General DIY LED thread
- Thread starter Kampo
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Assuming sort of a ring of diodes around the 12" heat sink, lensing the diodes at 90 degrees hanging the light at about 6" off the water line gets you a "footprint" that should cover the surface just fine.
There are options of mixing angles i.e some 120's in center 90's on rim ect but PAR effects are ? to me.
Somewhat common w/ black box modifiers..
As to power, depends on the diodes and drive current..
There are options of mixing angles i.e some 120's in center 90's on rim ect but PAR effects are ? to me.
Somewhat common w/ black box modifiers..
As to power, depends on the diodes and drive current..
i cant find a 12" X 12" heat sink so im thinking to go with six 12" X 1" heat sinks and mount them 1" apart.
if ill put 5 cree XP-E2 (like everyone else does) that will get me 30 leds that i hope should be fine.
if ill put 5 cree XP-E2 (like everyone else does) that will get me 30 leds that i hope should be fine.
Hmm if you can get away w/ 10" (9.45") and want a product in the USA these are nice:
US Stock Universal Aluminum Heatsink Power Triode FET LED SSR 9.45''x3''x0.87'' | eBay
Universal Type Aluminum Heatsink Power Triode FET LED SSR 9.45"x3"x0.87" AH02. It can be used in SSR,Power triode,FET,High Power LED. This heat sink is universal type.
www.ebay.com
$65 for 4...
wide spacing and ribbed for more surface area.
Only missing anodizing.
What "colors" are you planning on?
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
Any particular reason you are using cool whites,red and green ?
I have a cluster I made using:
CH1: 1 warm white,1 true blue,1 cyan,1 hyper violet
CH2: 4 Sunplus Royal
CH3:1 390-400,410-420,400-410 and 1 430.
Probably the happiest I have been with an array in a LONG time. 1 violet is out which I believe to be a PSU issue.
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
Any particular reason you are using cool whites,red and green ?
I have a cluster I made using:
CH1: 1 warm white,1 true blue,1 cyan,1 hyper violet
CH2: 4 Sunplus Royal
CH3:1 390-400,410-420,400-410 and 1 430.
Probably the happiest I have been with an array in a LONG time. 1 violet is out which I believe to be a PSU issue
the only reason im using these colors is because im trying to get as close as i can to what the big name brands are using.. for example, this is the mitras LX 70xx led list (per cluster)
2 x Cree XPG3 Sky White,
2 x Cree XPG3 Warm White,
2 x Cree XPG3 Cool White,
1 x Cree XP-E2 Blue,
1 x XT-E Royal Blue,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL True Green,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Yellow,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Red,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Hyperred
do you have a picture of your tank under this light?
also, do you think it better to cluster the leds or spread them evenly?
2 x Cree XPG3 Sky White,
2 x Cree XPG3 Warm White,
2 x Cree XPG3 Cool White,
1 x Cree XP-E2 Blue,
1 x XT-E Royal Blue,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL True Green,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Yellow,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Red,
1 x Osram Oslon SSL Hyperred
do you have a picture of your tank under this light?
also, do you think it better to cluster the leds or spread them evenly?
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
But those cooler whites do not have good color rendition...lol. ;Yawn
You know.. if you add one more ww and one cyan to ch1 you get a decent 15000K channel w/ less violet overtones..
Well that can depend on your diodes though..
Out of curiosity does ch1 alone look violet or deep blue toned?
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
@oreo5457
I have no overly blue or violet overtone whatsoever. I lied,there is a mint on CH1 as well. So it is VERY white. Everything blends so nicely.
My splash guard is frosted and I have another layer of frosted vinyl on the other side to kill the shimmer. Hence why I run 3 channels and split everything up,I am the happiest I have been with an array in years.
The channels with whites is 1 WW,1 Cyan,1 CB,1 Mint,1 HV. 2 is royals 3 is violets.
I have no overly blue or violet overtone whatsoever. I lied,there is a mint on CH1 as well. So it is VERY white. Everything blends so nicely.
My splash guard is frosted and I have another layer of frosted vinyl on the other side to kill the shimmer. Hence why I run 3 channels and split everything up,I am the happiest I have been with an array in years.
