DIY: Steve's LED's module

I bit the bullet a long while back and steve bit me back. I set out very specific instructions for an assembled array set and despite paying extra, the requests weren't met when they arrays arrived at my door. His drivers are fragile home-made drivers without individual dimming for each array, all drivers feed together through a common pot (difficult to explain).

Aside from being upset about the order being wrong, I moved on and assembled my array as I ordered and put it on my test tank. Within the proceding weeks LEDs began to die off and flicker. It started with half of the emitter burning out or flickering, then the entire LED would short and kill that array. After about a month of reconfiguring the array and replacing bunk blue LEDs I had 6 left, which left me with not enough to run even a single 7 LED array. Steve blamed shipping damage and told me i could buy replacement LEDs, shipping won't damage only one color of LED a few weeks down the line. IMHO his products are about as good as his datasheets - crap.
 
Wish I had seen actual feedback like that here before buying. That's kind of why I'm posting my experience with them, for the benefit of others, whether it turns out good or bad. We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep my fingers crossed. Did you end up with an alternative LED setup from somewhere else?
 
I got all the drivers and led banks tested tonight. Unfortunately, one of the drivers was DOA. It was the 3rd one I tested, so I know it wasn't a wiring mishap on my part (plus I've got a bachelor's in both electrical and computer engineering, so I know what I'm doing). I'm kind of bummed about that. I'll have to contact Steve and see what he says. There's a $5 repair service he has for the drivers, that I assume he'll point me to, since he offers no warranty on his products (which I went into fully aware of). I just hope the turnaround isn't a month and a half for that... haha

On a side note....when there's a warning that says don't look directly into these lights, take it seriously. The first bank I plugged in, I wasn't looking directly into it, but the bank was in my peripheral vision. I figured this would be okay. I guess I wasn't looking far enough away because I seriously thought I was blinded in that eye for a second. The LEDs used for aquarium lighting (Steve's or any others) are serious lights. (apparently classified as class II lasers) I've still got some floaters in the corner of my eye that are gradually getting better (this happened about 20 mins ago...hoping they'll be fully gone soon). Wear sunglasses and don't make direct eye contact!
 
I first read it on Steve's website. Looked around a little more and found this:

http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLamp_EyeSafety.pdf

That's a document on Cree's website about eye safety and their LEDs. According to that, before October 2008, most LED lamps required labeling under the IEC 60825 laser safety standard. They did testing in 2007 of some of their XLamp series LEDs, and found them all to fall into category 2 laser devices under IEC/EN 60825. However, they use a new standard for LEDs now, which categorizes them differently, which is probably why you don't see laser safety warnings on them. Also, according to that document, the blue series fall under the new categories of RG-2/RG-3 (moderate risk) for eye damage, and the whites under RG1 (low risk). The blues are what I was working with when I was looking at them too directly. Regardless of color, Cree recommends not looking directly at any LED lamp. This would apply to any knockoff LED people are using for the same purpose around here as well. From first hand experience, whether labeled as class 2 laser, or RG-2/RG-3 under the new standard, don't look at these things. It's not a pleasant experience.
 
soramsu said:
I got all the drivers and led banks tested tonight. Unfortunately, one of the drivers was DOA. It was the 3rd one I tested, so I know it wasn't a wiring mishap on my part (plus I've got a bachelor's in both electrical and computer engineering, so I know what I'm doing). I'm kind of bummed about that. I'll have to contact Steve and see what he says. There's a $5 repair service he has for the drivers, that I assume he'll point me to, since he offers no warranty on his products (which I went into fully aware of). I just hope the turnaround isn't a month and a half for that... haha
Click to expand...

Yikes, no warranty even against DOA, and instead a $5 repair service? This would scare me away. I had difficulty finding prices on his website, how much does the driver cost vs how many LEDs it can drive?

This could be tough to justify against a standard meanwell eln-60-48 that can drive 14 LEDs and costs like $30...
 
He said he'd take a look at it and determine if he'd charge me the repair fee or not. I did some testing on it and it looks like the 5 V regulator is shot. It's a part I can pick up at Radio Shack for $2, so I may just do that.

For his drivers, it's ~$14 for 7 LEDs, so about $28 for 14. Not too much difference in the price actually. I'm considering biting the bullet and just buying the meanwell drivers to use. Although that's about another $300 I'd be throwing at this. Not to mention the $80ish I spent last night for some extra wiring, connectors, etc. So...if I did do that I'd end up spending a total of around $1500. Which, kind of upsets me, since I could have gone with 3 AI units for that much. I have a 6' tank, and I think for my experience level (none...haha) would have been plenty for my tank until I could afford to get some more next year and actually figure out how to grow a coral. So, I'm not sure I've really 'saved' any money, and probably ended up with more of a headache than I want. I'm seriously considering ditching this setup and getting the 3 AI units and chalking it up to a (very expensive) learning experience.

Anybody wanna buy my setup at a discount, or donate to my "I feel very sorry for you" fund?! :lolspin:
 
It's not gonna help you, so FWIW; you seem to have the same Epistar chip's FEDY is selling for $1,28 ... the only problem - or not of course - they have a MOQ.
 
I've been running my Steve's LEDs on Meanwells for probably about six months now and haven't had any issues with any of my LEDs. I check them every once in a while and none of them seem to have (visually) lost any output. I thought his drivers looked more complicated than I wanted to deal with so I went with two of the non-dimming meanwells. Love the color too!
 
I'm running 12 RB, 10 CW and 1 Cyan. I have a second Cyan I was going to run too but everyone told me it would look too "windex" So I left that one out. So I've got 12 on one and 11 on the other.
 
I'm thinking about getting the dimmable drivers and the dimmable controller from rapidled and using them with my setup. Thoughts?
 
Steve offered to fix the driver at no charge, which was nice of him. I think as of now I'll go ahead with his drivers for the build and see how it performs.
 
soramsu said:
Steve offered to fix the driver at no charge, which was nice of him. I think as of now I'll go ahead with his drivers for the build and see how it performs.
Click to expand...

I promise I have nothing against stevesleds - but I wouldn't ever consider it a favor for him to fix the driver. Even if the business decides not to offer a warranty on the drivers, at the very minimum they shouldn't show up nonfunctional...
 
I finally got around to installing these in my hood. I got the first two strips (3 banks of seven leds with 2 drivers, blue) connected up. I have 2 problems. Firstly, one of the banks has 2 LEDs that are noticeably dimmer than all the others. When I turn up the brightness, I don't notice it, but when turned all the way down, it's very noticeable. Not sure if these are bad LEDs or what.... Secondly, when the two drivers are set at different dimming levels, the power supply makes a high pitched ringing/buzzing noise. I emailed steve a couple of nights ago, and no response so far. He's gotten much less responsive to emails since my order has arrived, which is frustrating.
 
Are two low brightness LEDs in a string with other LEDs (I assume) then they sound bad. IF series check your solder joints and they might be creating a higher resistance which will lessen the current and the LEDs will be dimmer.

Som PS don't like just a little load. You might try adding a power resistor, but it means wasted electricity and maybe not enough to power the drivers at their full load.
 
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