Building an 'evil cluster' - DIY LED on steroids

[zemuss]

lol

 

[jedimasterben]

Inserted the black, uh, inserts into the 8020.

Some wiring. Starting to get cramped.

Ok, getting WAY cramped for one driver box. Oy.

And I'm just gonna leave this here for now.

Uncorrected PAR on the sandbed on-center is right at 200 with just the LEDs, total distance is 26".

 

[jedimasterben]

No PAR tonight, but attempted to get some good pics of the light in various configurations.


NW only

RB only

Lime/Cyan only

Blue/Red only

Violet only

RB/V

RB/V/B/R

NW/RB

RB/L/C (this pic didn't turn out so hot, looks a lot better in Lightroom, didn't export correctly)

RB/L/C/B/R/V

NW/RB/B/R/V

All LEDs

All LEDs, NW/L/C 50% (my favorite)

2x Blue Plus

2x Blue Plus, All LEDs

2x Blue Plus, All LEDs, NW/L/C 50%

2x Blue Plus, RB/V

2x Blue Plus, RB/B/R/V

That was WAY too time consuming for how crappy all of those pictures turned out lol, I need to get a better lens.

 

[joelpeavy]

Looks great bud. I'm guessing your fish were thinking that was one wild disco they went to!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Great job man!

 

[jedimasterben]

Looks great bud. I'm guessing your fish were thinking that was one wild disco they went to!

LOL, that combined with my wife pointing out that the tang I have is starting to change to its adult coloration, and every time she would point all the fish would scatter, so she kept doing it over and over and over lol

Great job man!

Thanks rev!

 

[joelpeavy]

Have a couple of questions for you. Now you may have answered this already but I'm not very fluent in LED-speak just yet. 1- For each color set you have that you control separately, do you have to use a different driver per set? 2- Understanding that you can do the dimming, but is there a way to do a gradual ramp up or ramp down to mimic the slow transition from nite to dusk to mid-day and then back down? I'm trying to read everything I can on LED DIY but I'm beginning to feel a bit over exposed on info. Seriously about to do a Kelly Bundy and start dropping information as I learn new stuff I'm afraid!

 

[jedimasterben]

Have a couple of questions for you. Now you may have answered this already but I'm not very fluent in LED-speak just yet. 1- For each color set you have that you control separately, do you have to use a different driver per set?

LED drivers dim as one unit, so any LEDs that are attached to that particular driver will all be at the same intensity.

2- Understanding that you can do the dimming, but is there a way to do a gradual ramp up or ramp down to mimic the slow transition from nite to dusk to mid-day and then back down? I'm trying to read everything I can on LED DIY but I'm beginning to feel a bit over exposed on info.

Controllers do just that. There are many to choose from, but the best I've tested by far has been the Bluefish controller, followed by the Coralux Storm.

There is a lot of information to take in, the learning curve is much higher than with any other light.

Seriously about to do a Kelly Bundy and start dropping information as I learn new stuff I'm afraid!

LOL

 

[zemuss]

Hey Jedi where did you get the track to hang the light?

 

[jedimasterben]

From 8020's ebay store.

 

[zemuss]

Can you send me a link on what you bought.. I might be interested.

 

[jedimasterben]

I bought a variety of different things, I don't think I could make a list if I tried. You can go to the 8020 website and look at their catalogs to see what all is available, and their ebay store sells most of that stuff. Just select what series (I used the 10mm stuff) you want and it will have all of the stuff that fits it in one category.

 

[jedimasterben]

PAR



NW @ 1A

NW at 700mA

L/C at 1A

L/C at 700mA

RB at 1A

RB at 700mA

B/R at 700mA

V at 1A

V at 700mA

All LED at 1A (except B/R at 700mA)

All LED at 700mA

2x Blue Plus

All LED at 1A (except B/R at 700mA) with 2x Blue Plus

All LED at 700mA with 2x Blue Plus

 

[jedimasterben]

Power usage breakdown.

Total watts consumed by the Bluefish controller, 3x 50mm fans, all the LEDs at 1A (save for blue/red at 700mA), and T5HO 2x39w ballast is 374 watts.

With the LEDs turned to 700mA maximum on all channels, this drops to 299 watts.

With the LEDs off, this goes down to 101 watts.

With the T5 ballast off, leaving the fans and Bluefish controller, drops to 14 watts.

So the controller and fans use 14w, the T5 ballast 87w, the LEDs at 700mA use 199w, the LEDs at 1A use 273w.

For a 37% power increase from 700mA to 1A, there is a 24-27% increase in PAR. Not too shabby.

 

[flamehawk1613]

Jedi, what are your feeling on splashguards? do you use them and if so what type of material do you use? have you ever looked into how they change the par readings?

 

[jedimasterben]

I don't have mine just yet, they are being made from acrylic. Any impact on light is, at worst, negligible.

 

[GMguy496]

so when u put the chips together did u put 1 red with 2 cb and then 2 lime with 1 cyan

 

[jedimasterben]

Yes.

 

[S2klbc]

Awesome job!! I'm planning on retro fitting some Phillips M 12 and maybe some Lux ES in my 8x39 ati fixture soon but after seeing this I'm kinda intimated!!

 

[jedimasterben]

It's really not hard to do, the hard part is doing something like I did, with all of the wires exposed, and making it not look like crap (which I failed at lol).

Be very careful using that many T5 and adding in something as strong as the M. With eight T5 you're already hitting the upper limit for most SPS at reasonable distance.