Another DIY led...

dacianb · May 16, 2015

soubhik said:
Beautiful outcome dacianb , congrats . dacianb don't you think a little pop is missing ? i think a lil more light in the 410-420nm range will bring out the fluorescence and pop more

Now there are 2 luxeon uv at 420 nm. Do you think that 410 nm will improve things? Those corals were kept 1 year on low light (2 T5- juwel). Not growing at all,just surviving. They have really faded colors comparing with first days in tank. Hope that new lights will bring more color into them.
For the long version of light I can add 410 nm into it too.

dacianb · May 19, 2015

I have a question for the electronics specialists

What smd resistor type should be best fit for bridge out the Osram Oslon footprint? I am talking about a 0 ohm resistor, of course. Max current 1A.

dacianb · Jun 5, 2015

- After few weeks with the new LED system corals start growing (all are more than 1 year old under T5 and no grow at all until LED). All Euphyllia divided their heads in 2-3 new heads. Caulastrea have nice grow. A red / green favia have much nicer green, but the red part become pinkish (washed out) - probably too much light for it. A 2 headed Blastomussa have 6-7 new polyps already at 1-1.5cm diam.
- My previous never ending algae problem disappeared with the LEDs, but turns out in a Cyano nightmare. I reduced the light on time and things are going into right direction (less and less cyano every day). I know the filtration system is bad, so I dont expect miracles. Hopefully in the new tank will be different.
- ratio of neutral white / deep blue LEDs needs to be changed (now 50%-50%). Putting both channels at same level the color is too "sunny" for my taste. The nicest color in my opinion is with white at 50% comparing with deep blue channel. So ideally should be 75% deep blue and 25% whites. Probably adding few deep blue leds on the white channel will solve the issue. Anyway, I will never use the white channel alone. Tank under it looks like under sun light, not so nice.
- Trying to change some whites with deep blue leds (third time cooking the board) I burned out couple of other leds... So I was rather angry and decided to make new boards, in a complete new concept - instead of a single board with 32 LEDs on, rather impossible to change afterwards, I am redesigning the system by using 6 individual boards with 6 leds each. So I will make the lights with a bit more LEDs (36 / side) and 6 channels. Will be much easier/ cheaper to change such an individual board - even if fails, throwing away 6 LEDs is cheaper than 32. Such boards I can make with any footprint, so in future I can experiment with Cree, Luxeon etc next to Osrams. I think is a modular light I wanted from beginning. The 6 boards will be very slim, so space between LEDs will stay small enough to avoid disco effect.
- I have also a bad news, regarding the thermostat - bad choice I made after all. I ordered 3 thermostats, first failed after 1 day after mounting it (actually had no hysteresis (saw the fan continuously on / off) - so I though my bad luck. Mounted the second one, after 3 weeks dead, lucky me I noticed how hot light became. Mounted the third one, completely dead. So now the light is with fan always ON. Need to find a better way to do it. Those were 8 EU / piece thermostats, industrial grade, 100 000 clicks, etc. Contacted supplier few weeks ago, silent as a fish.

snoopie · Jun 5, 2015

Wow so many changes. I think the board with 6 LEDs would be a good way to go. Hopefully fan tstat works out for you. Its no good that supplier hasn't contacted back.

gettaReef · Jun 6, 2015

Looking forward to seeing the fixture with your proposed changes....good luck and keep us posted

soubhik · Jun 8, 2015

waiting to see the new design....
dacianb have you got my pm

dacianb · Jun 22, 2015

Finally get the boards... 50 pcs to build my lights and play with different combinations and spectrum.
This board can handle:
-up to 6 CREE XB-D LEDs
-up to 12 Luxeon Z or Luxeon UV LEDs
-up to 6 Osram Oslon SSL 80, Oslon SSL 150, Oslon Square, Oslon Signal, Oslon Black, etc.

booth2010 · Jun 22, 2015

Thats neat, I bet those would be good for making lights for nano tanks.

dacianb · Jun 23, 2015

booth2010 said:
Thats neat, I bet those would be good for making lights for nano tanks.

I am not plan it for nano tanks, as I dont have one, but probably yes, would be OK. Such a board can handle 18-20W on normal 3W leds. Placing 4 blue + 2 whites on it, then on a small heatsink... yes probably would be OK.

I plan to make couple of those boards for the sump with a combination of 2x deep blue (450nm), 3xdeep reds (660nm) and one far red (730 nm) as hydroponic lights for algae grow.

booth2010 · Jun 23, 2015

dacianb said:
I plan to make couple of those boards for the sump with a combination of 2x deep blue (450nm), 3xdeep reds (660nm) and one far red (730 nm) as hydroponic lights for algae grow.

