Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

[madlarkin]

Lasse,
Wasn't dismissing the photos you shot, the coloration looks excellent and very natural. Was more musing because I think I jumped the gun buying the hybrid chips. I may have missed it, but what drivers are you running on your 100w chips?

 

[kentrob11]

d3hree- I haven't nailed that down yet but i was thinking something in this line:

http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-hlg-240h-power-supply.html

Lassef- Thanks again for the further explanations! Th pics help a little. I think i like the look of the 20K so I'll be ordering a test chip as soon as I can nail down the driver to get with it...Which of the drivers from the link above do you think would work best? I'm a moron when it comes to electricity!

 

[kentrob11]

Or would this one be better?

http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-hlg-240h-42b-power-supply.html

 

[TropTrea]

Comparison.

View attachment 188940 View attachment 188941 View attachment 188942 View attachment 188943​

Reality - No - it depends on the camera but you can see the relative change of colors.

Sincerely Lasse

Then I would suprisingly say that the 20,000K chips looks very natural. Nakes me almost wonder if it is a 20,000K since a true 20,000K has almost no red light in it all.

Years ago I remembers seeing on the web a full color strip with the effects of various volor temperature lights on it. The 20,000K basicly shoed only the Blues and Greens as distingishuable colors, While a 1,200K strip only allowed you distinguish the reds and a little yellow oranges.

While I'm using 4,200K LED's for my whites because I'm suplementing them with loads of blues and royal Blues my daylight looks actualy bluer than your 20,000K look. My Predawn running Royal Blues and Blues basicly only shows the florescense colors, and my Dawn to Dusk running about a 6 to 1 combo of Bles to whites first starts bringing in some of the reflective colors.

To me there is two ways of lighting a tank, for growth or for display. Either way you need a lot of blue light. However for display you realy want to balance out the green and red so the reflective colors don't get lost in all the blue. Youer coral collection realy has a lot of bearing on this as if your usijng loads of corals that are high in florescense then you you do not need as much red, But if many of your corals and fish are high in reflective reds then you do not want them looking too dark.

I have a Cole tank tyhat basicly looks all black with a little hint of striping in my tank. But if I turn all the pre dawn and dawn to dusk lights off the remaining whites and blues left make his fine yellow orange stipes realy stand out.

There is so much to getting a good color balance for a tank and I don't believe more than 20% of the people would pick the same lighting combination as there prefered preference. Even myself at time I think my tank is too blue while at other times I want it bluer so the florescense pops more. So please keep in mind that comments on color balance are strictly personal preference and what realy matters is what you like since it is your tank and you be the one looking at it.

 

[Lassef]

The drivers I´m running you can find here and here The last one its outside the chip´s specifikation (36 - 42 V compared to the chip´s 32-36 V) But ir works with both chip and it gives thr rigth voltage and current. That I have checked through meauserment.

@ Kentrob11: Soner or later I´m going to test HLG-240H-42B to this chip´s - good if you test it first What to espect? The dim will probably don´t go down to zero so you need some timer to shout it down when you want it to be dark. What i can understand so will the following " Constant Current adjustable via PWM or 1-10VDC " mean that into the driver you adjust with PWM or 1-10 V but out from the driver to the LED you adjust through the current. I have some of this type (constant current adjustable from the driver) in another application and they does not go down to zero. My adjust between 900 - 50 mA.
If you read the specifikations of HLG-240H-42B it looks like the current is able to be adjust between 2.86 - 5.72 A. It could be this way but I have a friend that have been using this type of Meanwell´s driver and if I remember right - he was able to go down to lower current. With my experiences you vill have arround 92 W if it goes down to arround 2.88 A and probably arround 200 watt at 5.72 A. Dimmable ..... sort of. But it is not sure it works that way - you have to test. Please report back - I´m also in need of information

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lassef]

@ TropTrea: Basically you can get what ever you wan´t in K with a combination of three colours. Red, Blue and Green - the RGB system. In this Epistar LED it looks like i miss a little of the yellow coloration. If you lool at the bars in the midle of my carpent you see a tint of yellow at daylight. Below the 20 000 K - the same bar are more white. The red bars (or more the color of rust) to the right is the same in both cases. It should be intresting to see the spectral distribution of Epistars 20 000 K LED if there is any. I have not seen any.

If I have a chance - I´ll will do the same test but have a carpent with much red in it below the light - we will see if the force is with me

Sincerely Lasse

 

[kentrob11]

OK so how about the idea of spot lighting corals with single led chips an tight optics to bring out the coloration where necessary? I'm thinking a red or warm white dimmable LED spotlight on things like rose BTA's, red caps, etc to bring out those pigments/reflected colors in a tank more dominated by bluer wavelengths...

 

[kentrob11]

Also, I think I am going to contact meanwell and find out which driver they recommend for this application, since I would definitely like the option to run this LED at 200+ watts and dim it down to zero...

 

[sfsuphysics]

Interesting thread, I spent most of last night reading it while I was proctoring a test for one of my classes.

Might be useful for what I wanted to do by making LED spotlights for areas of my tanks (basically only care about lighting where corals are).

Although I'm wondering why a lot of the other LED guys I've normally see give their 2 cents haven't been active at all in this thread, hopefully it's not a case of "if you have nothing good to say..."

 

[Lassef]

OK so how about the idea of spot lighting corals with single led chips an tight optics to bring out the coloration where necessary? I'm thinking a red or warm white dimmable LED spotlight on things like rose BTA's, red caps, etc to bring out those pigments/reflected colors in a tank more dominated by bluer wavelengths...

