Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

[sfsuphysics]

How close was fairly close? I seem to recall the recommendation is that you not exceed 80% of the PSUs potential output, so I'm wondering if you pushed past that or if we should be more conservative.

Well 24 LEDs run at 1000mA, and 24 LEDs run at 700mA, x 2 fixtures per PSU. So just guessing with an estimate of 3.3V per LED, that's (24 x 1 x 3.3 + 24 x 0.7 x 3.3) x 2 = 270 watts which was about 85% of maximum capacity, with the 350W psu I switched to that's only 77% of the max power. I don't run all the LEDs at maximum power, but with PWM dimming you are pulling maximum power just not all the time.

 

[saf1]

Thanks everyone for the information. Appreciate it.

Right now I mounted the LED chips pretty high up and actually like them the way they look. If I was to be honest two chips over the 40 breeder seem a bit overkill but it has good distribution and/or spread never the less. All of my corals are soft anyway with the exception of a hammer and rose bubble tip anem. Anem is perfectly fine but the hammers are still recovering from the move. A rock fell and busted the single piece which was the size of a football to 4 smaller pieces for me - lol.

 

[AZRippster]

Krazie,

I think your mixing up versions of the Meanwell HLG power supplies. The "B" version I'm referring to does not have separate V & I adjustments. That would be the "C" version. If using PWM dimming with the HLG, current is increased as the PWM signal increases off of the dimming lines.

http://www.meanwell.com/search/hlg-240h/default.htm

Regardless, I'm going with a 4-UP board loaded with 4 LDD-1500L drivers being pushed by an SE-350-36 (throttled back to 33V). The Coralux Storm X has buku PWM channels of which I'm currently only using 6, so I'll grab 2-4 more for the LDD's.

Good stuff and thanks to all.

RB

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Krazie,

I think your mixing up versions of the Meanwell HLG power supplies. The "B" version I'm referring to does not have separate V & I adjustments. That would be the "C" version. If using PWM dimming with the HLG, current is increased as the PWM signal increases off of the dimming lines.

http://www.meanwell.com/search/hlg-240h/default.htm

Regardless, I'm going with a 4-UP board loaded with 4 LDD-1500L drivers being pushed by an SE-350-36 (throttled back to 33V). The Coralux Storm X has buku PWM channels of which I'm currently only using 6, so I'll grab 2-4 more for the LDD's.

Good stuff and thanks to all.

RB

I was trying to point out that you would have needed to use the HLG with adjustable V & I (I think I mentioned using the B version a few posts back).

In either case You got the info so you should be good.

There is no reason to throttle back the SE-350-36 to 33 volts if you are using it with an LDD board. The LDD's (L version) is rated to 36V and will take care of outputting the correct V & I for whatever load of LED's you put on it upto 33V (the LDD uses ~3v for itself).

Make sure the PWM channels you use are 0-5V PWM for the LDD's and you should be good to go. Krazie :jester:

 

[zachts]

there is a little efficiency to gain from dialing back the voltage supply to match what your highest Vf string needs, but agreed it is minimal with the LDD drivers.

 

[funior]

Hi all,

someone had problems with corals after changing the lighting?

 

[Mauritzvw]

Hi

Any thoughts on 3 chips on a 36"x20"x20"

Specs are
Epileds
4ch @ 3 x 3w leds

channel 1:1 cyan(490nm)+1 blue(460nm)+1 royal blue(450nm) 9-11V
channel 2:1 cool white (10000k)+ 1 uv (400nm)+ 1 actinic violet(420nm) 9-11V
channel 3:1 blue(460nm)+1 cyan(490nm)+1 blue(460nm) 9-11V
channel 4:1 actinic violet(420nm)+1 cool white (10000k)+1 royal blue(450nm) 9-11V

300-600mA
SIZE:55*40*20MM

Found on eBay

Or would the hybrid multichips be better.

Thanks

 

[laura1933]

Hi Mike31154,
I have just seen your setup and think its brilliant. I have 2 questions; Is the power supply dimmable and are your leds wired in parallel or series?
Thank you,
Laura

 

[vbsaltydog]

I have a question that may have been asked already but this thread is way too long to review. I have a fixture that I would like to convert from 55/3W leds to 2/50w multichips.

The fixture houses two meanwell 60-48d drivers and the current led strings are wired in parallel. Will these drivers work to power two 50w multichips? I would like to run each multichip on its own driver for dimming purposes, if possible.

