DIY LEDs - The write-up

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Saf1 Because not all led's are created equal I used lumens per gallon as my basis for coverage. I wanted about 60 lumens per gallon, this is the reason I look at the bin code for the LED, you can purchase lower lumen LEDs and have more or buy more powerful ones with less LED's.

Der Willie, if you use the Cree LED's that I planned you will have about 1290 total lumens at 350Ma, about 107.5 Lum per gallon, that is a lot more than I was planning and about half the depth. Let me/us know how that works, you may need to dim them up over a month to not shock the corals from the massive amount of light.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15324067#post15324067 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dogstar74
Question for the EEs out there. I want to run a wire from the 24V supply to the lamp fixture for my LEDs. It will be 24V and about 5A draw. So what gauge wire do I need to run about a 6-10ft length? I would like to keep it as narrow of a gauge as possible so that the wire doesn't pull the fixture away from center, as this will be a hanging fixture. But I don't want resistance and heat robbing the Emitters of performance.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Aaron
Click to expand...

I'd use 16AWG SO cord. Three wires. I'd ground your fixture's metal work to thrid wire which would go to your power supply's ground screw.

If that is too stiff for you then go with 18AWG SO.

Any smaller and you risk easy mechanical damage.

Between the emitters I would use 22AWG - nothing larger.
 
Thanks Kcress,

16 seems awefully large, but I think it was 18 that I was contemplating using. That's essentially a lamp cord. I'm not sure what SO designates. If that's a solid wire rather than multi core, then I'm very worried it will be too stiff and heavy on the fixture. I mean, 16 AWG is essentially an orange yard work extension cord isn't it? Don't you think that's a bit bulky and overkill on this application?

Aaron
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15324899#post15324899 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by big400g
Saf1 Because not all led's are created equal I used lumens per gallon as my basis for coverage. I wanted about 60 lumens per gallon, this is the reason I look at the bin code for the LED, you can purchase lower lumen LEDs and have more or buy more powerful ones with less LED's.

Der Willie, if you use the Cree LED's that I planned you will have about 1290 total lumens at 350Ma, about 107.5 Lum per gallon, that is a lot more than I was planning and about half the depth. Let me/us know how that works, you may need to dim them up over a month to not shock the corals from the massive amount of light.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I was basing my "rules of thumb" comments on the assumption that people would be using the highest-output stuff available, i.e. high-binned XR-E or Rebels.

I should have further qualified my plan for my nano - the LEDs are going to be mounted in a very non-conventional manner (in par 20 or par 36 cans, to imitate the "stage light" look that's all the rage in Japan right now), and higher above the tank than is common. I'm sure that since I'm not using optics, I'll get more spill than some people are. It's definitely an experiment and I would not be surprised if I ended up re-working it several times before I was happy!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15325239#post15325239 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dogstar74
Thanks Kcress,

16 seems awefully large, but I think it was 18 that I was contemplating using. That's essentially a lamp cord. I'm not sure what SO designates. If that's a solid wire rather than multi core, then I'm very worried it will be too stiff and heavy on the fixture. I mean, 16 AWG is essentially an orange yard work extension cord isn't it? Don't you think that's a bit bulky and overkill on this application?

Aaron
Click to expand...

SO is rubber coated flexible 'cable' (multiple conductors). It is as flexible as you can commonly find. It's like a flexible round extension cord. Not the stiffer plastic type often in wild colors.

NO, it's not solid wire..

Yes, you could just by an SO extension cord and lop off the ends. That is often what I do as they can cost less than just X feet of SO. All hardware store carry it. Orchard Supply , Home Despot, Lows.

You really want cable - not a bunch of separate wires. They're wiggled, bumped, abraded, pinned, stepped on, etc., which is why you want some mechanical protection in this case. You don't need 16AWG or 18AWG even, but anything smaller doesn't normally come in flexible SO and would be asking for problems down the road.
 
I have some power cords I was gonna use, they came off of my old Aquapod hood when I did the lighting upgrade, I am not sure of exact size of them about the same as say a tv cord. Will these works? and also 22awg for between the leds and the same for the leds to the Buckpucks? Oh and what about from the power supplies to the Buckpucks?

Side note I'm still waitting on the leds to ship.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15326602#post15326602 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dtech
I have some power cords I was gonna use, they came off of my old Aquapod hood when I did the lighting upgrade, I am not sure of exact size of them about the same as say a tv cord. Will these works?
Click to expand...


Yes.

and also 22awg for between the leds and the same for the leds to the Buckpucks?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Oh and what about from the power supplies to the Buckpucks?
Click to expand...

