LEDBrick Project - DIY pendant w/ pucks

[theatrus]

I'll have some early access betas in a week or two

 

[Foggman]

sweet

 

[theatrus]

Build progress.

First test subject as an 8-up Luxeon Z model (the 1/2 Mega).

First, I cut an acrylic jig to hold the board stable:

Align the stencil:

Place LEDs, and pop in the oven:

In this case I placed 2x royal blue, 2x blue, 2x neutral white, 1x lime, 1x cyan

Test light at 10mA

 

[theatrus]

A beauty shot:

This is mounted on the HeatSinkUSA circular heatsink stock (2in length)

With the diffuser plate mounted:

So, performance?

I'll summarize while I collect some more data:

• Spread and diffuse light without any reflector mounted (A+) - the thin object in front of the light test does show multiple colored shadows in air. Much less scattering than other builds I've done with widely spaced LEDs.
• With the reflector alone, there is a color speckling if you look at a white surface - some areas have a more dominant tone than others. This is again in air, need to test with water.
• With the diffuser plate mounted, by far the softest light, with a marked increase in intensity from the un-reflectored lights.

 

[saf1]

That is slick, very slick.

I hope you find a good combination and it turns out to be a reasonable DIY. I would like to try this for my larger tank that appears to be now pushing 300 gallons but 36" tall.

Edit: You may have addressed earlier (I apologize if I missed it) but can you dim each channel or some combination of?

 

[theatrus]

I took some relative PAR numbers using my Apogee SQ-500 at various spreads.

With the sensor 12" above the top of the reflector (or height without reflector), in three configurations:

* Raw: No reflector, just the board
* Reflector: The Ledil Wide Angle Brooke reflector
* Diffuse: The Ledil Wide Angle Brooke reflector + my 89% transmission acrylic diffuser mounted

All measurements in air. 500mA drive to 8 LEDs. PAR.

Centered / on axis:
Reflector: 170PAR
Diffuser: 90PAR
Raw: 41PAR

4 inch offset (Apogee sensor remained fix in angle)
Reflector: 107PAR
Diffuer: 65PAR
Raw: 35PAR

7 inch offset:
Reflector: 42PAR
Diffuer: 33PAR
Raw: 24APAR

12 inches (this is 45degrees off axis, an exteme example)
Reflector: 11PAR
Diffuser: 9PAR
Raw: 12PAR

12inches offset, with the height of the sensor increased to 24 inches above the light:
Reflector: 16PAR
Diffuser: 12PAR
Raw: 9PAR

 

[theatrus]

That is slick, very slick.

I hope you find a good combination and it turns out to be a reasonable DIY. I would like to try this for my larger tank that appears to be now pushing 300 gallons but 36" tall.

Edit: You may have addressed earlier (I apologize if I missed it) but can you dim each channel or some combination of?

The boards either have two or four channels, each one is independent, so yup

I forgot to mention, the push in terminal blocks are very easy to work with. Push in wire. Use a SIM card ejector tool to release the wire (super cheap to include with units).

I haven't confirmed it fits onto T-rail heatsinks, but unless I royally messed up some measurements it should.

 

[theatrus]

Excellent! I know that the Rebel whites are quite popular for DIY on some other sites because of the red shift. It looks like the rebel chip is just a little cheaper as well, though not quite as powerful.





Even more excellenter!! I figured I would have to mount something myself to monitor board temperature until we get some idea what its actual thermal properties are.



I know that some companies drive their diods pretty hard and have issues with early failure. I would rather put a few extra clusters in and run them cooler for longevity.

One Fredfish Special

 

[saf1]

So the oven bit. On the boards you pre-solder or float a bit of solder then place the hardware on after, place in oven at x temp, for x time, and it bonds?

 

[theatrus]

I do a solder paste stencil print. The solder is in a paste form (tiny metal balls suspended in flux). Using a stencil made from laser cut kapton (great for initial runs, steel laser cut is better) I use a squeegee to push the paste into the apertures, lift the stencil up, take out the board, and then place the parts. The paste is somewhat tacky to keep everything in place.

http://www.kester.com/products/product/EP256HA-Solder-Paste/

In the oven its about a 7 minute cycle (heat, soak, peak temp, cool down).

 

[saf1]

Thanks for the information. Wasn't sure how it worked so thanks for the explanation.

 

[theatrus]

No problem! For PCBs, you can get cheap stencils from OSHStencil.com - something like this would cost about $10. Paste can be had on eBay or Amazon in a tube. Before the ramping oven, I just used a Hamilton Beach skillet for prototypes - worked nicely.

 

[theatrus]

Built a 16-up board:

So many LEDs

Arrangement is:

Channel 1(top)
RB, B, RB, B, RB, B, RB RB
Channel 2 (bottom)
Cyan WW NW WW Lime Red NW Cyan

Ramping each channel up and down feels a lot like a Kessil in its control scheme. I didn't add any violets to this build just to cut cost if something went horribly wrong

 

[Halo_003]

No problem! For PCBs, you can get cheap stencils from OSHStencil.com - something like this would cost about $10. Paste can be had on eBay or Amazon in a tube. Before the ramping oven, I just used a Hamilton Beach skillet for prototypes - worked nicely.

Are you saying I can make custom PCBs for relatively little? Can you expand on that if you don't mind? I'd love to make custom PCBs for projects and LEDs.

The 16up looks awesome.

 

[theatrus]

Are you saying I can make custom PCBs for relatively little? Can you expand on that if you don't mind? I'd love to make custom PCBs for projects and LEDs.

The 16up looks awesome.

Yup! The metal core PCBs used for LEDs are a bit more specialty, but its a LOT more common to get them from Chinese outfits.

Step 1 is to design the board. Common in the DIY / Hobby community is Eagle, but you can use KiCad, DIPTrace, CircuitMaker, etc. For LEDs, make sure the board is single layer and no soldered components going through the board.

As for making them, once you have the design files (commonly Gerber files + NC drill file, lots of tutorials for the various software on how to export that), do a little shopping.

For low qty (3) small boards, I love using OSHPark.com, the boards are a nice purple, its a US business and uses US manufacturers. Support and quality are excellent. Free USPS shipping and you get to collect all their stickers They however will not do metal PCBs.

For standard PCBs, you can check all the prototype volume pricing pretty easily with http://pcbshopper.com/

For metal PCBs, I've used both PCBway.com and Gold Phoenix (both China). Both have online quote forms once you know the rough size.

 

[ReefMaverick]

Anyone Interested....I have a bunch of spare Radion Pucks and parts.....

2 X Gen 2 Pucks
4 X Gen 1 Pucks
1 X Gen 2 Wiring Harness
2 X Gen 1 Wiring Harness
1 X Gen 2 Fan
2 X Gen 1 Fan
4 X Tir Lens

Anyone interested ?

 

[Fredfish]

One Fredfish Special

Normally I like mine over easy, but this one looks damned good sunny side up.

I guess I need to get my stuff together and get a tank to put these over.

 

[zachts]

Built a 16-up board:

So many LEDs

Ooo.....you've been busy while I've been away from the forum,.....pretty colors......time to catch up a few pages back.....

 

[Poseidon]

Super cool! That 16 up looks to be a beast.

 

[saf1]

Yeah, they are pretty neat. Will be interesting to see what the final outcome is with tank / display coverage and intensity. Cost of course. I'm really watching with interest since I'm still in an early design phase with a new tank.