Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

[ReefUrchin]

You have to put them paralell conected and use one this HLG-320H-36B. To use a 3.3 A fuse in serie with each chip could be wise in this case.

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks for taking the time out to find those for me. I am just so overwhelmed right now, that was a big help, thank you.

Try to keep it low voltage for safety. Use a 36v driver(s).

I dont think thats possible for what I want to do. I think I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Too much volts or too much amps, either way its fry city. Only takes 800ma to kill you, and, were way over the safe volts or amps threshold. Though, if given a choice, wouldn't I want less amps for safety?

 

[Lassef]

800 mA Dc at 36 V will not kill you but 30 mA at AC 240 V can kill you if it goes the wrong way.

Though, if given a choice, wouldn't I want less amps for safety?

Take HLG-320H-42B than - will give you 2.55 A each instead for 2.96 A

Sincerely Lasse

 

[one clownfish]

I would test this. You can run 4 in a daisy chain at 1000 mA with your driver. You can also mix in some of these to "take out the yellow". I do not know how this will work - I was not satisfied with the "old" 20 000K

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks again for the help. The 16000k would look about 12000k of halide without any yellow, right? Are there lenses readily available for these LEDs? My tank is 72"L x24"W x 30"H or would you go without lenses. Also, would it be better to run (8 LEDs) parallel at 800ma than to max out the led at 1000ma?

 

[ReefUrchin]

It looks from your description that your looking at roughly 600 watts total on your tank. For a 125 gallon tank that is a lot of lighting as far as LED's are considered.

Now if you truely wnat that much wattage then I woud start with about 400 Watts of Blue LED's. This should be more than enough to meet the needs of amy coral. Now for the white this is where personal taste comes in. For the corals themselves a good full spectrum neutral white of about 20 Watts would give you a good balance for the coral needs. However it would be fantastic for yiewing. Depending on personal tast with 400 Watts of Blues different people would balance with whites between 100 watts and 400 watts. It is all a matter of personal color taste.

Well, i dont "want" 600w of LED lights, but, if thats what it takes from the the blues to give the corals what they need, and whites for my eyes pleasure, then..... At 600w, though, were right back to metal halide $$ (electricity wise) amongst other things.

Thats why I am curious how much "blue only" is needed for coral during the time i am at work, then, I turn off (or down) the blues when I am at home and turn on the whites. I would not want to try to run the blues full throttle then adjust with white for the eyes, that would definitely fry some stuff at 600w.

Honestly I am trying to cheat out and convince myself to go 1 100w, but, I respect Lasse's opinion of what I need, so, I am trying to slap myself in that direction. I can always buy 4 PS and adjust as needed.

 

[dartier]

Sorry if this question has been asked before on this thread. I did search but not did not find my specific question.

What I am wondering is how the driver reacts when presented with parallel and series loads at the same time? E.g. Parallel -> Series -> Parallel

Hypothetical driver 42V 8A.

Specifically if you were to run 4 parallel strings of 2 x 20W 10V 2A chips and then hang 2 x 10W 10V 1A chips on the end of each string. I assume this would work as long as you kept each string balanced with identical chips? Do you need to account for the 10V on both of the 10W chips even though they are effectively running parallel at that point (in the string). E.g. In the above example could you run 3 20W chips and the 2 10W?

The usual warnings would apply, 2A fuses before each string and a 1A fuse before each 10W chip. Though if you were to lose one of the 10W chips, its neigbour's fuse blow shortly thereafter and most likely followed by all the other fuses at the head of the strings.

Dennis

 

[tomservo]

Use only a 2 flute tap with a tap handle. Buy a good tap, not one from a big box store, there all junk. WD-40 works good for tapping fluid. Go slow and you should be ok. I did almost 400 #4 and broke one tap.

What you want for this gummy heatsink grade aluminum is a thread forming tap, aka thread roll. They don't cut the threads at all, they cold forge them. If you don't want to hunt down a thread roll, then a good USA/european made HSS tap is what you want. ALWAYS use some sort of lubricant when tapping. I have had very good luck with difficult materials (copper, soft aluminum, titanium) using chlorinated brake cleaner, aka perchloroethane (tetrachloroethane) aka dry cleaning fluid. It also leaves no residue and cleans the oils and residues off things very nicely.

