First Biocube 32 LED upgrade available

[LQT]

Public Service Announcement... Apparently, Steve's LEDs has come up with a BC32 LED upgrade kit. First one that I'm aware of. I don't think I'm allowed to post a link, but a simple Google search should yield results. I thought this would be a helpful bit of info for all of you BC32 owners out there.

Happy Reefing!

 

[Smoke Inator]

Public Service Announcement... Apparently, Steve's LEDs has come up with a BC32 LED upgrade kit. First one that I'm aware of. I don't think I'm allowed to post a link, but a simple Google search should yield results. I thought this would be a helpful bit of info for all of you BC32 owners out there.

Happy Reefing!

Ive been trading emails with Dave at Nano Box Reef and he said his Large Retro would fit just fine...there is a video of him installing on a BC29.

I'm leaning towards this route....its 2 dense chips on a heat sink

 

[LQT]

I have the Nanobox Large Retro in my BC29 with the Bluefish controller. Dave's lights are great and his service is second to none. I actually bought 2 extra arrays from him and am toying with the idea of adding them into my hood using a bigger heatsink for the ultimate Nanobox wide quad retro. I'm just a little nervous about soldering though.

 

[ReefWreak]

I have the Nanobox Large Retro in my BC29 with the Bluefish controller. Dave's lights are great and his service is second to none. I actually bought 2 extra arrays from him and am toying with the idea of adding them into my hood using a bigger heatsink for the ultimate Nanobox wide quad retro. I'm just a little nervous about soldering though.

You know where to find me... lol

I'm interested to see what you decide to do. I'd also be interested to see what heatsink solution you go with, and if you'd still keep them in your DIY splashguard.

I really want to expand my lights as well, but I'm not going to do a lot of mental exercise to figure it out if nobody makes a simple-to-do kit. But I'd be happy to help support your project.

 

[Smoke Inator]

I have the Nanobox Large Retro in my BC29 with the Bluefish controller. Dave's lights are great and his service is second to none. I actually bought 2 extra arrays from him and am toying with the idea of adding them into my hood using a bigger heatsink for the ultimate Nanobox wide quad retro. I'm just a little nervous about soldering though.

LQT, can you add some pics? I'm looking to add some SPS

 

[LQT]

You know where to find me... lol

I'm interested to see what you decide to do. I'd also be interested to see what heatsink solution you go with, and if you'd still keep them in your DIY splashguard.

I really want to expand my lights as well, but I'm not going to do a lot of mental exercise to figure it out if nobody makes a simple-to-do kit. But I'd be happy to help support your project.

I just may take you up on that at some point, perhaps after the Holidays. I'll let you know!

I bought the RapidLED heatsink, the same one you currently have and plan on adding 2 more Nanobox arrays to my existing 2 for a total of 4 arrays on the RapidLED heatsink. All of this will fit in my DIY acrylic splash guard. Dave underdrives his arrays to maintain the longevity of the LEDs which you observed when you saw my LDD drivers when you helped me with soldering the first time around. I spoke to Dave and he said it should work as long as I provide adequate cooling.

Therefore, I purchased 2 60mm Vantec Stealth fans as well. Also, since I have the Oceanic hood without the vent slits in the center, I plan on cutting a hole in my hood with a 3.5 inch hole saw to vent the heatsink's 92mm fan in the middle. I already bought a custom black acrylic 92mm black fan grill from eBay so hopefully it won't look like a Frankenstein job.

 

[ReefWreak]

I just may take you up on that at some point, perhaps after the Holidays. I'll let you know!

I'll be busy, very busy, after the second week of January (expecting a baby), but some time in late February, or around the holidays I'll be around.

Your plan sounds pretty solid. I forget the mounting situation of Dave's boards, but if it doesn't fit the pattern on the Rapid heatsink, just make sure to pick up some thermal adhesive. I'm sure Dave has a recommendation, but I also imagine Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive would work well in case he doesn't send you anything already.

If you have time still, you may want to look at adding a 92mm fan shroud to add some direction to the air, so you're not just circulating the air for the 92mm fan. You could certainly circulate that air, and then have the 60mm fans remove that air, but if you're going through the trouble of cutting a hole for that fan, you'd probably be better served providing some more direct air access. I guess you could add it later, or make one out of duct tape or something, but I'm just thinking that it would work better to have a fresh air intake and then the 60mms exhausting, rather than having them just circulate air, and the 92mm using circulating air and then re-circulating it.

 

[LQT]

LQT, can you add some pics? I'm looking to add some SPS

When I get this project underway, I'll be sure to ping you. When I get this going, I do plan on documenting this process in my build thread. As it stands now, here is how my Nanobox Large Retro looks in my hood.

 

[LQT]

I'll be busy, very busy, after the second week of January (expecting a baby), but some time in late February, or around the holidays I'll be around.

Sweet Dude... Congrats!!! Ill let you know time wise. End of the year is a little nutty for me with work.

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks

Sounds good, thanks for sharing the pic, refreshed my memory.

 

[LQT]

As far as the RapidLED heatsink goes, I'll be using screws and thermal grease to mount the arrays. I've already tapped the heatsink with new screw holes to attach the 4 arrays.

 

[LQT]

If you have time still, you may want to look at adding a 92mm fan shroud to add some direction to the air, so you're not just circulating the air for the 92mm fan. You could certainly circulate that air, and then have the 60mm fans remove that air, but if you're going through the trouble of cutting a hole for that fan, you'd probably be better served providing some more direct air access. I guess you could add it later, or make one out of duct tape or something, but I'm just thinking that it would work better to have a fresh air intake and then the 60mms exhausting, rather than having them just circulate air, and the 92mm using circulating air and then re-circulating it.

ReefWreak,

This is the RapidLED fan for the nano heatsink.

http://www.rapidled.com/productimage.php?product_id=601&current_image=2

I plan on controlling this 92mm fan with a 12V SCW driver on my 6up driver board through the Bluefish controller. Since this is a DC fan, could I reverse the wires into the SCW driver to have the heatsink fan run in reverse to draw air in as you suggested? Then have the 2 60mm fans blowing out?

 

[ReefWreak]

I do not believe you can run the fan in reverse like that (some preliminary googling says no). I believe you have to flip the motor over to run it in reverse.

Do you know that it blows outwards? That would surprise me, it seems to me the efficient way of running the fan on the Rapid heatsink is intake down so that it spreads out across the heatsink evenly. If it blows outwards, that seems pretty inefficient to me, but I'm no pro, I just think that positive pressure removes more heat than negative pressure across a diffusion material.

Does anyone reading have this heatsink/fan and can confirm? From some googling, it looks like with PC fans, the hub side is usually the intake side, so in the case of this fan, it looks like it's already going to blow down, though I'm sure they can be modified when made, so not 100% till someone confirms.

 

[LQT]

Thanks. Your rationale makes total sense for it to be an intake fan. I'll shoot RapidLED an email to find out. I'll post back the answer after I hear back from them.

*Edit - Just heard back from RapidLED. They do indeed blow air downward, across the fins.

 

[LQT]

Oh by the way... Sorry BC32 owners, I didn't mean for this thread to become my DIY upgrade thread!

 

[jmcdaniel0]

I like it! I love detailed builds like this because eventually I'll use them as a reference. I'm using a Kessil A360WE right now but my wife hates the gooseneck look. She likes the hood look, so I'm following along

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