Kessil

LED team build

yardartist

yardartist

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Anyone interested in working on an LED set up together? I am not experienced enough with the soldering on the wires to jump in solo. I am thinking whoever is in we all work on building a light for each person. Each buys all the parts supplies for their light. We could then share cost of tools, or borrow tools to complete the build.

Meet at my place or a place central to the group. This could be a three light unit for a test refugium light, or the 8-10 light unit I am considering, or larger for larger tanks.

Benefits include getting to know a couple other member tanks better. And getting over the procrastination hump, though there will be a committee effect that could slow down the progress. My plan it to make it encouragement. Also to get a couple of these lights going in the club to start a test to see how they function for growth.

Looking at possible three meetings. One to plan each system and make parts list. The next to build after all the parts are in, and a third to complete the build if needed.
 
Not sure what you are asking Gresham. I have been reading up threads on RC and Nano sights. As well as the thread Tony and others have going here. There are local suppliers of parts. I am looking to upgrade PC. The tank is 24" deep and about that wide. I have not seen a DIY LED in person nor talked with anyone about theirs pros/cons. I am looking at a non dimming set for starters.

What next step would you recommend?
 
Richard, Tonggao is making one for his frag tank. He said he will take pictures and everything. He made one before and it came out good. You know it's not cheap to make one right??
 
Sounds like a good impromptu non-club sponsored DIY type event.

I've considered LEDs, but IMO while they may be cost effective in the long term, I don't like the upfront costs of them.
 
Phong, I am estimating around $500 on the high end. At the current rate of bulbs for my 96w PC, that is four years of bulbs. If I were to upgrade to anything else it would be bulb costs and the new fixture.
 
I also think these bulbs lend themselves very well to a small light fixture the width of the tank on a slow track end to end of the tank each day. Less up front costs and the lights stay on longer to give 8 hours to any one place in the tank.

This way as technology improves in the next five or so years, a new light can be made as the one on the track will be near end of life as it has been on more constant than we typically use on a tank.

The moving light will also help smooth the spotlight effect of these lights. The field of light will blend to make less hot spots. I however do not have a long tank so cannot test this type fixture. I have a friend back In Durham, NC who used a track light for her orchids. It worked great for her in a damp setting. Gave good day length coverage of light to individuals and did not spotlight kill any of the plants.
 
Be aware that cree just released the XP-G (next gen chip from Cree) and will have the MC-E Color (multi color-multi die emitter) which can potentially move things into the economical realm. For those familiar, think R4. at the price of a Q5 (that is the speculation)
 
Richard, we are pretty far away from each other (I am in Cupertino), or I would be happy to do something together with you.

I do not know what it was, but I got this strong itch to do something about my lights starting 2 to 3 months ago. At the beginning, everything sounds so out of this world to me, but it did not take long to figure things out, and it is really not that complicated after that. Call me crazy, I decided to make LEDs for ALL my lights, that is 5 systems. I figure I can wait forever for the next better LED to come, or I can jump in today and already have fun with it now. You know my decision :). I know, one year (or even a few months) down the road I will feel stupid comparing against the latest and coolest system, but isn't this the case with any cool gadget? So far I always tend to be the stupid one :).

Cost obviously is a big consideration since everything is so damn expensive (LEDs themselves might not be the most expensive part, and things add up fast). So after some study, I decide to go with the mainstream LED choice (best pricing and availability), which are Cree XR-E Q5 cool white and royal blue. On the driver side, besides a few odd choices, it mostly boils down to either buckpucks or Meanwell drivers. To me, Meanwell is the clear winner since it integrated everything in one nice package, is probably more reliable (I read several stories about buckpucks going dead very fast), has fewer DIY parts which involves dangerous electronics, and probably cost less after adding everything up with the buckpuck approach. Moreover, PowerGate who sells Meanwell is local here in Santa Clara. One afternoon I got bored at work, and just drove to Powergate to hassel them (their dimmable ELN-60-48 driver is back ordered for several months on the internet), and was able to get my drivers in just a couple of weeks :). The price to pay, they are supposed to sell OEM only, and I had to get the whole OEM sales pitch and presentation when I was there. Not a bad feeling to be treated more important than who I really am though :bigsmile:

I guess doing it on five systems is quite a bit more than I can really handle (especially given a busy work schedule), so I am struggling here. I will post in separate threads about some of these builds, here is the summary. Since these setups are expensive, and I did not have any experience with them (even though I played with soldering/electronics a lot when I was a little kid, I have not touched them in the last 25 years, and totally forgot about them), I spent a lot of time reading/thinking/planning. Also I want to start with something simpler and more tolerate to mistakes, therefore I picked a Cheato sump light as the first project. After doing it (I will post a short thread about it tonight if it is useful to anybody), I felt much more confident about it. Being an impatient me, I decide to do a full lighting system for my 12G nanocube (replacing a 70w MH). I will start a thread on this soon also. Since I did not see much successful stories on the internet with SPS (only a few people showed spotty success with SPSs, mostly with montiporas), and since complete LED systems are very expensive for larger tanks, I decide to stay with the MHs on my remaining 3 systems (range from 12g aquapod, 70g 30x30x18 cube, and 120g regular tank), and use LEDs for actinic lighting. I will post threads on at least some of these also.

