List looks fine. Shipping from Cutter to the US is about $12. Their prices are ok, but not great. Cutters big advantage is the tint selection. Even ETG has trouble with that one.

I wouldn't bother with optics. Adding anything will only give you spotlights. Even as bare LEDs, you will still get a nice bump in PAR output, and you will get the shimmer you want in spades.

Don't have the "How to Put it Together" section done yet. Haven't had a good day to sit down and finish it.

Ok, thanks!

I found a few folks here and on RC that posted a good bit of "how to" info.


How big of a heat sink do you think I would need? How about a long slab of slate or granite? I could probably easily get a big granite cut-off from a local granite shop.

Far too heavy, and probably not a good emitter of heat. A good sized 1/4" thick bar of aluminum will work a lot better.

I'm really digging this idea, and I can set this up for around $100 or less, especially if I can get a cheap heatsink.


I may actually slowly convert the whole tank to LED's, piecemeal.

If I were going to go all-LED (one section at a time), how many white and blue LED's would you recommend over a 25g high (24l X 12w X 20d) if I wanted to grow SPS on the bottom? With narrow optics?

Also, are there more cost effective ways to drive 18-24 LED's than Buckpucks?

It's going to need about 30 LEDs (10x3) once you start adding optics in. Normally I only recommend two rows for a 12" wide tank, but if you are going to add up to 40 degree optics, three rows would be needed to reduce/remove spotlighting.

There aren't many cost effective solutions to drive this. At 30 LEDs you sit at a crossroads where all driver options will cost you about the same. You would need 4 Meanwells to drive it all (13 LED limit, and about $35-$40 each), or 6 Buckpucks (6 LED limit, $20 each, and a power supply at $15).

Thanks Evil--- this is turning out to be more simple than I thought.

Hehehe... I think I may have a free power supply, assuming I can use an AC power supply.

The guys over at HVAC at our facilities dept gave me a free, barely used 24v AC power supply that came from a boiler.
I'll have to upload a pic of it, but it's a 75 volt-amp (24v), which according to Ohm's Law should be able to drive 24 3w LED's. At least, that's what they calculated based on what I was telling them (3w LEDs). This one is wired for either 110, 208, or 240, so I'll just cap off all but the 110v input.

The only real issue I have with it is the power leads that go from the supply to the buckpuck do not have the pin like you see on other power supplies, it's just the red and green wires. I suppose I would need a buckpuck style I could solder these to, or perhaps splice on a plug.


EDIT, just uploaded the pic. I love micro SD cards
I'll need to mount this in a metal box, I'm sure, but there's plenty of those around the shop spare.

On the left, the black and white are the 110v power, the other wires on the left are the unnecessary 208/240's. The ones on the right are the output 24v AC.

If it was regulated, I'd say use it. Bare transformers will vary the output based on the input. Your voltage in the house can fluctuate quite a bit during the course of a day, and there is no guarantee that the output will always be 24v. Transformer output is based on a ratio of input to output voltage. That transformer has a ratio of about 4.58:1 to get 24v output when the input is 110v. If the voltage drops to 100v (very common), the output drops to 21.8v, which is below the requirement for a Buckpuck with 6 LEDs. If the input voltage creeps up to 120v, the output is now 26.2v, and will kill an AC rated Buckpuck (24v max on those).

Okay, how would I know if it's regulated?

It's not.

I see. Just spoke to the HVAC guy and he said the same thing. Nominal voltage around here runs around 124v anyhow, so that would eliminate this right off the bat. Oh well.

I suppose this $15 one is the one I'd want, right?

(Input Voltage - 100-240VAC, Output Voltage - 12VDC 3A # 2.5mm Barrel Plug Connector)

Nope. Wrong voltage.

Use this at a minimum

http://ledsupply.com/24vdc17a.php

This is cheaper and has more capacity.

http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=16854+PS

Doh, didn't notice it was a 12v power source.

How many buckpucks and LED's could that second power source handle? It looks promising but also looks like a bear to wire up.

It's simple to wire. Many people here use them with great success. You will be able to run 6 Buckpucks at 1000mA on that one.

Hi guys, I was doing a small array of 6 "El Cheapo" LEDs from ebay just to try them and see how they compare to the CREE. If they are worth anything could be lighting my 3G Pico. I did everything on the soldering and all but I'm having a WEIRD problem. 5 out of 6 LEDs are turning on. The one that doesn't turns on does not affect anything in the series BUT if I test it individually with two AA batteries it does turns on. Tried switching the cables to the other two available polarity slots and still does the same. If I test it while all the array is On it will turn on but the rest will turn off.
Any idea to solve this?

grounding issue. just remove all of the screws and test the entire string. this happened to me recently om another project i was working on and it drove me nuts. even with the nylon washers, i was still grounding out and the LEDs would do exactly what you described. i removed the screws and presto, it all worked. uth them back in and poof, same craaaap.

