General DIY LED thread

[stefanm]

Stupid question.... 2 leds = 36V
How can I use 48?
Does it need to be adjustable?

3 leds - 48V
2 leds - 36v

what am I missing here to use 48V with 2 Leds?
I like the idea of lots of head room so the power supply is just hummming along.

thanks

The Voltage doesn't matter (as long as it's enough), the driver will run at a constant current and adjust the voltage per string, you'll need a multimeter to adjust the current as per your requirement and the available amperes from the PSU. For example 8 channels at 600 ma = 0.6 X 8=4.8 amps. Another example is if there's a white channel and you run it at say max 50%, then to me it would make sense to have it running at 400ma to ease up on the PSU, the blues and violets maybe at 700ma.

 

[Dukereefnz]

The voltage doesn't matter (as long as it's enough), the driver will run at a constant current and adjust the voltage per string - Yep understand that !

you'll need a multimeter to adjust the current as per your requirement and the available amperes from the PSU. For example 8 channels at 600 ma = 0.6 X 8=4.8 amps. -
OK Now I am lost, understand 4.8 amps, adding all the LEDs in series/springs. Also, understand the LED's current usage needs to be under the PSU output. Is the multimeter for making sure the amps are less than the PSU?

Another example is if there's a white channel and you run it at say max 50%, then to me it would make sense to have it running at 400ma to ease up on the PSU, the blues and violets maybe at 700ma.
Run the white at 400ma and the violets at 700ma = 1.1Amps ??????

Sorry, I can wire stuff, make stuff but I have absolutely no idea how this works....
Is there a simple LED's for Noobs to explain?

End of the day.... I will buy a 48V UPS

Mean Well Original SE-350-48 Single Output Switching Power Supply 48V 7.3A 350W​

2 strings of 2 x 48W LED's with 2 drivers each.

is this OK?

 

[stefanm]

The voltage doesn't matter (as long as it's enough), the driver will run at a constant current and adjust the voltage per string - Yep understand that !

you'll need a multimeter to adjust the current as per your requirement and the available amperes from the PSU. For example 8 channels at 600 ma = 0.6 X 8=4.8 amps. -
OK Now I am lost, understand 4.8 amps, adding all the LEDs in series/springs. Also, understand the LED's current usage needs to be under the PSU output. Is the multimeter for making sure the amps are less than the PSU?

Another example is if there's a white channel and you run it at say max 50%, then to me it would make sense to have it running at 400ma to ease up on the PSU, the blues and violets maybe at 700ma.
Run the white at 400ma and the violets at 700ma = 1.1Amps ??????

Sorry, I can wire stuff, make stuff but I have absolutely no idea how this works....
Is there a simple LED's for Noobs to explain?

End of the day.... I will buy a 48V UPS

Mean Well Original SE-350-48 Single Output Switching Power Supply 48V 7.3A 350W​

2 strings of 2 x 48W LED's with 2 drivers each.

is this OK?

All ok, as per point no. 2 your driver's have a variable current output from 400ma to 1 amp as per your requirement, they're preset to 550ma which equates to 4.4 amps, if you wish to adjust the current of the drivers you just need to use the multimeter to check the current. I only have a reasonable understanding of electronics and may not iterate it well, though it's not too complicated just get the PSU as you suggested and you'll be sweet.

 

[oreo54]

Stupid question.... 2 leds = 36V
How can I use 48?
Does it need to be adjustable?

3 leds - 48V
2 leds - 36v

what am I missing here to use 48V with 2 Leds?
I like the idea of lots of head room so the power supply is just hummming along.

thanks

Thought the design was for 3 pucks.
2 you can possibly use 24v

I need to make a correction.. sorry been distracted a bit lately.Anyways voltage differential only really matters to drivers.
Linear drivers in particular which these are not but see StevesLED ones.

Power supply efficiency depends on how close the wattage is..
Example 150W ps..

ALSO keep in mind that most drivers cannot output the same voltage as the input..
A 36v power supply may only output at max 33V

 

[oreo54]

The voltage doesn't matter (as long as it's enough), the driver will run at a constant current and adjust the voltage per string - Yep understand that !

you'll need a multimeter to adjust the current as per your requirement and the available amperes from the PSU. For example 8 channels at 600 ma = 0.6 X 8=4.8 amps. -
OK Now I am lost, understand 4.8 amps, adding all the LEDs in series/springs. Also, understand the LED's current usage needs to be under the PSU output. Is the multimeter for making sure the amps are less than the PSU?