I think I am getting out of control with these projects, spending more time thinking about them than anything else. Well, this is a dangerous hobby.
 
Hey tonggao,

I'm interested on getting it going.
You are very lucky to get the meanwell in couple weeks.... Many people are still waiting in line :(
How much did you pay for the driver?
I just got me some Q5s for under $5. Waiting for it to arrive. Bought the components to try to build my own driver. Let's see how it goes.
My current project is actually a controller at the moment.
You can see my thread here
I plan to add the driver I'm building, if everything goes well, to the controller.
Not much to do to get a LED lighting going. All you need is a driver and the LEDs.
You can even get one of those retrofit lights on craigslist to create a very nice case for it.
I'm located in Fremont, if you wanna come this way. I got all the tools.
Roberto
 
Hi Roberto,

That is one sick controller you are building there! I don't think I am brave enough to go that far. Even though gradual dimming with a controller for sunrise/sunset is very cool, I don't think I really need it. So for my ELN-60-48D, I just built a simple manual 1-10v voltage controller using a LM317, a resistor, and a pot so I can gradually acclimate the corals without light shock that many people experienced. I only bought one ELN-60-48D ($38.5 plus tax, no shipping cost since I picked up) for the nano tank full set up (will drive 13 3w LEDs). I used an non-adjustable ELN-30-27 for the sump light because I do not see any reason to dim there. I will use 700ma LPC drivers to drive all the actinic light because I do not want to run the LED on them too hot, as I am not planning on using fans on most of them.

You are right, I also found actual hooking up the LEDs and powering them on are very easy, what are exhausting are the designing, preparation, buying all the little bits and pieces, and a zillion holes to be drilled/tapped holes. The strange thing is I found myself actually enjoying the boring hole drilling/tapping process, something labor intensive but requires little brain :).

Thanks for your generous offer on the tools. I bought a bunch of tools already just for this project, and have turned one car spot in my garage into my temp workshop. I even bought a 150lb floorstanding drill press for this, which is a life saver (can't imagine drill all these holes with my hand drill).

I will hook up with you if I go to Fremont, and you are welcome to drop by if you come down this way.
 
Hey Richard,
You are a little bit too far for me too, but I'm willing to help out too if you need help from me :)
LMK if you need extra hands to mess up a project lol....
But, follow Tonggao's build and you'll get yourself a nice system.
Roberto
 
Roberto, I forgot to ask if you have a good source for some nice XR-E Royal Blue LEDs (preferrably their crean of the crop D315/D316 bin) mounted on good stars for a good price? I need to buy 52 such LEDs for the actinic lights. Thanks.
 
Tonggao, I am down at Neptune Aquatics about every other week it seems. Cupertino is not that much farther. I am off work odd days at Monday and some Friday's. I have to plan club events way out. An evening that could go late would work too. Glad to hear so much is going on with LED's. Your new thread's this evening are great. I have been brooding about a month now. Gomer has been the lightning rod so far for all my questions. (Thanks Tony for keeping me good reading material!)

Roberto, you are in Fremont? Again would work for a planned project. I have found two people can screw up something exponentially faster than one. ;)

Group buy for royal blues? Looking at eight or so for my project. Maybe there are others who would consider just an actinics update to existing lighting?

Given the price of the parts, I would be interested in witnessing someone solder, and talk through how each of you decide on a light spacing plan. The parts list keeps looking easier and easier as the Meanwell takes center stage. I am still getting my mind around the electrical component. I doubt I will need the fan much here in Berkeley. Our place is cold all but about a dozen days a year. I have not run the PC lights twice in the last year to keep the tank fully under 80 degrees. I could run a room fan in that direction for those days.
 
ok im in! im glad i found you guys! i own a sign shop and can get leds and ballasts for a better price and have a cnc machine that can make all of our other stuff. i live in fremont and have been trying to research the whole led thing for my tank as well. i live in fremont so were not all that far from each other. just let me know!
 
I will PM everyone who has jumped in so far, to include Tony. We can talk about a place to meet and time. Then as we move forward keep this thread posted to how it is going. A design on paper is my goal to include items list. If I can do that then I will tackle the next step.

If you want to keep up with the group just post here and you will get included.

My Dad is a regular jack of all trades, and electrician by trade from military service. He has been following my dream with some notes I send to him that I copy from the thread builds. I am trying to get him to help me understand it all.
He just pushed me today, by me getting in the mail, a note and check to cover the LED build. I was never the one to hang around him and do what he was doing. But as I get older I seem to do things. I think this is his way to encourage me to just do it. Couldn't ask for a better friend! Wish he wasn't all the way back in South Carolina.
 
Richard, you are welcome to drop by when you come down south, but I am only available in the evening during weekdays (have to keep the job to pay for this expensive hobby :)). Just let me know ahead of time, and we can set something up.

At the same time, I will post my projects in this forum.

DirtyDrew, wow, now we have the inside connection :). Can you get some (52) XR-E Royal Blue LEDs with a good price? Thanks. My email address is tonggao99@gmail.com
 
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