DIY LEDs - The write-up

[fernandokng]

One thing that I haven't been able to find a lot of information on in this thread is regarding dimming (actual wiring, programing).

Can someone shed some light in this area?

Also, Digital Aquatics RKE's LED controller can be used to control Aquailluminations LED. If I have the RKE, how can we use this for our own DIY LED purposes?

 

[Soundwave]

I spent all of last night doing this...

I don't like it yet but I plan on adding more corals in the near future.

I don't have any optics pictures. I was so mad, I just ripped them off.

I'll still be doing more experimenting this weekend.

 

[zachtos]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14703095#post14703095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
Have you looked into the Luxeon Rebel Star Tri-Emitters?? Basically 3 Rebels premounted on a star Pure awesome.

yes, the tri stars made by endor. There are very few optics to choose from though (and the few they have are over-priced). The problem w/ the PRE-soldered stars is that they don't come in the configuration or bin that I want. But I can get a blank star. The only good way to solder the rebel LEDs by mass is to use a hot-air rework station. All the other methods are too much work for doing a lot of these.

Yes, optics I consider a requirement to do this for our hobby, it increases the PAR so much that it's ridiculous to not do it. Speaking from experience here.

If you want to dim the lights, some of the buck pucks have 2 pins that you insert a potentiometer between. You can even get the harness pre-wired for a few dollars. Look up the spec. sheet for more detail. I am discouraging use of the buck pucks now as they are expensive, and you can achieve the same thing by using the above mentioned driver circuit. I found that at the candlepower forums (they ONLY talk about LEDs, they know their stuff). Also, the driver I mentioned above, you can dim an unlimited amount of blue and white with just two dimmer circuits feeding into those drivers instead of having several dozen potentiometers. This is the way the newer solaris works, shh.

**edited** selling items in this forum is not permitted.

 

[ReefEnabler]

ah I see. I guess if you're planning on optics maybe not the best choice, but I am using a few tri emitters just to cut down on the amount of different stars I have to mount and solder.

Might even get something done this weekend! Last night I started drilling some holes in my heatsinks. Even tapped my first hole but still have a few more. Definitely time consuming!


I should add that I am not seeking to use these LEDs for intense PAR. I am looking to get "fill lighting" at a 45 degree angle which will supplement my main lighting. Basically just trying to illuminate the shadowed areas from my other lighting (which is downward rays)... I think this will help the growth forms of acros and milles and get more colorful tissue from the frontal view.

Also like Soundwave, I will only be grouping LEDs in smaller areas, so I dont have room to have LEDS everywhere like optics require.

I am using Green blue and white LEDs.... probably the only one to use Greens so far

I am also aware that light passing through water at an angle loses intensity. Dont care

 

[zachtos]

I doubt you'll like the 'fill' lighting. I tried this and it looked like a 6500K spotlight mixed into my 14K lights. yuck. good moonlights though. The acros will be a different color (for the worse) under white only tri stars.

How are you soldering your tri stars? Are you mixing blue and white on one disc? I was going to do royal blue/blue/cool white on each star and buy a optic but it is too expensive to buy a hot air gun just for this project alone... eventually I want one though.

I think not using optics is the wrong direction either way. It's like mounting a MH w/o a reflector. Light is going at 140degrees! Why waste that light? you can half the amount of LEDs w/ optics for our usage.

If you can get strong enough LEDs, you can add shimmer to your T5 setup if you have one. I couldn't find a good way to mount mine or I would have done so. They do great for a refugium by the way, or a FW planted tank or even to add light for house plants.

Nope, I've used green in my array that I have for sale. 2 of them per 24 works well. It supplements some of the missing spectrum from the whites/blues.

 

[ReefEnabler]

Zachtos I am using mostly Royal Blue LEDs which are on their own puck. Shouldn't be yellowish.

Basically 4 buckpucks, but two are identical. One buckpuck gets 6 royal blues, the other gets 2 whites and 1 green. The other 2 pucks are the same.

