Well, at long last I settled. I found something I wanted to attempt to build and this is what came in the mail today. (Ebay Item)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-zjX4wzyYF5I/Tl14w4-N7bI/AAAAAAAAAzY/XKcIiFWgm98/s640/LED0.jpg)
Opening up the box it was like Christmas time! However I had to pay for it so its not as fun. Total contents of the box is:
180 x 3 watts Bridgelux LED (You can bash that they are not CREE's but from what I have seen, there isn't much of a difference.)
- 80 White
- 80 RoyalBlue
- 16 UV
- 4 Red
180 x 60 degree optics
10 x dimmable LED drivers
6 x heatsinks (With fans and kits to hang them)
And here is a closer look
First we have the heat sink and hanging kit. Decent heatsink thats fairly large. 7"X0.9"X15.8" Is the size. So lots of room for lots of LED's! Muahahahaa
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ZvWSP1E08Eo/Tl14ucuXXlI/AAAAAAAAAzE/OJIl3K9VMd4/s640/LED1.jpg)
Here we have the fans included. I ran one today at work next to my desk and its pretty quiet. The box says 16db for sound which to be honest, I couldn't hear it at all. So I am happy with that since there are going to be 6 of them running in total. Next do it is the box of LED's. Thats a lot of LEDS!!!! So if you do the math thats 30 LED's per heatsink so the fans are a must as I am already over the limit for passive cooling on a heatsink of that size and that many LED's
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FiX5OlItSFg/Tl14u-EoHfI/AAAAAAAAAzc/qUgSg-gP5fQ/s640/LED2.jpg)
The drivers for the LED's. Sure they are not meanwells, but from what I have run a few other drivers like this and never had a problem at all. They have a DC output of 30-70V's meaning they will run 12-20LED's per driver. There are power supplies for the fans and potentiometer for the dimming (I know, its manual.. but I will figure something out to automate it later)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-oP15mKAvarE/Tl14vTMGKII/AAAAAAAAAzM/UXKDyHVQv2c/s640/LED3.jpg)
Better idea of how many LED's there are.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-oLSxbMZd2BQ/Tl14vyc1emI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/wsYBbd8Jf8k/s640/LED4.jpg)
Lovely bag of optics.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IedpgL9WU1E/Tl14wb2p7qI/AAAAAAAAAzg/E__dRE90DJU/s640/LED5.jpg)
So the fun begins in putting this all together. I will take some pics along the way. Stay tuned for more.
Yer Gunnar be buzzeh.....
I am already blind from testing each LED before I plan on gluing them to the heatsinks. God they are bright when you are 12" away from them with a battery and wire
This is one of the UV's
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-V3Y0btUd2h8/Tl2JZUCpNWI/AAAAAAAAAzk/zWvZUBM9_5Y/s640/LED6.jpg)
Looks to be quite the project. Half the fun though will be in the building of it :) The other half when it's done and set up and over the tank. Congrats and we will be watching your progress. Enjoy
Looks like a great kit. Are you able to point us to the ebayer that sells these?
Quote from: SeaKing on August 30, 2011, 09:43:04 PM
Looks like a great kit. Are you able to point us to the ebayer that sells these?
I will have to dig this up after I surf through my inbox to find the name of them again. I usually just found things by searching ebay for royal blue led as the only real purpose for royal blue led's currently is... you guessed it!!! Aquariums.. hehe sorry I am tired.
Just finished gluing all the led's to one heat sink and here is the design I came up with.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jX5npIIR-60/Tl3Kw38i_OI/AAAAAAAAAzo/1Xq3XdvARZo/s640/LED7.jpg)
So you know what colours they actually are, heres a MS Paint master peice!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xHMh7dAsAtM/Tl3NGxwyQgI/AAAAAAAAAzs/C-Dvws-HJ54/s640/LED8.jpg)
Now I dont want to be at work today. Did you test my LEDs aswell ;)
Quote from: jon1985 on August 31, 2011, 07:38:07 AM
Now I dont want to be at work today. Did you test my LEDs aswell ;)
I will tonight when I get home. They were in a different package :P
MS Paint at 2am is win!
;D :) :)
Quote from: Hookup on August 31, 2011, 09:14:23 AM
MS Paint at 2am is win!
;D :) :)
LOL
@Jet, I approve of your keyboard :D Oh yeah true, this is about LEDS... sorry carry on !
Quote from: magnosis on August 31, 2011, 11:03:17 AM
LOL
@Jet, I approve of your keyboard :D Oh yeah true, this is about LEDS... sorry carry on !