 

[jt41time]

From what I'm understanding from the last 100 post, that blue light grows coral more efficiently then white. (I'm generalizing like crazy). How would go about doin a blue 50w chip then drown out the blue with white (dimming) when I want see the coral as I like.(frag tank)

Is it harder the add white then to add blue?

I want the ability to dim out the blue or the white. Right now I'm doin the white with the blues on dim.(that's plan so far) and I can't go crazy and spend big bucks like I did with my DT tank. Simple cheap fast for the frag tank. Making money, or at least getting close to breaking even on it is the goal. My DT is for my visual enjoyment.

 

[Lassef]

Sorry if this question has been asked before on this thread. I did search but not did not find my specific question.

What I am wondering is how the driver reacts when presented with parallel and series loads at the same time? E.g. Parallel -> Series -> Parallel

Hypothetical driver 42V 8A.

Specifically if you were to run 4 parallel strings of 2 x 20W 10V 2A chips and then hang 2 x 10W 10V 1A chips on the end of each string. I assume this would work as long as you kept each string balanced with identical chips? Do you need to account for the 10V on both of the 10W chips even though they are effectively running parallel at that point (in the string). E.g. In the above example could you run 3 20W chips and the 2 10W?

The usual warnings would apply, 2A fuses before each string and a 1A fuse before each 10W chip. Though if you were to lose one of the 10W chips, its neigbour's fuse blow shortly thereafter and most likely followed by all the other fuses at the head of the strings.

Dennis

Are you working with constant voltage or constant current drivers?

If you work with constant current I do not think it works because if you have parallel strings you should divide the current from the driver with the amount of strings - in your case 4. The 10 watts can´t be run over 1000 mA and therefor you have to dimension your driver to give 4000 mA (4000/4 = 1000mA per leg). In this case you will run your 20 watt in 50% only. Á 20 watt chip driven with 1000 mA will give a lower FV compared with a 10 w chip driven at 1000 mA and I do not know whats happen.

With constant voltage I do not know. Janne help me out here!

But its possible to parallel conect identical chip. the 10 and 20 watts multichip (from AC-RC) consist of 3 string of three LEd in a daisy chain connected in a parallel mode

Sincerely Lasse

 

[janne68]

Are you working with constant voltage or constant current drivers?

If you work with constant current I do not think it works because if you have parallel strings you should divide the current from the driver with the amount of strings - in your case 4. The 10 watts can´t be run over 1000 mA and therefor you have to dimension your driver to give 4000 mA (4000/4 = 1000mA per leg). In this case you will run your 20 watt in 50% only. Á 20 watt chip driven with 1000 mA will give a lower FV compared with a 10 w chip driven at 1000 mA and I do not know whats happen.

With constant voltage I do not know. Janne help me out here!

But its possible to parallel conect identical chip. the 10 and 20 watts multichip (from AC-RC) consist of 3 string of three LEd in a daisy chain connected in a parallel mode

Sincerely Lasse

If I understand the description right you(dartier) are thinking (looking at one string) 2pcs 20W (10@2A max) in series and then you want to add to that 2pcs 10W (10V@1A max) in series. And then drive that with 2A (8A diveded by 4). That will burn the 10W since they will have the same current as the 20W, no matter if you try to drive them using CC or CV(don't do that).

You could do it at 1A for the string, or you could change and have the 2pcs 10W in parallell after the 2pcs 20W in series, then the will share the 2A going through the 20W. But then you will en up with a lower Fv and the driver needs to be able to handle that.

Regards,
Janne

 

[Lassef]

Thanks again for the help. The 16000k would look about 12000k of halide without any yellow, right? Are there lenses readily available for these LEDs? My tank is 72"L x24"W x 30"H or would you go without lenses. Also, would it be better to run (8 LEDs) parallel at 800ma than to max out the led at 1000ma?

Without of yellow - maybe not and there is green in them (green+ blue= yellow) but it is better than Cree:s in this in this respect. Maybe you need to take with one hybrid in each chain - just to mask out the yellow. Your light does not only cause the yellow tint in your water - it has to be yellow substances in the water also. In saltwater - where you do not change so much water weekly - it will build up organic substances called humus - it is this substance, which reflects yellow or green and blue together as yellow. I use Ozone now and when - and I do not have this problem.

