DIY LEDs - The write-up
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Haxer
Member
Has anybody looked at the quadpuck board from LedSupply for dimming?
http://www.ledsupply.com/04016.php
Also i am in the planning stages for an led array for my 300 DD Marineland tank. Because of the 36" width and 6 ft length i will need 3 fixtures of 72 leds each using the Cree's. That comes to 216 led's at 3 watts give or take each.
Is the saying " A watt is a watt" of heat applied in this case... Dosent matter if it is from Mh or Led? They will end up about the same wattage... Not too concerned about energy consumption, just trying to get away from the heat of Halides...
http://www.ledsupply.com/04016.php
Also i am in the planning stages for an led array for my 300 DD Marineland tank. Because of the 36" width and 6 ft length i will need 3 fixtures of 72 leds each using the Cree's. That comes to 216 led's at 3 watts give or take each.
Is the saying " A watt is a watt" of heat applied in this case... Dosent matter if it is from Mh or Led? They will end up about the same wattage... Not too concerned about energy consumption, just trying to get away from the heat of Halides...
kcress
New member
shikhyung; Yes that's the problem because often your supply is not really 24V it may be a little off. My present 12V supply is an obnoxious 11.5V. If you have a supply and can load it a little that would clear up your information on that aspect.
widmer; It's the other way around. He might have to subtract one.
Haxer; You should NOT need a watt for a watt since reflectors are not needed and LEDs are directional. I'd go ahead and design space for LEDs and drivers for "1/2-watt for a watt" but only implement 1/4W per watt. (even that will probably be more than you need). When replacing fluorescents with LEDs you need dramatically less LED wattage. HID is about the same.
I can't say about the DMX board.
widmer; It's the other way around. He might have to subtract one.
Haxer; You should NOT need a watt for a watt since reflectors are not needed and LEDs are directional. I'd go ahead and design space for LEDs and drivers for "1/2-watt for a watt" but only implement 1/4W per watt. (even that will probably be more than you need). When replacing fluorescents with LEDs you need dramatically less LED wattage. HID is about the same.
I can't say about the DMX board.
Louis Governo
New member
Stu,
Back on page 13 you showed us a pic of an led in an acrylic dome with no heat sink. Is that still working out well?
Back on page 13 you showed us a pic of an led in an acrylic dome with no heat sink. Is that still working out well?
stugray
Premium Member
Louis Governo,
You mean this pic:
The CREE LED starboards, were glued to the acrylic backing-strip using epoxy.
Then the strips were glued to the domes using silicone.
This is a picture of my tank under only 6Watts of LED.
Granted, I think the exposure was about 1 sec, but still cool.
They are working perfectly.
Stu
You mean this pic:
The CREE LED starboards, were glued to the acrylic backing-strip using epoxy.
Then the strips were glued to the domes using silicone.
This is a picture of my tank under only 6Watts of LED.
Granted, I think the exposure was about 1 sec, but still cool.
They are working perfectly.
Stu
Haxer
Member
Kcress,
Could you give a suggestion to the layout and number of Crees for said tank? it is 72" X 36" X 27" (L X W X H). I would be using 3 arrays, one over each opening. I currently have 3 250MH's and T5 antics...Also any suggestions on an automatic dimming method... I.E what controller and related drivers-boards... I would like to use an GHl or the like for a controller (PWM) but am unsure on how to impliment it on the LED side (driver ...etc)...
Thanks...:smokin:
Louis Governo
New member
Stu, yeah, that's the one. I love a good thread like this, gets you thinking about all sorts of things. I am really curious about something but don't have the equipment to test it. If you or anyone does, this is what I would like to know.
Take a single LED and put it in a clear drinking glass (or bubble like you made) and hold it one inch above the water surface and measure the par directly below it on the bottom of the tank, and observe light spread and appearance. Then lower the glass until it breaks the water surface and measure the par again and make any visual observations about the difference in light spread or appearance. Maybe one inch is too close but you get the idea of the reflection loss I'm trying to understand.
Take a single LED and put it in a clear drinking glass (or bubble like you made) and hold it one inch above the water surface and measure the par directly below it on the bottom of the tank, and observe light spread and appearance. Then lower the glass until it breaks the water surface and measure the par again and make any visual observations about the difference in light spread or appearance. Maybe one inch is too close but you get the idea of the reflection loss I'm trying to understand.
Haxer, I don't think you will have good coverage if you follow the same layout and number of LEDs as the OP. (Widmer, his tank is much larger.)