Another example is if there's a white channel and you run it at say max 50%, then to me it would make sense to have it running at 400ma to ease up on the PSU, the blues and violets maybe at 700ma.
Run the white at 400ma and the violets at 700ma = 1.1Amps ??????

Sorry, I can wire stuff, make stuff but I have absolutely no idea how this works....
Is there a simple LED's for Noobs to explain?

End of the day.... I will buy a 48V UPS

Mean Well Original SE-350-48 Single Output Switching Power Supply 48V 7.3A 350W​

2 strings of 2 x 48W LED's with 2 drivers each.

is this OK?

First.. your REAL wattage per channel is the actual voltage you measure times the current set point.
So say you set the current to 700mA (kind of a chicken or egg thing but wait a bit) and the voltage measures 22.2V
15.54W
next channel at 700mA 24.28V 17W
next channel same as above
next same as first one

65.08 Watts..

In the above case to match a power supply requires 2 things
1) ps should be capable of full wattage plus 10% = 71.588
2) with a driver w/ voltage losses power supply needs to be 22.2 + 3V = 25.3 approx.


AS TO your choice of power supply it works, is a bit less efficient than a properly selected power supply and costs more than is needed...but will come in handy if one expands their system.

Main thing to know about LED's

 

[Dukereefnz]

Thanks great write up, appreciated.
I purchased the 48V feel I should have got the 36V....
Oh well.

Here is the heatsink... each one has 2 x Blueacro's
Might be over kill as well, hoping not to need a fan!

Another question.......................

What T5 bulbs would you purchase to go with the 4 x Blueacro's
one for each side... needs to be 36inch 39w for my dimable ballast.

Blue
White
Pink
Purple

I have to buy them, I have NO idea... my last tank had MH's 'shimmer, pop, wow, cool are what I am looking for...LOL

 

[oreo54]

Thanks great write up, appreciated.
I purchased the 48V feel I should have got the 36V....
Oh well.

Here is the heatsink... each one has 2 x Blueacro's
Might be over kill as well, hoping not to need a fan!

Another question.......................

What T5 bulbs would you purchase to go with the 4 x Blueacro's
one for each side... needs to be 36inch 39w for my dimable ballast.

Blue
White
Pink
Purple

I have to buy them, I have NO idea... my last tank had MH's 'shimmer, pop, wow, cool are what I am looking for...LOL

First in a sense you can never overkill a heat sink.. well in a sense.
Cooler the diodes longer the lifespan and more efficient they are.
But you are always limited by all the heat transfer points including internally in the chip.

Are those anodized al heat sinks?. Doesn't exactly look it but there is clear anodizing.
Anodizing or even thin paint increases the radiative surface if you are passively cooling them.
If you use fans.. doesn't matter..

AS to tube pairs.. depends on what look you want really..

 

[Dukereefnz]

Not anodised, but I might price up the cost to have them done.
Would you run a fan?

Tank size is inside the tape.

Here is the layout i am looking at... the heatsinks will / could be able to slide front to back if there is an advantage to do?so?

Does the layout look OK? any other options to be considered?
Regarding T5 tubes... I have no idea.. hoping someone with experience / knowledge will have a better idea then me with none.

Plan is to have all the wiring inside the heatsink, drill holes to run the wiring.

Driver boards mount on the side of the heat sinks, two on each in the middle between the heat sinks.
There will be a clear plastic cover to keep water out... or I could mount them on a separate heat-sink in a box?

 

[stefanm]

Definitely run fans @theatrus recommends them on these pucks, best to follow his advice. As for the T5's best to ask on the led/T5 hybrid thread, I only used them whilst I rewired my LEDs and the other time when my PSU popped.

 

[oreo54]

Not anodised, but I might price up the cost to have them done.
Would you run a fan?

Tank size is inside the tape.

Here is the layout i am looking at... the heatsinks will / could be able to slide front to back if there is an advantage to do?so?

Does the layout look OK? any other options to be considered?
Regarding T5 tubes... I have no idea.. hoping someone with experience / knowledge will have a better idea then me with none.

Plan is to have all the wiring inside the heatsink, drill holes to run the wiring.

Driver boards mount on the side of the heat sinks, two on each in the middle between the heat sinks.
There will be a clear plastic cover to keep water out... or I could mount them on a separate heat-sink in a box?

