LEDBrick Project - DIY pendant w/ pucks

[Fredfish]

Dropping in different/new footprints is trivial at this point - what would interest people? More Rebel? All Cree? Luxeon Z? I'm looking for a raw-chip source of violets which isn't going to break the bank. I'm also trying some new branding not under the LEDBrick name

Hell yeah! I've been contemplating a 7 up configuration using 2 steve's 3 ups + violet. 2xRB, 1xWW, 1xLime, 1xBlue, 1x425ish Violet. I was looking at 5 channels to control so I can manage each colour separately. A single chip with a plug in connector would be just amazing!!

I have a question though. Given that Violet is not a spectrum particularly visible to us, does it really need to be on the multi board? Since blending is not an issue, co-location of what ever number of violets you want per cluster would be fine.

 

[theatrus]

Hell yeah! I've been contemplating a 7 up configuration using 2 steve's 3 ups + violet. 2xRB, 1xWW, 1xLime, 1xBlue, 1x425ish Violet. I was looking at 5 channels to control so I can manage each colour separately. A single chip with a plug in connector would be just amazing!!

I have a question though. Given that Violet is not a spectrum particularly visible to us, does it really need to be on the multi board? Since blending is not an issue, co-location of what ever number of violets you want per cluster would be fine.

Running violet in a tight array isn't as needed as you pointed out.

The tradeoff with more channels is really more, larger connectors. I'm still messing around with the mechanicals to see if I can make a (not ugly) mount which will also fit the T-slot arrangement as well as the small round HSUSA round profile. If you're going to adhere or drill and tap your own heatsink anything goes of course.

My ideal spectral points (sans violet), are: RB, Blue, Cyan, White [Lime/PC Amber], [Red].

You could couple Cyan to the Blue channel IMO at a specific ratio of emitters (4:1 ?). White, Lime, Red could be put on its own shared channel as well, which gets you to a realistic 3 channel count, unless you're a control freak

 

[aiq25]

theatrus, do you have a B.O.M. posted for the LM3414 board? I wanted to know what type/brand of inductors and diodes used in your build.

 

[Maryland Guppy]

How hot do the LM3414hv's get?
This may turn into my chip of choice for next project.

 

[theatrus]

I checked Github and then realized I forgot to post the details. Eep.

https://github.com/theatrus/ledbrick/blob/master/driver/ledbrick_driver_lm3414_rev0.pdf

For the specific parts, the diode was initially an MBR0540T1G, but this was pretty under-rated so I swapped to a http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/PMEG6020ER.pdf

Inductors were the MSS1246 (47uH) from Coilcraft: http://www.coilcraft.com/mss1246.cfm

The LM3414 turned out to be very efficient, meeting its stated 96%+ goal. The board under 1A full load will be warm, but it can be easily dealt with via PCB copper pours.

 

[aiq25]

I checked Github and then realized I forgot to post the details. Eep.

https://github.com/theatrus/ledbrick/blob/master/driver/ledbrick_driver_lm3414_rev0.pdf

For the specific parts, the diode was initially an MBR0540T1G, but this was pretty under-rated so I swapped to a http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/PMEG6020ER.pdf

Inductors were the MSS1246 (47uH) from Coilcraft: http://www.coilcraft.com/mss1246.cfm

The LM3414 turned out to be very efficient, meeting its stated 96%+ goal. The board under 1A full load will be warm, but it can be easily dealt with via PCB copper pours.

Thanks!

 

[Fredfish]

Running violet in a tight array isn't as needed as you pointed out.

The tradeoff with more channels is really more, larger connectors. I'm still messing around with the mechanicals to see if I can make a (not ugly) mount which will also fit the T-slot arrangement as well as the small round HSUSA round profile. If you're going to adhere or drill and tap your own heatsink anything goes of course.

Dang. In my excitement I missed that your layout was two channels.

My ideal spectral points (sans violet), are: RB, Blue, Cyan, White [Lime/PC Amber], [Red].
You could couple Cyan to the Blue channel IMO at a specific ratio of emitters (4:1 ?). White, Lime, Red could be put on its own shared channel as well, which gets you to a realistic 3 channel count, unless you're a control freak

I left out the Cyan in my layout. It should be there. Ideally I would want 4RB to 2 blue to 1 Cyan with the Cyan probably turned down. Red is a tricky colour to blend so I would leave it out and instead favour a red heavy white, using the lime to bring up the green/yellow. There are compromises no mater what emitters you select.

I'm no control freak, but I do like to tinker.

My goal is to see how much better the spread of light is if you go with more smaller pucks over a given area. I would much rather see 4 7-ups over a 12-18" area than a single Radion puck.

 

[theatrus]

Its easy to add more channels if you don't mind bigger wings on the ends for more connectorge (the technical term). I can mock something up to see what it looks like

 

[zachts]

Dang. In my excitement I missed that your layout was two channels.


