Local Kessil A360WN owners? / LED Bake-Off

[treylane]

I just finished building a prototype fixture with led.group.buy's lumia 5.2 chip (they're not a sponsor, google it) and I really like the color, spread, and intensity of the light it puts out. Its wattage and spectrum is somewhat similar to the latest Kessil units and I think it would be useful to reefers who need to make some LED-purchasing decisions to set up a side-by-side comparison of the two fixtures.

Are there any local A360WN owners interested in helping? I can bring my fixture to your place if you have at least a 4' tank, or you can bring your Kessil to mine, and we'll snap some pix for this thread. If anyone has a PAR meter I can borrow for a few days, that would be great too.

 

[Tenny]

PM Sent.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Subbed I'd like to see where this goes. I was looking at the chips and they seem awesome on paper.

 

[treylane]

UPDATE: Tenny has graciously offered to help with this project, we should have side-by-side photos and some PAR numbers up in a few days!

 

[treylane]

A few people have asked for build photos... I didn't get fancy since it's a test unit, but here's what it looks like today:

The fixture and power supply:
The three left-most wires on the power supply are for a 3-prong power outlet, and the four right-most wires are two pairs of supply power, one for each of the driver/dimmer units.

Side view of the optic, the cables, the mounting screws:
The emitter is screwed into the heatsink at the corners, with a layer of arctic silver behind it. The optic is attached to the emitter with high-temp silicone glue.

Top view of fan, four control knobs, exposed wires:
I'd drill a hole in the power supply to route the cables through for a more finished look, but for testing purposes this will do. The heatsink comes with plastic bits that make the exposed ends look better.

Underside of one of the controller knob units:
The two left-most wires are power from the power supply, and then to the right there are two pairs of power out for the LED's, each pair controls one color channel on the lumia. This controller has two 1000ma drivers on it, and the other has two 700ma drivers. The lumia has 5 channels, but since two have the same arrangement of LED's, both of those channels are controlled with the same knob.

Everything just screws together, no need for solder or tools beyond a screwdriver and hex wrench. Documentation / instructions / spec sheets are almost nonexistent, but the build is easy enough that it's not a problem if you have a little DIY experience.

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

Oh boy!
I'm coming along for the ride

 

[Chas]

Very nice, treylane! If you don't mind me asking, what is your estimated cost so far? Are you looking at a significant savings over the comparable Kessil unit going this route?

~Charlie

 

[Dapg8gt]

I'm interested in the same as above from looking quickly at the site the makers mark heatsink and chip is pretty up there on cost.. Still a decent savings though and looks like it should outperform the kessil par wise..I'm waiting on how this goes I may just get a setup to build to put over the frag tank for personal testing =).

 

[treylane]

After tax and shipping, the parts for this build came out to $346, so it's not significantly cheaper and definitely less pretty than a Kessil. It's possible that I could get the cost down if I got parts for several at once or used a cheaper heatsink, but even then I think the better value is in whichever fixture puts out the better spectrum/intensity/spread.

 

[RedStangGA]

Tagging along!

 

[cbrennan4]

This is great! Def tagging along

 

[treylane]

Thanks to Tenny, we have some rough numbers and photos!

PAR numbers at max intensity settings:

Lumia 5.2: 600 @water line, 200 @bottom of tank
Kessil A360WE: 400 @water line, 150 @bottom of tank

Two Kessils over his gorgeous display:

Lumia on the left and kessil on the right:

Both of these fixtures allow you to tune light color and intensity to a degree. Most of the Lumia's settings put out a purpleish light, and the Kessils tend towards a cold white/blue. The Lumia at maximum is brighter than the Kessil at max - the brightness difference is noticeable in person, but the Kessil is not dim by any means.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Thanks for taking the time to do this guy's.. The Lumia is putting out some impressive numbers.. It may just be the pic but it seems like the color mixing on the kessil is a lot more pleasing to the eye than the Lumia.. Was it that noticeable in person?

 

[treylane]

The Lumia doesn't color-mix as smoothly as the Kessil (you can see those odd colored spots on the sand in the bottom photo). It's there if you look for it or are sensitive to it, but I don't consider it distracting in person.

 

[Reefer_Addickt]

I'll bring my fixtures over for testing

 

[Dapg8gt]

How would you consider the spread compared to the kessil? About equal?is it a W version of the kessil?

 

[greengeco82]

Tagging along... This unit has about 30% more PAR then the kessil, and appears to have more spread too. Looking at the side-by-side this units light pushes into the kessil's side. I wonder how much coverage you get if you raised this unit to a height that makes the PAR the same between the two. Could be saving a lot of money if you only had to build one of these, vs 2 kessils.I love that optic btw. And, Dapg8gt, its a W version.

Thanks for sharing. It's awesome.

 

[Dapg8gt]

^^noticed that in the title after it was too late to edit my question lol..

 

[nanomarine]

Good comparison.

What are the dimensions of the tank?
How far are the lights from the water line?

With the 360w set to 90% I find that it's good enough for clam and lps and some sps at the bottom of my 25" sandbed.

Although the wider spread is good, I find that having a 3rd light source in a triangular arrangement provides a better light coverage and less shadowing for the sps. It does cost more though.

 

[robert s b.]

Thanks to Tenny, we have some rough numbers and photos!

PAR numbers at max intensity settings:

Lumia 5.2: 600 @water line, 200 @bottom of tank
Kessil A360WE: 400 @water line, 150 @bottom of tank

Two Kessils over his gorgeous display:

Lumia on the left and kessil on the right:

Both of these fixtures allow you to tune light color and intensity to a degree. Most of the Lumia's settings put out a purpleish light, and the Kessils tend towards a cold white/blue. The Lumia at maximum is brighter than the Kessil at max - the brightness difference is noticeable in person, but the Kessil is not dim by any means.

Looks like the Kessil has more spread, by the more noticeable light spillage behind the tank, also the color looks much better. awesome comparison btw.