Spacing looks fairly decent. There should be a way to roughly model what it should be when you want even coverage.
you'd actually not want the evenly spaced. Divide l/r into 4 not 3. Center pucks on the left and right first marks.
I.e say a 48" tank. One would "normally" think 16" spacing
Squeeze them into center a "bit" like between the 1/3 and 1/4 marks.
At 12/24/12 but moved in to like 14/20/14 (edge of tank to center of puck) may work out a bit better for more even coverage.

Same w/ f/b. If you need room for the t5's just offset the pucks so you can move the sinks closer together.

Mind you this is just a best guess atm.

The thing to avoid is too much center overlap and not enough edge coverage.
Unless you want to highlight like a center "island"
Too be honest, I'd use 6 pucks though..

Are you planning on using the reflectors or not?

 

[speedstar]

Looking for some advice as I just purchased a 300g tank and now need to light it. I would like to save some cash for corals and fish. Can anyone tell me what the effective spread would be for a AcroStar Gleam puck 100W is with the reflector and without? I have been trying to search the web and forum but keep coming up empty. Also I have build several laser projectors with analog modulation for drivers 0~5Vdc can I use a similar driver for these LEDs? It seems like it would work they are constant current and rely on the PS for the voltage drop across each diode. Setting min and max current and then the 0-5V is a linear adjust of the current.

 

[oreo54]

White Angela's are around 70 degrees.. Raw board about 120 degrees.
Spread will depend on mounting height of course.

LED Lighting Beam Angle Calculator

A simple calculator that determines spot size by a light's beam angle

store.marinebeam.com

Boards will work w/ any constant current driver.

 

[speedstar]

White Angela's are around 70 degrees.. Raw board about 120 degrees.
Spread will depend on mounting height of course.

LED Lighting Beam Angle Calculator

A simple calculator that determines spot size by a light's beam angle

store.marinebeam.com

Boards will work w/ any constant current driver.

Thanks for that link!

 

[oreo54]

Thanks for that link!

PPFD / PAR ratings: 12 inches, straight on:

• No reflector (wide diffuse): 400,
• With reflector: 1300

 

[proximus1]

Dear all brothers,

I would like to make a DIY lighting for my aquarium tank (fresh water). Details:

1. Length 23 inch.
2. Luxeon chip led 35pcs.
3. Board 7 chips RGB.

I would like to know about spectrum of this lighting. Anyone can guide me? This lighting has enough spectrum to grow plants in tank?

Please help me. Thanks alots.

 

[oreo54]

Dear all brothers,

I would like to make a DIY lighting for my aquarium tank (fresh water). Details:

1. Length 23 inch.
2. Luxeon chip led 35pcs.
3. Board 7 chips RGB.

I would like to know about spectrum of this lighting. Anyone can guide me? This lighting has enough spectrum to grow plants in tank?

Please help me. Thanks alots.

Even if just "1W class" diodes should be fine for a 24" tank unless i'ts 10 feet deep..


Point is you don't really provide enough information.
You should join like plantedtank.net

 

[stefanm]

I have an issue with my DIY LEDs, I have a string of 11 diodes that will only light up dimly, they're on an ldd driver with 48vdc PSU. I removed them earlier today and checked all the LEDs lit up and I had continuity, I even swapped the driver but no luck.

The lights are 3 separate pendants and have separate connectors to carry the strings across, they were working for the past 3 years without problems. I'm thinking that maybe one of the connections may only be hanging on by a strand or two as I can't find any over fault. The pwm signal is ok as the same signal runs two k16's.

Any ideas? Is it possible if some strands have broken on a connector that they'll not be able to carry full current?

 

[GlassReef]

A not so quick question please. I am using a Mean Well NES-350-48 (350W, 48V) PSU to drive 2 Lumia 5.2 pucks. The Lumias have 5 channels of control.

Channel 1 - 3 pcs Hyper Violet and 2 pcs CREE XPG-3 Royal Blue (Actinic channel) (18v @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 36V total
Channel 2 - 5 pcs XPG-3 Royal Blue (base blue spectrum) (16.5V @ 1500mA) X 2 pucks = 33V total
Channel 3 - 3 pcs XPG-3 Neutral White and 2 pcs XPG-3 Warm White (base white color) (16.5V @ 1500mA) X 2 pucks = 33V total
Channel 4 - 3 pcs Turquoise/Cyan using Nichia NCSE219, 2 pcs CREE XPE2 Blue (17.2V @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 34.4V total
Channel 5 - 3 pcs Hyper Violet and 2 pcs Semileds 410nm (18v @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 36V total

What I would like to do is replace the MW 350W PSU with a 500W model, from MW, and add 1 additional puck. That would look like this:

Channel 1 = 54V total
Channel 2 = 49.5V total
Channel 3 = 49.5V total
Channel 4 = 51.6V total
Channel 5 = 54V total

PSU is rated at 48V, but I need around 54V + 2V headroom = 56V (maxV of the LDDs I'm using).
Below, is part of the Mean Well datasheet for the PSU:

VOLTAGE ADJ. RANGE 41 ~ 56V
VOLTAGE TOLERANCE (Note.3) 1.0%
LINE REGULATION 0.5%
LOAD REGULATION 0.5%
(Note 3. Tolerance : includes set up tolerance, line regulation and load regulation.