For me this is about fine tuning some lighting illusions I have been tweaking for a while now. I've tested what it should look like using other LEDs... but we ended up using those for my wife's mini since there was no way I could mount them in my canopy... but it worked good for her!

(walls are blue so the blue is exagerated). Filled the Mini with SW. PAR measurements at the bottom range from about ~150 around the edge to 230 near the middle. Measurements about two inches below the water level range from 250-340.

these are 12x1w 120vac LEDbulbs from DivineLighting. 30 degree optics.

 

[lynxvs]

Here is my first prototype LED Driver and controller that I made almost a year ago. It features the STCS1 LED driver from ST micro and a PSOC microcontroller. The driver can drive 9 strings of six leds at 700 mA using one power supply. The Drivers are dimmable and can be turned on and off individually. I programmed two modes of operation, Auto and Manual. When the light is first turned on you enter the current time then you enter four time periods The four time periods that can be preprogrammed, “Sunrise”, “Daylight”, “Sunset” and “Lunar”.

The four periods are described below:

Sunrise Mode: All LED’s are initially set to the lowest intensity level and fans turn on. As time progresses the lights are gradually increased in intensity to simulate sunrise.

Daylight Mode: All LED’s are turned on to the highest setting or preprogrammed value and fans are turned on.

Sunset Mode: All LED’s are initially set to the highest level and fans are on. As time progresses the intensity is gradually decreased to simulate sunset.

Lunar Mode: Night actinic and night white LED’s are turned on to the lowest level or preset level and the fans turn off.

After all modes are set the setting will automatically be stored in nonvolatile memory where if power is lost and restored all setting will remain.

The light fixture also can be set to “Manual mode” this allows turning the individual LED’s (actinic blue, daylight white, daylight night and night blue) on or off and adjusting their light intensity.

Since this prototype I've made many changes I just haven’t got around to taking pictures and posting them

 

[DeathWish302]

lynxvs - I'll give you acclaim for a clean design and functional end product.

I may have to look into this in the near future....

 

[bebereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14704046#post14704046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
Zachtos I am using mostly Royal Blue LEDs which are on their own puck. Shouldn't be yellowish.

Basically 4 buckpucks, but two are identical. One buckpuck gets 6 royal blues, the other gets 2 whites and 1 green. The other 2 pucks are the same.

For me this is about fine tuning some lighting illusions I have been tweaking for a while now. I've tested what it should look like using other LEDs... but we ended up using those for my wife's mini since there was no way I could mount them in my canopy... but it worked good for her!

(walls are blue so the blue is exagerated). Filled the Mini with SW. PAR measurements at the bottom range from about ~150 around the edge to 230 near the middle. Measurements about two inches below the water level range from 250-340.

these are 12x1w 120vac LEDbulbs from DivineLighting. 30 degree optics.

Can you tell me how high are those led bulbs from the water level to achieve those par numbers?

 

[kcress]

Kudos lynxvs!
Very nice.

 

[lynxvs]

Thanks Kcress and DeathWish302
My new design is a little cleaner. I will try to post new pics later tonight. I have some pics of coral growth over the last 6 months... I think. I also have pics of my light with and without optics and PAR readings.

 

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14704832#post14704832 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bebereef
Can you tell me how high are those led bulbs from the water level to achieve those par numbers?

about 4 feet.

 

[bebereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14705302#post14705302 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
about 4 feet.

So if put closer to water level as i could then it should be fine for my LPS/Softies cube!
(45 gal).

 

[ReefEnabler]

If you put them closer then you will need more lights, as these put out a pretty narrow beam with a hotspot in the middle. 6 are used for this 17x17 tank. I'm guessing your 45 gal has over double the footprint, so you'd need lots of these if you were to move it closer. more than double.

Also if they are closer, the white and blue will not blend together and you will see distinct color spots in the tank.

