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LED Spectral Analysis Graphs HERE.


redfishsc

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redfishsc

Here is the result of the LED testing we did about a week ago, along with a very good friend of mine who is a Marine Biology student at UNC Wilmington. Joe was fortunate enough to just get word that he's been hired by SeCore (yeah!) so these will be the only LEDs I'm able to study unless I happen upon another spectrometer.

 

The Spectrometer was an OceanOptics S2000.

http://www.oceanoptics.com/Products/s2000.asp

 

There are too many graphs to post them all here (28 graphs total) and about half of them are more for planted tank owners.

 

So I will link you to them in the following ways. Several people have offered to host them for us. Two of them are retailers so once they get them uploaded, I'll edit this post and include the link.

 

Here is my photobucket album with them all.

http://s919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/re...TING/?start=all

 

 

Here are a few of the most important ones, but please by all means look at the rest of them. Some interesting stuff was found. Most of it predictable but nice to know for sure.

 

Y-Axis is not PAR but a unit of intensity that the meter assigns. We are looking for a way to convert this number into something useful, but it serves as a great comparison.

 

Rebel Neutral White and 2 Royal Blues

Rebel_nw_rb_rb.jpg

 

Rebel Neutral White, Royal Blue, Cyan

Rebel_nw_rb_cyan.jpg

 

Cree XPG Neutral White, 2 XPE Royal Blue

Cree_XPGnw_2XPEroyals.jpg

 

XPG Neutral White, XPE Royal, XPE Blue ("cool blue")

Cree_XPG_nw_XPE_royal_XPE_blue.jpg

 

XPG Neutral White, XPE Royal, Rebel Cyan

Cree_XPGnw_XPEroyalblue_RebelCyan.jpg

 

XPG Cool White and XPE Royal Blue

Cree_XPGcw_XPErb_combo-1.jpg

 

XML Cool White at various drive currents

Cree_XML_coolwhite.jpg

 

 

 

 

A few others.

 

Bridgelux_402_10wclass_cw.jpg

 

Satistronics_cold_white_20w.jpg

 

Cree_XRE_XPE_royalblue_comparison.jpg

 

Comparison_neutral_whites_XPG_XPE_Satistronics.jpg

 

 

There are others on the album as well, including individual shots for the XPG cool, neutral, and warm white.... royal blue and blue, cyan rebel, XPE red and satistronics red, and various white-only combinations for planted tanks and refugia.

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redfishsc

Let me also give a huge thanks to the following for helping us with this:

 

DFason, for supplying us with the Rebel 3-Ups and some of the Crees.

 

Blasterman, for supplying the 10w Satistronics 455nm

 

EvilC66 for his advice in setting this up.

 

And the US Navy SEALS just for being AWESOME.

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blasterman

Note the wide variance in 'white' spectrum between different power levels of Satistronics. Again, a clear illustration of why Evil and I tell people to stay away from Chinese white LEDs. You simply don't know what you are getting.

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redfishsc

Yes, the 10w seems to put out less blue, comparatively speaking. 2 LEDs isn't quite enough to say authoritatively that they're inconsistent. Also, that 10w pure white has been in use for a few months (8hrs a day) although I don't think that would matter. I'm not even 1/6th of the way into the useful life of it, and I certainly hope it wouldn't yellow up that much over that short of time.

 

I was quite shocked to see how close the 10w Satis "pure white" looks to the Bridgelux 402 though. Even in efficiency. I didn't look to see the voltage they both ran at 700mA, but I suspect the Bridgelux was a bit lower in voltage (ie, more efficient).

 

I was also shocked at how decent the "cold white" 15-20K LED looked. I'd love to see these over a reef and see how they look alone.

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redfishsc
FYI the data is also hosted here:

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/pages/LED-Spectral-analysis.html

 

Its currently using picasa as the host but im trying to find a better way to host it on one of our servers and still have some discussion options.

 

 

Excellent! I like the way you have it set up, to scroll quickly through it.

 

If you decide on a different format later, you can add a label to them that just mirrors what the title of the graph says.

 

Thanks for hosting those!!!!

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redfishsc
im digging the 2xp-e rb to 1 xp-g nw

 

 

I'm not digging it so much. No doubt that it looks good, but I've always enjoyed the look of the 1:1 cool white/royal combo.

 

 

Look at their graphs (do NOT be mislead by their remarkably similar plot line; look at the intensity of the blues).

 

The 1:1 cw:rb graph shows a lower blue spike (because there is 1 less LED in the mix) but the white portion remains roughly the same size as the 1:2 nw:rb.

 

Meaning, if one is shooting for a "balanced spectrum" (whatever that really means) then the 1:1 cw:rb is going to be more balanced. The blue is just way more powerful in the 1:2 nw:rb.

 

 

I know the royal blue LEDs put out light that is dead-nuts on a huge photosynthetically active spectrum, I'm not entirely sure that the additional yellow/orange/red isn't also very beneficial.

 

In a mixed tank with corals that come from Lord only knows where, I think we should shoot for a slightly more white look. I know for sure it looks great.

 

 

Thus I'm digging the 1:1 cw/rb combo for it's "more balanced" spectrum.... yet still looking AWESOME.

