LED Update

[pdelcast]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13721480#post13721480 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lynxvs
pdelcast,
I'm impressed with your light, I too have built my own light. I'm curious why you don't have any optics on the LED. Also when you say you built your own LED driver did you use discrete componants or an IC? I use a constant current LED driver IC but found the PCB layout to be the most critical part because of thermal issues.

Hi Lynxvs,

I didn't use any optics because the LEDs I was using had a very nice beam pattern already -- 90 degrees. It worked out very nicely without having to use any collimiting optics. If I had used, for example, the Phillips Lumileds, (which have a much broader beam pattern,) I would have needed optics.

For the LED driver I built a constant current buck converter using discrete components. It runs very cool (converting the 360V to 100V @900ma) because the main drive MOSFET is very over-rated (about a 10 amp MOSFET.) There is a boost PFC before the buck converter, and for that I used an off-the-shelf PFC controller chip (Fairchild.)

Thanx!

Patrick

 

[pdelcast]

double post -- deleted

 

[MasterSparky]

Thats one mother load of LEDs. I'm impressed

 

[pdelcast]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13751550#post13751550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MasterSparky
Thats one mother load of LEDs. I'm impressed

Thanks!

It's been interesting. I have purchased several browned-out acros and watching them color back up in just a couple weeks is pretty cool. It's a good way to get some nice corals -- the browned out ones go on clearance, I pick 'em up cheap, and then get to have a surprise to find out what color they really are.

 

[Haksar]

Good set up..hope you could sell your LED set up some of us guys in Dubai.

 

[pdelcast]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13756281#post13756281 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Haksar
Good set up..hope you could sell your LED set up some of us guys in Dubai.

Sorry guys, this is just an R&D thing. Not going to be selling any.

 

[Lucifa68]

hahahha thats one way to close a thread. like the lights though.

 

[Lucifa68]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13721480#post13721480 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lynxvs
pdelcast,
I'm impressed with your light, I too have built my own light. I'm curious why you don't have any optics on the LED. Also when you say you built your own LED driver did you use discrete componants or an IC? I use a constant current LED driver IC but found the PCB layout to be the most critical part because of thermal issues.

nice light as well

 

[Michael]

fantastic set up, its nice to see LEDs that work and work well, brilliant pics and lighting system, well done buddy, its nice to see

 

[pdelcast]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13833495#post13833495 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Michael
fantastic set up, its nice to see LEDs that work and work well, brilliant pics and lighting system, well done buddy, its nice to see

Thanks Michael.

They seem to be working well. I lost a couple ballasts (blown fuses) because I picked a little bit too low a fuse value, but that has been the only issue so far.

The Cree LEDs are very very bright. Corals that wouldn't grow under T5 are now growing beautifully. Some corals require a little while to get used to the very high lighting, but once they are acclimated, they grow like crazy.

Thanks again for the kind words.

 

[muelpaul]

Very impressive and well thought out Patrick, I found your original thread Here , I hope you don't mind me posting it.

Nice tank too by the way, I really like your coral selections

Paul

 

[ReefEnabler]

Very very nice. I really love the way you surface mounted the LEDs onto those thin circuit board strips that got attached to the heatsinks:

I'm really curious though, how did you go about making those circuit strips? I did check out your other thread, and you mentioned a "pick and place" machine, which I'm guessing is what actually attached the Emitters to your circuit board, but would you mind describing the process involved in making the circuit boards themselves??

Are the circuits printed between layers??? Does the machine place the connector on the end of each circuit as well?

Why am I so curious??? I just finished my own "LED supplementation" build for my 220 reef. Used 6 strings of LEDs, 60 LEDs total (some are MC-E so it's brighter than it sounds)

This is only 180 watts of LEDs. I can't imagine doing 1000 watts using my current methods... Anyways, somewhere in the middle of all the soldering I had to do I swore that if I ever wanted to go All-LED, or do a bigger LED in the future, that I wouldn't be doing any regular star soldering, I would have to up my game and learn the game of reflow soldering and custom PCBs.

Anything you can tell me to push me down that road would be very useful... maybe I can find a company nearby who will let me use their "pick and place" machine if I figure out what I am doing.


Anyways, great and inspiring work!

(oh and one last comment. you almost surely could lose 1/3 of your LEDs and use 60 degree optics and would probably be far brighter without losing any coverage, IMO, based on my own experiments).

 

[PokerReefer]

Its threads like these that worry me about leds. Clearly they are a great power saving effort. And can grow sps . What is it with a two year old thread that stopped being updated ? What ever happened to this tank? The op obviously has a prfessional background . Making a fixture like this work is somewhat above the average reefer. And sounds like the constant maintenance is a huge drawback. It would be great to hear what kind of up keep this system has/had if still running.

 

[ReefEnabler]

sorry, what constant maintenance were you referring to exactly?? replacing a fuse doesn't seem like much trouble.

he did mention possibly going commercial in the future. perhaps that's the reason for the lack of updates. he could be busy getting it all together, afraid of being seen as a shill for his own commercial interests, or possibly even both. that said I'd love to hear more details from him regarding my questions above

 

[PokerReefer]

sorry, what constant maintenance were you referring to exactly?? replacing a fuse doesn't seem like much trouble.

he did mention possibly going commercial in the future. perhaps that's the reason for the lack of updates. he could be busy getting it all together, afraid of being seen as a shill for his own commercial interests, or possibly even both. that said I'd love to hear more details from him regarding my questions above

I was refering to drivers, burnt out leds, etc. I want an led rig myself. This person has not even logged on since last Agust. So I wonder if the system is even set up? I have been reading extesively on leds. And they is so much potential . My only concern is long term equipment functionability. It's not even a matter of whether or not you can sustain a reef with them. It's just more of what is the long term out come. Can the rig be maintenence free for an extended amount of time. I.e more than six months? A year? Do you have a thread about your build?

 

[ReefEnabler]

Yea that is unfortunate he hasn't been around, I didn't notice that when I asked my questions.

I do have a build thread, but the LEDs have been a rather small part of it. Still, the recent posts go over my recent LED venture http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16738184#post16738184

Prior to using the 60 CREE XRE, XPG and MCE mix that I am using now, I used about 30 luxeon LEDs (mix of Luxeon III, V and Endor Star rebel tri emitters). I had that setup running for almost a year, 9-10 months without any problems at all.

However I replaced those since Luxeons really aren't very bright. Well the Luxeon V is bright, but each LED takes almost 7 volts, and isn't much brighter than a Cree that only needs 3.5v.... I'm getting almost double the light output with the Crees, watt for watt. The rebel stars are actually not bad... I just like the MC-E better

I wonder the same things. Luckily I haven't had any real problems yet but my test hasn't been very long. Soundwave's LED build has been running over a year I think (could be wrong) and possibly others. I really see no reason to have problems if you are using commercially available drivers and power supplies and follow the guidelines and stay within spec.

I would love to do my whole 220 gallon tank but it would take me months to solder than many LEDs the traditional way (and my wife would kill me), so I'm going to have to take my knowledge level up.

 

[andrewturk1970]

Other than home made setup like this one, I would like a recomendation on a LED unit for my 190 gal. 6ft long...

I am using Metal Halides and The heat they produce is not good. I had to get a chiller to keep it in check. the issue is, when the chiller kicks in, my office is a sauna!

I would rather go with a nice LED setup

recomendations??