The channels with whites is 1 WW,1 Cyan,1 CB,1 Mint,1 HV. 2 is royals 3 is violets.
No matter the company they still need to maximise sales sooo sometimes it caters to "common knowledge" which can be right.. or wrong..
The one size fits all approach.
Radions produce the "pro" (maximizing a more MH look so to speak, more "colors" ) and the "blue" (maximising the AB + crowd) light now
Diodes differ for different crowds/needs.
Prior to that many were buying expensive lights and running them at only 3/4 of their err "value"
AB+
Point is if you want to do DIY why waste diodes..
AFAICT every "spectrum" works.. from early HPS (yuck) through pure "actinic" though each by a matter of degrees..
Given enough photons for the species most "tolerable" spectrums will work w/ some differences.
Granted there are nuances and granted different species may have different "needs" so that needs to be considered..
Light is only one factor and, honestly, probably more flexible than other things, like temp, alkalinity, ect..
Oh and last part, most vendors/manuf prefer one supplier/brand but that causes their own set of issues.
Most are more flexible now, by demand really.
i.e CREE based lights generally have no cyan,lime,pc amber because it complicates things to add a variety of diode footprints (also part of cost factor).
Orphek throws every color of the rainbow in their lights, ect.
It's not WRONG, just is what it is.
As DYI you make the judgements.
You still have issues like small lot availability of certain diodes ect..
I suggest finding an example of a tank you like and then decide how to proceed, regardless if it's from a major manuf or someone DIY.. and just making sure you have the output you need.
Then you can decide on things like specialty channels ect..
That said, nobody's 100% right for everyone..
Thanks, I have an issue visualizing the light blue tones. I always think of them as being bluer than the eye sees them.
This is an approx of your ch1
To be honest if your mint was a lime it would make more sense. That makes it, on a chart, close to a nice white 20000K.
Well closer..
Maybe my mint data is off
Composite so as to give a better representation of the "white zone".
Minor lowering of the blue number (lessening output) also whitens things up quite a bit.
Thanks for the answer. There is only soo much one can do w/ charts..
o/p forgive the diversion..
Take this suggestion w/ a grain of salt but everything I've read, seen and researched one of the best things is a solid broad blue core ..
I'm not going to get into the channels or any minor discussion of the "need" for things like UV or IR but fine to add at your hearts content.
As to the eight, some could be like pc amber to hit the 600nm range which peaks close to 600nm range and a broad spread. Heavy red whites or reds 640-670 range.
see Steves above for real life idea..about the only difference is his using mint as a "whitner" (heavy green w/ a blue peak as a bonus) and lack of amber but covered with the warm white which also adds red.
His "blue core" is huge..
Of course you also have things like is 1 diode on a 12x12 array really going to be effective in the whole tank?
Guessing about 3 of any one color would be a minimum unless in a tight puck like array.
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
This is my white channel:
stefanm
Active Member
Can someone advise me please, I'm wiring up a point to point LDD driver board, I've got 6 positions and only 3no.10k ohms resistors, 4 drivers will be on one channel anyway, so is my theory correct that I'm pulling down the pwm signal from the controller rather than each specific driver? Or do I need one resistor per driver?
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
I belive it will be one resistor per driver.
LDD meanwell resistor
Where does the resistor go on the LDD drivers go, to stop them going full tilt when the power is off?? Thanks.
www.ultimatereef.net
Suppose anywhere along the dim wire is just fine..
As to ganging say 4 driver dim wires suppose one could use one resistor but value ???
Bunch of over my pay grade math dealing with it here:
Meanwell LDD driver: for those who want to dim to 0 using Arduino
This is a little test video I made using Meanwell LDD-1000H and Bridgelux BXRA-40E2200 Neutral White array: The array itself is very powerful, so its not going to dim to moonlight brightness, but regular 3W LEDs do. They barely glow at 1/255 level. Enjoy!
www.nano-reef.com
"Seems" fine to use just one 10K per PWM output no matter how many are eventually attached to it in the end.
SOMEONE can verify..I know a non-answer to your exact question but a trail of sorts..
childish diagram but a visual of your question.
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