Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I had some free time on my hands while waiting on some LEDs for my NC 14g build so I decided to grab a old Pentium 2 heatsink and some Bridgelux LEDs and see what kind of magic could happen. I know alot of people are always asking how many LEDs you can put on a heatsink, well this should convince you that as long as there is a fan blowing over the heatsink, you can just fill the heatsink up with 20mm star board LEDs. Here we go.... Build list: 6x 455nm Bridgelux with 60 degree optics built in 4x 4500K Bridgelux with 60 degree optics built in 1x 660nm Deep Red with 60 degree optics built in 1x 495nm Turquoise with 60 degree optics *Updated 2011-12-02* Pentinum2 heatsink found on a old computer 40w 700mA Inventroincs driver Additional odd stuff Thermal Grease 3-48 machine screws 3-48 Tap Automatic center punch Some extra 3pin fan wiring to connect LEDs to driver Green tea to sip on while making the cannon Drilling and tapping Disclaimer: This build took about 3 hours because of all the fiddling I had to do with drilling and tapping (90% of the time went to tapping/drilling). I highly do not recommend drilling and tapping, I only did it because I had the taps and drill laying aorund and I may end up reusing the LEDs to do a bigger cannon at a later date. Use thermal tape and save your afternoon. The Heatsink I tapped the LEDs together in a line to see where I needed to drill/tap the holes. Center punching while LEDs are taped to the heatsink What heatsink looks like after center punching. This makes it nice and easy for me to know where to drill Drilling away A few minutes later, ready for tapping Using a tapping block to tap. Highly recommended. I didnt break a single tap because of this block. It keeps the tap perfectly lined up so it doesnt break Mounting the LEDs Throwing a bit of grease on where the LEDs are going. Too much grease = bad LEDs on and tightened up Another shot You cant tell that well from this shot but the ends of the LED are connected to a 3pin fan connector to plug directly into my 40w driver Tank shot from above Tank shot (Sorry for a bad tank but its really just to house a couple clowns until I move them to the larger setup. This tank has had 1 24w PC for a year) And the Par reading (I think the drop off is because of the ugly rock setup I have creating shadows) Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 nice quick build! Ya took me couple hours with all the drilling and tapping. Probably more like 15min if I didnt drill and tap. Puts out alot of light as you can see. I even ended up removing the two fans on the heatsink and replacing them with a small 40mm fan. Without the fans, the heatsink was still doing its job. Link to comment
ericm1205 Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 very cool. that little thing is a blast of light and the par readings from that far up is amazing. i live how you reused an old P2 heatsink. i got a pc store nearby that i might go hit up and find some. I want to put leds into my 12g jbj nano. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 very cool. that little thing is a blast of light and the par readings from that far up is amazing. i live how you reused an old P2 heatsink. i got a pc store nearby that i might go hit up and find some. I want to put leds into my 12g jbj nano. Thanks. FYI because of how bright they were I ended up turning them all the way down. The color is just so amazing with the red 660nm. If you have a techie friend, ask them for a old Heatsinks. I have a box full sitting on my desk. Link to comment
GuySmily Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 You can run case fans straight off the inventronics driver? Jeez. I blew out two cheapy cheap AC->4-pin molex adapters, and I'm temporarily running a whole computer PSU just to power my two 200mm fans. I have another AC->4-pin adapter arriving today, but it might be nice to just tap into my 700ma or 1050ma driver. Ccool build btw. Very true about fans - a little air flow makes a huge difference. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 You can run case fans straight off the inventronics driver? Jeez. I blew out two cheapy cheap AC->4-pin molex adapters, and I'm temporarily running a whole computer PSU just to power my two 200mm fans. I have another AC->4-pin adapter arriving today, but it might be nice to just tap into my 700ma or 1050ma driver. Ccool build btw. Very true about fans - a little air flow makes a huge difference. No the Inventrronics drivers cant run them. I just had a 12v 2A power supply designed for fans that they just plug into. If you want a cheap one designed to plug fans into you can get a 500mA one here: http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/12v-500ma-power-supply-for-fan/ Link to comment
mbonus Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 So this build got me thinking about a real light to replace the CFL for my 3 gal. What about using a DIM4 to control and drive 2 - Cree 3UPS. Would that be enough light for a 3 gal? Too bad I can't solder. You want to build one for me? Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 23, 2011 Author Share Posted November 23, 2011 So this build got me thinking about a real light to replace the CFL for my 3 gal. What about using a DIM4 to control and drive 2 - Cree 3UPS. Would that be enough light for a 3 gal? Too bad I can't solder. You want to build one for me? That would work great for a 3Gal. Soldering is simple, took me like 10min to do all 10 LEDs. You can also get some bjb soldreless connectors and use regular 20mm stars. Link to comment
phasezero Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 How was the color blending? Was there any disco effects on the sand bed with surface agitation? Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 How was the color blending? Was there any disco effects on the sand bed with surface agitation? Because they are so tight together and high enough off the water surface, there is no disco that I can tell. The color itself is more of a purple color and I think thats partially because of the red. Ill be mixing some turquoise with it next week to see what happens. The Turquoise + Red will offset each other. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 Quick update on this. I found the color ratio was a bit too "dark" for my taste. I switched up one of the Royal Blue to 495nm Turquoise and I really got the tank to "brighten up" since mixing the 455nm, 660nm and 495nm gets you a white light. My corals still popping but overall the tank is whiter. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted December 29, 2011 Author Share Posted December 29, 2011 Pics? Here are some pics with the turquoise on it. Its hard to tell the difference from the pics by looking at the tank but if you look at the color of the wall you can see the difference. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.