Thats what I was thinking too, would make good light for a fuge if you could manufacture them for a decent price to keep their cost low.

dacianb · Jun 24, 2015

My first test for this light was a bit too warm for my taste as I used 1:1 deep blue / neutral whites, but the new version will be:
- channel 1 - violet / UV - covering range from 400-430 nm
- channel 2 - deep blue - 450 nm (real 445-450 nm leds) - some of the Cree LEDs for example are more in 455-460 nm range
- channel 3 - 4500-5000K whites, but with high CRI (85-95)
- channel 4 - combination of blue, cyan and hopefully to get the converted blue in time (those last leds have a very large 450nm component, but also still lot of "normal blue" in)
- channel 5 - deep blue again, but this time the 455-460 nm range (Cree or Osram SSL)
- channel 6 - deep red / far reds - 660 nm and 730 nm either stand alone, or mixed with some deep blue. Such a mixture can be used as hydroponic light as well, so if I plan a refugium with algae farm in, this would be the grow spectrum (chlorophyll A)

dacianb · Jun 25, 2015

I just received the new driver boards

. Are still "naked", I will have to add sockets, connectors and pins / jumpers on.

Basically this board:
- will have sockets were I can place any LDDH or high current LDDL drivers - 4X. Also can remove / change them later if needed.
- Next to the 10K drop resistor, there are some jumpers also - so light may be OFF if there is no PWM signal in, or by removing the jumper the light will be ON at full power of the respective driver. There are such individual jumpers for each channel on the board. If the light controller fails in the future, I still can choose to turn ON some of the channels until a new controller will arrive.
- There is also a dedicated socket for different types of DC/DC converters which can be used for FAN or other component in the light which may require constant voltage (I may place in the light the Storm controller, then can be powered from here)
- Except the DC IN which is made with 5mm pitch connector, everything else on the board is 2.54mm, so I can use pin connectors, screw connectors and any other kind

.
- Also holes are slotted, so easy for DIY holes, where some errors may occur.

dacianb · Jul 13, 2015

Finally, this weekend I find the time to finalize one of the new power boards. All sockets, pins and connectors are soldered - this week I hope to fully test it.
As I have many more than ever need, I can afford to destroy some of them, just for sake of science

. Minimum order was 50 and I need 4 of them.

dacianb · Aug 4, 2015

Finally I started working on the new (400mm) light.
As you remember after testing the short version for few months, I decided to make some changes.

- one of the heatsinks drilled and tapped for the new MCPCBs (linear / modular solution)

- light fixture main structure. The main plate was changed from previous 2.5mm to 3 mm (a bit more heavier, but larger thermal inertia). The plate was drilled by a pro company according to my drawings.

- this is the new side cover. I went from 3D printing to aluminium covers to increase rigidity / lifetime of the light. Covers were painted in electrostatic field for good protection of aluminium. Looks a bit wavy in this picture, but is quite nice and shiny.

- and here is the light with heatsinks and one cover mounted.

-I placed a led module (just for size comparison). In the end should be 13 such strips in it (225-250W).

gettaReef · Aug 4, 2015

Loved the previous fixture; can't wait to see this one!

dacianb · Aug 4, 2015

gettaReef said:
Loved the previous fixture; can't wait to see this one!

previous one was some kind of test platform....but in end I get some critics about the look of the fan ON the unit. This will have the fan IN the unit, so slimmer, but also 6 channels.
Still I am afraid that 2 such units on my under-construction RedSea Reefer 350 will be an overkill. 500W LED lights on a 350liter tank

dacianb · Sep 2, 2015

Now that my RS Reefer 350 is cycling I had some time to play with the proto version of the 400 mm fixture, but I am rather unhappy. It is way too powerful and covers only half of the tank. So I need 2 of those and needs to be dimmed probably around 50%. Putting 500W LEDs on a 275 liters tank means almost 2W/liter which is an overkill.

Going back to 2 or even 3 of the 200mm version would give a perfect coverage and more than enough light to grow anything in the tank. Hard decision anyway ...

dacianb · Sep 8, 2015

I mounted the old 200 mm light on the new RS Reefer 350 and here is a picture of the light distribution. Light is now at 50% and you can see the cone. For sure 3x such modules will cover the tank perfectly and still having those cones visible in the upper part - looks really awsome.