DIY: Steve's LED's module

[kuyatwo]

tagging along

If anyone has questions steve from steve leds is going to speak at my local fish club i can ask him and post here or pm you.

I am starting a diy led t5 fixture and debating using cree or steve leds.

for sure i am going to ask about the data sheet

 

[TheFishMan65]

Thanks, I was going to ask for datasheets. I expect they won't be available, but it will be interesting to see.

 

[shikhyung]

Almost done

could someone send me a link for a good place to buy a par meter? I believe most people use the Apolgee (sp?) but I'm not terribly familiar with them.

May I ask what is the benefit by using power supply vs. Meanwell ? Thanks.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Looks like he may have done the CAT4101 DIY driver. The advantage is that for large builds it is cheaper than a bunch of meanwells. What size wire is that going from the power supplies to the driver. It looks kind of small.

 

[TenKreefer]

[violation]...

 

[shikhyung]

Looks like he may have done the CAT4101 DIY driver. The advantage is that for large builds it is cheaper than a bunch of meanwells. What size wire is that going from the power supplies to the driver. It looks kind of small.

I am confused, for 12 leds in a string we need at least 40V, and this is not cheaper than Meanwells, correct?

 

[TheFishMan65]

CAT4101's run 6 LEDs in a string so only 24 volts are needed.

 

[shikhyung]

I see. Do we drive the LEDs at 700mA, or full power 1000mA? Thanks.

 

[bamf25]

How are Steve's Drivers?

 

[Shmoopy]

The datasheets are on the product page and you have the output of the Royal Blue LED all wrong. It is 317mw @ 350ma, not 400mw @ 700ma... I have A cree setup and a setup from Steve and i cannot tell much diffrence in coral growth and color. Im happy with what i got from Steve and will add more of his when i upgrade my tank. Bottom line is that his LEDs work.

 

[bamf25]

Not agruing if they work, but I kinda like his driver setup due to the space saving qualities.

 

[strgazr27]

The datasheets are on the product page and you have the output of the Royal Blue LED all wrong. It is 317mw @ 350ma, not 400mw @ 700ma... I have A cree setup and a setup from Steve and i cannot tell much diffrence in coral growth and color. Im happy with what i got from Steve and will add more of his when i upgrade my tank. Bottom line is that his LEDs work.

As it's a very generic statement to say they work do you have any tangible evidence that they are better or of equal value/performance? Not picking a fight here but to say they work is fine but offers no comparison or usefullness.

Something maybe someone can clarify if I am wrong.

CREE XP-G's The cool white XLamp XP-G provides 139 lumens/watt at 350 mA or 345 lumens at 1 Amp (3 Watts).

According to Steve's site his 3 watt UCW 10K LED's put out 89 lumens/watt or 220 Lumens at 2.4W

I may be wrong but it seems that the Epistars are significantly less efficient at producing light/watt than the CREE's. So for the same given input I would get a higher output from the CREE's correct?

Wouldn't a more fair comparison be to use 2 CREE's to one of the Epistar 2 chip LED's or am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[soramsu]

So, against the suggestions of many people on this thread, I went ahead and ordered his 64"-84" SPS retrofit kit for my first build. Given the price difference in this and the AI units I really want, even if they are less efficient, it doesn't justify the extra 2500 I'd have to spend on AI right now. We'll see how it goes. Haven't seen many people who have actually gotten these in the forums, so figured I'd share my experience for the benefit of others.

I ordered my kit March 2nd, and today got part of it in the mail. It is a long turnaround time, but emailing him asking for the status of the order he was helpful and responsive. He told me up front that he has a lot of orders and it would take him a while to get to it.

Anyway, as I said, I got *part* of the order today. Everything except the heatsinks with the LEDs on them. Not sure if the package got lost or he's still working on it. I emailed him to ask him about it, so we'll see. Everything else was included and nicely packaged. After I placed my order he came out with the control unit for the ReefKeeper ALC. I asked him to include it in my order and I'd pay the difference. To my surprise the module was in the package as well. Not sure if he forgot to charge me, or it's a thank you for the patience haha. Also, I didn't realize the power supply didn't have a terminal for an actual plug, but requires it to be wired to 3 terminal screws. A little bummed about that, for safety reasons, but I can live with it.

I'll post more pics when I get the rest in and get it wired up and in my hood. Don't have a PAR meter, so won't be able to give any data on that.

 

[110galreef]

6+ weeks to get an fixture that you need to assemble.

Yikes! Is this the "mostly assmebled fixture"?

 

[soramsu]

Yea. It's the "mostly assembled fixture." It should just have all the LED's attached to the heatsink and wired together. I'm not a fan of monotonous, repetitive work, which is why I ordered it haha. Anyway, Steve said they shipped together and I should have gotten it the same day. It was sent priority mail with delivery confirmation. I just emailed back to get the confirmation number for the second box to see what the status on that is. I've had tons of trouble with my local post office, so it wouldn't surprise me if they lost the package. It's happened twice before.

 

[007Bond]

Steves LEDs

Steves LEDs

Soramsu, Hi, I'm looking into the same set up, may be with some optics,my tank is 42" top of sand to top of water. I have been reading about led's trying to get educated,I am trying to get away from my HQI heat / chiller problem(operating costs) and leds sounds like a solution. I found Steve's site, and like you said he returned my e-mail questions quickly. Lot of pros / cons out there on the Crees over Steve's,but I guess what I'm looking for is one stop shopping rather than buying from multi suppliers,and also am trying to be cost effective at the same time. How deep is your tank? I'll be following your up dates to see how things work out for you. Anyone else please post your insights. Thanks Bond.

 

[110galreef]

007...42" water depth.....You are gonna want 3w LEDS for sure and some tight optics to penetrate that far. What are you keeping in the tank.....

You prpbably should start a new thread as you don't want to distract from this one. I don't feel for your tank steve' LED's will do it. You will need a DIY setup that you can make w/ 3w Cree's & the tight optics to penetrate that far. Also you will probably have to mount them clower together to reduce spolighting.

 

[007Bond]

Thanks 110, I'm following on DIY thread on RC. Moving leds closer makes sense + optics. I'm not going to try anything at least until I think I know what I'm doing. My tank has LR with fish, had some coral but did not last,went to fast as usual. Will try again when I correct somethings. Have a good day. Bond

 

[110galreef]

Ok, sounds good, If just keeping fish & maybe a few softies, Then you will be fine, with LED's & wider optics. As you really just need to visually light the tank and they will sufice just fine.

 

[soramsu]

I got the second package in today with the heatsinks/lights. Everything as I expected it. I guess the post office was just slow delivering it. Although, I never heard back from Steve with the confirmation number for the package after emailing him multiple times from Thursday night through this Morning.

Hopefully I can start putting everything together, testing it, and getting it installed into my hood later tonight and tomorrow. The lights were packed well, with custom spacers made of wood at each end to keep the LEDs safe.