Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

^^ not a bad idea..

I've switched away from the dream chips. I was going to need 6 for my build and to be frank the cost just added up.

I still would like to know if it's possible to run all 6 15000k all 6 blue 6 ect off of single driver per string in parallel would I be needing a fast blow fuse between each led maybe a 1250ma if I was running 1 amp ?
 
Spazdad said:
^^ not a bad idea..

I've switched away from the dream chips. I was going to need 6 for my build and to be frank the cost just added up.

I still would like to know if it's possible to run all 6 15000k all 6 blue 6 ect off of single driver per string in parallel would I be needing a fast blow fuse between each led maybe a 1250ma if I was running 1 amp ?
Click to expand...

Hello neighbor.

Looking at your numbers here at 1,250ma there are several meanwell drives in that range. But we need to know roughly what voltage you require. if were talknig about 50 watt "dream chips" or multi emiter chips that would mean roughly 44 volts per chip. Most drivers top out at around 54 Volts. So to run multi you would have to run them in parrellel which would mean you need a 7.5 Amp driver that can put out 44 volts for a total of 330 Watts. A meanwell HLG-320H-48 should be able to handle that combination. However running that many in parrellel would be a risky situation. If everything balanced perfectly you would have 1.25 Amps per LED, if one of them opened up for you the load on the others would jump to 1.5 Amps and if two rent open you would have 1.875 Amps per LED. Your only salvation being the voltage limiting ability of this driver which if is adjusted properly could limit your voltage to 44 or 45 volts.

Yes the fuse idea sound good but even fast blow fuses can be touchy that way. If you use a 1.25 Amp fuse it will pop real fast if you get 2.5 Ampos through it but at if you only get 1.5 Amps through it it will take some time before it blows. I think in your case the voltage limiting ability of the driver will a much more reliable saftey net.
 
Note I just re-reviewed the data sheet and using the HLG-320H-42 instead of the -48 would be an even better option for you. The 48 has a max current setting of only 6.7 Amps or 1.1 Amp for each of your LED's whil;e the -42 will alow you to set it up to 7.6 Amps or 1.26 per LED. With the -42 you can set the voltage to max between 28 volts and 45 volts. So you sould have enogh power.
 
So does anyone have suggestions on using a flat piece of aluminum with a dram chip and several smaller 3 watt LEDs around it ? With the cooler for the dream chip mounted on the other side just above the dream chip.
 
TropTrea said:
I do not think there anything like a said perfect situation on this for anyone. Different individuals like different lighting aproaches. You could go with 2 very high powerd pendents if you want maximium sparkle and want a high contrast level between the areas directly light and the shadows. Some people love that look. Then you can go with more light sources of as many as 16 pendents on your tank if you like a very evenly lighted tank. Some would love this others would consider if boring without any sparkle and minmal shadows.

For a refernce of your friends tank your tank is slightly larger. So if you like his lighting effect you should look very simular going with either 6 or 8 lights simular to his. If you want the lighting more uniform and less noticable shadows then go with more lights. If you want more sprakle and contrast go with less. But you have a starting reference to judge against your personal taste.

Another think to consider is that with your larger tank you will need closer to 300 watts or more total if you use the same pendent design. If you change your pendent design there can be a difference in the effeciency of your units so you will need to compensate for that.
Click to expand...

Τhanks for your reply TropTrea
 
reefpatrol3 said:
So does anyone have suggestions on using a flat piece of aluminum with a dram chip and several smaller 3 watt LEDs around it ? With the cooler for the dream chip mounted on the other side just above the dream chip.
Click to expand...

It would work but it would not be as effective as mounting the dream chip directly to the cooler. You would have to ensure a perfectly smooth interface between dream chip and panel, and then between the panel and cooler.

Why not just cut out a hole in the panel for the dream chip and mount the dream chip directly to the cooler, pick a cooler that will have enough surface to also mount the panel to the edges of the cooler?

The dream chip needs all the cooling it can get, 3 watt chips spread out around the edges, not so critical if they have 3-4 inches of total surface area (front and back exposed surfaces) per chip and a little air flow.
 