Okay,

About ready to ask some more questions.

I have ordered 36 LED (18 Cree Q5 cool whites and 18 Royal Blues) and going to make a lamp with them.

I have made this skematic to show how I'm going to combine them.
So this drawing TIMES 2! 1 powersupply for CW and 1 for RB's


My questions is wich 6 buckpucks do I need and where can I buy them. Direct link pls! Live in europe.
What potmeter do I need? Direct link pls.!
Wich powersupply do I need for this x2? Direct Link pls.
Wich themalglue do I need for the Leds? Direct Link pls.

I would like 1000mA on the Buckpucks.

thank you in advance, I'm really not into electronics, so pls be so presise as possible.

You will want 3023-D-E-1000P Buckpucks. They come with the pots pre wired, so you don't have to worry about that. Wouldn't know specifically where to get them from in Europe, but you should be able to search for that part number easy enough.

You will need a 24v DC 3.5A (or greater) power supply for each half of the array. Again, not sure where you will be able to find those for a reasonable price. Try talking to Dave_Uk about where he got his parts.

can I take the wires from 3 buckpucks and connect them to 1 potmeter?

I imported my LEDs from Cutter (Australia) and Buckpucks from LEDSupply in the states as I couldnt find a supplier in Europe that could get close to matching the prices.

I got the power supply for my first array from ebay. There are loads available and they are pretty cheap. For my larger array I bought the power supplies from Maplin as they are good quality, high power rating anf most importantly on sale at the moment but Im not sure where abouts you are in Europe so dont know if you can order from them.

The thermal adhesive (Arctic Silver ceramique) was also from ebay and was very cheap at about £2-3 a tube.

If you still need to order your heatsink(s) the best place I could find was Farnell. They are good for small parts such as capacitors, connectors and screws etc too.


EDIT: Just noticed from your PM that you are in Denmark. Maplin do deliver to Denmark but as you would probably need a converter/adapter it would probably be better to source a power supply locally. Farnell have a Danish website so that could be a good place to source the heatsink(s) etc.

Dave_UK, did you get your correct LEDs from Cutter?

Im still waiting for them. Hopefully they should arrive this week.

Farnell is pretty Expensive for heatsinks in Denmark, i would recommend TME in poland
I ordered this http://www.tme.eu/en/katalog/?art=RAD-A6023/300# in 1m. length(RAD-A6023/1000), 2 pcs. delivered to Denmark 110€€
they have a good selection of all electronic components, and they have Meanwell ELN-60-48D for around 31€€ incl. VAT. Not in stock though, but i should recieve my order around end September.

Evil... wonderful service you are providing here! I'm going to attempt an LED DIY and wanted to get your opinion. I will have a 48"L x 24"W x 18" Tall Rimless Aquarium. I will be keeping a variety of coral, including SPS and a couple of clams (which I have kept under T5 with success).

This is what I'm pondering:
Description: 6 rows of 16 (front to back spacing 3.5” , left to right spacing 2.75”)
LEDs:
- Whites: (44) Cree XR-E Q5 White
- Blues: (48) Cree Royal Blue
- UV: (4) 3W UV Light (exchanging 4 whites for 4 UVs)
- Moonlights: Undecided; would like to know how others have implemented this

I think I need 8 - Meanwell ELN-60-48, unsure about optics with my tank depth and wondering if I really need UVs?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am going to get started on my LED project, I've been interested in it forever. My first project is the heat sink prep, and I was wondering if I could use a center punch w/ my dremmel or hand drill? Or is it particularly important to have perfect holes to tap?

im no expert but with 24" depth i think you will need some sort of optic.. weather it be 40 or 60 will be up to you, and what you want to keep at what level of your tank.. but if you choose to go with 40 degree's then you will probably need a tad tighter spacing left to right, allthough you might not need to with 2 foot of travel,

and i think if you run2 parralel strings off each meanwell, then you could half your drivers.. llthough you will have to run them at 700ma i believe, but with optics im not sure of how much light you will lose, they will also run cooler, so you will save on heatsink,

EDIT: i just read your tank is 18" tall, then you wont NEED optics, allthough if your wanting to keep high light corals down low then you could do 80 or 60 degree optics, and also i have a feeling you could get away with 5 rows of 16..

xcracer, you're picking this up pretty quick

Few changes. 5 rows like xcracer said, but more LEDs per row. Go with 20 per, and drop your spacing down to 2". That spacing is much better suited for optics. Speaking of optics, I'd go no tighter than 60 degrees. You could probably be fine with 80 degrees. It will blend better, and give you a wider variation of lighting levels from top of tank to bottom. Also, don't bother with UV LEDs for the time being. 4 isn't going to do you much good for a tank that size. We still haven't seen just how much UV we really need yet.

fewer leds would be great (less cost)... what type of spacing were you thinking?

