DIY LEDs - The write-up
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james3370
Premium Member
i'm still in the planning stages of the one i plan on doing......it'll either be (24) leds in 3 rows of 8 or (18) leds in 3 rows of 6. either way will be a 50/50 mix of white & blue
if i do 24 leds, i'll use (2) meanwells...1 for blues & 1 for whites & each w/ a pot. probably do sunrise/sunset w/ them by going all blues>>all blues + all whites>>>all blues
if i do 18 leds, there will be (3) buckpucks....1 of 6 white, 1 of 6 blue & 1 of 3 white & 3 blue. the all white & all blue strings will be on a power supply & both be dimmable. the 50/50 string may or may not be dimmable & be on a seperate power supply. then i can do sunrise/sunset w/ the power supplies.....50/50>>50/50 + all white & all blue>>>50/50
still up in the air as to which way i'll go w/ it, but i'm liking the flexibilty of my design on the buckpucks, but like the price of the meanwell setup better LOL
.....if i were to start right now, the fact that the meanwells are backordered for 8 weeks or so from powergate would definately swing me towards the buckpucks
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
It needs to be a 5k pot. IMHO once you are thinking about trying to dim more than a few of these, you'd be better off doing a single controller for several buckpucks (or even the mean wells) rather than using a huge gang pot, which is going to be hard to find and expensive. This is especially true for the folks talking about 100+ LEDs. The buckpucks and the "pot dimmable" mean wells are more or less the same in that they dim based on a voltage applied to a control pin. The differences are that the buckpuck need a 0 - 5v signal (100 - 0% output) and the mean wells need 0 - 10V (0 - 95%), and that the buckpuck provides you a 5v reference voltage to work with.
Looks like these people have stock on the Mean Wells
http://www.cdiweb.com/PortalPartSearch.aspx?txtSearch=eln30&ManfNo=332&type=-1&match=2&search=1
I have not done a lot of pricing yet, how do they stack up?
http://www.cdiweb.com/PortalPartSearch.aspx?txtSearch=eln30&ManfNo=332&type=-1&match=2&search=1
I have not done a lot of pricing yet, how do they stack up?
freddubois800
New member
I need help for the choice of my LED. My thank size is 6 ' by 20''.
What is the best led Cree, K2?
Mix of white and blue ( 50/50)?
How many led 6' thank need?
Thank
Fred
What is the best led Cree, K2?
Mix of white and blue ( 50/50)?
How many led 6' thank need?
Thank
Fred
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Fred,
The best choices are probably the cree XR-E or the Luxeon rebel. These both have really good efficiency (around 90 lumens/watt) and are what the vast majority of folks are using.
Whatever brand you choose, you want "cool white" and either blue or royal blue, or a mix of the two.
Color mix is more or less personal preference as long as you are near 50/50.
How many you'll need on your 6' tank is up for debate. I would be interested to hear what other suggest, but most tanks seem to be in a range of 10 - 20 square inches of surface area per LED, assuming one of the LEDs mentioned above, and run at 700 - 1000 mA. Your tank has 1,440 square inches of surface, so 72 - 144 LEDs.
The best choices are probably the cree XR-E or the Luxeon rebel. These both have really good efficiency (around 90 lumens/watt) and are what the vast majority of folks are using.
Whatever brand you choose, you want "cool white" and either blue or royal blue, or a mix of the two.
Color mix is more or less personal preference as long as you are near 50/50.
How many you'll need on your 6' tank is up for debate. I would be interested to hear what other suggest, but most tanks seem to be in a range of 10 - 20 square inches of surface area per LED, assuming one of the LEDs mentioned above, and run at 700 - 1000 mA. Your tank has 1,440 square inches of surface, so 72 - 144 LEDs.
Fred, as 'der ville zur macht" said there are many variables and a wide range of light requirements. I'm building a 6o" x 14.5" fixture for my 72 x 24" x 17" tank and will be using a 50/50 mix of cool white & blue LED's with optics. I think the tank depth strongly influences your decision as does the optics and intended corals. There are many skilled and experienced folks on theis thread to help us thue our endeavor. Jim
JoshuaG
New member
Got everything temp hooked up to test the system, damn thing works like a charm For the electrical guys out there, it works but let me know if it will be safe to actually run like this, I have never done anything electrical period.
Took me awhile to get the hang of soldering, but once I did I was able to lay out solder on the pads pretty good.
You can't see the 3rd but there are 3 red wires, these are going to each of my drivers, the white cord is the one that plugs into my outlet. Is it safe to run everything like this? I soldered the joints and put heatshrink over everything, thoughts would be great!
I put disconnects so I could move the drivers if needed.
Excuse the rats nest, but damn it works
Still have to split the 10V power supply for the dimming function, then I can start getting in mounted in the fixture.
Took me awhile to get the hang of soldering, but once I did I was able to lay out solder on the pads pretty good.
You can't see the 3rd but there are 3 red wires, these are going to each of my drivers, the white cord is the one that plugs into my outlet. Is it safe to run everything like this? I soldered the joints and put heatshrink over everything, thoughts would be great!
I put disconnects so I could move the drivers if needed.
Excuse the rats nest, but damn it works
Still have to split the 10V power supply for the dimming function, then I can start getting in mounted in the fixture.
freddubois800
New member
with 21 inch of whater, how many lumen i need for reef aquarium?
kcress
New member
JoshuaG; Looks good. Except.. Those disconnects are normally only for low voltages. If you unplug them they expose one prong. That one prong is b a d juju.. You normally want nothing carrying line voltage to be bare.
As bad as the classic crappy zipcord extension cords are, using one of them, and three regular plugs, like your white one, would be a safer way to make those "plug-an-play".
BTW: Nice clean star mounting there.
As bad as the classic crappy zipcord extension cords are, using one of them, and three regular plugs, like your white one, would be a safer way to make those "plug-an-play".
BTW: Nice clean star mounting there.
JTL
New member
I would really like to build one for my new DT but I don't think I fully understand the amps that it would draw. The tank will be 44x24x24 so I don't even know how many LEDs I would need, but is a lot. As an example let's use 50 as a starting point. I am currently running (4) T5 54 watt on two ballasts that draw 1.15 amps each. I could double that and only use 4.6 amps and have 432 watts. LED's are going to be better watt for watt but how much better and at how many amps? I am concerned about amps because they are a limited resource and I don't have any easy way to add another circuit.
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aeternus12
New member
is it ok to use in reef aquarium 6500 k power led or should i use led 10 000 k or even 15 000 ?
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