I have done that . In a small Swedish Westcoast Aquarium. We have at our westcoast many beatyfully red anemone´s. To highlight them in an aquarium I use a red LED spotligt of normal type. The problem with this is that you need a very narrow beam - otherwise it will be strange colors arround the highlighted area. Just test.

Many people around here is afraid of shadows and hence - highligted areas but in a large tank i´ll think that it will be very good with a variation. I havé not a large tank 460 l (121 gallon) but I work with a variation in light after time of the day.

Sincerely lasse

 

[kentrob11]

Glad to hear that the spot lighting is working Lasse! Since my tank will be so large, i will be focusing more of larger, faster growing colonies so the end result would be large color patches proportional to the size of the tank. For instance, I plan on mounting 10-12 frags of bali green stag onto a rock 12-15" across so that they all grow into a single huge colony 20+ inches across. then I could spot light it with a single 3w green led and 40 degree optic to bring out the color...It make need more than one but that could only be confirmed by some testing I think... I'll do the same with other colored colonies as well, strategically placing them so that colors compliment what's next to it.

BTW, I called that company and they recommend the HLG-240H-30B for the 100w LED.

 

[Lassef]

That I do not understand - 8 A and 15-30V as constant current region. It sounds wrong if it is Epistars LED

Sincerely Lasse

 

[jtrasap]

I jumped on the bandwagon last week.

Ordered three of these in 20'000k for $96 shipped
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123#ht_2573wt_1270

Three of these for $60 shipped
http://www.ebay.com/itm/260874964118?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

And three of these for $34 shipped
http://www.ebay.com/itm/29070088110...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1396wt_1139


So in total so far I have about $190 wrapped up in the setup. Will be surroundig them with 3w Royal blues and a few red.

 

[kentrob11]

Could be lassef- So you think the ones i mentioned before would be better?

jtrasap- Be sure to keep us updated on your progress...What size tank is this going over?

 

[Punkalflufen]

After reading this thread i decided to give multi chip LED's a chance and have finished ordering all the components just waiting on delivery.
My tanks is a 5x2x2.5 180G tank and the 30 inch depth frightened me away from LED's to begin with. Anyway without an further delay here is the system i have ordered...

LED's
EPISTAR 50W 10000K 45mil LED Panel $80x3 = $240
EPISTAR 20W 453nm Royal Blue 45mil LED Panel for Aquarium $18x4 = $72
EPISTAR 20W 445nm Royal Blue 45mil LED Panel for Aquarium $18x4 = $72
20W 420nm UV LED Panel $33.5x2 = $67
20W 405nm UV LED Panel $47x2 = $94
Total = $545

Drivers
3 x 90 Watt, Single Output, LPF-90D-48 from Mean Well (LPF-90D-48) = $145.05
3 x 90 Watt, Single Output, LPF-90D-36 from Mean Well (LPF-90D-36) = $145.05
Total = $290.10

Heat Sinks
PC Cooler S93 CPU cooler, heat pipe, fits AMD 754/ 939/ AM2/ AM2+/ AM3, Intel LGA775/ 1155/ 1156 $6x15 = $116.28
Total = $116.28

Lens
8x 45mm 90* Lens 8x 11.5 = $92
3x 62mm 90* Lens 3x $13.8 = $41.4
Total = $133.4

Controler
GHL Profilux Plus II Controller 1x $435
GHL Profilux USB-Interface Expansion 1x $90
Total= $556.70

Grand Total = $1641.48

I should probably mention that the 4 UV chips i have are really just for an experiment i have wanted to do. UV really starts at 400nm so they are really violet and indigo. They will be running at 10% power to begin with and i will not have a lens on them.

 

[jtrasap]

jtrasap- Be sure to keep us updated on your progress...What size tank is this going over?

The coolers arrived today, the rest will probably be a couple weeks coming from China. I'll be sure and update my progress when everything gets here. The light are going over a 220(72"x24"x30").

 

[kentrob11]

Good deal...looking forward to updates...

 

[Lassef]

Could be lassef- So you think the ones i mentioned before would be better?

jtrasap- Be sure to keep us updated on your progress...What size tank is this going over?

At least, I would double check it if it was true what they said. Yes I think 42B is the best driver, and also, I think it's best to run them at lower current than they maximum withstand.

Sincerely Lasse

Edit: @ punkalflufen: If I remember correctly, Profilux Plus II just has 4 x 1-10 V outputs. Profilux Plus II ex has 6 I think. There is also an expansion card that fits both with 4 auxiliary outputs.

Here is pictures how the illumination im my tank varies according to time of day. The period is from 09:00 to 24:00..

 

[Punkalflufen]

Thank you Lassef, I am looking into that at the moment, if you have a good source of information please let me know.

The heat sinks i ordered were also out of stock (site said in stock and 20+ items) so i had to change my order, the 20w heat sinks are similar to the originals (a little better 70w cooling apparently) but i ordered 3x CoolerMaster Hyper TX3's these are rated at 130w+ so even if I do upgrade the driver later on I will still have an over sized heat sink if only just.

 

[Lassef]

Thank you Lassef, I am looking into that at the moment, if you have a good source of information please let me know.

The heat sinks i ordered were also out of stock (site said in stock and 20+ items) so i had to change my order, the 20w heat sinks are similar to the originals (a little better 70w cooling apparently) but i ordered 3x CoolerMaster Hyper TX3's these are rated at 130w+ so even if I do upgrade the driver later on I will still have an over sized heat sink if only just.

In the middle of this page is a table where standard equipment on each model are listed.

PLM-4L, 4 1-10V-interfaces, PL-0370 here

Sincerely Lasse