I probably need to take the time to determine the spread of light at that height with optics of varying degrees and without. I do not want spot lights all over my sand

thanks!

EDIT: just seen evils post...
Ok... no UVs for now... my intention was to make it easy to upgrade (tapped and screws), so that could always be added later. And to go with 5 rows... that would make 4" spacing or less, extending the space between the first row and glass?

Thanks!

way ahead of you mate.. just whipped them up then..before anyone says "as if you's had no lense with 2.5 deep tank" or "as if youd have 40 degree optics with 1 foot tank"

it is purely for information purpose and it is as accurate as possible.. you will be able to tell how wide a beam will be 1 foot down in your 2 foot deep tank.. ENJOY..

would make more sense if i linked something with that last thing haha..

For a powersupply, will this work for 18 LEDs?
http://elektronik-lavpris.dk/product_info....ducts_id=105441
And will it be suffisient enough for 24 LEDs?

what i get from that power supply is that it is AC, not good we want DC unless you get the AC pucks, but i dont know about them..

hmm okay, any similar power supplys on the webpage I can use?

No, its 24V DC, 4,5A, its perfect for 4 bucks and 24 Leds.
http://elektronik-lavpris.dk/files/sup2/S-100F-spec.pdf

Dennis

omg. That's great. Thanks so much. There's actually alot more coverage than I was originally thinking.

I'm going to come up with a couple of layouts and see what you folks think. Might not get to it until mid next week because of bus and personal commitments-but very excited about gettin this underway!

Thanks!

Thanks Evil, having read all 50 pages I decided to convert my 24G JBJ nano cube to LEDs.
Originally I was looking at the AquaRay SSL units, £176 for a twin unit in the UK (not worth the money), and also found these units (interested to know your thoughts on these, they can be run underwater!) http://www.aquariumledlighting.co.uk/brill...ine%20white.htm

I already had a plan together before finding this thread but this helped me decide that LEDs were the way to go. I wanted to stick to a low budget and I have managed to set up 11 cree XR-E Q4 cool whites and 11 Luxeon III royal blues, mounted to heat sink and controlled using three of these units: http://www.ledsupply.com/ld-mde16-c-vrl.php (these were only £23each in the UK, same price as a Buckpuck but no need for a power supply & yes they do dim with a standard 100K log pot and they will power 8 stars at 700mA with UK 240V input).

The whole project cost less than £170 (so less than the AquaRay duo units), though I should point out that due to my line of work I did get some discount & I had all the tools & consumables already so only needed to buy the LED's, heat sink and MDE-C-VRL supply units and 80mm fan (which I just managed to get above the heatsink in the original hood).

The conversion to LED was completed two weeks ago, since then I have modified slightly. I got another driver, these have two separate supplies each at 350mA, to run at 700mA they are connected in parallel so I installed one more unit and now for two of my strings of LED’s I have three outputs in parallel giving 1050mA. This works well but wanted your feedback, can you see any problems resulting from this (see technical spec on drives here http://www.ledsupply.com/docs/VariLED-16.pdf ).

Also when I started looking for parts I wanted to get all from UK which is why I used the Luxeon III , http://www.luxeonstar.com/luxeon-iii-star-...700ma-p-286.php
I have since found the Cree royal Blues available, but not star mounted XREROY-L1-0000-00901, and I can also buy blank stars. Will these be much better than the Luxeon III’s & could the LED’s be fixed to the stars using thermal paste & soldered using the tabs on the LED’s (did not want to fix straight onto heatsink, if on a star I can replace easier if there are any problems). Also if this is ok how can I ensure no shorting – looked at DarkDevil’s build does the epoxy offer insulation?

Having read some of the comments about power ratings my new set up draws about 64W compared to the old tubes rated at 72W (2x36W), so I have a big increase in light running cheaper & as long as the LEDs last more than 4 years the whole set up is cheaper than the replacement tubes.

As I'm planning this (since it will happen later than I'd hoped ), how wide of a piece of aluminum bar stock would you recommend for the 6 Cree XR-E's? I know "wider is better" obviously but no need in overkilling right now.