Hello,

I have a tank 130x40x54 (LxWxH) cm and I'm thinking to use 2 lumia 100w dream leds. I can see in the forum that no much people use 100w leds, I don't know what kind of problems can appear .

Can you tell me if can be correct for me tank? Better 50w dream chip? Exist the 50w full spectrum leds?

Thanks
 
carlosmos said:
Hello,

I have a tank 130x40x54 (LxWxH) cm and I'm thinking to use 2 lumia 100w dream leds. I can see in the forum that no much people use 100w leds, I don't know what kind of problems can appear .

Can you tell me if can be correct for me tank? Better 50w dream chip? Exist the 50w full spectrum leds?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I hope were not talking about a 1200 gallon tank but one closer to 75 gallons. yes for a 75 gallon tank a pair of 100 should work fine if you you have proper dimming.

The big difference with the higher wattage is you need to worry about your cooling more. If you go hiigh enough in wattage you may actualy end up with more mney spent on keeping the LED's cool than of the lighting itself.
 
TropTrea said:
I hope were not talking about a 1200 gallon tank but one closer to 75 gallons. yes for a 75 gallon tank a pair of 100 should work fine if you you have proper dimming.

The big difference with the higher wattage is you need to worry about your cooling more. If you go hiigh enough in wattage you may actualy end up with more mney spent on keeping the LED's cool than of the lighting itself.
Click to expand...

I pay around 40$ in order to cool 190 - 220 W - it means around 20 cent/w to cool a 100 LEDs multichip - not so expensive in my little world

Sincerely Lasse
 
Lassef said:
I pay around 40$ in order to cool 190 - 220 W - it means around 20 cent/w to cool a 100 LEDs multichip - not so expensive in my little world

Sincerely Lasse
Click to expand...

the point is as you increase wattages of chips you cost for he chips per watt goes down while the cost of cooling per wat for up.

With a 20 Watt gip you might be talking investing $30.00 in the chip or $1.40 per watt while the cooling mught cost you $10 of 50 cents per watt. so your spending almost 3 times as much for the chips.

Then you run a 50 watt chip tat costed you $45.00 in the chip for 90 cents a watt but spend $25.00 for cooling or 60 cents a watt.

movingh to your 100 watt chip you spend $70.00 for the Chip for 70 cents a watt but spend $40.00 for cooling or 40 cents a watt. That is more this i more than 1/3 of the total cost in coolong.

Start putting 200 wats into a single pendent and your talking elaborate cooling so while the cost of the chip may still just double if you can end up spendin more than double for some elaborate cooling systems.
 
I was thinking of the costs for cooling your favorites - 3 w LED. For 24 pcs of 3 watts (72 W) Rapidled will charge yo around 42 $ for their solution of cooling

Today I cool my Dream Chips with a Zalman CNPS 8900 (around 40 $ in Europe). I have run them at 200 W without any problems. The backside temperature is 52 degrees C at 200 W. I have been running them for 10 months. The orginal dream Chip consist of 100 LEDs, 2.5 watts each and can be run up to 250 W. I run them around 120 - 200 W.

Sincerely Lasse
 
Lassef said:
I was thinking of the costs for cooling your favorites - 3 w LED. For 24 pcs of 3 watts (72 W) Rapidled will charge yo around 42 $ for their solution of cooling

Today I cool my Dream Chips with a Zalman CNPS 8900 (around 40 $ in Europe). I have run them at 200 W without any problems. The backside temperature is 52 degrees C at 200 W. I have been running them for 10 months. The orginal dream Chip consist of 100 LEDs, 2.5 watts each and can be run up to 250 W. I run them around 120 - 200 W.

Sincerely Lasse
Click to expand...

I have 24 3 and 5 Watt LED's on my 40 gallon tank. As I'm running it They are using roughly 75 watts total. I mounted them on 3 Channels of Alumnium without the need for any fans. They bearely get warm to the tough and the total cost was roughly $12.00 at $5.00 per channel. If I ran everything at full power I would have 108 Watts of power so the cost for cooling would have been under 9 cents per watt. In your case with $40 for 250 Watts it would be about 16 cents per Watt.
 
