hey does anyone know or have an estimate what kind of par could i get at under a foot from a mc-e cree with no water or virtually no water if no par then equivalent PC would help also or any other type of light

thanks alot

At 700mA on all dies, possibly 500+ with no optics.

Don’t know if it will help you, here (http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3001825&postcount=17) are PAR measurements of single cree xr-e done by someone.

would that be over kill for algae, is there such a thing? arent par numbers from MH like half that or less ? do they even have optics for the mc-e?
also thanks for the link that didnt help much for this but it does a little for my next led set up

thanks again

If you are using something like this for an algae scrubber, more is better. Optics probably won't help much, as they will concentrate the light into a tighter area.

sounds great thats exactly my idea thanks alot

Evil,

I'm getting my ideas ready for that fixture I mentioned in the PM I sent you for my main display, just wanna check over a few things. The tank itself is a 36x24x13" rimless, will have a 1.5" sandbed and will be stocked to the #### with SPS. Lights will be possibly controlled with a Profilux, though some other form of PWM is also possible (I want dynamic dimming regardless). The heatsink I've in mind is an extruded twin-layer aluminium arrangement (one thick back-plate possibly milled with fins, the other channelled and holed to blow cold air onto each individual diode PCB from a pair of 120mm fans). Ideally for this I want to keep it under 200W total as this is a downgrade from my 250W halide. I want a good mix of colour - with a good full spectrum slightly biased towards blue, but still to pop pinks and yellows as these are the colours I will have as my centrepieces.

Question is, what XP-E/XP-G and driver combo would you go to do this? What number? What arrangement? What spacing? I was thinking either a 50-diode (10x5) or a 52-diode (13x4) mix of R5s, Neutral Whites, Royal Blues, and Blues driven with Meanwell 60W drivers. Will this be sufficient for the purpose? What kind of PAR do you think this arrangement would put out? Would you recommend optics?

Cheers mate.

EDIT: For the sake of ease, I modelled what I had in mind. Of course it's only tentative and pending more thorough advice. I'm thinking 300mm across as opposed to 400mm will be more viable. Also, fans would probably work better mounted at the opposite end to the escape channel as opposed to TDC. Either way. Click the images for a full-size view.

Meanwells are good just from the LED capacity standpoint. If you are going to control them with a Profilux, get the "D" models.

The 10x5 array sounds better, but you will have to go with slightly wider than 2" spacing to cover a larger area. At 2.5", that 22.5" coverage.

You won't need optics for a tank this shallow, unless you want to mount it high.

Meanwell Ds are the only ones we can get over here in ready supply anyway, so I'm definitely thinking that's the way to go I guess all things considered I could bump it to 55 diodes (11x5) and break the spacing down a bit, that still puts me under my 200W target and still lets me get better coverage (and 13W below the Meanwell's capacity). I'll be getting it all through a group buy anyway so may as well while I can get it cheap than find out the spacing is too broad.

Cheers mate. Just wanted to make sure I was heading in the right direction with it.. never done anything quite this size before

hey have you seen the cool white mc-e? might this be practical for a 5-10 gallon surrounded by blues or royals

where would be a good place to actually understand the how everything works atleast somewhere to start

also would 48 leds 4x12 on a 40br be good for heavy sps or would there be something more ideal even if i dont go really heavy i want them to really grow

MC-Es are better for taller tanks. It's a lot of light directly under the LED, but you really need multiple LEDs for coverage. You would be better off spending the money on XR-Es.

12x4 sounds pretty good for a 40B. For heavy sps, 80 of 60 degree optics would be needed to get PAR levels higher.

If I want to test my LED's out can I just hook them up with a 9v battery harness I have laying around? Just one at a time or would this fry them?

-Dave

A pair of AA/AAA's would be a much better choice. 9v is far too high of a voltage.

Hey near the beginning of the thread you mentioned dealsextreme.com I was wondering why they are so cheap it almost $2 cheaper than led supply or anywhere else.
thanks

It's the pcb and the methods used to solder the LED to the pcb. It can be hit or miss sometimes, and they can fail. Not saying that it happens every time, but it happens. The month shipping time kind of bites too.

Evil - I tried the AA battery hooked up but I could not get them to fire. I was using a 9v harness that I stripped the wire from and I believe it said 26 awg on the wire. I just taped two AA's and hooked it up and they became really hot.

Any ideas?

-Dave

Try 3 AA/AAAs then. That puts you a little high at 4.5v, but it's a lot safer than 9v. A pair of fresh AAs should be enough to light the LED though.

Hi nice explanation on the equipment for DIY led project.
Now couple of question ,beverage later.If I like to run 40 led's 20 Cree XR-E Q5 and 20 XR-E royal blue how many buck pucks I have to use, do they need to be adjust for example ( Mean Well ELN 60-48 power supply need to be adjust with 2 screws inside of the unit to set require amp or voltage for the led)
Now do I have to do the same with back packs and power supply.What power supply you recommending to run the back pucks/ led's
I don't really wonna run the led's at 100% of max current ( if you run them between 70% and 80% do they last longer ?)
For XR-E Q5 what is the best bet 700mA or 1000mA ?
For XR-E royal blue 700mA or 1000mA ?
Any news about new Cree XP-G cool white how you can run them with XR-E royal blue?

