Im a led monster!!!

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

I know, I know, but, it is true. Lol, my little brother wanted to start an H2O ecosystem of his own. The only problem is my in laws will not allow him to have a big tank and, he's on a budget. With that said he's decided to jump on the band wagon and try a micro aquarium. the aquarium is a rectangular Aqueon 2.5 gallon, the dimensions are 12.2" x 6.2" x 8.2". Guess what, I get to build the light! It will be 7-3w leds, 4 whites and 3 blues. the whites will be running @ 3 watts and the blues @ 4 watts, I didn't want to run the blues %25 over but that's the power supply's I could dig up. The power supply's used are two 12v 1a. Hey, who knows I might even use lenses for this one!

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

I will start by using a piece of 1/4" x 1" aluminum left over from a previous build I found in the garage. I cut It down to 10 1/2"

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

I'm also going to use this 1/16" x 3/4" aluminum angle, I cut this to make two pieces that measure 12 1/2". This will make up the housing that the leds will sit in.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

The Power supply's

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

If I Confused you by adding the aluminum angle to the mix, this is what I did with it.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

Yes, that is JB weld you see bonding the angles together. I would prefer to weld them but the cheap welder I own is DOA.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

I started out wanting to use 5 leds three blues and two whites. That combination turned out way to blue over water. I suppose I could have switched them and used three whites and two blues...

Bootstrap · Jan 14, 2013

This is neat, but y are the blues/ whites on separate power supplies. Colors can't be mixed?

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX HD

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

Notice the blue in the middle, It's not the picture that makes it look brighter then the rest, its the power supply I started out using at first. The led in the middle is running off an old blackberry charger 5V 700MA, that equates to 3.5 watts and the other four are only running at 3 watts... amazing what a .5 watt difference does...

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

Bootstrap said:
This is neat, but y are the blues/ whites on separate power supplies. Colors can't be mixed?

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX HD

yes colors can be mixed but, I want to be able to use two timers for dusk/dawn.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

After doing some LED rearranging and adding, this is what I came up with.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

BAM!

GR808 · Jan 14, 2013

Sweet LED work going on. R u running a combo for ur tank?

Mr.BAdams · Jan 14, 2013

GR808 said:
Sweet LED work going on. R u running a combo for ur tank?

Combo as far as multiple strips of light?

cliferton · Jan 14, 2013

Where are you getting the led's? Also how many led's can you run off that charger cable? wonder what an older 12 volt iphone charger would support. I don't know about the led thing really. like the types of ballest you need and all that...I need to do some research

If you need some welding done lmk

diesel3443 · Jan 14, 2013

So you are just wiring the LEDs straight to the old phone charger and that's it???

If so, looks like I just found my solution to a little actinic supp for my tank.

fragmatic · Jan 14, 2013

Yep, LEDs are a blast. I have 1x10 over my keyboard with a 28" and a 20" monitor on it. I couldn't see my keyboard at night when my tank night light is the only light in the room (except for the little bit that leaks out the of the frame seams from the sump lighting).

So, I dug into my grab bag and came out with a 3.6VDC phone charger. Now I have a spare cree 3 watt blue LED under the 1x10, lighting up my keyboard with this rad blue glow. Now my keyboard is sexy man.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 15, 2013

cliferton said:
Where are you getting the led's? Also how many led's can you run off that charger cable? wonder what an older 12 volt iphone charger would support. I don't know about the led thing really. like the types of ballest you need and all that...I need to do some research

If you need some welding done lmk

The leds I used for this project are some I had laying around the house. I bought them off Ebay, by searching "3 watt led" you can buy them in bulk. I have played with just about every led they make with the exception of the new 5 watt Cree leds. When running the same wattage to a Chinese led vs a top of the line Cree led, I honestly can't tell a difference in the light out put. The 54 leds I just put over my aquarium came from China but they are suppose to all be Cree XM-L's, They cost more but if I had to do it all over again I would just use the Chinese leds. I know a lot of people bash the Chinese leds, but other then the extra solder they tend to apply to the actual led to the star board you would not know the difference in performance.

The chargers I'm using are 12 volt 1 amp, which gives me 12 watts. You would be able to run 4-3watt leds off of this particular power supply. If you are referring to the Iphone charger I'm thinking about its 5 volt 1 amp, which gives you 6 watts. I could be wrong about the actual charger specs, I'm a droid kinda guy, lol.

I will most deffently keep the welding in mind, Thank you.

Mr.BAdams · Jan 15, 2013

diesel3443 said:
So you are just wiring the LEDs straight to the old phone charger and that's it???

If so, looks like I just found my solution to a little actinic supp for my tank.

Yes, its that simple! As long as your wattage equals out, your good. I would check out ebay for leds and drivers depending on how many you plan on running. It might get crazy with 10 phone chargers for 20 leds lol.

diesel3443 · Jan 15, 2013

Mr.BAdams said:
Yes, its that simple! As long as your wattage equals out, your good. I would check out ebay for leds and drivers depending on how many you plan on running. It might get crazy with 10 phone chargers for 20 leds lol.

I was only looking to run about four blues on a dusk/ dawn lol.