Hello, I've been running qty 4 20 watt chips on my 46 gallon bowfront and am quite happy with the lighting although I have to keep it dimmed nearly all the way down to keep corals happy. Also, the setup seems abit too blue to me but my brother likes it so is buying it off me. The setup is 2 of the 20 watt violet blue hybrids and 2 of the EPISTAR 20W 9000-10000K/445nm Hybrid Multichip running on one driver.

I'm upgrading tanks to a 85 gallon bowfront that is 27" tall so will need to upgrade the lighting. It'll be a mixed reef with SPS, LPS and some zoas. I know I want to go 19.5k on the whites this time around and seperate the white/actinic channels with drivers. Also will be hooking these into my Apex. Any suggestions? I'm torn between using 50 watt or 20 watt chips for the white channel and will likely use qty 3 20 watt on the actinic side.
 
7808 said:
would this http://www.ebay.com/itm/100W-Watt-H...701?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5898d0b115

run 2x 20w 20k and 2x 20w 10k epistar multichips like these http://www.ebay.com/itm/EPISTAR-20W...934?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f28fcb9d6
Click to expand...

As I read the Chip data it is a max of 2000ma while the supply seems to a 3000ma supply. I see no reference to this being dimmable by the standard means of a 0 to 10 Volt reference voltage, A Pulse Width control, or a resistance control. Therefore it is my guess that thhis would over drive your chips by 50% of the power which would drasticly shorten there life expectancy.
 
i got my 10w hybrid multichip yesterday, according to the ebay listing, which who knows sometimes with chineses sellers, it has 3 x cool white 10k-15k and 6 royal blue 450-455nm

this turns out a purple? i was hoping for more of a bright white with hint of blue i guess, like a metal halide
 
7808 said:
i got my 10w hybrid multichip yesterday, according to the ebay listing, which who knows sometimes with chineses sellers, it has 3 x cool white 10k-15k and 6 royal blue 450-455nm

this turns out a purple? i was hoping for more of a bright white with hint of blue i guess, like a metal halide
Click to expand...

Yes it should actualy be very blue but bright. Cool Whites should be predominatly blue green and the royal blues especialy in that number should cover up the blue. However the Royal Blues you mention are 450 to 455nm which are on the UV side of true blue which is closer to 470 nm. Therefore if your eye is sensative to UV light and sees it as purple they could look more purple in to you. I have the same sensativity and with some Near UV lights see more more of piunkish glow than others do. I suggest you have some others look at them and see if they are seeing the same thing.

Another thing is multichipos can be powered various ways dependent how they are wired. Some will allow you to drive each color seperatly. If this is the case with your chips you may want to experiment with putting less current through one of the colors to see if you can balance it to a better color for your eye.

The other possibility is they used a cool white chip that is strong in the red end of the spectrum. With a lot of red mixed with the blue the eye sees it as purple as well.
 
Lassef said:
I was thinking of the costs for cooling your favorites - 3 w LED. For 24 pcs of 3 watts (72 W) Rapidled will charge yo around 42 $ for their solution of cooling

Today I cool my Dream Chips with a Zalman CNPS 8900 (around 40 $ in Europe). I have run them at 200 W without any problems. The backside temperature is 52 degrees C at 200 W. I have been running them for 10 months. The orginal dream Chip consist of 100 LEDs, 2.5 watts each and can be run up to 250 W. I run them around 120 - 200 W.

Sincerely Lasse
Click to expand...

Hi,

I am from Vietnam, I diy multichip led 50W and am using for a couple of months and see the good result of this led.
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Currently, I am using the driver 36V 1.5A to run the led.

One of my friend is using the power supply 36V 10A to run the led 50W and 100W without using any driver or current limiting resistor the led is quite hot but he used a large heat sink to limit the heat about 40 -45 degree. The lighting is brighter nearly 2 times in compare with using the normal driver and I am wondering if using the PS only will work with the led in the long run. Please kindly advise as I am not a familiar with the led.

Do you know any current limiting resistor to wire in if he still want to you the PS ?

Thanks for your help :celeb1::celeb1::celeb1:
 
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