DIY Luxim Plasma
- Thread starter dipan
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dipan
Member
I'm not sure that would be enough. I don't think there is enough space at the top of the Lumenarc to even mount any LED's with their needed heatsinks.
Well, I was thinking that this might be the case, but at a decent height (my tank is 36" tall), comes decent spread, especially with the geometry of the Lumenarc III reflector. It spreads light pretty well. It was suggested by others in I think the original cherrycorals thread that this is not the ideal reflector for this type of bulb, but I figure it's good enough for my application and is readily available. Space above my tank is relatively limited. I think it is about 40" x 24". This reflector is 20" square. If I need more light on the sides I was thinking along the lines of an AquaIllumination LED bank on either side of the central reflector. If this color temp proves to be impossible to work with, I will probably switch the central bulb out to a bluer bulb that will not require actinics like a Radium 400w or AquaConnect 400w.
I guess a plasma bulb is only kind of like a point source. The waveguide is behind it by design, so it cannot obviously emit light all around it like a sphere (as a metal halide bulb with the floating central arc tube), but more like a semi-sphere with light being thrown in all directions away from the plane of the waveguide (the white stuff the bulb is buried in). I don't think it is particularly directional, similar to an LED without optics ...
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Obsession203
New member
I am also very interested in the results any additional information on this
Stanley-Reefer
New member
What if you used another relector to redirect the light back up into the large reflector like a HID headlight? Is the light that produces not very focused?
dipan
Member
IMO you might want to consider a glass UV shield for the light... cool thread though!
I had placed an order for one over a month ago with lumenarclighting.com and they never contacted me. I contacted them to complain without an answer. I had to make a paypal dispute. When I get my money back I'll get another one. In fact, it seems it's just a square piece of glass now that I have the reflector (ordered from Aquacave). I may just have a local glass place cut the glass for me.
dipan
Member
Good thoughts, but for the LED's, wouldn't that detract from the function of the reflector? The star boards on the higher power LED's would probably take up a significant footprint. As for the secondary reflector, I'm not sure how it could be implemented even if it would work.
kentrob11
Premium Member
Well, I don't have any real experience with LED's but judging by the looks of it I was thinking they could be mounted to the backside of the reflector so that only a hole big enough to the LED surface bulb to slightly stick through would be needed. The reflector material is so thin that I would think it wouldn't obstruct the LED much if at all. It would be interesting to see if that would work...
dipan
Member
Assuming I do put the effort into modding the reflector for LED's, what's the most powerful LED or triple LED mounted star board available currently? Anyone?
How about these Royal-Blue EndorStar's from LEDsupply? Anyone think 8-12 of these built into the reflector would work???
dipan
Member
Well, kentrob11, I decided that I might need to do what you suggested. No matter how difficult it may be for me technically, it is what I should probably do.
I'm going to use three Meanwell ELN-60-48P to drive 10 of the above Royal Blue EndorStar's and another to run 2 Cyan EndorStar's. I picked the Endor's because they have a small package size and they pack three Luxeon Rebel's onto a single star PCB whilst the popular Cree XR-E's I've seen are only one per star. This way I have to make fewer holes and I'll have the equivalent of 30 Cree XR-E Royal Blue's and 6 XR-E Cyan's. I might do 2 fewer RB Endor's and two more Cyan's.
I learned a lot about LED's (I'm a DIY LED newb) from a thread titled LED Light Spectrum amongst others. User Canoe posted this chart:
I hope he doesn't mind me repeating it here.
What I found most interesting from this was the specific wavelengths that corals can use and the overlapped spectra of Luxeon's colored LED's. Now look at the Luxim LIFI plasma spectrum from one of their product bulletins:
[/IMG]
It shows a really big 450nm dip and another significant dip at around 410nm. At least the 450 I can try to improve with the LED's above. There seems to be relatively decent output in the cyan region, but I can try to supply a bit more of that color as well with cyan LED's. If there were powerful UV LED's in a comparably powerful but small package as the triple Luxeon Rebel EndorStar's above, the I'd probably try to use a combination of UV, RB, and cyan ... Though the UV seems to be marginal in regards to what coral photosynthetic needs are according to Canoe's chart.
It's interesting how an extremely small facet of this hobby can become so complicated! I was forced into figuring out (to a small degree) DIY LED's because of this plasma project that just started off as a "wow that would be cool" kind of impulsive thought. Fortunately the web and RC are incredible resources for these types of things!
I think I'm going to do an Aquaconnect 400w metal halide running on an HPS430 ballast in an identical Lumenarc III fixture, just in case ...
I'm going to use three Meanwell ELN-60-48P to drive 10 of the above Royal Blue EndorStar's and another to run 2 Cyan EndorStar's. I picked the Endor's because they have a small package size and they pack three Luxeon Rebel's onto a single star PCB whilst the popular Cree XR-E's I've seen are only one per star. This way I have to make fewer holes and I'll have the equivalent of 30 Cree XR-E Royal Blue's and 6 XR-E Cyan's. I might do 2 fewer RB Endor's and two more Cyan's.
I learned a lot about LED's (I'm a DIY LED newb) from a thread titled LED Light Spectrum amongst others. User Canoe posted this chart:
I hope he doesn't mind me repeating it here.