The only reason we went this route for this tank is so that you wouldn't ever see the lights (unless you look staight up when right by the tank). At $45 bucks a bulb this whole light setup was around $350 including track lights from HD. A good value compared to the ELOS E-Lite which is 750 and gets less PAR at the bottom (but arguably a brighter hotspot directly under the fixture, and less spread in the top of the tank).


btw, are you saying you think you need more than 200-300 PAR for LPS/softies??? I don't really think so.

 

[zachtos]

Lynx used the drivers I was talking about. They are cheap, like $4 each instead of the ripoff $20 each you pay for buck pucks. They are easy to use too and come in a variety of mA configurations. I suggest using those to be cost effective for bigger designs... And plan for optic lenses so you dont waste light energy going out the sides of the tank!

 

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14704188#post14704188 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lynxvs
Here is my first prototype LED Driver and controller that I made almost a year ago. It features the STCS1 LED driver from ST micro and a PSOC microcontroller. The driver can drive 9 strings of six leds at 700 mA using one power supply.

Excuse my confusion.... you mention a driver driving 9 strings of 6 LEDs... but I know we've covered how bad parallel arrangements are..... I also counted 9 chips... did you mean that you are using 9 drivers all sharing one power supply???

Also from the link Zachtos provided to STCS1 it says 1.5a, are you just keeping it dimmed to 700ma?

 

[bebereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14705400#post14705400 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
If you put them closer then you will need more lights, as these put out a pretty narrow beam with a hotspot in the middle. 6 are used for this 17x17 tank. I'm guessing your 45 gal has over double the footprint, so you'd need lots of these if you were to move it closer. more than double.



Also if they are closer, the white and blue will not blend together and you will see distinct color spots in the tank.

The only reason we went this route for this tank is so that you wouldn't ever see the lights (unless you look staight up when right by the tank). At $45 bucks a bulb this whole light setup was around $350 including track lights from HD. A good value compared to the ELOS E-Lite which is 750 and gets less PAR at the bottom (but arguably a brighter hotspot directly under the fixture, and less spread in the top of the tank).


btw, are you saying you think you need more than 200-300 PAR for LPS/softies??? I don't really think so.


It's 22 x 22 x 22 and for PAR numbers well i don't really know.


If i want good result using your same route, how high should i go?

 

[ReefEnabler]

sent you a PM since this is somewhat of a sidetrack from fully-DIY LED's....

 

[lynxvs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14705472#post14705472 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
Excuse my confusion.... you mention a driver driving 9 strings of 6 LEDs... but I know we've covered how bad parallel arrangements are..... I also counted 9 chips... did you mean that you are using 9 drivers all sharing one power supply???

Also from the link Zachtos provided to STCS1 it says 1.5a, are you just keeping it dimmed to 700ma?

The prototype used 50 LEDs so I had 7 of the drivers driving 6 LEDs in series and two driving 4 LEDs in series, sorry for the confusion. My latest design has 10 drivers with 60 LEDs so each driver has 6 LEDs in series. Yes they all share one power supply to keep it simple. The current is controlled by a current sense resistor and you can set it to any current you want. The board also is modular in that to increase the light size, ie add more LEDs you just add another LED driver board. the control signals are just daisy chained together.

 

[Ziggy953]

Dude...I just made it through the whole thread. What an awesome project! You have inspired me to do this on my wife's 24g nano tank. I'm in the design phase so nothing is set as yet. Most of this stuff is WAY over my head but with your help thus far I think I can handle it.

I'm bouncing around on how many LEDs to put over a 24g JBJ nano. A friend keeps telling me 18 9 white and 9 blue. My wife wants to be able to keep SPS, zoas anemones and a clam. I have been leaning towards 12 but maybe 18 is a better idea.

Thanks a million for sharing your work. Beautifully done, so neat and tidy I really like that!!

Sorry to hear the optics didn't work out. Someone said in the thread, ..."if it aint broke..." LOL

Really man thanks for the work and keeping us posted!!

On and any suggestions would be AWESOME!!