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I agree with the 1:1 cw:rb. I've always liked that combo, even though I see a newer trend toward a 2:1 nw:rb.

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redfishsc

By the way, y'all, compare the intensity of the Rebel nw/rb/rb to the Cree version.

 

I was a bit shocked to see this, and these were NOT Rebel ES. All driven at 700mA.

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DaveFason

I like it :)

 

This helps me out with comparing the two. Hopefully more people will believe me now! I am exclusively using ES on ALL my builds now.

 

-Dave

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Is anybody running two tanks using different white/blue combos? Like one tank using cool whites, and another using neutrals? I'd love to hear your opinions.

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Is anybody running two tanks using different white/blue combos? Like one tank using cool whites, and another using neutrals? I'd love to hear your opinions.

 

I will be soon

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I will be soon

 

Good, looking forward to hearing your opinion and maybe seeing some comparison shots if you're able to get good photos. I never can lol, they always look like smurf piss.

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FWIW I have updated my tank to the following, and I ADORE this combination. I have to skip the optics and hang it 8" over the tank just to get the color to blend because of the odd 36X9 footprint, but here goes:

 

3 warm white XPG, 3 neutral white XPG, and 6 royal blues (one Meanwell driver, 700mA)

6 royal blue XPE and royal blue Rebels on a 700mA Buckpuck.

 

So, 3:3:12 ratio, and it has a wonderful "Fiji Purple" cast to it.

 

 

It's extremely hard to catch on camera but here is a FTS, with some work done in PhotoScape to get the actual color (as my monitor shows it) to show the nice purplish-violet color produced by the warm and neutrals along with the royals.

 

You will see a few oversaturated colors, like the green algal dust on the empty Hipoppus shell on the far left, but in general, this is what this tank looks like in person.

 

IMG_0186-2.jpg

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This is a great start but I would love to see more details. Hopefully you can find another spectrometer and continue testing. What is the metric that the meter puts out on the x-axis? I'm not an engineer but I don't think PAR will be useful here. It's my understanding that PAR refers to the total useable light so a different unit would be necessary here.

 

Have you done any testing with "burn in" or do you plan to in the future? I for one would really like to see that.

 

Looking forward to reviewing everything from my computer. :)

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This is a great start but I would love to see more details. Hopefully you can find another spectrometer and continue testing.

 

Yeah, but they are just too spendy for an individual to get, unfortunately. I do have a PAR meter but it's a loaner.

 

 

What is the metric that the meter puts out on the x-axis?

 

From what the grad student that helped me said, it's a unit of some sort but he wasn't sure what. It does, however, show us the proportions, which is what we are looking for.

 

 

I'm not an engineer but I don't think PAR will be useful here. It's my understanding that PAR refers to the total useable light so a different unit would be necessary here.

 

I'm not sure I understand this statement. I know PAR has limited uses but it definitely gets us in the ballpark of whether something will be useful or not. Why would we need a different unit? Unit of what? Just not understanding what you're saying.

 

Have you done any testing with "burn in" or do you plan to in the future? I for one would really like to see that.

 

Looking forward to reviewing everything from my computer. :)

 

 

 

I had tested a couple of year old cool white XPGs that showed no noticeable output variations, which blasts T5's and halides out of the water, but nothing longer than that unfortunately.

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  • 3 months later...
Someone should repeat this test using the updated Rebel ES. :)

 

 

The spectral output will be very similar to the Rebels you see here, but the intensity will be higher.

 

For that, you really want a PAR meter comparison.

 

I will say this, the cost of the Rebel ES is just prohibitive since the Cree XBD's that are available now should cost about half of the Rebel ES, and have the same peak efficiency (around 130 lumens/watt, give or take a dozen lumens).

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jedimasterben
The spectral output will be very similar to the Rebels you see here, but the intensity will be higher.

 

For that, you really want a PAR meter comparison.

 

I will say this, the cost of the Rebel ES is just prohibitive since the Cree XBD's that are available now should cost about half of the Rebel ES, and have the same peak efficiency (around 130 lumens/watt, give or take a dozen lumens).

Cost prohibitive? The Rebel ES's that I'm looking at provide 320lm at 1A, while the XBD provides 287lm in cool white, and are also $3.49 mounted on a star PCB.

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The spectral output will be very similar to the Rebels you see here, but the intensity will be higher.

 

For that, you really want a PAR meter comparison.

 

I believe the new Rebel ES jedimasterben is talking about is the LXW8-PW50 5000K which spectrum is very different from the standard cool white Rebel ES LEDs. Look at the difference in output between 465nm and 500nm. The LXW8-PW50 is much better balanced and has a much greater output in that range. Also these are the wavelengths that people are supplementing with cool blue and turquoise LEDs.

 

Luxeon5000k-1.png

 

Luxeon5650k.png

 

Cost prohibitive? The Rebel ES's that I'm looking at provide 320lm at 1A, while the XBD provides 287lm in cool white, and are also $3.49 mounted on a star PCB.

 

Steve's LEDs does offer good prices and Steve is great to do business with. He has confirmed to me recently that he will be bringing in some warmer binned LEDs from what he offers now (which is only the 6300k cool white Rebel ES)

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