Quick question:

About how much do you think it would cost to build an LED fixture for a 40breeder but at a length of 30" instead of 36"? should be able to support whatever corals I might want...

thx.

Buckpucks do not need any adjustment. You just buy them with the appropriate current setting. The Meanwell needs adjusting because the default current is to high.

For 40 LEDs, you will need 7 drivers at a minimum. If you want full color seperation, you will need 8. Remember, Buckpucks can only support up to 6 LEDs.

For a power supply, anything 24v with enough current to support however many drivers you want to run. The 24v 6.5A Potrans power supply from MPJA is a popular choice.

XR-Es can be run up to 1000mA. There is also nothing different about running XP-Gs (or any XP series LED) with XR-Es.


10x4 should work nicely.

Depends on if you are doing a mixed or heavy sps reef. 60s for a mixed reef, and 40s for an sps reef. I'd just run everything at 1000mA.

- Ok, for my 40 breeder project which will have a display area that is 31" or 32" x 18", what should be the size of my heatsink? I think you mentioned 4" around all sides at some point, so 24" x 10"? Or should the LEDs be mounted 4 inches from the sides on a larger heatsink?

- Also if I want separate actinic ability I would need two power supplies, correct?

- What if I also want to be able to moonlights? Would I need yet another power supply?

Just apply the standard spacing that I recommend normally, and make the heatsink a little bigger.

If you want to be able to turn the blues and whites off seperately, you will need to have seperate power supplies if you are running Buckpucks. If you are going to run Meanwells, you just need to group the driver power cords together for the seperate colors.

For moonlights, you will need something in addition to the Crees. There are many off the shelf solutions for this that work well.

Alright, I have been sifting through as many threads as my eyes can take looking for an answer about dimming with an RKL ALC. This is a door that I would like to keep open for use further down the road, until the time that I can afford the RKL I would still like to be able to manually dim the LEDS and control the CW's and the RB's individually. If I go with the basic setup that I find in most of the build threads (MPJA power source, buckpucks with pots) will I be able to upgrade with the ALC later?

did anyone ever make the pdf format? where can i get it?

Buckpucks are compatible with the ALC with a tiny bit of work, so you have nothing to worry about as far as upgrading in the future.


I thought it got posted in the first dozen or so pages, but it was only the first post, not all the additional info that has been placed here.

Thank you very much sir, I feel confident to make an order now as soon as funds are in order thanks for answering all my questions!

Hi people,

I have a couple questions in order to finalize my project :

1. I have an equal number of white and blue leds (that is, 12 of each color). I currently run the blue leds at 80% of max intensity and the white leds at 60%. How could I know what color temp (Kelvin) it corresponds to ?

2. I have dimmable Meanwell drivers. When measuring the current out of these, I found out that it varies when I play with the dimming input (0-10V PWM). This is normal right ?

3. I simulate sunrise and sunset with an Arduino controller. So far I've made both blue and white leds increase (for sunrise) simultaneously. I'm wondering if it would be better to have the blue leds start alone first ? What do you think about it ?

Thanks in advance for your help !

1. Doesn't matter. Color temp doesn't relate to growth potential like it does with MH. Set it to what you like.

2. Yes.

3. It's just going to be a visual thing for you. Set it up however you like.

Evil (and others),

I tried a search on this and can't find it, but I'm sure you've done this.

What are the guestimated PAR levels of Q5's and Royals without optics, with 80's, 60's, and 40's, driven at 700 or 1000mA? I know there are a lot of variables involved, like tank depth and such.

Has anyone done a chart of this?

You can get a rough idea if you look at the PAR plots I posted for my PAR38 lamps. Use the peak PAR values, as with a full array, it will be a lot more consistant that the hotspot nature of the spotlights. LEDs are drive to just over 800mA in that lamp.

How is optional dimming and voltage and current adjustment, like in the eln-60, different than a plc-60 that only has voltage and current adjustment. By adjusting current you could dim the led right?

Thanks for any help.

PLC-60s only let you adjust the current to limited degree. ELN-60s let you adjust the maximum current, just like the PLC's, but also allow you to control the current from ~0-100% externally. You can't do that with the PLC.

Just wondering if i build a DIY array for my 200g tank, how hard would it be to replace one of the Leds in a strip if it burnt out and they were in series?

is there a better way to wire them so if 1 goes out it can easily be replaced or identified? just wondering cause the cost of the PAR38's and a DIY are very close

To get good coverage how many LEDs would i want in a string over a 24*30 inch area, granted i can mount the arrays about 2 feet abot the tank if i have too

any input is greatly appreciated

kyle

The easiest way to wire them to identify dead LEDs would be to wire them in parallel. There are lots of issues associated with that, so I wouldn't recommend it. There are simple ways to test with a multimeter though.

