Sure. 10v power supply with a 10K pot. Or a 12v power supply (more common) with an LM317 voltage regulator set to 10v and a 10K potentiometer. It's not automatic though. You can't beat the price of the RKL right now.

hey anyone following this thread, what are the dimensions of the R2 moonlight here: http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~cat...y~FILTFIML.html

i am concerned abouth the width of the bar (not length, which is 4-3/8") because the spacing front to back of my led's from edge to edge of the pcb is only .5". will this fit in that area??

as soon as i can fnish up minor details such as this, i can order and begin my retrofit

I ordered the $99 RKL. It was a heck of a deal and I can instantly monitor my temps and use it as a thermostat. The only drawback is I will have to wait at least till the end of the month for the firmware to support the ALC module for dimming the lights. I will be ordering a second one in a week or two.

Evil, will the 10k pot be enough to drop it to 1v? I may look into the LM317. Thanks for that.

Hi evilc66,

Do you happen to know the specification of Kaidomain 3W UV led?

Can it take in 1000mA?

Thanks.

Nope it can't. 700mA max.

It should, but some of it will depend on the internal impedence of the driver dimming circuit. I can't remember what is stated in the datasheet off the top of my head. If you are paranoid about it, you can run a 100K pot. Using the LM317 is an option for adjusting the voltage too, but you have to make sure your resistance values won't let the voltage go above 10v. I was intending it for use as just setting the 10v output, then using the pot to vary the voltage coming from the regulator.



Right. These little guys run pretty hot. I'm not sure how long it would last at 1000mA.

if it max is 700mA then the Forward voltage will 4.25v...in order to obtain 3W. Am I right?

It's been mentioned before (maybe not in this thread), the the "3W" is a sign of it's potential power. You will learn over time not to trust some of the Chinese knockoff LED's ratings. Your calculations are correct in terms of wattage. The chances of that LED pulling 4.28v is slim though.

hey evil, do you know of other ways to buy from Kaidomain to get these Uv LED's? the paypal for credit cards is not allowing me to make a purchase, and i would like UV's in my build since i am will ing to spend the time to build the setup in the first place. i have contacted them, but have not gotten a reply. was wondering if you had experience with similar issues from them...

Thats the only way that I'm aware of that will let you pay. Did they give you an error of some sort?

i just ordered from them (5uv's) and no problems and also used my credit card through paypal.

i got a response, and i think they are gonna order with me through email. idk what the deal is but visa wasnt working for the purchase wierd cuz i ordered from intank the same way with paypal, and all was fine. hmm...

gad to see others are having problem free orders

no particular error, but "this card cannot be used for his purchase" (or similar wording)

very good, thank you for your sharing

Hi evilc66, would like to ask your opinion about this LED Light Panel on eBay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=390043587942

This gets asked about all the time, maybe even in this thread. It's one of the better efforts, but with the LEDs running at 1W, your options are limited. Depending on the size tank, it will be limited to medium-low to medium-high light. Even running less than half that number of LEDs at 3W will provide mech higher performance. Also, this unit is not dimmable in any way.

Hey evil, most of my parts are getting here tomorrow but some will be early next week so I am going to have this built in the next couple of weeks. The controller that I have is not ready for the 0-10v output so I found a 10v adapter on ebay. On those Meanwells do the amps matter on the 0-10v dimming input? I know it will not run with the 10v but I want to make sure I wont fry it with too much current. Thanks.

P.S. this mean I get to finally buy a drill press! lol

The dimming circuit in the driver will only draw what it needs, which should only be a few milliamps. Any 10v adapter will work.

How much was the 10V you found?

Thanks Evil, I will probably order one but I have a 9.6v low amp one for an old R/C truck that I can use for testing.



It was about $15 max with shipping on Ebay.

56g colum (30x18x24)
seahorse/jawfish/softies (leather/zoa)
don't care about dimming / blue and white independent power

58 total LEDs (29 each RB/W)
4 Rows of 15, 14, 15, 14
60 degree lens? (if 40 is better do I need more LEDs)
[above from current group buy]
10 1a buckpucks [LED Supply]
2 24v 6.5a ps [MPJA]
1 30" x 8.5" Heatsink [HeatsinkUSA]

Does this look good? Is it overkill? If this goes well I'm considering replacing my 120's halides when it comes time to replace the bulbs (8 months).

Sounds about right. The 60 degree optics on that tank will be fine if you are just going with lower light corals.

I just saw this while ordering some parts from mouser, looked like it might be interesting but I thought I would see what the more electronically savvy thought. Data sheet is here.

It appears to be similar to the buckpacks that have been used in the past, except that it is an IC, and only costs $3.47 ea in quantities under 25.

