DIY LEDs - The write-up

[apricotscrub]

I thought the problem that made LED's a more difficult choice than MH was due to the most intense requirements for light set by the SPS.

Since you mention turning down AI and solaris, that means that the PAR was too great at the distance/depth. The only reason you'd need more power was if you had a deeper depth that the light needed to penetrate.

So if I made a Solaris with 3 rebel LED's in each star instead of their 1 LED, then I could have a much deeper tank that would work fine and look good (say for a bigger custom wall enclosure where the depth is large).

What is the deepest depth aquarium that has been powered with all LED's like the solaris?

 

[brentj]

Ahh, of course. I wasn't thinking about depth...

But individually dimmable zones would be nice. Maybe you have tall rocks in the back that only need lower light for shallower coral, while the strip in the front could be on 'high' to blast the deep ones.

I have 2 controllers on my AI system, so 7 modules go at 65% white and one at 90%, trying to make a yellow fiji leather open like it did in the old days when I have the whole tank at 90%

 

[apricotscrub]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14793050#post14793050 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brentj
I have 2 controllers on my AI system, so 7 modules go at 65% white and one at 90%, trying to make a yellow fiji leather open like it did in the old days when I have the whole tank at 90%

Could you explain this a bit more, I dont have the AI/solaris yet, so I dont know how the control unit works with the LED's. How do you have 7 modules @ 65% and 1 @ 90%, does that mean you can adjust 8 zones?

 

[brentj]

I have 2 controllers. One for each set

 

[apricotscrub]

Well you said:

But individually dimmable zones would be nice. Maybe you have tall rocks in the back that only need lower light for shallower coral, while the strip in the front could be on 'high' to blast the deep ones.

I don't get it - does your AI have this ability to individually dim zones?

 

[brentj]

only because I bought 2 controllers. One for each zone. I put 7 modules in one and one by itself in the other zone.

 

[apricotscrub]

Im looking at the Aqua Illuminations I just ordered and its got 2 power holes and 2 data holes. So basically you can hook up to 2 controllers into each AI unit right? And I suppose to make it 7:1 you had to manually rewire something correct?

 

[apricotscrub]

I'm designing a system using 3 rebels on the endor star
LXML-PWC1-0100
LXML-PR01-0275
LXML-PB01-0023

Getting these all from the Future Electronics site.

Then soldering them onto this blank star
http://www.luxeonstar.com/rebel-star-blank-aluminum-mcpcb-base-triple-led-20mm-p-444.php

I am also looking for a 45 degree lenses for the endor star.
Here is a 25 degree one I found . http://www.luxeonstar.com/endor-star-3up-lens-for-luxeon-rebel-star-leds-p-391.php

Could you guys direct me to link for the correct 45 degree lenses, and let me know if my Pcb is correct, as well as any other comments on the LED choices would be helpful.

 

[lynxvs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14792684#post14792684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
the luxeons only give mW for their royal blues because for some reason lumens dont mean much with such a blue light... I am curious about the correct way to "equate" the two as well....

The conversion between radiometric power and lumens for a monochromatic light source is given by the following formula: (lumens) = (radiometric power) x Km x V(ë)

Where:
V(ë) = the "luminous efficiency," and is a function of the wavelength of light.

Km = 683 lm/W, the maximum sensitivity for photopic vision, which occurs at 555nm.

Basically the luminous efficiency tells us how efficiently the eye picks up certain wavelengths of light.

Example Of Conversion:
Let's say you have a Royal Blue LED with a peak wavelength of 455nm and a power output (Radiometric power) of 525mw. What is the conversion to lumens?

At 455nm, V(ë) = 0.038 lm/watt.
Therefore:
Lumens = 0.525 watts x 683 lm/watt x 0.038 = 13.62 lumens

The conversion technique described above is only true for monochromatic (single wavelength) light sources. Most LEDs are monochromatic light sources with the exception of White LEDs or LEDs with phosphors added on top of the die.

luminous efficiency table

(nm) V(ë) (nm) V(ë)
380 0.00004 580 0.870
390 0.00012 590 0.757
400 0.0004 600 0.361
410 0.0012 610 0.503
420 0.0040 620 0.381
430 0.0116 630 0.265
440 0.023 640 0.175
450 0.038 650 0.107
460 0.060 660 0.061
470 0.091 670 0.032
480 0.139 680 0.017
490 0.208 690 0.0082
500 0.323 700 0.0041
510 0.503 710 0.0021
520 0.710 720 0.00105
530 0.862 730 0.00052
540 0.954 740 0.00025
550 0.995 750 0.00012
560 0.995 770 0.00003

 

[lilmonster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14794314#post14794314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by apricotscrub
I'm designing a system using 3 rebels on the endor star

The Empire knows, there coming for you..




















sorry, had a Star Wars flashback there.

 

[lynxvs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14793430#post14793430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by apricotscrub
Im looking at the Aqua Illuminations I just ordered and its got 2 power holes and 2 data holes. So basically you can hook up to 2 controllers into each AI unit right? And I suppose to make it 7:1 you had to manually rewire something correct?

