Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

TropTrea said:
First of I strongly agree that anything under 420 is either a waste or could possibly have negative effects.

Now you list that your dream chip had LED's that peaked at 430 and 445 can you give me a hint where I can fnd chips in this range. Since I have found some 420 nm chips I would lovew to get some at roughly 427 to help with the gap between the 420 and 455.

I think a little caution neds to kept in mind when you ay they have a band width of 20 nm + and -. Yes a 455 nm Chip probably produces zero or near light at 434nm and at 476 nm. But do to the nature of leds chances are it will be oriducing 50% of the light at or less at 450 and 460 nm. Then you go to 445 and 465 nm the light is probably under 25% of what you have at 455 nm. I will say this does vary by manufacturer and even by run numbers from a single manufacturer. But chances are the more powerfum they are at the specified wave lenght the more narrow the band with is.

A while back I took a spectrum photograph of a combination of equal wattage of 455,470, and 505 nm chips. There was a definatly obvious banding of the frequencies where the gap between the 470 and 505 showed a band of zero light, And a band between to 455 and 470 showed less than 30% of what I had at 470 and 455.
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There is a 20W Violet Blue Hybrid Multichip - at that place you will also find single LED in the wavelenghts you want (and also multichips)

Sincerely Lasse
 
biglurr54 said:
Call all Wise Multi Chip advisers out there! I need some wisdom for a system i am going to build. Guide Me all wise Multichippers!

Im building a 92 gallon corner tank. It will mainly be sps. I would like to do the least amount of chips over the tank. The tank is a semi circle. Its 38 inches from the back corner to any point in the front of the tank.

What is best solution with the best controlability. Its looking like DreamChip or Lumia 5.1. Maybe there are other options I dont know about.

Could I get away with one dreamchip or would I need two?

Same with the Lumia could I get away with one or will i need two?

I have plenty of room over the tank for optimal height.

Please Advise me!
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It depends of how you are going to build your reef - do you need any light at the bottom at the inner corner? It also depends which type of corals you want to run at the bottom. if I remember my math - your depth will be around 27" It means that you need lenses (60 or 90 degree).

If I build that tank by myself I should probably use two Dream Chip (100 LED) with 60 degree lenses in the front (or the adjustable lens - 50 to 80 degree) and a Lumia 5.1 (without lenses) in the back.

I´m just now testing a Lumia with the adjustable lens and I´m not sure if I like it or not. The quality of Lumia 5.1 can be compared with the Dream Chip but the construction of the chip gives a type of disco (in air - I have not tested it over water yet) if the lens is wrong adjusted. Without lenses - the colours blend very good as I have seen till now

If you have it in the back and have a reef sloping down from the inner corner - you can manage without lenses.

But for Swedish taste - the Lumia white LEDs is to yellow, I´ll probably will not run the whites more than 15 - 30 % but the mix of the other LEDs give a RGB effect so i does not matter so much

Sincerely Lasse
 
Lassef said:
There is a 20W Violet Blue Hybrid Multichip - at that place you will also find single LED in the wavelenghts you want (and also multichips)

Sincerely Lasse
Click to expand...

Leds-global sells multichips and leds of all wattages in pretty much every single wavelength.
 
zachts said:
Based on my experience and research, I find this difficult to believe. 20 "watts" of multi-chip was more powerful than 36+ "watts" of Cree emitters?

Besides the chips what else did you change?
optics?
drive current?
placement above tank?
photo period?
Click to expand...

Tere can be other things playing into this equasion. Like the spectrum of the light they are receiving. He list only Cool Whites and Royal Blues on the cCRee combination. That means virtualy no apreciable red light. And a big dip in the spectrum in the blue/aqua area.

The other thing is 36 watts on a 7 gallon tank is a lot of LED lighting. This is roughly 5 Watts per gallon. Corals do have a point where they no longer absorb the light they are receiving and some even go int a shotdown mode from too much light. There is also an issue with bleaching from too much light.
 
Yes it hard to compare different types of leeds using just wattage. This is especialy true today. My first LEd fixtures were in the 3 to 5 watt per gallon range but the better LED's out there today mean I can get at least the same amount of light usinge 2 watts per gallon.

