Garage1217's 225G starphire / led / awesome build!

Thanks man, feedback is always appreciated. This build is kicking my butt. As soon as the fixture is done, time to start on the motorized lift system. All the parts are finally in! All I can say is robotmarketplace SUCKS. Stay away from them. Took me 3 weeks to get my motor in and it is not even the original I ordered as it was on backorder, even though it was marked and still is marked in stock. And they shipped to the wrong address, AND shipped via the wrong method... grrrr..
 
Garage1217 - I am working on my own LED DIY build and wondered, I have read on the CREE data sheets about how much humidity affects the life of the bulb. I know that above a tank is about as humid as it gets. Does one have to account for that and build a sealed cover around the LED's? Or a simpler way of asking, what does a guy do to minimize the effects of humidity on the diodes?

BTW, I love your lamp. It looks so very nice. I doubt mine will ever look that nice as I don't have the cash to spend on those bangin heat sinks. Great job all the way.

Brandon
 
I do not have an educated answer for that other than from what I understand, it is humidity over X amount of time, prior to being put through a re-flow process. Not 100% sure on that but it was my understanding.



Edit:
As I thought, from crees data sheet

Baking Conditions
It is not necessary to bake all XLamp LEDs. Only the LEDs that meet all of the following criteria must be baked:
1. LEDs that have been removed from the original MBB packaging
2. LEDs that have been exposed to a humid environment longer than listed in the Moisture Sensitivity section above
3. LEDs that have not been soldered
LEDs should be baked at 80ºC for 24 hours. LEDs may be baked on the original reels. Remove LEDs from MBB packaging before baking. Do not bake parts at temperatures
higher than 80ºC. This baking operation resets the exposure time as defined in the Moisture Sensitivity section
above.
Click to expand...
 
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Better than McGuyver as I remeber it...5 Stars!

Better than McGuyver as I remeber it...5 Stars!

Wow...you have incredible skills my friend! I love the complexity of this project and I'm tagging along to see what you do next.:thumbsup:
 
tastydog said:
Garage1217 - I am working on my own LED DIY build and wondered, I have read on the CREE data sheets about how much humidity affects the life of the bulb. I know that above a tank is about as humid as it gets. Does one have to account for that and build a sealed cover around the LED's? Or a simpler way of asking, what does a guy do to minimize the effects of humidity on the diodes?

BTW, I love your lamp. It looks so very nice. I doubt mine will ever look that nice as I don't have the cash to spend on those bangin heat sinks. Great job all the way.

Brandon
Click to expand...

Brandon & Garage.....

ledsupply sells this led seal... Luxdrive Led Seal......
http://ledsupply.com/09013-07.php

According to LUXdrive you can spray it all over including the LED itself which would make the fixture totally waterproof.

I assume that you can simply spray a light coat over all your led's & connections to seal them from moisture....

Supposedly no PAR or color effect to the LED.


here some interesting proof! haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=07yWAi5Wkdo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vR52SDkn3LQ
 
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Thanks for the feedback and nice info on that clear coat stuff :) May be something to think about for some, especially with leds in a canopy.
 
Did a little electrical on one side tonight. Will possibly finish it tomorrow. Not exactly my best work by any means but gets the job done. Still need to number each of the molex microfit plugs and some other little details on this side, then have to finish the other side / finish it overall.

PS1.jpg
 
Your build quality is really amazing. I love the look of the black heat sinks - I wired up ONE of those units for a poison dart frog tank in January and the black really makes it look a lot nicer.

I may have missed it - are you planning on using any sort of dimming for the panels - simulate clouds, etc?

For example, this person has built a driver box for LEDs that can simulate all sorts of things...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDfispZZiuM&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rho2AY56B5o&feature=related

I've thought of trying to do the same with an Audrino in place of the manual potentiometers I used between my drivers and my leds.
 
Hello Inktomi,
Yes, the fixture will have dimming control and weather if I choose via my apex controller. I also re-designed a few things since my first post, I also plan my apex to control the fan assemblies & custom moon lights. After testing, the heatsinks were more than capable of keeping the leds at a reasonable temp without the fan assemblies even when testing at 900mA per string *LOL* So the fan assemblies are overkill but I will run them at a very low speed anyways just to keep things really cool since I will be driving the leds harder than most when at 100%
 
I'm running my strings at 750mA without a fan on a 20"x10" heatsink and it never gets even to what I'd consider "warm to the touch". I used 10 3-up Luxeon Endorstars, two (for 6 emitters) per driver.
 
Right on. Yeah these heatsinks are 8.5 x 14" and when testing 24 XR-E's at 750mA, The hottest I could get each sink was around 120F. Not bad at all. But over time when they get dusty, the temp will go up pretty rapidly. That and I will be driving them at 850mA... thinking about 900mA but have not made up my mind. I definitely have the cooling ability *LOL*
 
Way to much and still spending on it haha. Scared to add it up *LOL* Definitely did not go about this as a budget build and thank goodness I am a DIY type or my wallet would be in real trouble.
 
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