The second power holes and controller holes are to piggyback several units together I believe. I don't think you can use two controllers for one unit.... but I have never seen one so this is just a guess.

 

[brentj]

you daisy chain them

ctrl---light---light---light---lightx7

ctrl---light

 

[widmer]

lynxvs thank you very much for clearing that up. I came across a website that had something to that effect but I wasn't able to commit the effort to interpret it.

So basically, it appears the motivation for listing the Royal blue LEDs in terms of mW is because a "lumen" of blue light is not very comparable to a lumen of orange light. Thus, they list the mW because otherwise the blue LEDs would appear to produce only a small fraction of the light that an orange led does. In other words,
these LEDs

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11015

which produce 14 - 19 lumens of blue will probably be as bright as the rebels, correct?

 

[lynxvs]

Not sure I don't see a data sheet for them.

 

[ReefEnabler]

Thanks for clarifying the mW to Lumens conversion... I wasn't able to find a clean explanation either.

So that explains why a royal blue LED could have so little Lumen output while still having decent PAR.

 

[zachtos]

I can't recall if a endor tri-star 45deg lens exists, that was off the top of my head. They may only have a 25degree, which is fine. If you look at the spec. sheets for all the optics, they all have a paramater that tells how much they will increase the lumens in the optic. There are diminishing returns at a certain degree size, i think 25 degrees was the best all around for coverage vs. increase in lumens. (gotta study the sheets of any new lenses first to verify)

PC power supplys, w/ the 12V rail in series x 3 =36 volts, that's how I would power a large array (similar to my luxeon array but w/ 12V + 24Vdc supplies to make 36Vdc).

LEDs still do not have a good LED that makes 420nm, royal blue is the closest at 460-440nm, and blue is like 470 i believe. The PAR of actinics is low for all bulb types, not just LEDs.

If you stack more light sources on top of eachother, their intensity will add together. The more LEDs I clustered together in my design, the higher the PAR would read. So yes, more is better, but only if they each have an optic.

Some corals love high PAR. I would think that you could go over 1000 PAR easily since sunlight outdoors gets that high or greater. You wont hit that limit w/ LED for a few more years I think. Some corals will bleach if you change the light intensity too fast on them. All you have to do is have a dimming effect and turn the light up slowly each day. Or do the old school way, and lift the coral closer up to the light slowly each day... or screens over the light.

 

[dogstar74]

Finally got my supplies.

Finally got my supplies.

Well, I took the dive and finally got my supplies.

I am putting this over a 10 gallon tank, thus I only got 6 LEDs. I got three white and three of the royal blues.

They were packaged very well I thought.

As an aside, I will be using the Xitanium 17W Advance ballast with the power cord that can plug directly in the wall.

Also, I plan to mount the stars to the heat sink with JB weld 2 part epoxy. I figure that should hold the stars on the aluminum better than anything else I could figure. I was going to drill and tap holes to mount the stars with screws, but man they are small, and I can't see how you could use a screw big enough to hold the star in place without it hitting the contact points. So I figured I would just epoxy them in place like soundwave did.

I am sort of confused at how small the wires on the Xitanium ballast that feed this array are. They are much smaller gauge than what soundwave was using to run his array. I suppose after all is said and done, it's only 17 watts that will be coursing through it, but still, they are really small!

I'm sorry, my wife has the camera with the kids this weekend, so I can't get any pictures of the assembly, and darn it all, I can't wait to put this thing together.

What do you guys think about using the JB weld to mount the stars? (Please keep in mind that I am in the middle of Wyoming, and the closest thing to an electronics store would be isle 8 of walmart.)

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Soundwave,
You should write an article for RK outlining your build and consolidating all your findings.

 

[Soundwave]

I would like to write an article. That's not a bad idea.

I'm still watching the tank to see how it fares. The lights are still going strong and the growth is obviously better than when the PCs were the light source. I am frustrated with the newly developed diatom bloom due to moving everything in the tank and restacking all the rock. Hopefully, I can provide pictures of the tank soon without any brown on the rocks. It's slowly going away and the brown is being replaced by coralline already.

Good times.

How would I go about submitting an article I wonder?

 

[kcress]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14792684#post14792684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
the luxeons only give mW for their royal blues because for some reason lumens dont mean much with such a blue light... I am curious about the correct way to "equate" the two as well....

To condense lynxvs nice compendium on lumens conversion:

Lumen is a number derived by studying human perception of white light and so pure colors don't have any comparative perceived value so they revert to mW.


This was even brought to my attention earlier this week. I'm experimenting with a turf scrubber using CFL verses a mixture of red and blue LEDs. (see my pictures way up above) Someone asked me, "Is you new LED panel brighter than the three CFLs you were using?" I was at a loss to even answer because my human eyes don't know how to judge brightness across large color changes. I think it's much brighter but I'm not really sure.