Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

garbled said:
So to bring my amp draw saga to a silly close, I hooked up a kill-a-watt to the driver today, and took a direct measurement of the draw at the wall. 1.3A, 154W at the wall. I guess what that tells me is that the amp measurement on an Apex is possibly not as accurate as one would hope. (it was off by 0.5 AFAICT)

Overall though, 1.3A is not bad given how much light this thing puts out. I'm happy. I'm seriously considering replacing my 400W MH with two of these. Not having to fight the heat all the time would be nice, and, yay computer controlled dimming.
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Nice :)
 
Hay guys,

Any help on my post at 770 would be greatly appreciated, since I'm new on here it took a while to pop up so was quite easily missed. :thumbsup:
 
Thank you!

Thank you!

Well I ordered 25 ELN-30-12P, and 25 20w led's. This will be a very flexible light system ( 20k 16k 14k 10k royal blue) . My only question would be. With this many leds, do you think I will still need optics for a 30" deep tank - sand so about 26"
Thanks for all the help, Can't wait to get it all in to start to play. Tank will be here on the 23rd of next month.. led's should be here before then.
Mike
 
I would buy one or two optics, wire it all up, and then maybe try with and without, and see what it looks like. Even without the optics though, I really like the optic mounting bases, as they reduce the spread just enough so it isn't firing out sideways.
 
Looks Like I'll be getting the 100w chip in today. I think I am going to try to meet up with someone who has a stocked reef tank to hold it over to get an idea of color rendition. Stay tuned....
 
bemenaker said:
@scorphonic. Wire your LEDs in series, and you can put that driver in just about any housing you want.
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Thank you bemenaker for the heads up about housing.

Regarding the wiring of the unit to the mains, From the image of the driver from ac-rc on ebay it seems there are two wires either side of the device, two obviously for the LED's and do I simply wire up the other side for the AC power supply or do I have to use a power supply that delivers something like 12V to the device?
 
On mine one side only had red wires, but on the board itself it says AC. The other side had red and black wires and said LED. You wire the AC side directly to your plug. I would start with the driver dimmed, and if yours is like mine, and if i remember right, you turn it clockwise to dim it. Hmm, guess to be safe, I would set it in the middle, I started mine on full brightness when I thought I had it on full dim, I was trying to be cautious.

--Brian
 
That looks identical to the one I bought from AC-RC for my 50W. It should work. I just ordered one because I need a 60deg instead of a 90, and that one is cheaper. :)
 
10reefman said:
can i run 2 50w chips in parallel with 1 power supply?
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You can do that, but it's very risky. If one led fails, the other will burn from too much current.

I have two "100W" leds (they are sold as 100W anyway) that can be run up to 250W each (if you read the specs), so I am driving them in parallell with a 200W driver, if one chip fails then the other led can still take all of the current.
 
Who has implemented this style led setup on and 6ft or 8ft 30 inches deep tank would like to see your setup or some input on what I should go with thanks
 
noplay180 said:
Who has implemented this style led setup on and 6ft or 8ft 30 inches deep tank would like to see your setup or some input on what I should go with thanks
Click to expand...

I am curious about this also, though mine is 48" X 18" X 30" deep... I really can't decide what to do now... I love the idea of 3 X 100 Watt Led's But don't know if it would be better to go with more lower wattage?
 
I currently have one of these 100W over my 30" deep tank. I don't currently have a lens on it, because I am trying different lenses out before I go all in. The penetration is as good as my 400W MH. I've been playing with lenses, and still have more reasearch to do, but basically, I'm pulling all my MH's off and replacing them with these things. I run mine at 150W, could probably go 180 or so. They don't have the same coverage as a MH, so you end up needing more to cover a wide area. But, mine running at 150w draws 1.3 amps, so, alot less than a MH. Don't know if I will actually save power or not, but I'll save heat, bulbs, and gain dimming.
 
garbled said:
I currently have one of these 100W over my 30" deep tank. I don't currently have a lens on it, because I am trying different lenses out before I go all in. The penetration is as good as my 400W MH. I've been playing with lenses, and still have more reasearch to do, but basically, I'm pulling all my MH's off and replacing them with these things. I run mine at 150W, could probably go 180 or so. They don't have the same coverage as a MH, so you end up needing more to cover a wide area. But, mine running at 150w draws 1.3 amps, so, alot less than a MH. Don't know if I will actually save power or not, but I'll save heat, bulbs, and gain dimming.
Click to expand...

Could you post a couple pictures of the spread with different lenses?
 
TropTrea said:
Yes that is what I would do. Realy the multi Chip arrays are not much different than running many single chips. My only two concerns are cooling 50 watts of LED's is such a small area. and getting an even distribution of light.
Click to expand...
would you rather recommend (for more even distribution)...
4x20 watt 16000k
5x20 watt royal blue
???
if you forgot, this is for a 60 gallon cube (2'x2'x2')
if so can i run these on 2 HLG 100-48-B drivers (1 for whites and 1 for royal blue)
 
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