these things putting out excessive current and blowing fuses because I am not running them anywhere near their max voltage.
Anyone have any input or experience here?
HLG-100-36B rated at 2.65A running 2 strings of 8 XP-Gs = 1325 mA each string
HLG-120-36B rated at 2.9A running 4 strings of 8 XP-Es = 725 mA each string.
My concern is that with the ELNs it has been documented that they are rated at 1.3 A but have put out over 2A when you run below their max voltage. Do the HLGs have the same issue. My forward voltage is only going to be around 28 - 30V so I dont want to have to worry about these things putting out excessive current and blowing fuses because I am not running them anywhere near their max voltage.
Anyone have any input or experience here?
kcress
New member
You sure you want to do that? We can't suggest a driver until you say how many and what current. I probably wouldn't "get the max out of them". As that might cause some serious spot-lighting and requires an A-game on the heatsinks.
Ratio? Depends on how hard you're driving them.
sammy113
New member
Still not sure how many. We're trying to build sort of like a strip light for a 900g tank. Is currently lit by four 250w MH's on lumenarcs. Looking to use LEDs a couple of hours before and after MH's.
Initial thoughts were around 144 LEDs 2:1 ratio. Now looking to probably use less LEDs or more efficient. That being said, if we were to use 144 LEDs with a 2:1 ratio will use 48 NW. Hoping to use maybe half or 1/3 of those?
Current? don't know about XM-L. At least I'd like to run Blues somewhere between 750mA to 1000mA
Tank is 10' long x 3' wide x 4' high.
Kress, or anyone who knows,
Can you comment on the spacing of xpgs that results in noticeable spotlighting? I assume the factors that result in spotlighting are the spacing, lenses, and fixture height? Is there an example of where you have seen spotlighting?
I'm trying to prepare for the results of my build. I will have four 6x12" pendants over my 165 gallon (72x24x22"). Each pendant has 7 XML that can be driven up to 2000mA. I have 40 degree optics and the fixture will be about 24" above the surface. I'm hoping the effect will be like metal halides but with less scatter. I want to get some shadows but I don't want to see each beam.
I seem to be a guinea pig for the XML.
Can you comment on the spacing of xpgs that results in noticeable spotlighting? I assume the factors that result in spotlighting are the spacing, lenses, and fixture height? Is there an example of where you have seen spotlighting?
I'm trying to prepare for the results of my build. I will have four 6x12" pendants over my 165 gallon (72x24x22"). Each pendant has 7 XML that can be driven up to 2000mA. I have 40 degree optics and the fixture will be about 24" above the surface. I'm hoping the effect will be like metal halides but with less scatter. I want to get some shadows but I don't want to see each beam.
I seem to be a guinea pig for the XML.
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