Widmer's LED Projection System

widmer said:
I'm content; This discussion was very productive in illustrating how blatantly more intense and efficient LEDs are as a source of light, as compared to a halide.

We couldn't have done it without you :)
Click to expand...

If it makes you happy to feel that way, then it was my pleasure :)
 
Wow, we were just talking about this. I'm too lazy to link the pic, just google it if you want to see what it looks like.

With so much action going on in the LED lighting realm, it is refreshing to see a product as novel as the Adjust-A-Wings for metal halide and high pressure sodium lamps. The premise is simple, two sheets of thin aluminium are gently folded by adjustment wires which change the angle of spread of the reflector. The Adjust-A-Wings can be kept wide open to reduce intensity and increase spread or they can be tightened to decrease the width of the reflector, making a thinner parabola with greater intensity over a smaller area. The Adjust-A-Wings ship in a flat box which should reduce shelf space at the store and shipping costs. Although the video below shows how to assemble the AAWs, we were really looking to see the reflector adjusted to show the change of intensity vs. spread. The Adjust-A-Wings kit comes with an adjustable halide socket so you can choose the position of the halide lamp’s inner envelope relative to the reflector for maximum efficiency. Adjust-A-Wings come in a medium and large size that retail for $155 and $205 respectively. The AAWs might be geared for the indoor grower but for the very large reef tanks that use high powered metal halides, this reflector could deliver some very welcome fine adjustments of intensity and spread.
 
No sorry, i tried to post the link but apparently RC won't allow the site name to show up so i just copied the blurb. It's basically an adjustable reflector for fine tuning light spread for a MH rig. I just thought it was interesting because it was under discussion last week.
 
As for the LED-MH debate, I can assure folks that LED's can hang with halides. I am using 8 Cree royal blue (455nm) XRE's driven at 1000mA along with a 250DE Phoenix on an E-ballast.


The Cree's make a very, very pronounced actinic-blue punch, even with the halide on.

I posted some comparison pics and a short "low budget C-list" video. I wish I had a PAR meter handy, but don't.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1792420
 
Great LED build, makes me want to resurrect mines and tinker a little more with it...which leads me to my question, have you stocked the tank yet and observed corals under your light just yet? I was getting photo inhibition on my rig and switched back to my T5's until I could figure out how to reduce the light to good levels and not saturate every coral in my tank.
 
Normally just run a shorter photperiod until everything aclimates properly, because Leds are powerful this may take some time for everything to adjust properly, when i setup my 200g DD in the next few months i'll just be using PAR38's(16 total) i'll be going with a 4-5 hour photoperiod to start, right now i'm at 10 hours on my 150w MH with (2) 24w T5's setup, so i know aclimation for me will be key

I've seen great color and growth from lots of led setup's, the sad thing is i haven't seen a lot of PAR and Growth shots together to get the Idea of what amount of PAR the corals are recieving

hoping on the new tank i'll be able to acheive the results i'm going for, Widmer's setup definatly gives me hope for the Leds and optics I'll be going with to acheive some good results, and maybe i can get my hands on a par meter when my setup is running for awhile and do a good run down with the PAR numbers

this tank is 27 inches tall, so it will be interesting to see what the leds will be able to pull off since i liketo keep my sps pretty low

nice setup again Widmer!
 
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beeker said:
I've seen great color and growth from lots of led setup's, the sad thing is i haven't seen a lot of PAR and Growth shots together to get the Idea of what amount of PAR the corals are recieving
Click to expand...

Soundwave is the only user I know of on these forums who has done longterm (1 year) growth shots AND par.
 
Evilc66 has been running PAR38's over his 40g tank for about 8 months now, pics i've seen from his setup look good, i'll be doing something similar to his setup with how i'll be mounting the lights, his lights are 33 inches off the sandbed, so on my tank that should make the bulbs 6 inches off the water, so that is what i'm aiming for

i've asked evilc66 for more pics but i know he is a busy guy and is asked a ton of things daily, so i'm in no rush for the results cause it will be about 2 months before i start purchasing my lighting hardware

soundwaves setup got me looking into DIY and his tank looks great also

but to me and my dad taking a PAR38 apart and replacing a Led or the Bulb itself is easier to do than taking a heatsink off the tank and having to unsoder and resoder and new led into place, and to light a 48*36*27 tank with a DIY would most likely not be any cheaper than doing 16 PAR38's, plus i think the spot lighting effect will look great on this tank, i've already got my rockwork design figured out and it will have a japanese look to it with as many spots as i'll be using, i will be adding moonlights but that won't be till later after i see how the PA38's workout for me
 
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beeker said:
but to me and my dad taking a PAR38 apart and replacing a Led or the Bulb itself is easier to do than taking a heatsink off the tank and having to unsoder and resoder and new led into place, and to light a 48*36*27 tank with a DIY would most likely not be any cheaper than doing 16 PAR38's, plus i think the spot lighting effect will look great on this tank, i've already got my rockwork design figured out and it will have a japanese look to it with as many spots as i'll be using, i will be adding moonlights but that won't be till later after i see how the PA38's workout for me
Click to expand...

You guys might not want to end the discussion just yet. Building your own fixture would be ENORMOUSLY cheaper than purchasing 16 of the PAR38's, even if they came down in price from $120 apeice to $100 apeice. You could probably do it for approximately half the price if you DIY a fixture.

With the PAR38 prices, you are spending at least $20/LED before you buy a socket/cord to screw it into. With DIY, folks are easily spending closer to $10/LED.
 
It's not just the economy of building your own fixture that is better. You know exactly what you are getting because you are building it. No short cuts are taken.
I've always wondered at what current those PAR38's are driven, since they have no active cooling, and do not have much metal behind the LEDs. I seriously question the performance of those when compared with your average DIY. You know the bin, current, and you know you are cooling it properly, so you can feel confident that output will be maintained throughout the useful life of the fixture.
-R
 
Santoki said:
I've always wondered at what current those PAR38's are driven, since they have no active cooling, and do not have much metal behind the LEDs. I seriously question the performance of those when compared with your average DIY.
Click to expand...

Very good point. I have my little contraption of 3 XR-E's running at 1000 mA, and it appears to have quite a bit more fin area than the PAR38, but it gets pretty warm. I wonder if they might be driving those with the $2 dealextreme.com drivers which push well under the rated amperage through the LEDs...
 
Fun update:

In my OP here, I said that you can actually see the beams in the air. This is never more apparent than when there is a little cooking going on:

01282010005.jpg


And a FBS (full beam shot :))
01282010001-1.jpg


None of that is glare - actually if anything the camera does a very poor job capturing the beam.
 
BeanAnimal said:
It amazes me how hard some of you are trying to have an argument about a subject that I have clearly not attempted (nor have a desire) to argue about.
Click to expand...

My own post probably came across as more antagonizing that it was meant to be.... That's what I get for iphone posting on a roadtrip. no need to extend those remarks any more than that....



I love the optics-fog shots of the LEDs, cool stuff.
 
ReefEnabler said:
I love the optics-fog shots of the LEDs, cool stuff.
Click to expand...

I can only imagine how bright the beams would be if it were actually foggy in here - the pics were taken when there was simply a little cooking going on and thus some particulate matter in the air.
 
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