My first DIY build thread 30" led fixture

[twilliard]

Hi members and visitors of R2R!
I figured I would post up my first diy build thread.
This is going to be a 30" led fixture from start to finish.
Here we go! First is the heatsink

This is a makersLED heatsink with 2 90mm fans.
great heatsinks for high wattage use
Chips and optics are on the way and will update this as I go!

 

[CodyRVA]

Following.

 

[cowboy]

Now after seeing this and the pics of the last one you built I'm going to hit you up for one over my 125. What are the dimensions of the heat sink.

 

[twilliard]

Now after seeing this and the pics of the last one you built I'm going to hit you up for one over my 125. What are the dimensions of the heat sink.

Here is a shot of the dimensions as you can order these to length.

 

[twilliard]

I want to give Bill at @ReefLEDLights a big shout out and a thank you for helping me put this together.



Now it is time to put this together

 

[twilliard]

So I have learned a while ago during the build of a friend's fixture that chip layout is absolutely the first step. With these heatsinks you have to slide the nut in from either side and build these starting at one end or the other.
Double check your chip layout. If you miss a chip somewhere it is an absolute pain to add it as any screws in front of it has to be removed to add the missing nuts.
Here is how I lay these out.

I use a pencil to mark out each chip and line up all the nuts, again double checking every chip has a nut in place.

 

[twilliard]

The whole fixture will look like this

 

[CodyRVA]

Just curious, is this route cheaper than buying an LED strip light? And where did you buy the gear?

 

[cowboy]

Looking good man moving along quickly I see.

 

[fishview]

What led color combination are you having? Where do you get your chips? I am thinking to build one. Nice looking!

 

[twilliard]

Here are the chips all mounted
I am using the solderless connectors for this build.



I will get to the questions as soon as I can guys, thanks!

 

[twilliard]

Make sure you test every chip for the correct polarity!

 

[cowboy]

Man that light is moving pretty quickly are you glad you went soderless.

 

[twilliard]

Oh man I will say solderless has cut my time down drastically in building led fixtures.
OK so here we go!
First is I wanted the fixture to be 100% removable from the remote drivers.


I added a terminal strip for the ease of removal for any chip additions (which you will see in the center of the fixture) or chip replacement if needed.

Now we will move on to the optics. It is truly plug and play for the optics.



Now it was time to test the fixture!



I am pleased to say that this has been a success
Total build time was a little under 6 hours, with of course breaks multiple times.
Let me gather the information up for the questions I was asked and I will post the answers!

 

[TheEngineer]

Nice build.

 

[twilliard]

Just curious, is this route cheaper than buying an LED strip light? And where did you buy the gear?

I am not sure if it is cheaper as I have only ran Orphek fixtures. But comparing the 2 yes it is much cheaper.
The equipment came from reefledlights (again thank you Bill!) and led supply (the heatsink)

What led color combination are you having? Where do you get your chips? I am thinking to build one. Nice looking!

I got my chips and all mounting, optic from reefledlights
Here is the chips I used and mounting gear

 

[twilliard]

Here is the fixture over my tank at about 50% PWM controlled by a storm controller

 

[fishview]

Well done!! Thanks for the detail on the materials. Did I miss the driver? What remote driver are you using?

 

[twilliard]

Well done!! Thanks for the detail on the materials. Did I miss the driver? What remote driver are you using?

The controller for the LDD drivers is the storm controller. I didn't feel the need for WiFi or I would have used the bluefish

 

[twilliard]

Here is the setup