What I found most interesting from this was the specific wavelengths that corals can use and the overlapped spectra of Luxeon's colored LED's. Now look at the Luxim LIFI plasma spectrum from one of their product bulletins:
It shows a really big 450nm dip and another significant dip at around 410nm. At least the 450 I can try to improve with the LED's above. There seems to be relatively decent output in the cyan region, but I can try to supply a bit more of that color as well with cyan LED's. If there were powerful UV LED's in a comparably powerful but small package as the triple Luxeon Rebel EndorStar's above, the I'd probably try to use a combination of UV, RB, and cyan ... Though the UV seems to be marginal in regards to what coral photosynthetic needs are according to Canoe's chart.
It's interesting how an extremely small facet of this hobby can become so complicated! I was forced into figuring out (to a small degree) DIY LED's because of this plasma project that just started off as a "wow that would be cool" kind of impulsive thought. Fortunately the web and RC are incredible resources for these types of things!
I think I'm going to do an Aquaconnect 400w metal halide running on an HPS430 ballast in an identical Lumenarc III fixture, just in case ...
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kentrob11
Premium Member
I think it's a great idea and I'm really looking forward to following the progress...Actually I am going to do a 1600 gallon main display in the home we're detailing with a developer at the moment and I had thrown around that idea when I first heard about plasma technology to keep from having to run so many 400w metal halides....
redfishsc
New member
I see you chose P model. I'm not an electronics guy, but I assume you are going to dim this using a pwm or something like a Reefkeeper with the ALC module, right?
Also, don't make the assumption that the Rebels can compete with the XR-Es. I don't know this for sure, but I believe that one XR-E, driven at 1000mA puts out more than the 3 Rebels do.
I may be pitifully wrong on that, so if I am, don't paddle me too hard
Also, don't make the assumption that the Rebels can compete with the XR-Es. I don't know this for sure, but I believe that one XR-E, driven at 1000mA puts out more than the 3 Rebels do.
I may be pitifully wrong on that, so if I am, don't paddle me too hard
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dipan
Member
Whoops, I meant the "D" model, but I am planning on using the 1-10v analog dimming function of a Profilux controller.
redfishsc
New member
Cool, and I think I had my stuff mixed up anyhow. The P does run on a PWM but the D runs from the RKL and Profilux.
Personally I am skeptical about putting LED's in the reflector. I don't think you will ever be able to put enough of them in there to amount to a hill of beans. They'll throw their light straight down compared to what this light does (wide spread), even without optics. From the Cherrycoral video I saw, this light can (with the reflector they used) throw a 6ft wide spread at 2' above the tank. No way the LED's will do that, most of them put out at around 90 or 100 degrees.
I would personally just rig an array around the tank so that the LED's run individually, as you would any other LED array........ or just use T5 or VHO retrofits for actinic lighting. VHO would be real nice since it has more color to it than T5, even though it's lower PAR. You won't be needing any more PAR than you already have
Personally I am skeptical about putting LED's in the reflector. I don't think you will ever be able to put enough of them in there to amount to a hill of beans. They'll throw their light straight down compared to what this light does (wide spread), even without optics. From the Cherrycoral video I saw, this light can (with the reflector they used) throw a 6ft wide spread at 2' above the tank. No way the LED's will do that, most of them put out at around 90 or 100 degrees.
I would personally just rig an array around the tank so that the LED's run individually, as you would any other LED array........ or just use T5 or VHO retrofits for actinic lighting. VHO would be real nice since it has more color to it than T5, even though it's lower PAR. You won't be needing any more PAR than you already have
dipan
Member
Cool, and I think I had my stuff mixed up anyhow. The P does run on a PWM but the D runs from the RKL and Profilux.
Personally I am skeptical about putting LED's in the reflector. I don't think you will ever be able to put enough of them in there to amount to a hill of beans. They'll throw their light straight down compared to what this light does (wide spread), even without optics. From the Cherrycoral video I saw, this light can (with the reflector they used) throw a 6ft wide spread at 2' above the tank. No way the LED's will do that, most of them put out at around 90 or 100 degrees.
I would personally just rig an array around the tank so that the LED's run individually, as you would any other LED array........ or just use T5 or VHO retrofits for actinic lighting. VHO would be real nice since it has more color to it than T5, even though it's lower PAR. You won't be needing any more PAR than you already have
I agree with your assessment, but that's quite a lot of blue LED power. If I put 12 of the Endor Star's in there that would be the equivalent of 36 3 watt Luxeon Rebel's or the similar output Cree XR-E. I would need to drill out 12 holes 21mm diameter each, decreasing the effectiveness of the reflector, but adding 108 watts of LED power. Also, I was hoping to add them onto the top part of the reflector. If you are familiar with this reflector, there are 8 facets up near the top (close to where the plasma is), with 4 of them being longer than the others extending to the bottom corners. The LED's would therefore be firing into all of the facets of the reflector rather than straight down, providing a better spread, particularly without optics. Should be pretty good spread ... Besides, I'n not sure that the 6 ft spread that has been cited is really very accurate. It may actually be 6 ft of "spill" with much less usable light towards the edges.
dipan
Member
On another note, this thread got glassbox'd !!!
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