So, finally my question: does the info from the datasheet mean that I can use the PSU set at 56V (I have tested the adjustment and it does go to 56.2V)?

Excuse the length of this post - just wanted to make sure I gave all needed details.

 

[oreo54]

A not so quick question please. I am using a Mean Well NES-350-48 (350W, 48V) PSU to drive 2 Lumia 5.2 pucks. The Lumias have 5 channels of control.

Channel 1 - 3 pcs Hyper Violet and 2 pcs CREE XPG-3 Royal Blue (Actinic channel) (18v @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 36V total
Channel 2 - 5 pcs XPG-3 Royal Blue (base blue spectrum) (16.5V @ 1500mA) X 2 pucks = 33V total
Channel 3 - 3 pcs XPG-3 Neutral White and 2 pcs XPG-3 Warm White (base white color) (16.5V @ 1500mA) X 2 pucks = 33V total
Channel 4 - 3 pcs Turquoise/Cyan using Nichia NCSE219, 2 pcs CREE XPE2 Blue (17.2V @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 34.4V total
Channel 5 - 3 pcs Hyper Violet and 2 pcs Semileds 410nm (18v @ 700mA) X 2 pucks = 36V total

What I would like to do is replace the MW 350W PSU with a 500W model, from MW, and add 1 additional puck. That would look like this:

Channel 1 = 54V total
Channel 2 = 49.5V total
Channel 3 = 49.5V total
Channel 4 = 51.6V total
Channel 5 = 54V total

PSU is rated at 48V, but I need around 54V + 2V headroom = 56V (maxV of the LDDs I'm using).
Below, is part of the Mean Well datasheet for the PSU:

VOLTAGE ADJ. RANGE 41 ~ 56V
VOLTAGE TOLERANCE (Note.3) 1.0%
LINE REGULATION 0.5%
LOAD REGULATION 0.5%
(Note 3. Tolerance : includes set up tolerance, line regulation and load regulation.

So, finally my question: does the info from the datasheet mean that I can use the PSU set at 56V (I have tested the adjustment and it does go to 56.2V)?

Excuse the length of this post - just wanted to make sure I gave all needed details.

You look to be on the edge w/ ch 1 and 5 since 2V isn't locked in stone.
Could be 3. Never tested exactly what the voltage drop is at that voltage, or any other voltage for that matter.
Second the voltage stated for the diodes isn't always accurate either.

Good thing is it doesn't matter all that much. Only thing it will effect is the current at the diodes. You may not see the LDD current.

Lastly as diodes heat their specs change, higher current draw at lower voltage

Really the only thing to do is it needs to be real world tested.

That said, just dropping the LDD current will drop the voltage a bit. Besides your violets will, hopefully, last longer.
500mA or less would be "my" recommendation". They get more efficient at lower currents anyways so you lose less than you may think.
I'd even consider 350mA for ch5.

Keep in mind that, as I understand it, you have less rated "amps" till stressing out the power supply.
As I said, just another way to look at it.

350 = 48 x 7.29A
350 = 56.2 x 6.22A

Ch. 5 in part.will benefit by lower mA's
.8 x 36 = 28.8
.5 x say 51V = 25.5 but behaves like 27
Guessing here of course.
Point is you sacrifice a bit of power for a better distribution.
I'll take distribution over gross PAR (mostly in spots) any day.

Ch 2 @ 74W (if run at 1500 though to be honest unless one does good thermal management running "hot" is never a recommendation regardless of what they say) should compensate a bit and maybe boosting ch4

Look is another story.
you def. got the right idea, besides a few possible driver swaps isn't the end of the world, if est. wrong.

 

[TDEcoral]

Does anybody have some freshfish or similar high CRI white cobs laying around that they'd sell me? Having trouble finding 90+ CRI cobs in a kelvin that I want and that are sold as singles.

Side note: I wish the DIY LED scene wasn't dead. It's a fun hobby within a hobby, but seems like there is very little interest these days.