Another thing to consider is if your building to use variable power sources. I like to build a little heavier on the light and have the ability to cut down one color or another to better suite my eye. this is especialy true on the blue to white baance. You can set one at a hard output and use the other to vary the balance to save on cost.

Keep in mind that when you get a good balance of blues for your coral growth then the whiotes only come into play for your personal viewing pleasure.
 
Will a heatsink from heatsink USA be go be good enough to cool two 50 watt chips? I was going to put fans on the top to cool it down.
 
e55driver said:
Will a heatsink from heatsink USA be go be good enough to cool two 50 watt chips? I was going to put fans on the top to cool it down.
Click to expand...

Yes and No this realy depends on which of the Heat Sinks from Heatsink USA your deciding to use. They offer very many different units of Heat Sinks with different designs. The best is to use there Heat Sink calculator and then go slightly larger than what it recommends. There is no such thing as too much of a heat sink as it will just jeep things cooler and the cooler the better.
 
That heatsink fan combo they sell is just a fancy GPU cooler, you can buy them on ebay and at a store like Micro Center for under $10.

A 50 watt chip creates a point heat source so I'd go with one of the heatsinks with a thicker base plate and more densely spaced fins since your using a fan.
 
This works very well. Cools down the LED chip to around 50 C at 90 W. Its easy to attach the LED cip to the cooler. You only need to attach with two bults (diagonally). Just slight enlarge two of the holes at the back plate of the LED chip (diagonally) Here with a Lumia 5.1

1.jpg

Sincerely Lasse
 
007Bond said:
Hey Lasse, is this just a smaller 8900? And what do you think of the adjustable lenses?Thanks ---Rick
Click to expand...

Yes - and I think - according to its size - a better solution for LED chips below 100 W.

I have only test it with my Lumia chip in air and there is some separation of wavelengths at certain degrees with the broader lens. I have not yet tested it over one of my aquariums - so I do not really knows how it works IRL

Sincerely Lasse
 
e55driver said:
I was just worried about the different thickness of the cooling fins. Would a thinner fin be better then a thicker one?
Click to expand...

There are two important things to remember with heat sinks.

1. The cooling is done on the surface of the material. Therefore the more surface area you have the more potential there is for cooling.

2. The air must have enough spece to pass between surfaces in order for it to take the heat away from the heat sink. So keep in mind with a fan that has a good flow rate a minimal space is all you need between the fine, but for systems without fans or low volumn fans the space needs to a bit wider to allow natural dispensation of the heat.

Years back when we were pushing some eectronic components to there max cooling was our biggest thing. We experimented with various heat sinks and found a finned alumnium with direct balst of an air conditioner worked best. We later redisigned the system where we actualy used an air conditioner coil as the heat sink with the compressor unit keeping it cool.

While the cooling for 50 watt or even 200 watt leads is no place as critical to what we were dealing with some common sense is still advised. Get some cooling calculations engineering data books. The formulas are not that complicated and only require simple algebra. But don't waste the money and space on over cooling while still protecting your LED's form premature heat deay.
 
Lassef said:
This works very well. Cools down the LED chip to around 50 C at 90 W. Its easy to attach the LED cip to the cooler. You only need to attach with two bults (diagonally). Just slight enlarge two of the holes at the back plate of the LED chip (diagonally) Here with a Lumia 5.1

View attachment 248983

Sincerely Lasse
Click to expand...

Cna you explain your witing on this module, Im not sure if I'm confused or seeing something wrong.

I see
5 Red
5 Black
2 White
and two ribbon cables with 4 whites each.

I would think you need a pair for ech LED channel
and another Pair for the Colling fan.
What are the extra wires?
 
:) If you look close - you will see that the white cable is not attached to the cooler or the chip - its connected to the white terminal - my + cables from the chip is connected together. The power resistor is needed to the driver solution I use because the red channel of the Lumia has a low FV. I´m sorry for the confusion.
Its 5 red (connected together to the white cable) and 5 black from the LED chip -> + and - for the channels. 1 ribbon cable for the fan and one ribbon cable for the temp sensor

Sincerely Lasse
 
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