Edit: oh yeah and it is analog dimable.

Well, by the time you build up a unit that is capable of being dimmed, you might as well have bought a Buckpuck for your troubles. I mean, it's an option, but there are drivers out there with higher voltage ranges and fewer support components. Cheaper too.

Well, my head is spinning from trying to absorb all the information in this thread! I have a 12g Nano that I would like to convert to LED. From what I have gathered, I think 6 white (one white hanging over the fuge), 6 royal blue will do the trick, driven by two dimmable pucks. This means I need two 24v power supplies? This is where it gets fuzzy to me.

I think I would use these - White Cree Q5 and Royal Blue Cree® XR-E

Am I on the right track? Did I crap on the thread?

You are fine with you setup. The led over the fuge will take away from your display however, plan on using 5 cw for your display area and 6 rb. Check waterproof's threrad (diy highpower leds.....), he has a layout already for 11 and 12 led setups. He has a bc14 but will be simular to your ap12. On the power supplies is totally up to you if you want 1 or 2. If you go with just one, it is all just on and off. If you go with 2 PS, you can simulate a dawn/dusk effect by turning on the blues only first then together with the whites. And for the dusk effect, you would turn off the whites only and leave the blues on however longer you wanted. If you are going to use the power supply to power the fans too, you would connect those to the power supply powering the blues cuz they are running longer. I hope I cleared this up

So...one 24v power supply would run all 12 lights?

**EDIT** Just read Waterproof's build. It cleared up pretty much every question I had!

Thanks! I can't wait to build mine now!

been awhile since i've been on here, but i've followed soundwave's thead on RC since the beginning & after numerous posts about the thread here, i decided to finally check it out (once i figured out my login info LOL)

tank is gonna be a 3-side viewable peninsula at the end of the couch made from a 20long (30*12.5*13). i'm going to sectionalize 6" of one end off for the filtration compartments, so that leaves 24*12.5*13 for the display tank (~16g). there will be a rock wall against the false wall at the "back" & i'm planning on a few small "rockpiles" scattered around, but mostly open sandbed. not gonna be doing SPS....mainly lps & rics. main reason for doing this is my brain coral needs more room to open up than it has in my biocube 8

when i'm done doing the stand/canopy/surround, it'll look like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/jam...nk/allinone.jpg

using soundwave's tank as a reference, he has a 75g w/ 60 leds, so proportionally that gives me about 12 leds for mine. i'm figuring (6) white & (6) blue running at 700ma on seperate dimmable buckpucks. spacing will be 4.5" from each glass edge & 3" between leds.

heatsink is gonna be this one, that will be 5-3/8" wide x 17 long
http://www.heatsinkusa.com/5375quot-wide-p...e-heat5375.html

(2) 700ma buckpucks & each has (6) leds w/ a forward voltage of 3.7 wired in series (pos->neg->pos..etc) would be 6*3.7=22.2....so a 24v power supply (24v/1.8a)
http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17426+PS

crude paint of my wiring scheme:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/jam...p/ledwiring.jpg

so i was looking at dealextreme trying to figure out the leds & was wondering if these will be good choices??
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1775

thanks alot for any help
James

While I admire Soundwaves work, I never really agreed that his layout was ideal. With the grouped approach, like the Solaris, there are low light spots. This is also why he has relatively few LEDs for a big tank like that. 12 LEDs really isn't going to be enough to effectively light a 24"x12" area. You really are going to need more like 30 LEDs in a 10x3 arrangement with 2" spacing. This will offer very even coverage, great color blending, and a lot of light (expect +200 PAR at the sandbed). I'd go a little longer on the heatsink though. Bump it up to at least 20". Obviously, this change is going to require more drivers.

I would suggest going to ETG for the LEDs over DX. If you go with the 30 LED setup, you will have no trouble meeting the minimum order from them. The price is a little higher through ETG, but the quality of everything is much higher. The pcb is much higher quality, and the soldering job is far better. You also get the LEDs in a reasonable amount of time opposed to close to a month shipping time.

+1.

Also don't forget the optics, soundwave didn't include optics on his. However, i think he understood what he was getting with his particular design and without the use of optics. The primary reason (i think) was economy of the build. If you've gone through all bazillion pages of the thread you'll also see that he came back and noted some of the cons of the design, so take those into consideration when you are building yours.

Good Luck! looking forward to seeing results.

There is absolutely no need for optics on a 13" tall tank.