I'm researching this for my own 36" x 18" x 24" (L x W x H) 65 gallon and think I'll need two pods of 36 each; 18 Cool White and 18 Royal blue. I'm intending to use the same pattern as soundwave but spread them out to 2" separation. The heatsink will be closer to 14" x 14" in my two 18" x 18" sides. (Get two and bolt them together.) I'll use 40 degree optics at an 8" height above the water. This should give great penetration to the sand while not spotlighting. At 8" the spread is 5.6" so they should overlap well. Ignoring the air/water interface bending of the light, each LED spot should have a diameter of 22". It will be greater with the interface taken into account. I'm just not that good at trig anymore.
I received feedback on my plan from evil66 on nano-reef forums who is very good at this.
I'm also going to incorporate a few UV LEDs for SPS and clam growth and moonlights.
This is too much fun!
I'm researching this for my own 36" x 18" x 24" (L x W x H) 65 gallon and think I'll need two pods of 36 each; 18 Cool White and 18 Royal blue. I'm intending to use the same pattern as soundwave but spread them out to 2" separation. The heatsink will be closer to 14" x 14" in my two 18" x 18" sides. (Get two and bolt them together.) I'll use 40 degree optics at an 8" height above the water. This should give great penetration to the sand while not spotlighting. At 8" the spread is 5.6" so they should overlap well. Ignoring the air/water interface bending of the light, each LED spot should have a diameter of 22". It will be greater with the interface taken into account. I'm just not that good at trig anymore.
I received feedback on my plan from evil66 on nano-reef forums who is very good at this.
I'm also going to incorporate a few UV LEDs for SPS and clam growth and moonlights.
This is too much fun!
Louis Governo
New member
Eric,
That's almost exactly the same as my tank. 36" x 18" x 25" from glass cages. It won't be ready till middle of May
That's almost exactly the same as my tank. 36" x 18" x 25" from glass cages. It won't be ready till middle of May
Then I should mention I that I generalized my design in that post a little. What I didn't mention was that I have a 5" x 10" overflow on the left side so I'm going to go with either 24 or 30 LEDs on that side since there is only an area of 13" x 18" instead of 18" x 18".
Also, I'm only building half to run in parallel with my other Metal Halide until that light dies.
Also, I'm only building half to run in parallel with my other Metal Halide until that light dies.
Louis Governo
New member
I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. I really liked the features of the solaris but cost and the lawsuit had me convinced to go with T5. This thread has me wanting LED again. I'm on the http://www.leddynamics.com site trying to understand how the buck pucks and controllers work. I really want to be able to do dawn to sunset and also preset the maximum intensity and control the color without having to swap out bulbs. I've read this thread twice and decided I needed a better basic understanding of the equipment to better understand everything people are saying so I don't ask something that has already been explained but I didn't catch it. Please keep us updated as you may build yours before me and I'd love to see / hear how it works out.
First off, great job Soundwave! You did a fantastic job of pulling everything together in a simple and easy to follow manner.
Now to my extremely easy question. Should I use solid or stranded wire to wire up my LED array or does it really matter?
I am planning on running 6 blue and 6 white on my new Mini Bow 7 nano. Probably overkill in lighting, but I should be able to keep just about anything I want in there. I am just finishing up my custom canopy and will start attaching LED's to the heat sink sometime this week in between baseball, football and all of the other misc. activities that my kids are involved in.
Now to my extremely easy question. Should I use solid or stranded wire to wire up my LED array or does it really matter?
I am planning on running 6 blue and 6 white on my new Mini Bow 7 nano. Probably overkill in lighting, but I should be able to keep just about anything I want in there. I am just finishing up my custom canopy and will start attaching LED's to the heat sink sometime this week in between baseball, football and all of the other misc. activities that my kids are involved in.
For those of you interested in building a LED system or waiting for a reason to, there is a group purchase of LEDs and various parts being put together by evil66 on the nano-reef forums. (FYI, I'll be a part of the group buy and have messaged and read forums by him, but haven't worked with evil66 before. This is at your own risk.)
Cree XR-E Cool White and Royal Blue are currently at $5.64 and hopefully dropping to "negotiated" soon. Optics are $1. They aren't doing buckPucks though the Meanwell driver is also very interesting.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194886
Cree XR-E Cool White and Royal Blue are currently at $5.64 and hopefully dropping to "negotiated" soon. Optics are $1. They aren't doing buckPucks though the Meanwell driver is also very interesting.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194886
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