There are lenses - yes probably I use lenses - but I do not know. Test without first or only with the reflector. Lenses here but just searc on e-bay

Your driver will not work so good with parallel connection - it gives max 1300 mA -> 1300/8 = 162.5 mA/chip - a little bit to low. But you can use you driver for four in a daisy chain and adjust i down to 800 mA with the internal adjustment screw


Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lassef]

If I understand the description right you(dartier) are thinking (looking at one string) 2pcs 20W (10@2A max) in series and then you want to add to that 2pcs 10W (10V@1A max) in series. And then drive that with 2A (8A diveded by 4). That will burn the 10W since they will have the same current as the 20W, no matter if you try to drive them using CC or CV(don't do that).

You could do it at 1A for the string, or you could change and have the 2pcs 10W in parallell after the 2pcs 20W in series, then the will share the 2A going through the 20W. But then you will en up with a lower Fv and the driver needs to be able to handle that.

Regards,
Janne

Thank you Janne

Sincerely Lasse

 

[dartier]

you could change and have the 2pcs 10W in parallell after the 2pcs 20W in series, then the will share the 2A going through the 20W. But then you will en up with a lower Fv and the driver needs to be able to handle that.

This is the layout that I was asking about specifically. So it would work in theory, but the driver would still faces some unknowns. The drivers I am planning to use are Meanwell (so both CV and CC supported), however I think I would just spend the money and put the 10W chips on their own drivers to remove the surprises and allow them to be adjusted independently. I was just trying to remove the need for a separate driver (and being cheap )

This whole LED driver area is quite new to me and interesting. Thank you both for helping to work through the issues.

Dennis

 

[noplay180]

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mr.wilson]

wow that looks awesome how and where did you get those leds?

The custom chips are from Orphek, CPU cooler from Tuniq and the rest i had made locally and assembled myself. I just assembled it. I have new appreciation for the workers in China that do this all day

 

[mr.wilson]

I think you should start a thread about how to DIY your own multichip man. I would like to learn how to do this myself!

I will document the process in the 1350 gallon reef tank from Canada thread. Im building four 185w, 3 channel fixtures for Nineball's (Peter) new coral grow out system. It's very similar to the ones i buikt for the shop.

 

[mr.wilson]

Your chip looks good (however, to blue for my taste). It looks like one of the 20 000 K chip from Orphek.

I would never use a light so blue on my own aquarium, but for retail sales it helps "put a finger on the scale", without becomming false advertising. Many of the local shops use a 3:1 actinic:Fiji Purple T5 mix. I would have a headache working in that environment.

I will try to take a more accurate picture, as the iphone adds a lot of blue.

As for high voltage vs low voltage, DIY projects tend to overlook many of the safety standards so it's nice to have only low voltage so close to salt water. I had a fixture fall in a tank last month, luckilly i was right there and pulled it out befire the electronics got wet. Silicone seals are a major benefit, firtunately most multichip lenses come with seals. This only leaves the fan exposed to corrosion and they are easilly replaced. Multichip fixtures are further protected from humidity by open top aquariums and the high hanging height.

Of course many peolpe use submersible heater and pumps that are high voltage. I have some tanks with 400v DC pumps, but the current is low. I have recently switched to 24v DC pumps and i try to keep heater cords above water level where possible.

 

[mr.wilson]

800 mA Dc at 36 V will not kill you but 30 mA at AC 240 V can kill you if it goes the wrong way.



Take HLG-320H-42B than - will give you 2.55 A each instead for 2.96 A

Sincerely Lasse

That's what i was talking about, the not killing you thing

 

[mr.wilson]

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

The light always looks much bluer on a wall or ceiling. One you hang it over slightly yellow water it gets more white/violet.

 

[mr.wilson]

I dont think thats possible for what I want to do. I think I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Too much volts or too much amps, either way its fry city. Only takes 800ma to kill you, and, were way over the safe volts or amps threshold. Though, if given a choice, wouldn't I want less amps for safety?

Running drivers in parallel as Lassef has suggested works perectly fine. I use two 150w drivers to power a 300w chip. It's only 36 or 48v.

 

[Lassef]

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Have you done any temperature readings?

Sincerely Lasse