Mine came from digikey, but even if I did have an alternate source, it might not have been much good for you unless you are also on this side of the pond (UK not US!)Perkint do you have a good source for that vero outside of digikey?
If you google around on "CRI", you find a site that shows comparisons of high and low CRI lights on a person's picture. The high CRI one is really, really red. the more "normal" looking picture is cool white. If you want a really warm look, than high CRI, if you want more "neutral" or even blue look, than use less CRI.
see example photo:more simple explanation is how an artificial light source shifts the location of eight specified colors on a version of the C.I.E. color space as compared to the same colors lighted by a reference source of the same Color Temperature. If there is no change in appearance, the light source is given a CRI of 100 by definition. From 2000K to 5000K, the reference source is the Black Body Radiator and above 5000K, it is an agreed upon form of daylight. Incandescent bulbs have a CRI rating of 100, yet are far from ideal for color rendering and matching. Why? With a color temperature of only 2700k they are far too weak at the blue end of the spectrum making it next to impossible to distiguish between various shades of blue. The CRI rating of 100 simply means that the 8 samples look exactly the same as they would under a black body radiator at 2700k. The same can be said for lamps that exceed 6000k in color temperature as they are too weak in the red end of the spectrum, making reds and oranges appear too similar creating a "washed out" appearance. The northern sky with a color temperature of about 7500k and a CRI of 100 is not necessarily the ideal color rendering light source either. An ideal light source for color rendering will have both a color temperature similar to daylight and a high CRI value.
The image on the left is an example of a full spectrum light source with a kelvin temperature similar to natural daylight and a CRI of 93. The image on the right is from a Solux halogen bulb source touted as having a "spectral match to daylight" and a CRI of 98. So why does her white hat appear yellow and not white in the photo? It is because the CRI calculation and spectral match was done against a 4100k reference source which is several shades more yellow than the actual sunlight striking the earth's surface. Remember CRI can only be determined by using a reference that has the same color temperature. A true spectral match to daylight would only occur in the 5000-6000k range, not at daylight if it were only 4100k! In our opinion, it is unfortunate that marketing strategies like this are allowed to exist, but can be easily avoided by the educated consumer.
Try adding two t5 bulbs to the fixture. T5 and LEDs mixture is the best kind of lighting.
There is always the 97CRI 3000K vero 10s
The XTE Royal Blue packs a better punch per watt than the XPE does by quite a margin. If going cree for RB, you definitely want the XTE. The XTE is still a fair bit better than the XPE2.
You can easily compare Cree chips using this:
http://pct.cree.com/dt/index.html
Shame no one makes something like that for all LEDs
Tim
How do you currently run your chinese setups, as far as blue to white ratio on the dimmers? Because, if you have the blues much higher than the whites, that means your preference may be towards the blue side, and if so, high CRI may not be what you want, with whites. I'm trying to mod a light myself to use almost no whites, if any, my thread is the "modernizing led colors" one.
If you google around on "CRI", you find a site that shows comparisons of high and low CRI lights on a person's picture. The high CRI one is really, really red. the more "normal" looking picture is cool white. If you want a really warm look, than high CRI, if you want more "neutral" or even blue look, than use less CRI.
Mine came from digikey, but even if I did have an alternate source, it might not have been much good for you unless you are also on this side of the pond (UK not US!)
Tim
Yep lot "o" colors and this doesn't even include all that you list ("lime" and PC amber)So i spent some time tonight checking out the few online led vendors and am a little amazed at how many "exotic" color leds there are.
So my plan, (subject to change)
24 Cree XT-E Royal Blue
6 Bridgelux vero10 2700K
6 Bridgelux vero10 5000K
6 Luxeon ES Lime
4 Luxeon ES Deep Red
4 SemiLED Hyper Violet
4 Exotic True Violet
4 Exotic Turquoise
4 Luxeon ES Amber
4 Luxeon ES Cyan
Way more LEDs than I had originally planned for the fixture. Im down to remove a few or cut some out completely. Wasn't sure about the amber or turquoise. Or if I need to increase a color please advise. Final question for the gurus is: which hyper violet is better steves or lgb? I remember reading somewhere that people were having issues with some of the lenses browning or burning.
My tank is 48"x24"x16" and I'm currently using:So i spent some time tonight checking out the few online led vendors and am a little amazed at how many "exotic" color leds there are.
So my plan, (subject to change)
24 Cree XT-E Royal Blue
6 Bridgelux vero10 2700K
6 Bridgelux vero10 5000K
6 Luxeon ES Lime
4 Luxeon ES Deep Red
4 SemiLED Hyper Violet
4 Exotic True Violet
4 Exotic Turquoise
4 Luxeon ES Amber
4 Luxeon ES Cyan
Way more LEDs than I had originally planned for the fixture. Im down to remove a few or cut some out completely. Wasn't sure about the amber or turquoise. Or if I need to increase a color please advise. Final question for the gurus is: which hyper violet is better steves or lgb? I remember reading somewhere that people were having issues with some of the lenses browning or burning.
My tank is 48"x24"x16" and I'm currently using:
4x 4000K 90CRI Vero 10
8x Luxeon M royal blue
8x Rebel blue
4x Rebel cyan
8x Rebel ES lime
4x Rebel red
4x SemiLEDs N5 (quad-die chips)
At 700mA on all channels, no lenses, 26" off the bottom of the tank, this is the PAR I got.
Yours will be a little bit higher off the bottom of the tank, but having four T5 will bring up intensity by quite a bit, so I would expect the numbers above still.
Now, if I were doing your tank, I would use
6x Vero 10 (you can do the mixture of 2700K and 5000K, but the 5000K still has 90CRI and will be ok by itself)
12x Luxeon M royal blue
12x Rebel blue
12x Rebel cyan
12x Rebel ES lime
18-24x LGB violet
Amber is unnecessary with the use of high-CRI vero 10, as is deep red. The LGB 'turquoise' is just a cyan LED and there is not a difference (except in output) in the Rebel cyan.
Even Steve's new legit SemiLEDs violets don't have the same output (nor nearly the spectral width) of the LGB hyper violet.
Wait, what you posed above was for each half?! lol, I missed that part! You would have been WAY over what you needed lol.Thanks Jedi, couldn't ask for a better response than that!
I guess I am way overboard with my list of leds as that was for 1 of the 2 "halves" for my complete light setup. For maintenance purposes I am making two 36" fixtures. Each one will have two t5s so should be similar to yours. I will drop the amber and turquoise, and rework the led count. I spent a couple hours drawing my light fixture with sketchup, once I get it done I'll post it as well.
Wait, what you posed above was for each half?! lol, I missed that part! You would have been WAY over what you needed lol.
I would actually split the heatsinks into three sections, not two. One 18" section to cover each 24" of tank (I'm assuming that your tank has bracing on the top) and then run the LEDs in two clusters on each one, each cluster 8" apart on-center for the most even coverage.
But if two 36" heatsinks are going to work out better, then stick with that plan. Do you have a canopy or anything?