I love the keyboard! makes MS Paint possible at 2:00AM with the lit up keys!!! hahah
Update:
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u233FUy9p8M/Tl8FuqP-UTI/AAAAAAAAAzw/_5jEoHTJn08/s640/LED9.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qG8GPTHidDk/Tl8FvX43_yI/AAAAAAAAAz0/QqYVthzInn0/s640/LED10.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Q-VuJ-iEMP4/Tl8Fv8w70_I/AAAAAAAAAz4/fnuLeW0yYHQ/s640/LED11.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3Zino5Q2Jtc/Tl8FwmX9fFI/AAAAAAAAAz8/-Rcf5tPIJQw/s640/LED12.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Gt92kBI2xxE/Tl8FxBX9ExI/AAAAAAAAA0E/7ETR6Ojdkfg/s640/LED13.jpg)
So one fixture out of 6 done. Thats actually the UV in the first picture. The next set of pictures will show the RED LED but the thermal paste is setting for the night. Hopefully more tomorrow night!
Well aren't you just toooooo handy... Haha
Looking pretty nice... I assume you'll leave the lens off the UV?
More updates.. Here is a prototype of what I am planning on doing. If I like this I will use pine or maple or birch or something to make the box out of instead of Poplar. We shall see.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A1b7DGZG06o/TmLqjEpXUvI/AAAAAAAAA0I/W98Glan-JBk/s640/LED14.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HLoS9VQ2Am8/TmLqjsfON0I/AAAAAAAAA0M/UCST5NTgsZk/s640/LED15.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T852dKc4zPw/TmLqkJmeIFI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/GY5z9xOkCtA/s640/LED16.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A25uzD8Sk_o/TmLqkR76ujI/AAAAAAAAA0U/DgE61tKmN5o/s640/LED17.jpg)
Dude this is sweet! cant wait to see it over the tank
Here are some action pictures so far of 1 fixture.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fCDPHnlqoc0/TmQoxLHMcYI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/OnyA7W5p6zY/s640/LED18.jpg)
Ignore the brain that is healing :P It half died off and has regained a lot of its tissue so far.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jI6e0CkO3IQ/TmQozLXmPwI/AAAAAAAAA0c/xyt5gZ-pp8k/s640/LED19.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lEdQ3PX1nKI/TmQo0-DsKhI/AAAAAAAAA0g/JCuvrdO45fg/s640/LED20.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-h1D4YocUXII/TmQo2j-nO-I/AAAAAAAAA0k/ZIB8Do3TCK4/s640/LED21.JPG)
More white then blue in this shot.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-og571o1Xobg/TmQo47V8zqI/AAAAAAAAA0o/VSVwZFJsPKA/s640/LED22.jpg)
I am making the fixtures to have dual power cords so I can setup a timer to control the white's and control the blues.
More to come when the fixture is finished.
Looking very good.
Looks to coming along nicely :)
Looks kind of girly if you ask me... jab-jab...
8) 8)
Quote from: Hookup on September 06, 2011, 08:59:09 AM
Looks kind of girly if you ask me... jab-jab...
8) 8)
GRRR!!!!! Why I outtaa -------- :P
very nice.
Its been slow for the past bit... but I think I have the design I want.
What do you think? It has independant Power for blue / white. Dimmer dials into the wood. I like it, what do you think?
I can dig it, it's looking nice and slick!!
looks like your a pro with the power tools .....very sleek
two thumbs up
Its looking good. I would be interested to find out how hot it will get inside the case. Heat is a failure accelerator for any electronics and you may want to ensure your LED driver modules are somewhat isolated from the air space where the heatsink dumps the heat from the LEDs. You may want to experiment with some kind of air ducting .
On another note, i find the ECOTech cooling design very interesting in that it sucks the air from under the LED module into the cooling cavity and out the top sides. I think this would help keep the ambiant air temperature right above the tank cooler.
Heat will not be an issue with this design. There is a large fan that will keep the heatsink cool. I have kept the fixture on for 30 minutes with out the fan running an its warm, but not too warm that you can't keep your hands on it. This is with NO airflow at all. I see no issues in this design. I will do something special for you in this case to prove my point. Stay tuned ;)
As for the Ecotech design, I don't personally agree with having the fan on the water side. I am predicting they will see lots of failures due to this and salt water entering that part of the unit and causing salt creep inside. The fan will litterally suck in water / salt and build up inside the fixture. Just my opinion, but I think its a pretty valid one. My current light fixture is 6" off the tank and I have to clean salt creep off the T5 reflectors every so often and there is nothing "Pulling" the water to the light fixture.