Thanks

 

[tangstank]

Where do you get your power supply from? I'd like to convert 60 / 3W LED's to 2 x 50 Watt Royal Blue & 3 X 50 Watt Whites.
The LED's are rated at 33v 1.5 Amps, meaning to drive 2 x 50 Watt chips I will need a 24-36v 3 Amps power supply & for dimmable it costs around $120.
Sounds a little on the upside without the cost benefit. What kind of power supply large manufacturers use?
Any suggestion on where I can purchase 26v 5A dimmable power supply at a reasonable price.

 

[Mike31154]

Hi Mike31154,
I have just seen your setup and think its brilliant. I have 2 questions; Is the power supply dimmable and are your leds wired in parallel or series?
Thank you,
Laura

Laura, I haven't been very active on this site of late, surprised to see this multi chip thread still going! Don't recall what I even posted in this thread, it must be buried quite a ways back. I do have a more detailed build thread about my LED set up on a forum in Canada related to our salty hobby, same user name.

I'm using 2 power supplies at the moment, generic 12 volt DC units each with a small potentiometer that allows fine tuning the output within a range of about 10 to 14 volts. Not really dimmable in the true sense of the word. Between the power supplies & the LED strings I use a bunch of 12-24volt, 8amp manual dimmers that are adjustable from whatever voltage the 2 power supplies provide, in my case approx. 12 volts, down to 0 volts if desired.

The 10 watt multichip LEDs are all powered in parallel on three rails, 9 per rail. There was definitely a heated discussion & still is regarding the risks of running LEDs in parallel on a fixed or manually dimmed voltage, rather than a current limiting driver. I have the dimmers set to well below the maximum forward voltage of the LEDs they are connected to, which varies due to the different colours. After a few months of tweaking, they have been set & untouched for years. Not one LED has burned out to date & the fixture has been running great since April 2012. I did cook one of the dimmers, but that was my own fault for having too many LEDs hooked up to it, pulling close to or more than 8 amps. I certainly should have known better, but for some stupid reason I let it go until it smoked.

Auto dimming is a great feature, but I'm ok with the simplicity of my current set up. I added some water proof LED strips as basic dawn dusk lights. Livestock is fine with it as they were with the non dimmable MH/T5HO set up I used before. I don't have a recent photo of the fixture, but this is pretty close to what it looks like these days. I've done some further mods to the cover, but it still needs stain, shame on me.

Another older photo showing the business side of things. Note the LED strips added between the multi chip rails. They are RGB in the photo, but I've since replaced them with cool whites. Also have larger heat sinks on all the 10 watt chips now. These small heat sinks each had a fan. Some of them started failing & although I had spares, it was a wiring nightmare & that helped me decide to fork out the $$$s for the larger heat sinks.

Larger heat sinks.

 

[zachts]

Where do you get your power supply from? I'd like to convert 60 / 3W LED's to 2 x 50 Watt Royal Blue & 3 X 50 Watt Whites.
The LED's are rated at 33v 1.5 Amps, meaning to drive 2 x 50 Watt chips I will need a 24-36v 3 Amps power supply & for dimmable it costs around $120.
Sounds a little on the upside without the cost benefit. What kind of power supply large manufacturers use?
Any suggestion on where I can purchase 26v 5A dimmable power supply at a reasonable price.

Really you only wan't to use one driver per multi chip in your senario. Also you don't wan't to run them at the full 1.5 amps. under 1 amp would be ideal, and personally I'd go half that and only run them at 700mA. It's rather hard to keep them appropriately cool, especially the cheap Chinese/eBay chips out there.

the meanwell ELN-60-48D power supplies would be rather cost effective if using an apex for control.

If using arduino of 5v pwm for dimming I'd suggest using meanwell LDD drivers H model in whatever drive current you choose and pick up a brick style power supply that outputs 36-48v and an appropriate amperage to supply your setup leaving a 20% over head on the power supply.

You could also go cheap and look on ebay but I don't trust those drivers running near anything flammable unattended.......

Powergate LLC is a good site to look at, shipping is a bit steap but when buying for a whole setup still cheaper than other sources.

There are other factors to consider which can be found if you read thru the thread, everything you need to know is on here.

BTW why are you switching to multi chips from "3 watt" emitters? what you have are probably more efficient and give more even coverage.......