As for the size of the array for a 30x24 area, if you were to mount them about 6-8" off the water, like a typical T5 or MH setup, then you would need 60 LEDs in a 10x6 array. If you are going to mount them higher than that, you can use less, but you need much tighter optics.

For my 40 breeder, 30" x 18" display area, you said 4 rows of 10 should cover it.

- What if I wanted to hang the array as a pendant and keep it 1-2 feet of the surface of the water?
- Would the number of LEDs change?
- What would you recommend in terms of the angle of the optics?

I am thinking of getting the 36 LED kit at RapidLed.com and they come with optics so I figured I might as well find a way to use them.

thx.

If you wanted to hang it that high, you could probably go with about 10-15% fewer LEDs. You will probably need 40 degree optics at that height.

Really, it totally seems counterintuitive that further away from the tank requires less LEDs.

Would there be any loss in in PAR, etc. if I went this route?

It's all in how you set up the optics. Like I mentioned before, you won't be removing many LEDs. The higher the LED, the wider the spread, so it covers a wider area.

hello world
this and 'my first post has started to ask help
Italy are then starts to build the first LED light fittings using the Cree XR-E Q5 but those with the code bin WA using a ratio of 2:1.
my question and 'based solely on the management of dawn sunset ..... I want to create it by using the Arduino PWM those of you who can 'help me?

Ok evil,
Point me in the right direction. I have a all in one tank made by some no name company so I'll need to do the setup custom. Right now it's got 24w 50/50's in it and I want to replace those with LED's. Looking to figure out how many, what placement etc would be enough to give me good coverage. No clams but anemones would be nice someday.

Tank stats:
10 gallon
15 1/2" wide
9" deep
16" height

The current light is housed more or less in the center with a cover that's cover is 13"x4". Anything beyond that and I'd need to figure out some way to waterproof it. Doable but a bit more work obviously. Curious what LED breakdown you'd suggest so I can figure out what I need as far as power supplies etc. Cost is a concern as I have a couple of these and I'd probably do the conversion to at least 2 of them down the road. Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

Hmm. WA 10K whites. Not very common.

For Arduino control, take a look at Dave_Uk's thread here

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=206246

He has posted all the details for his build, including source code. There have been many other Aurduino LED builds on this site also.



Sounds kind of similar in dimensions to a BC14 or NC12. I'd go take a look at some of the builds that are listed in the DIY LED Project List thread and use that as a template.

Ok, I'll take a look at those. That was my main problem. I found several 10-14g specs but wasn't sure if I could use those effectively since mine's a high. Thanks.

It's only a few inches taller, and the LEDs will still have more than enough power.

Just got 6 (10 watt) deep red (661 nm) and 6 (5 watt) warm whites(all ledengin)

I have on order a meanwell eln-30-24 (1.25 amp, 24 volt) for the warm whites(low blues & high reds)

also on order is a meanwell clg-60-24 (2.5 amp, 24 volt),for the reds, plan on running

3 parallel strings of 2 in series. I have seen the precautions of doing so but

there seems not to be a lot choices, that I have found so far, of high volt

low amp drivers. Will this work? Are there better options? Not a great level

of experience but I am learning so please make answers on the simple side.

I got these leds for of all things to grow algae which in turn filters my FW fish

tank. I got the warm white leds because they seemed unusual as far as the

spectrum contain some fairly low blues and some high reds that correspond

nicely with the chlorophyll a absorption spectra. Can anyone show me a link

for how to use a multimeter to check how I should maybe pair them to get

a similar current running through each string? Do you test when there on or

off or both? Please be basic I am new to this especially the use of a

multimeter. Are there better driver choices? Any help would be appreciated.

I seem to be able to find a lot more info about the low watt leds. I am

concerned I might do something wrong and blow up a $30 deep red led or

worse all 6.

Evil thanks for the help I must of ask you ten ?'s. My tank wouldn't

be what it is with out your feedback.

If you are running 3 parallel strings, you can use the wiring method that Meanwell describes in the datasheet, where everything is wired in a grid. That way the array balances itself. This can only be done on strings of 3 or more. It's not perfect, but it works better than running without any protection. There really isn't much of a need to check the LEDs at that point. If you do want to check things out, check the voltage across each LED (red lead on the +, black lead on the - of the LED) and take note of it. What you are trying to do is make the total voltage drop of each string as close to each other as possible. You will have to wire up the entire array to check things, but for the short period that it will be running, there won't be any damage from an imbalance.

Thanks for the reply
With or without resistors? Been reading that it wouldn't be good to use them because they would be so big.

What is a Driver IC? Do you know of a link that describes how to setup and its usage with the meanwell?

Seems like something that might take a fair amount of research. Is that when you use meanwell in CV mode?

spec on the ledengin deep red 10 watt ( typ 11.4 fV at 1000mA)

Thanks for any help.

looking for heatsinks right now

A 1 ohm 1W resistor can be used as a simple balancing device, but with a grid array, it really isn't needed.



Not sure what you mean here. With 6 LEDs in a 2s3p array, you shouldn't have to adjust anything based on the driver info you gave before. It will be in a constant current mode and will take care of itself.



HeatsinkUSA not working for your application?