Very good point on the potential salt and water ingestion problem of the ecotech.
Here we go, finally got 1/6 put together! Have to find the knob's for the Pot's but this is the finished product. May add Acrylic shields to the bottom, but for now.. I want to get the remaining 5 to this stage.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-cPs1gDyAp8k/TnAnUvYvmbI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/lD7jXqMHYyE/s640/LED24.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sEdv1NbmE_o/TnAnV23HK2I/AAAAAAAAA1g/agWy50p9Wbs/s640/LED23.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-LVEiGUzmVew/TnAnVEg33jI/AAAAAAAAA1c/aZPjuIY2PLE/s640/LED25.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f6SwCX28YX8/TnAnT3GoigI/AAAAAAAAA1U/cCE5yZNe3W8/s640/LED26.jpg)
Time for some testing. I will let you know how warm it actually gets.. With the fan running and with out at 100%.
Very cool device... Will also be handy if you go ghost hunting, or if we're ever invaded by Predators.
Quote from: Greatwhite on September 14, 2011, 11:40:45 AM
Very cool device... Will also be handy if you go ghost hunting, or if we're ever invaded by Predators.
HAHA!
I would rather one of these.. but I don'thave that kinda money!
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Infrared-Thermal-Imaging-Camera-BETTER-Flir-Fluke-/180485236683?pt=BI_Cellular_Optical_Television_Test_Equipment&hash=item2a05c227cb
Where did we last leave off? Hmm.. well, I finished the one fixture 100%. Found the knobs for the Pot's so they are installed and honestly, I like how the fixture turned out. Now I just need to finish 5 more (Boxes are made, just need to finish them up.) Slowly making it to the finish line!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cvdP_UYOe4M/TnFr2iAoAHI/AAAAAAAAA1w/4oaMg6ozleo/s640/LED30.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZYOjTSxnKZE/TnFr01E6MtI/AAAAAAAAA1o/KLaLzJjuBKs/s640/LED28.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uwvHkhSk5yc/TnFr19qqWSI/AAAAAAAAA1s/7hXWuldARsY/s640/LED29.jpg)
After the fixture was running for 4 hours I took the Thermal Gun to it and it came up at 26.5C. That's pretty good considering ambient air in that room is 24C. I measured the maxspect fixture that I have sitting next to it and it registers at 36C so a significant difference. The difference with the maxspect however is that it has 2 30watt LED's which generate a lot of heat. The maxspect has 160watts of LED on the one heatsink where as my fixture has 90watts so I can understand the difference in temps.
After taking a look at how the spread is over the tank, I think I might only go with 4 fixtures instead of 6. I don't know if anyone would be interested in the other 2? They will look like the pictures above. Nicely finished and plug and play. Finishing them up in the next day or two. PM me if interested. I will list them in the classifieds at a later date once finished.
Jet,
how about painting those boxes out black or some non-wood color... :)
The build looks very clean, which im sure translates to lots of hours on your end, but to me the wood stands out a bit too much as "why is there wood?"... a slapping of black high-gloss paint, or other would improve things to my visual eye... :)
Glad to hear they are working as advertised...
Too bad we don't have a club spectrometer and a club PAR meter to use... i'd like to know those details on your setup... well on a lot of setups actually... just I haven't found any spectrometers that are even highly-unreasonably priced... most of them are crazy-drunken-stupid priced...
Quote from: Hookup on September 20, 2011, 10:29:26 AM
Too bad we don't have a club spectrometer and a club PAR meter to use... i'd like to know those details on your setup... well on a lot of setups actually... just I haven't found any spectrometers that are even highly-unreasonably priced... most of them are crazy-drunken-stupid priced...
I hear yeah. I would love to have access to either of those devices. But.. not in the price range for me right now. Almost finished them all then will get some pictures up of the completed light fixture.
As for black, I kinda liked the wood feel. If you want one custom built for you I will gladly do it in black ;)
your finish looks very good def got some skills with wood.
Nice thing about building like this is that you could make the fixtures any shape you want - if you have the time and energy, that is. I love the idea of a custom fixture... Get yourself some sheet metal to clad it in steel for a a modern look, or to turn the whole thing into a little UFO with small blinking LEDs around the outside...
Very cool, and professional looking, even. :)
This fixture is awesome!
I agree Greatwhite, I'd love to see a see-through acrylic fixture where you could see the stuff inside.... Maybe not too practical and you'd get some light bleeding but... hey it would be cool! I think?
