Some LED Technical help...

[gREEF stricken]

Ok, wrote a while back but can't find the thread. My goal for an LED supplement for showin off the sparkles on top of 3ea 250 MH's is

20 RB
10 B
10 G
5 R

I will purchase the 200 W Power supply from Steve's LEDs. I wish to have all the blues on one dimmer. I realize I cannot have them all on one driver. How can I accomplish this? I want to be able to do them all of the blues, all of the greens, and all of the Reds separately. Any help would be appreciated. And please talk to me like a two-year-old it's what I need.

GS

 

[perkint]

Get 5 mean well LDDs (and a mounting board or get the HW version so you don't need one), split your RBs into 2 strings of 10 and then simply run the PWM signal from your controller (Storm or arduino or whatever) to both LDDs for the RB and the other PWM signals separately to the other LDDs. Since you'd have a high voltage of 30 odd volts (depends on the LEDs and drive current) you'd probably be best off with a 36V PSU, but you need to check the voltage the LEDs will need at the current you intend to drive them at...

Tim

 

[jedimasterben]

No green, and no red. You've got metal halides, after all. You will only want white, royal blue, and blue as supplements, and if you're wanting a more 'blue' appearance then you'll want to skip out on the white altogether.


IMHO you're going to have a hard time seeing a difference against 750w of metal halide using only 40 LEDs, but more than that and you'll start passing saturation and inhibition points.

 

[gREEF stricken]

I apologize for not being clearer here. My goal is to simply have these so that I can turn them on before and after with slight overlap on both ends of the metal halide's. purpose for the greens and reds is simply to complement the blues with adjustability to maximize appearance of particular corals at particular times. Absolutely for my own personal visual aesthetic enjoyment. That's why no white at all.

No green, and no red. You've got metal halides, after all. You will only want white, royal blue, and blue as supplements, and if you're wanting a more 'blue' appearance then you'll want to skip out on the white altogether.


IMHO you're going to have a hard time seeing a difference against 750w of metal halide using only 40 LEDs, but more than that and you'll start passing saturation and inhibition points.

 

[jedimasterben]

I apologize for not being clearer here. My goal is to simply have these so that I can turn them on before and after with slight overlap on both ends of the metal halide's. purpose for the greens and reds is simply to complement the blues with adjustability to maximize appearance of particular corals at particular times. Absolutely for my own personal visual aesthetic enjoyment. That's why no white at all.

OH lol for some reason i read that you would also have 10 white LEDs. whoops

I still personally would not bother with green or red unless you plan on changing both depending on which coral you're looking at. You'd be much better off to just use a handful of warm white LEDs.

 

[gREEF stricken]

Ok Tim, have gone over your response numerous times. Did my best to get what I could from it. First, thanks for trying to help. I looked at the PSU(Took me five minutes to figure out what the hell that meant) at S's-LEDS and its a "switching power supply 200W/24V @8.3A. So I went to eBay and looked around and found some options for a PSU of 36V with options for wattage. Brings me to my question of how do I figure out how many watts I need my PSU to be? Maybe with the subtraction of the greens and reds, and the addition of the warm whites I still top out at 50 LEDs all of which are 3 W each. I hope this is all the info you need, if not please ask me further. and again, forgive my ignorance. But in my defense, I am learning some things here... also, what are my options for manual dimming? while I have a complete apex controller on my other 90 gallon reef, I don't have the second EB8 and needed accoutrement to put the new tank online yet. And finances may preclude this for a while. So with that said, can you also simply explain to me how I can do this on two dimmers, one for the blues, one for the whites? Or do I even need a dimmer on the whites with so few?

GS

Get 5 mean well LDDs (and a mounting board or get the HW version so you don't need one), split your RBs into 2 strings of 10 and then simply run the PWM signal from your controller (Storm or arduino or whatever) to both LDDs for the RB and the other PWM signals separately to the other LDDs. Since you'd have a high voltage of 30 odd volts (depends on the LEDs and drive current) you'd probably be best off with a 36V PSU, but you need to check the voltage the LEDs will need at the current you intend to drive them at...

Tim

 

[perkint]

A 24V PSU (sorry - acronymns get used too much, but I'm idle and it saves typing ) would not run 10 LEDs in one string, so a 36V one would be better.

How much power? I always say about 50% more than you need. How much do you need? Well, it is more or less just the total power of all the LEDs. How much power are the LEDs using? Depends on what their fV (forward voltage - can be found in the datasheets) is at the current you are going to drive them at. What current are you going to run them at? All LEDs have a maximum drive current. Keep below that, but you do need to check for each LED you are getting. It's not all obvious, but there is no difficult maths in there, just leg work finding the values.

Hmm - manual dimming using meanwell LDDs (there are other options, but i think they're the easiest and one of the best)? Easier to use an arduino, and you can pick them up for a few dollars And there are lots of programs to run it, kicking around on the net. I'd actually say it was easier to use an arduino even if you want to do it manually (with a pot).

Tim

 

[oreo57]

Ok Tim, have gone over your response numerous times. Did my best to get what I could from it. First, thanks for trying to help. I looked at the PSU(Took me five minutes to figure out what the hell that meant) at S's-LEDS and its a "switching power supply 200W/24V @8.3A. So I went to eBay and looked around and found some options for a PSU of 36V with options for wattage. Brings me to my question of how do I figure out how many watts I need my PSU to be? Maybe with the subtraction of the greens and reds, and the addition of the warm whites I still top out at 50 LEDs all of which are 3 W each. I hope this is all the info you need, if not please ask me further. and again, forgive my ignorance. But in my defense, I am learning some things here... also, what are my options for manual dimming? while I have a complete apex controller on my other 90 gallon reef, I don't have the second EB8 and needed accoutrement to put the new tank online yet. And finances may preclude this for a while. So with that said, can you also simply explain to me how I can do this on two dimmers, one for the blues, one for the whites? Or do I even need a dimmer on the whites with so few?

GS

a $50 Typhon for 4 channel control is not too pricy. Yes you can assemble the Arduino parts for cheaper but certainly not simpler. Need the RTC, USB/serial board, a decent program ect..
Some LDD's LED's and PS and hs (heat sink)..done..

 

[perkint]

a $50 Typhon for 4 channel control is not too pricy. Yes you can assemble the Arduino parts for cheaper but certainly not simpler. Need the RTC, USB/serial board, a decent program ect..
Some LDD's LED's and PS and hs (heat sink)..done..

A typhon is not a bad price, but if you want to do it cheap and you have a computer/laptop & micro usb cable, all you need is an arduino nano, an RTC and a PSU (does the typhon come with PSU?) which you can pick up all of those for about £5! And there are lots of free sketches around

Tim