Upgrade and replace burnt out LEDs in AI Lights

jrp1588 · Jul 23, 2018

So far so good. The light appears to be functioning normally. The spectrum is definitely a bit different than stock. I think the XP-E2 reds are just stupidly stronger than the Osram Deep Reds, so at the same settings, the light looks considerably warmer in color than usual.

I don't know if it's the different spectrum, brighter LEDs, or just better tech, but I feel like the side of the tank with the modded light has more "depth" to the look. The stock setup looks flat in comparison. I'm curious how it'll look with some high CRI whites in there and the spectrum tuned back towards the bluer end.

In other modding news, I think I found cheap replacement fans you can get for these (mine has a broken blade). AI wants $15 for theirs, but I'm pretty confident one of these will fit the mounting holes. Plus it's got obnoxious blue blades, which is kind of fun. In case of link rot, this is a 75x10mm 2 pin frameless fan. I got these for $2 each after making an offer. They'll arrive this week, so we'll see.

Lingwendil · Jul 23, 2018

Funny how a few years of tech advancement can show up the old emitters, huh? I can almost guarantee the new stuff is better binned than what the AI light shipped with anyway, as from personal experience I think that the binning was middle-of-the-road on most of the AI stuff in general, and I was never a fan of their whites.

The reds are a bit too powerful for sure, one of the reasons that I tend to leave them out entirely of reef builds, but since you've got the AI director to contend with, you sort of want/expect it to be there for proper function I suppose. Often I end up swapping the cool white for a neutral or warm white, and the red for another cool blue or occasionally a warm white, depending on desired use and look.

Interesting software behavior that you are experiencing, I've yet to have any issues, but I also simply run straight replacements and swaps on these and not much major rework.

jrp1588 · Jul 23, 2018

Yeah, the reds and whites definitely need toned down, but hey, that's less power and less heat. I'd hoped upgrading to the same series of blues, they'd keep up with the new whites and have a similar mixed spectrum, but I guess the upgrade on the whites was just substantially bigger.

RapidLED sells pretty much all top-binned stuff from what I could tell, but the whites were normal 70CRI units. Looks like 3 of my fixtures actually use all XP-E or XT-E whites, so I should be able to light the whole tank with 90CRI whites in whatever spectrum I want.

As for the weird software stuff, now that I think about it, I'd occasionally have issues with the light that was in that same spot. Every once in a while, it would only light up a couple pucks when I turned it on, but a power on and off would fix it. I'm using the power supply off that light to power the modded light, maybe that's related? Maybe the "position" as the third light on Director is somehow bugged? As long as it continues to hold, and I can get it back with a minimal amount of tinkering after an outage, I don't really care.

Lingwendil · Jul 23, 2018

If it's wonky but it works, it still works

I think the problem with most places selling the lower CRI whites from Cree is that it's simply hard to get them in smaller quantities than a full reel of 1000, and the high CRI guys are the exception, rather than the norm. A huge subset of builders are still stuck on the cool white and royal blue combo, with minor RGB (red, green, cool blue) additions still. It's easier to get the Luxeon series in higher CRI at low quantities, but most of the popular commercial fixtures still primarily use Cree emitters, so you get stuck with a lack of availability. Back in the day you could ask Cree for samples of some of the nicer bits, but they don't respond to inquiries on them anymore unless you're a big company with some sort of equipment. I still have leftover XM-L emitters from when they first came out, when I set a simple inquiry on them, and they offered to send me a few to play with

High CRI based builds are an entirely different ballgame when doing your own builds, when you aren't stuck to a PCB and package size a ton of efficient and high quality options are out there that can put out stupid amounts of light small form factors. 1.5" square emitters putting out 50+ watts of heat are commonplace and cheap! Takes a ton of royal blue to offset all that white!

jrp1588 · Jul 23, 2018

Yeah, I'm definitely going to try building my next fixture when the time comes. Just looking at RapidLED's DIY kit, I could have had all new stuff and a lot more power for not to terribly much more money.