Depends. Separate leads to each BP? Yes.
Daisy chaining to multiple BPs - not too many.
 
I ordered my Cree led's From LEDsupply two days ago and my Meanwell ELN-60's from PowergateLLC today. I already have my heatsink from HeatsinkUSA. I want to thank everyone who has been participating in this thread it has been an inspiration to me.
 
Thanks for the reply so fast, I was going to use 16awg since I have more of it, but I will et more 22awg for this build.
 
The first and last link you posted are, in theory, the same exact thing - a Q5 bin Cree XR-E on a star. The middle link you posted is an R2 bin, which is the next level up in brightness.

Cree bins their cool white XR-E with a two part bin code. One part indicates brightness, in terms of lumens/watt. That's the part most of us concentrate on. It's more or less a sequential number - Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, then they jumped to R2. Each increasing bin gets a few more lumens per watt, which means more light in your tank for the same amount of electricity.

The R2's are extremely rare (hard to get) hence not many people in this thread have used them. If you look through the comments on that item on DX, you'll see that in the past, plenty of people have ordered them thinking they were in stock, only to wait months before getting them.

The second part of the bin code indicates a color code. "cool white" is a generic label; they further designate color by a two letter code. Cree calls this the "chromacity or dominant wavelength group."

WG is by far the most common, though a few vendors are selling WC. WG is spot in the middle of the range. It's interesting that ledsupply.com does NOT tell us the color bin, but they do tell us the kit number, which means we can look up a list of color bins it *could* be. The list happens to be WC, WD, WF, and WG. These are all OK and pretty close to eachother. FWIW, despite being labeled as "cool white" they are all pretty warm compared to the stuff we are used to in the reefkeeping hobby, which is likely the reason why so many of these LED builds are using a 1:1 ratio of "cool white" to blue.
 
I guess I didn't really answer your question. Assuming your criteria for "best" is (or at least includes) "brightest" or "most efficient" then the middle link you provided (to the R2 bin) is the best.

Though, in the end, the difference is a few percent more brightness per watt. In other words, if you ended up with Q5 instead of R2, no big deal. (unless you are building an array of hundreds or thousands of LED and want to run it as cheaply as possible!)
 
Here is my build so far. This will be lighting a 39g Cadlight tank.

Going with 3 Meanwell ELN 60-48-D drivers to power 33 CREE XRE Q5 LED's, 17 white and 16 Royal Blue. 3 rows of 11. My plan is to have them controlled by my RKL once they release the ALC module for it. The fixture I bought bare from Catalina Aquarium, fits great!

IMG_1440.jpg


IMG_1472.jpg


IMG_1350.jpg


IMG_1497.jpg


IMG_1502.jpg


IMG_1506.jpg
 
Is that a solid block of aluminum for your heatsink? Or does it have fins? Cant really see in the pics.
 
Thermal Managment

Thermal Managment

I built 1/2 of soundwaves system exactly as he spec'd it for my 29 gal reef. It works too well. I have had to reduce the amount of light until my corals catch up. My clam started to bleach.

I just wanted to comment that drilling holes in the heat sink or using epoxy to mount the stars is not required. I used a thermal tape and it worked perfectly. You can find it here:

http://www.luxeonstar.com/precut-thermal-adhesive-tape-for-luxeon-stars-12-p-457.php

Cheap and effective.

I did modify the design to use 18" of heat sink instead of 12". This let me mount the drivers on the heatsink. I only use a single 4" fan on top of the sink and it never gets even slightly warm.

I measured the star temps using a thermocouple temperature gauge and they also do not rise above ambient at any time.
 
Re: Thermal Managment

Re: Thermal Managment

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15329813#post15329813 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kecked
I built 1/2 of soundwaves system exactly as he spec'd it for my 29 gal reef. It works too well. I have had to reduce the amount of light until my corals catch up. My clam started to bleach.

I just wanted to comment that drilling holes in the heat sink or using epoxy to mount the stars is not required. I used a thermal tape and it worked perfectly. You can find it here:

http://www.luxeonstar.com/precut-thermal-adhesive-tape-for-luxeon-stars-12-p-457.php

Cheap and effective.

I did modify the design to use 18" of heat sink instead of 12". This let me mount the drivers on the heatsink. I only use a single 4" fan on top of the sink and it never gets even slightly warm.

I measured the star temps using a thermocouple temperature gauge and they also do not rise above ambient at any time.
Click to expand...

Nice, that looks WAY easier then drilling and tapping 60+ holes:p

You can just scrape those pads off if you need to replace the led?
 
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