Soundwave had issues with optics later because he recreated one of the things that Solaris owners complained about for a long time. The wide separation between the groups make the spotlight effect far more noticable once optics are added. Optics are really only needed once you get to tanks that are 18" or more tall.

how do you go about ordering from etg??? i couldn't find where to order on their site LOL

what leds would you recommend for what i'm wanting to do?? keep the mix 50/50? since tank is only 13" deep, i assume 700ma buckpucks would be plenty instead of 1000ma or should i go with the 1000?

when ya doing another group buy?? hehehehehe

No group buy for me for a while. Deepdvnarq is doing a small one right now though in the classifieds.

You have to call or email ETG to order. Talk to Anna Lopez. She will be more than happy to help you out.

700mA Buckpucks will be fine. Most of us have to turn the arrays down anyway from 1000mA. The only advantage to going to 1000mA is a little more light when and if you ever need it.

you have link to his selling thread?? i couldn't find it

i might have to wait & just get em from ledsupply.com since i'll be ordering the buckpucks from there anyway & this is turning out to be more expensive than i planned (lol...that never happens in reefing)

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=200015&hl=

thanks.....might have to get in on it....gotta check the finances

I'm about to buy a 250w MH for my 44 gallon corner tank, should I put that money towards building a LED setup instead? I have no knowledge of wiring LEDs, although I could prob learn.

How many LEDs would I need for a 44 gallon pentagon corner tank?

from what i've seen so far, 1 led every 2"....however many it takes to cover the area. optics are needed if more than 18" depth, but since the one i'm doing isn't that deep, i haven't paid much attention to the specifics as to which to go with at that point

Well, it's going to cost a considerable amount more money than the 250W MH will, but it has it's benefits.

A tank like that will be interesting to light. Your big issues is working around the tank shape with the heatsinks. You want to cover as much area as you can with the heatsink to get good light coverage. You are probably going to need somewhere in the order of 45-60 LEDs, and with a tank that deep (24", I have one), you will need at least 60 degree optics. It won't be cheap, but it will be cool.

Read, read, and read some more before commiting to doing this. It's fun, it works, but it's not a cheap investment.

evil, what kind of lighting are you running on your 44g? What do you think ballpark price would be to LED my 44g?

My tank is freshwater planted with 152W of PCs right now. It's getting an LED conversion in the near future, but the requirements are very much different.

Ballpark to do your tank right will probably be around the $600 mark.

How many hours would it take to build something like this once all of the parts are bought?
What do you think about Sun-Brite LEDs? They are the LED tubed lights in different lenghts.
http://exotic-aquarium.com sells them and are local to me. For the size I need for my tank, they seem to be the around same price as me building my own.

Jury is still out on those. I can tell you from personal experience with them that the bulbs do not produce the PAR that Exotic-Aquariums claims (this is now fact, not opinion/heresay/speculation).

So, is exotic aquarium basically trying to give fake info to sell these? They are so proud of these Sun-Brite lights and even have a live webcam on their Sun-Brite display tank. When I go to exotic aquarium, I get so frustrated on their super lack of customer service and now they are using fake info to sell $$$ LED lights......maybe i wont step into that place again.....

I'm not saying they won't grow corals, as I saw some things when testing a set of these that was very curious that I'm not prepared to get into right now. All I'm saying is the PAR numbers that they posted in pictures on their website are not typical of what you would see over your own tank. I'm sure if you mention that to the owner he will be very defensive/offensive about the issue, as the two of us have had words about this in the past that didn't end well.

thanks for the headsup, you are quite the LED guru, muchas gracias!

Hi everyone. I'm currently in the early stages of a BC29 LED Conversion.

As I'm making small tweeks to C Jerome's design, a question came up. I love the fact that his Potentiometer knobs are on the top of the BC29 stock hood. That looks awesome. However, for my particular BC29, this isn't the best placement, as I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old who would constantly play with them.

So I'm looking for an alternative placement, and I'm looking to get opinions on my idea.

My idea is to drill 4 holes, one for each knob, through the back of the watertight area in the BC29 hood. In other words, you'd open up the BACK access door on the hood to reveal the 3 chambers, and also reveal the four potentiometer knobs.

Does that pose a problem? Putting them in an area like that?

Should be ok, provided they aren't going to get in the way of anything you have to service in there.

Hi Evil,

My tank is a RSM 250 65gallons 24" high but the actual water column is about 59 gallons and 18" high.
So do I need lens for for 3w leds? Could I get away with 52x3w leds or I should I bump to 65x3w leds (using ELN-60-48D driving 13 leds series)

Thanks

I'd say you will need at least 60 degree lenses, but maybe not everywhere. My recommendations for a minimum setup would be 48 LEDs (16x3) on an 8.5" wide heatsink. The 64 LED setup (16x4) will give you more overall intensity, and a little more even coverage.

Just for clarification: Did you imply that the ELN-60-48D can drive 16 of 3W leds in series? I believe you recommended 13?