Lingwendil · Jul 23, 2018

My suggestion, buy the enclosure from rapidLED, and the majority of your LEDs from stevesLEDs. I like the Luxeon offerings much more than the Crees. Although in my opinion the future is in using larger CoB types of arrays with smaller LEDs for supplement/fill in. The big Citizen Royal Blue CoB from RapidLED would be an excellent base for a large cluster type of build, with a few additional Luxeon colors for added adjustability, with the high CRI white of your choice... but that's another thread

jrp1588 · Jul 23, 2018

Well for some reason I can't edit my post from earlier. Don't buy the fans I posted about earlier. They're 12v, and the stock is 5v. 5v seems to be somewhat trickier to find.

jrp1588 · Jul 24, 2018

Anyone ever use Alibaba? That's the only place I can find 5v frameless fans at the proper size.

Lingwendil · Jul 25, 2018

I've ordered a handful of things from them before, no worse than third party sellers on amazon, or ebay. Be prepared to wait a looooong time though. If you don't pay for expedited shipping (or E-packet, when available) it can take from several weeks to over a month to receive your orders with economy shipping.

jrp1588 · Jul 25, 2018

Well I'm used to that ordering international items on ebay. The 12v fans I ordered took about 3 weeks to arrive. I may just bite the bullet and buy a fan from AI. I couldn't find any 10mm tall fans anyway. The 15mm tall fans they supply as replacements for them now don't allow you to use the top screen. I was hoping to find a replacement to fix that issue.

jrp1588 · Jul 28, 2018

Well I'm comfortable enough with how the upgraded light is running that I decided to go ahead and order LEDs for the rest. Came to ~69 shipped, which is way less than I would have paid for stars. I decided on 90CRI 5000K xp-G3 whites. Turns out I have enough pucks that use XP whites to fill all 3 of my fixtures, minus the one puck I ruined. I plan to just throw one puck in to replace it that uses an XM-L chip, so I wasn't overly concerned about its CRI. I just went with a 75CRI typical 5000K XM-L2.

I think the cheap fan replacements are a wild goose chase. If they used 12v, this would be easy, but there just doesn't seem to be much out there in 5v available to home gamers.

Lingwendil · Jul 28, 2018

Yeah, the 5 volt fans are a drag to find for sure. I usually just took them from parts fixtures. I had one that I think came from a laptop cooler that fit, but it was a pull from old equipment and I haven't seen similar available for a while.

jrp1588 · Jul 28, 2018

Yeah, I found some blower style 5v laptop fan that looked like it would work, but it said it took .3amp, while the stock fan takes .1amp. I'm not really sure if I'm comfortable throwing something in there that's designed to draw 3x the amperage, even if the amperage itself is tiny. My electrical knowledge is barely above the "electricity works by magic" level, so I'm unsure.

Lingwendil · Jul 30, 2018

I forget which circuitry the fan runs off of, but I bet it will be just fine. Try it and see.

jrp1588 · Jul 30, 2018

Eh, I only really need one fan. I may just pay their $15 blood money. I'm ascared.

Wilsonfeliz · Sep 17, 2018

I need replace Royal Blue LEDs too, Would this LED work for me??

Datasheet -- https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/90/dsXPG3-1100826.pdf

jrp1588 · Sep 17, 2018

Should work fine. Pretty sure those are the ones I used. Be careful heating that puck. It seems like there's a very small margin of error between just enough to melt the solder, and bubbling up and ruining the puck.

Wilsonfeliz · Sep 17, 2018

jrp1588 said:
Should work fine. Pretty sure those are the ones I used. Be careful heating that puck. It seems like there's a very small margin of error between just enough to melt the solder, and bubbling up and ruining the puck.

Thanks!

Ranfel · Apr 9, 2019

jrp1588 hello how are you going? I want to ask you a favor, I have 3 vegas and 2 hydras and I want to update the LEDs, but I do not know which ones I should buy, can you help me with the references that I have to buy for Vegas that does not have problems with the controller? and for the hydras also if you know what? thank you

jrp1588 · Apr 9, 2019

I think I listed specific recommendations earlier in the thread. I will say, I don't recommend upgrading functional diodes in these if you plan to keep them controllable. The light I fully upgraded does some wacky stuff when connected to the controller like not reading the channels properly. Shame since it puts out a very apparent increase in light.

Maybe you'd have better luck if you stuck with more similar LEDs. I replaced my XP-E series LEDs with XP-G3 if I remember right. Maybe it would be less problematic for the controller to replace with XP-E2? If you do it, be careful. The heat needed to melt the solder on the LEDs is VERY close to the heat it takes to bubble up and ruin the pucks.