Quote from: Chubs on September 20, 2011, 02:58:18 PM
This fixture is awesome!
I agree Greatwhite, I'd love to see a see-through acrylic fixture where you could see the stuff inside.... Maybe not too practical and you'd get some light bleeding but... hey it would be cool! I think?
I contemplated this idea. You would not get light bleed because you are still mounting the LED's on a Metal heatsink which unless this is star trek and we have transparent aluminum we aren't going to see that any time soon. :)
Who knows, maybe I will try my hand at something else soon. We shall see!
Nobody makes me bleed my own blood.
Quote from: JetJumper on September 20, 2011, 03:26:39 PM
I contemplated this idea. You would not get light bleed because you are still mounting the LED's on a Metal heatsink which unless this is star trek and we have transparent aluminum we aren't going to see that any time soon. :)
Who knows, maybe I will try my hand at something else soon. We shall see!
You would have to put some otherwise useless components inside, if you were to use a clear acrylic case... Nothing much exciting about a bunch of wires -- unless you have a few blinking lights and spinning gears. Maybe a clapping monkey like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsZRxkQ0EWM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsZRxkQ0EWM)
I had JJ order me LEDs at the same time. While mine is slightly different, 36 LEDs 18 blue 18 white, they are the same LEDs and heat sink. I have had them over my frag tank for a few weeks now and already see a growth difference in some of the SPS frags under it.
Granted they are only 4" deep and another 10" away but there is noticable difference between the LED frags and the frags under T5. It cant be a water issue as it is the same system.
Awesome StarTrek reference... +100 points to Jet
I guess my vague Dodgeball reference was less well received :'(
The only real experience I've had with LEDs is with the AI Sol unit, and the only thing I don't like (and I'm beeing picky) is the light bleeding through the plastic out the sides. Clearly it's because it is constructed differently and the actual lights are slightly recessed within the unit. In the new Sols coming out, they've used a thicker material apparently to stop the light bleeding so it doesn't "cheapen" the look of the fixture.
haha, nope. I completely forgot about that line in the movie.
http://www.movieweb.com/movie/dodgeball-a-true-underdog-story/nobody-makes-me-bleed-my-own-blood
So far with 1 LED unit over a tank I have some of the corals starting to colour up better.. hmm! Finished 2 more fixtures last night. couple more to go.
Quote from: Chubs on September 21, 2011, 08:35:38 AM
I guess my vague Dodgeball reference was less well received :'(
Oh, i got it... not many movie references go over my head. :)
Haha I knew I heard this line somewhere before.. couldn't put my finger on it.
And btw Jet, your build is ...
(https://www.ovas.ca/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthebooksmugglers.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F12%2Fbill-and-ted.jpg&hash=28b916b131cf367ad8965df68a050badd359283b)
most excellent !!
For those of you interested. Here is the internal shot of a completed unit.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mCzmekDDDv0/Tn31Xvib24I/AAAAAAAAA10/iLahJ78W9tk/s640/LED31.jpg)
Been watching the thread & gotta say I bow to your DIY skills! :)
Did you solder the wire connections under the marrettes?
My (DIY) light's connections are ~6-12" above the water & all the marrette connections have corroded/oxidized (not soldered). They still carry current, but I'm now looking at them & worried the oxidized copper wire (green flakes of copper oxide) now might fall in the tank! :o
I ended up buying this stuff to cover the wiring after I soldered.
I forgot I had it until I saw your photo's & it reminded me that I'd picked it up.
Haven't tried it yet, but will apply it next time I take the lights down.
Vic
(https://www.ovas.ca/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fe178%2Ffire622%2Fliquid-tape.jpg&hash=09678122fbac0c0675ea454ef5c6f41da1330f0a)
Interesting, it never dawned on me to think about doing that since it was going to be inside a closed box. Is yours inside a box? One thing I learned when doing landscape lighting was that if you take your wires, cover them in silicone then put the marrette on top it will prevent water from getting in them and corroding. Might be an option here.
I love doing little projects like this :) Its fun to create something and save on hydro :D
On mine, the wires are on top of and outside of the lights, so presumably they have very good ventilation.
I wouldn't have noticed how much they had oxidized if I hadn't done some re-routing of the wiring a couple of weeks ago & removed the marrettes to let me reposition the wires.
I have seen & used the silicone trick, too. The electricians at the underground mine I used to work at used it all the time.
I'm not sure it works as well for salt corrosion as it does on fresh water - it seems that salt can creep everywhere. At the very least, it would slow down the process.