I may eventually upgrade the entire tank to LED's. If I did, I'd probably adhere this bar stock (w/LED's) to the big finned heatsink I'd eventually get, like a cut-n-paste.

xcracer, thanks for the chart. For those looking at that chart, keep in mind that you want a fair amount of overlap for color blending, increased performance, and less spotlighting at higher levels in the tank. While it may look like you can space your LEDs out quite a ways, you will get horrible spotlighting.


Nice looking units, but not powerful enough.


Nice. I love how they stiff us in the US on that driver.


Shouldn't be a problem, but watch for unusual heat levels.


The Crees have the same output at half the current, so yes, they will be better.

Epoxy is only an insulator if you have a thick layer. This makes thermal performance worse. Insulating the star isn't that big of an issue as they are electrically neutral. You should be more concerned with making sure that the mounting screws are insulated.


Sounds good. Providing you can keep the temperatures down to reasonable levels, you should get a lot of life from the LEDs.

Hi, thanks for quick response. So just to clarify, if I can't get the cree royal blues already mounted to a star its ok to just stick them on with epoxy & solder to the tabs on the top of the LED's.

Yes and no. You can do it, but the LED needs to be modified first. The positive and negative tabs on the bottom need to be sanded off, and the corners clipped so the bottom of the LED is electrically neutral.

You can get royals mounted at http://www.led-tech.de

Alright, quick and stupid question.

Can someone point me in the direction of a diagram or explain to me how to wire up 2 cree xr-es to a 700ma buckpuck. And also where in the series I should install a switch to turn them on and off.

I was thinking about this. Is there a way to know at what point the light diminishes enough to give a spotlight? I'm guessing this comes down to experimenting, observation and experience.

Previous post for my tank (48x24x18tall) suggested 5 rows of 20 (2" spacing) with either 60 or 80 degree optics. What is the recommendation on spacing of rows? And does that change depending on the optics?

Thanks!

Buckpuck datasheet is a good starting point

Always put the switch between the power supply and the driver. Never between the LED and the driver.



3D CAD modeling of the light patterns helps a lot. You can see where the cones overlap.

For spacing, I mentioned this in my previous post to this question. 2" between LEDs on each row, and 3" between rows.

from reading the posts-my understanding is that the distance is center to center, correct? If so, that would leave a distance to the glass edge 6" (for a 5 row fixture over a 24 wide tank). I think that's more than I've read previously unless I have misunderstood.

Thanks!!

Thanks again for the tip, I have seen the ones at Led-tech.de but I can get the same Cree part (unmounted) for less than a third of that price. So I might get just a couple & modify as you suggested, if it works I will do all 11 next week.

Center to center. You'll be fine with 5 rows. Get the array about 4-6" above the water and you won't even notice it. You want the majority of your light down the center of the tank where 90% of your livestock is. Towards the front and rear, you don't always need an enormous amount of light at higher levels right at the glass.


Why not order the star pcbs from them then and mount them? Do some research into "reflow skillet" soldering. It's cheap and works wonderfully well for soldering LEDs. Then you have them mounted, and cheaper then LED-Tech.

Just for those looking around at the heatsink options and need a smaller or narrower heatsink, you can actually call Russ at Heatsinkusa.com and ask him about his cutoffs.

I just ordered 4 cutoffs that are 12" X 2" for $30 shipped. I only need two but will eventually use the other two. Being a carpenter I can fix two of these end to end for my 24" long tank.

How do you know that your LEDs aren't missing certain wavelengths important for growth of SPS, clams, etc? I know that in older LEDs, there were gaps in the spectrum even though your eye perceived the correct color.

Corals are amazingly adept at using many wavelengths of light. Certain wavelengths are more useful than others, but since many of our corals are found at varying depths, they can usually do well at all sorts of wavelengths/spectrums provided it's in the right intensity, and not overbearing in the "red" department (personal observation that all 6500K lighting doesn't work as well for lots of corals).

Hey evil, I've read much of this thread and most of the one started by soundwave on RC and wanted another opinion on lighting my 37g seahorse tank.

I don't want to spend more than I have to so i don't want over kill lighting. How many CREE leds should I use on a tank 24"L x 18"W x 20"H if I want to grow Caulerpa sp. red macro algae zoas ricordea and other softies like xenia etc.

I was thinking of 24 (50/50 Q5s & RBs) in a 6x4 config similar to what soundwave initially set up for his 75g. I figured he was running a 75g, my tank is like a 75g cut in half, he used 2 6x4 arrays so I figure it would work for me too but just wanted to see what you thought. Could i settle for less?