I left out the Cyan in my layout. It should be there. Ideally I would want 4RB to 2 blue to 1 Cyan with the Cyan probably turned down. Red is a tricky colour to blend so I would leave it out and instead favour a red heavy white, using the lime to bring up the green/yellow. There are compromises no mater what emitters you select.

I'm no control freak, but I do like to tinker.

My goal is to see how much better the spread of light is if you go with more smaller pucks over a given area. I would much rather see 4 7-ups over a 12-18" area than a single Radion puck.

More smaller arrays is way better than a few larger ones, only way to eliminate the shadowing that causes coral die off on the undersides of colonies, one of the main complaints with those lights and why almost everyone using them adds T5. Spread out the light sources and T5 is absolutely not needed, but you do loose some of that shimmer, still plenty though, not quite like a MH but close enough and way better than fluorescent only lighting. Went from 4x VHOs to a linear grid type array of LEDs with all colors pretty evenly distributed and everything is improved, color, growth, shimmer, and energy efficiency. No negatives since installed last August.

 

[zachts]

Its easy to add more channels if you don't mind bigger wings on the ends for more connectorge (the technical term). I can mock something up to see what it looks like

What about just some good old fashion solder points, less space used up and no connectors to buy, but of course you have to solder which so many people seem to be afraid of lately......it's soooo easy!

 

[theatrus]

What about just some good old fashion solder points, less space used up and no connectors to buy, but of course you have to solder which so many people seem to be afraid of lately......it's soooo easy!

Saves an easy $1-2 of BOM cost per

 

[theatrus]

Here are two quick spectral possibilities (NW = neutral white, L = lime, C= cyan)

Ch1: RB RB RB RB B B
Ch2: NW NW
Ch3: C C
Ch4: L L


Ch1: RB RB RB RB RB B B
Ch2: NW NW C L

The second one could be mounted on the above AcroStar (with a different layout/routing), first one would require more channels to be routed through. I'm using the Osram emitters for RB still as they're a smidgen smaller and technically are 5W parts, though when run this tightly and mixed with a Cree XT-E2 you're not going to get 5W out of them (serious heat in a seriously small space).

The channels aren't symmetric in Vf, but there isn't much that can be done there.

(The pictured arrangement is:

Ch1: 1x Rebel, 5x Osram Square
Ch2: 4x Cree XP/CT, 1x Rebel)

 

[ElLoco]

Good thread... sub'd

 

[Fredfish]

Take that first cluster and split it in two and I'll get all excited again. I'd go with WW rather than NW though.

You could put the white and lime on the same channel if you wanted to reduce by one.

 

[Fredfish]

More smaller arrays is way better than a few larger ones, only way to eliminate the shadowing that causes coral die off on the undersides of colonies, one of the main complaints with those lights and why almost everyone using them adds T5. Spread out the light sources and T5 is absolutely not needed, but you do loose some of that shimmer, still plenty though, not quite like a MH but close enough and way better than fluorescent only lighting. Went from 4x VHOs to a linear grid type array of LEDs with all colors pretty evenly distributed and everything is improved, color, growth, shimmer, and energy efficiency. No negatives since installed last August.

Do you have an updated thread anywhere? I followed some of your earlier builds.

 

[theatrus]

The good news on the mechanical front, now that I have a model for the above reflector, is I can reduce the overall footprint by a bit by moving in the header closer:

As for split, were you thinking of:

Ch1: RB RB B
Ch2: RB RB B
Ch3: WW WW L
Ch4: C C

Or a RB RB + B B on two channels? Rebels are hard to fit due to their comparatively large footprints, but its the only LED type with all the variants (I wish Luxeon Z had them...)

 

[theatrus]

I take that back, Cyan is available in the Luxeon Z micro lens-less package. This changes everything! (Well, at least one thing)

http://www.lumileds.com/uploads/415/DS105-pdf

 

[zachts]

With cyan and limes in the mix I think I'd go with the highest CRI warm whites you can find.....but that's just me. Cool project!

 

[Fredfish]

...

As for split, were you thinking of:

Ch1: RB RB B
Ch2: RB RB B
Ch3: WW WW L
Ch4: C C

Or a RB RB + B B on two channels? Rebels are hard to fit due to their comparatively large footprints, but its the only LED type with all the variants (I wish Luxeon Z had them...)

You and I are thinking in different directions. I want half the LEDs per cluster so I can double the number of clusters for a given area of Aquarium.

Now, moving to Luxeon Z would change things a bit as they are less costly per unit.

In a 4 channel cluster I would put:
CH1: RB RB B
CH2: WW
CH3: L
CH4: C

You could reduce that to 3 channels by combining the ww and L.

Definitely a cool project. I'm surprised nobody else is jumping in to say "I want..."

 

[theatrus]

Fair enough. I was trying to pack density for my use, but your approach makes a lot of sense too.