Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build
- Thread starter maglofster
- Start date
So no go on a white-blue-420? I really would prefer to get all the essentials on one chip, I really want to get away from disco and extraneous optics.
On a side note, if you are looking for a heatsink and not sure what to get, check out the listings at frostytech (http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm). The best part is, they test with a 150w resisitive heater and an 85w, or 100w and 50w on older reviews. On this basis, I found a heatsink that will suit my needs.. (Zalman CNPS7000cu).
I'm going to be building a pendant around the 60w hybrid (30 10k : 30 453nm) with 65 or 90 degree optics. That heatsink is just the right size to fit inside a 4" PVC SCH80 coupler (maybe with a little reaming). And it's a round style and blows the air down. Should work perfect, I'll put up pics once I've got something to show. Temp over ambient of the LED at full blast (150w) will be ~28C.
On a side note, if you are looking for a heatsink and not sure what to get, check out the listings at frostytech (http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm). The best part is, they test with a 150w resisitive heater and an 85w, or 100w and 50w on older reviews. On this basis, I found a heatsink that will suit my needs.. (Zalman CNPS7000cu).
I'm going to be building a pendant around the 60w hybrid (30 10k : 30 453nm) with 65 or 90 degree optics. That heatsink is just the right size to fit inside a 4" PVC SCH80 coupler (maybe with a little reaming). And it's a round style and blows the air down. Should work perfect, I'll put up pics once I've got something to show. Temp over ambient of the LED at full blast (150w) will be ~28C.
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
I would definitely use 420nm. It is good for growth, exciting pigments and showcasing existing pigments. Exclusive blue light for a few hours in the morning will excite pigments and show better colour for the entire day. Actinic light has been well accepted in the hobby for almost 30 years. You would have a hard time convincing a T% or metal halide user to lose their actinic lights.
Hobby-grade PAR meters do not read blue light well as Lassef has stated. You can use a UV meter to measure UV irradiating from 420nm chips. As I mentioned before, the higher cost and perceived lack of PAR/PUR from 420nm LEDs has made them less common, but they are still vital in my opinion.
I use some red chips (10%), but I have my doubts on their value, as there is likely enough red in the white chips and there is evidence that too much red light will bleach corals.
Hobby-grade PAR meters do not read blue light well as Lassef has stated. You can use a UV meter to measure UV irradiating from 420nm chips. As I mentioned before, the higher cost and perceived lack of PAR/PUR from 420nm LEDs has made them less common, but they are still vital in my opinion.
I use some red chips (10%), but I have my doubts on their value, as there is likely enough red in the white chips and there is evidence that too much red light will bleach corals.
My build
My build
Hey guys I would like to thank you for starting this thread it has been very informative. I plan on ordering some multi-chips tomorrow and would like to get a second pair of eyes on the order. Please let me know if you foresee any issues. I plan on having the LED's 10 inches from the top of the water. The tank size is 72 x 18 x 24. Below is a picture of how i plan on setting up the LED's. The driver setups are as follows 20000K and 10000K, 445nm and 455nm, 420nm, and 660 all on separate dimmable drivers. Thank you for your advice.
LED's:
10W 20000K = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270973146587#ht_2079wt_907
10W 10000K = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270854854262#ht_1642wt_907
20W 455nm = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270865876938#ht_1613wt_907
20W 445nm = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270871645540#ht_1669wt_907
20W 660nm = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270985788585#ht_2366wt_1018
20W 420nm = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270935350932#ht_1609wt_907
Drivers:
20000K and 10000K -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
660nm -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
420nm -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
445nm and 455nm -
http://www.trcelectronics.com/Meanwell/hlg-320h-12b.shtml
Heatsinks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103086
My build
Hey guys I would like to thank you for starting this thread it has been very informative. I plan on ordering some multi-chips tomorrow and would like to get a second pair of eyes on the order. Please let me know if you foresee any issues. I plan on having the LED's 10 inches from the top of the water. The tank size is 72 x 18 x 24. Below is a picture of how i plan on setting up the LED's. The driver setups are as follows 20000K and 10000K, 445nm and 455nm, 420nm, and 660 all on separate dimmable drivers. Thank you for your advice.
LED's:
10W 20000K = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270973146587#ht_2079wt_907
10W 10000K = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270854854262#ht_1642wt_907
20W 455nm = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270865876938#ht_1613wt_907
20W 445nm = 6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270871645540#ht_1669wt_907
20W 660nm = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270985788585#ht_2366wt_1018
20W 420nm = 3
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270935350932#ht_1609wt_907
Drivers:
20000K and 10000K -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
660nm -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
420nm -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220947560986#ht_1817wt_907
445nm and 455nm -
http://www.trcelectronics.com/Meanwell/hlg-320h-12b.shtml
Heatsinks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103086
Attachments
Kapital: Those cooler master HSF are reported rather loud, not sure if that matters to you, but you can get new Intel heatsinks for very cheap, and they ARE quiet, and quite easily capable of cooling 85 watts of heat. I just ordered 9 from this guy for some various lights: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/160741297985...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_2146wt_1068 )
The stock intel HSF actually makes it into the frostytech top 5 low profile low noise heatsinks. Hard to beat the quality for the price! There are a couple of different styles but performance is all very similar. Some have a metal "X" base attachment bracket and some have a plastic job that extends from the fan. My plan was to pop out the little plastic retainer pins and use those brackets to attach them to <whatever>.