 

[tangstank]

Really you only wan't to use one driver per multi chip in your senario. Also you don't wan't to run them at the full 1.5 amps. under 1 amp would be ideal, and personally I'd go half that and only run them at 700mA. It's rather hard to keep them appropriately cool, especially the cheap Chinese/eBay chips out there.

the meanwell ELN-60-48D power supplies would be rather cost effective if using an apex for control.

If using arduino of 5v pwm for dimming I'd suggest using meanwell LDD drivers H model in whatever drive current you choose and pick up a brick style power supply that outputs 36-48v and an appropriate amperage to supply your setup leaving a 20% over head on the power supply.

You could also go cheap and look on ebay but I don't trust those drivers running near anything flammable unattended.......

Powergate LLC is a good site to look at, shipping is a bit steap but when buying for a whole setup still cheaper than other sources.

There are other factors to consider which can be found if you read thru the thread, everything you need to know is on here.

BTW why are you switching to multi chips from "3 watt" emitters? what you have are probably more efficient and give more even coverage.......

Thanks for the tip. I have a 300 Gallon tank that I'm downsizing to 180 gallon. For the new setup I want to have just a few LED's rather than have 60 X 3 panels, I want to go with 4 X 3 Panels
On each panel I'm thinking of
50 Watt Royal Blue X 2
50 Watt 6700K White X 1
50 Watt 10000K white X 1

I want to go with CREE XTE 50 Watt LED's. Each LED has a specification for 33-36V 1.5 Amps & I need to have the capability to dim using my Apex.

I'm expecting the panel to cover 2' X 2' area to a depth of 2'. What do you think of this approach?

 

[Sunnyc90]

Have you all seen any heat issues with a tank that has a canopy? Do you cut holes for ventilation? or can you leave it all sealed up?

 

[zachts]

Have you all seen any heat issues with a tank that has a canopy? Do you cut holes for ventilation? or can you leave it all sealed up?

has to have ventilation

 

[thermoJoe]

Hi All,

Thought it would be fun to post pics of DT nearing three years since DIY LEDs where installed as decribed in post #2747 and #2790. Although I did install two additional 20W Violet Blue Hybrid Multichips from ac-rc, the DIY LEDs are as described in the above posts (same LEDs are running fine today). Here is the shallow DT today. I would say the DIY LEDs were(are) a success!

 

[marspeed]

Looks pretty darn good to me

 

[lookout888]

Some suggestings if someone would not mind

Some suggestings if someone would not mind

Hello all, I used to read this thread all the time (2 years ago). Good to see it is still going. I was hoping I could get some suggestions to resolve my problem. So I have a light setup that has NEVER grown anything( since 2012). I am ready to do what I have to do to get the tank to where it should be. I started in a different thread and was pointed to this one(http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2533750.

I started reading through it but 175 pages would take a long time to get caught up on.

My current settup is.
5 x EPISTAR 20W 445nm
5 x EPISTAR 20W 10000K
5 x EPISTAR 20W 14000K
5 x EPISTAR 20W 16000K
5 x EPISTAR 20W 20000K
I have 25 eln-30-12p drives driving them.

I need recommendations on what I should switch out. In the other thread people where telling me I need more blue.

Should I take out the 10000k 14000k and 16000k and put Epistar 453nm and/or 415 - 420nm and/or 395/400nm

Or non of the above? It will cost ~ $180 to buy 15 more 20w leds so i don't want to do it all and have it not work. I will take any and all suggestion.
THank you for any help!

Back to reading from the start

 

[proietti]

IMO you have too many generic leds. When planning your led fixture you should make sure that you at least cover the spectrum that is required by the corals as shown on the attachement. I am do not have faith in the generic leds as a Kelvin rating refers to colour rendition rather than what nanometers is actually emitted. Corals require specific nanometer wavelenghths rather than Kelvin ratings. In my set up where Get an inch of growth per month on average I have flooded the range between the 390 - 450nm which is used for the grown of the gorals. I then have added other colours which are for my visual appreciation.
The Leds i have used are 400Nm, 420nm, Blues, RBlue, Ocean Coral White(RGB), Limes & Amber.

 

[DrawnToBeaches]

I'm sad that this hasn't been as active as it used to be, I'm thinking about building a 3 chip or possible 4 chip system for a 75 or 120 peninsula in the future, I want to run 2 100w leds on a dimmable 100w driver, 1 warm white and 1 royal blue, I'd eventually like to add a few 3w leds as well for some extra red and some 395 to 405 nm. Looking for any input, I'll likely diy large reflectors like mh unless I go pendant style since it will be open top or open top with floating canopy