Also did you try powergate for the meanwell driver? The HLG320's are $116 there, and they have almost all the voltages in stock. Keep in mind those drivers on ebay probably aren't dimmable with a lighting controller.
The stock intel HSF actually makes it into the frostytech top 5 low profile low noise heatsinks. Hard to beat the quality for the price! There are a couple of different styles but performance is all very similar. Some have a metal "X" base attachment bracket and some have a plastic job that extends from the fan. My plan was to pop out the little plastic retainer pins and use those brackets to attach them to <whatever>.
Also did you try powergate for the meanwell driver? The HLG320's are $116 there, and they have almost all the voltages in stock. Keep in mind those drivers on ebay probably aren't dimmable with a lighting controller.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Kapital,
This looks like a pretty good mixture, might I ask why you would not use the meanwell PWM dimmable drivers for all of the chips?
I ask because I am wishing to make an array for the tank I mention in post #1332, and I would like to have full PWM dimming control.
This looks like a pretty good mixture, might I ask why you would not use the meanwell PWM dimmable drivers for all of the chips?
I ask because I am wishing to make an array for the tank I mention in post #1332, and I would like to have full PWM dimming control.
Yeah, I've been through that site many times. Learned a lot there. Learned mainly it was going to be difficult to find a heatsink I could work with. It was tricky finding a heatsink that would both work well and look good over a rimless tank, but I did find one. It turned out to be pretty good looking build too.
It's really up to you and how much you want to under or over drive your multichips. The specs for both forward voltage and max current for the multichips are available, and the voltage output and drive currents for the Meanwells are available as well. It's really your choice what you want to do and buy based on the specs you have at hand.
Well you can either wire them in series or parallel... Series would mean a total voltage of 50-55V (so a 54v meanwell would work; they will go to at least 56v) or in parallel you would run two wires to each LED from the driver and the voltage would be 10-11v, so the 12V driver would be indicated. The wattage would be whatever is appropriate; probably a bunch of HLG100-H-54B (the B is for external dimming control), which are rated to 58V. They aren't in stock looks like but they only take a couple weeks for them to order in.
ronreef: did you see that 95C/100C fanless heatsink? Reef pendant as a work of art! I think I'd go for the chromed one, though, copper would get ugly fast over saltwater!
ronreef: did you see that 95C/100C fanless heatsink? Reef pendant as a work of art! I think I'd go for the chromed one, though, copper would get ugly fast over saltwater!
will this dimmer work on this driver?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Light-D...ultDomain_0&hash=item230f1682a9#ht_3777wt_939
http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-hlg-240h-12b-power-supply.html
If not what is a good dimmer for this driver.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Light-D...ultDomain_0&hash=item230f1682a9#ht_3777wt_939
http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-hlg-240h-12b-power-supply.html
If not what is a good dimmer for this driver.
Last edited:
Lassef
Member
Be careful with the red chips. They are strong and can easily dominate the aquarium. It drives your choice to them does not work either. Unlike other chip 20 watts, they have a low FV. I have a couple and my having no more than about 6.5 V in FV at 1800 mA. I would replace them with 3 white instead (16 000 K). If you use red - put them in the middle row.
I would also use 20-watt chip even for the white light. The normal ratio 1 white to 2 RB that is used when the whites are around 6500 K is not required when working with white chips with high degrees Kelvin, in my experience.The selected drivers from AC-RC is just dimable manually and requires 5 pc chip that are connected in series - neither more nor less.
Sincerely Lasse
tfrizz80
New member
I'd really like someone to answer this cause I'd like to know also. While ac-rc has what seems to be nice products there are other sellers selling what seems to be the same thing. Those 2 100w chips seem to be the same but the cost difference is mind blowing. I know one can be overdriven but if u run them both at 100w. Thanks for the link Floyd. There are many more examples of this on eBay.
I was trying to find a speck sheet for the Max wattage cooling capacity on the Intel HSF and came across this seller http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i3-i5-i7-Socket-LGA-1155-1156-Original-CPU-Heatsink-and-Fan-OEM-COPPER-/130733981904?pt=CPUs&ha (Free Shipping ) But I have not found info on the max cooling, do you have a link for the info. Thanks---Rick
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Right, the ac-rc one shows max power 252W, so maybe this is the difference. Running one of these at 250W on one heat sink might be cheaper than running 3 of the cheaper ones when you figure in HSs and fans, but if you are only going to run is at 100W, is there a reason why I would want to spend 4x more?
tfrizz80
New member
Plus depending how long your tank is you might not be able to run just one multi chip at 250w. You might need more chips for better coverage. In my case a single 100 w chip at 252 w would have too cover 2*3 foot area. I would probably be better off running 2 100 w chips with no lens a foot off the water I think.
RiddleEagle18
New member
I am doing a 300W setup which is about 50W too much for my tank. In the future I want to run it off an APEX with PWM. If I buy PWM drivers now is there a way to reduce the power to a set amount and just ON/OFF the system until I get the APEX?
