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jedimasterben
@Ben - not necessarily. My drivers have "sweet spots" where at certainly position they flicker and whine, then if I turn them oh so slightly, it goes away and everything's fine. Not the only one who is experiencing this. It's no problem to me. Simply find that sweet spot and leave it alone.

 

I've had my 14 (16 with extras) LED Dimmable kit for over 6 months now.

Have you tried a different potentiometer on them? One of my pots did the same thing, replaced it and it's ok now.

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No I haven't. But I don't see why that wouldn't work :shrug:

 

All I'm trying to say is that if your drivers and pots have a sweet spot, find it and leave it alone.

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jedimasterben
No I haven't. But I don't see why that wouldn't work :shrug:

 

All I'm trying to say is that if your drivers and pots have a sweet spot, find it and leave it alone.

Unless you want to run them on a different setting, of course. :P

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godfathernikki

Well my kit FINALLY showed up. About 5 days later than the estimate, I guess I slipped through the cracks somehow.

 

Question: Whats the best way to solder these? Tinning the wires is a gimme, but what about the solder pads on the chips? They don't look pre-tinned, I was wondering if it mattered or not.

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Got a possible opportunity for someone. Using my leftover parts, i built a pendant light over the weekend for my new pico tank. problem is I am using 9 LEDs and have the larger Maxwell driver (12-20 leds). they do that blinking thing unless they are at full power.Does anyone want to do a straight trade for the smaller driver(7-12)? only one problem... since the lights are already in use so i would have to get the smaller driver first and wire it in before I remove the larger driver and ship it back. I know its a lot to ask but I figure i'd give it a shot. I'd even be willing to pay shipping both ways

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jedimasterben
Well my kit FINALLY showed up. About 5 days later than the estimate, I guess I slipped through the cracks somehow.

 

Question: Whats the best way to solder these? Tinning the wires is a gimme, but what about the solder pads on the chips? They don't look pre-tinned, I was wondering if it mattered or not.

Meh, I didn't even tin the wires when I soldered mine together, but to each his own.

 

Got a possible opportunity for someone. Using my leftover parts, i built a pendant light over the weekend for my new pico tank. problem is I am using 9 LEDs and have the larger Maxwell driver (12-20 leds). they do that blinking thing unless they are at full power.Does anyone want to do a straight trade for the smaller driver(7-12)? only one problem... since the lights are already in use so i would have to get the smaller driver first and wire it in before I remove the larger driver and ship it back. I know its a lot to ask but I figure i'd give it a shot. I'd even be willing to pay shipping both ways

If I had one extra (well, had one of those at all), I'd help you out.

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godfathernikki
Meh, I didn't even tin the wires when I soldered mine together, but to each his own.

 

 

I'm really just looking for the most appropriate method wire them up quickly I guess, since I have so many of them :) Thanks for your reply

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Have you tried a different potentiometer on them? One of my pots did the same thing, replaced it and it's ok now.

 

+1 to this.

 

I had the same issue with one of my series and I got a replacement pot from Ray. The issue no longer happens.

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Well my kit FINALLY showed up. About 5 days later than the estimate, I guess I slipped through the cracks somehow.

 

Question: Whats the best way to solder these? Tinning the wires is a gimme, but what about the solder pads on the chips? They don't look pre-tinned, I was wondering if it mattered or not.

 

No sure if the way I did mine is the standard way to do it but it worked for me.

 

Start by tinning.. Apply enough solder to the tip of the iron to form a little belly(don't know how else to describe it) of melted solder along the bottom of the iron tip. Run the wire along the tip to coat.

 

Re apply solder to the tip to get that belly again.

 

Place the wire into position on the LED and do one swipe of the soldering iron across the wire. The bubble of liquid solder should flow off and into position mostly covering the wire and square pad on the led star

 

9 times out of ten that worked for me. On occasion I would move the soldering iron too slow and it would leave a point on the solder material... I would then test to see it it obstructed the optics... if it didn't, i'd move on... if it did i would carefully remove the pointy tip with the iron, making sure i didn't remelt the whole thing.

 

Little tip... solder removing wire is a big help. The last thing you want is too much solder on the connection. it looks ugly and will obstruct the optics and could cause them to fall off whenever the light is moved

 

Hope this helps

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Well my kit FINALLY showed up. About 5 days later than the estimate, I guess I slipped through the cracks somehow.

 

Question: Whats the best way to solder these? Tinning the wires is a gimme, but what about the solder pads on the chips? They don't look pre-tinned, I was wondering if it mattered or not.

 

I say tin the pads! It was really easy once I figured it out. I dabbed a tiny smear of flux onto the pad with a toothpick then applied the proper amount of solder to the tip. I would just touch the ball of solder on the iron to the flux'd pad and it would instantly form a perfect solder dome on the pad.

 

I had the best results using a tinned wire and tinned pad. I found that once both were tinned all i had to do was rest the tip of the tinned wire on the dome of solder I had put on the pad. With about a 2-3 second touch from the soldering iron tip the wire would sink right into the dome of solder. I was using flux but I think this method would still work well without it.

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*Update on my driver issue*

 

I received tracking for my replacement driver today from Ray. It went out USPS and looks to be about a week for ship time. I was surprised at how smooth the warranty process went.

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Mine showed up today ( a day early). Right after fedex dropped them off, UPS showed up with my heatsink from RapidLED. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

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jedimasterben
I'm really just looking for the most appropriate method wire them up quickly I guess, since I have so many of them :) Thanks for your reply

Just remember to take your time with it. It will take a while to do it right, and you won't want to have to pull down the fixture once it's up to have to resolder something. :)

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Wow, I can't believe it actually looks as good as it does with the 10K. Normally it's really really washed out.

 

Yeah, I took a chance. There are only 9 so I didn't think it would be to bad.

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Quick question. I laid out all the LEDs on the heatsink using the supplied thermal plaster. How long does it normally take to set up? It's been over 3 hours now and they still move around.

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Quick question. I laid out all the LEDs on the heatsink using the supplied thermal plaster. How long does it normally take to set up? It's been over 3 hours now and they still move around.

 

I just leave it overnight to be safe

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godfathernikki
I say tin the pads! It was really easy once I figured it out. I dabbed a tiny smear of flux onto the pad with a toothpick then applied the proper amount of solder to the tip. I would just touch the ball of solder on the iron to the flux'd pad and it would instantly form a perfect solder dome on the pad.

 

I had the best results using a tinned wire and tinned pad. I found that once both were tinned all i had to do was rest the tip of the tinned wire on the dome of solder I had put on the pad. With about a 2-3 second touch from the soldering iron tip the wire would sink right into the dome of solder. I was using flux but I think this method would still work well without it.

 

 

Yea I ended up going this route, minus the flux. I noticed the solder needed to be a little hotter for it to jump from the iron and make a dome on the pad, but it still worked fine.

 

Tinned the wire>tinned the pad>put the wire on the pad>put a small bead on the iron>put the iron on the wire>hold until it all melts into one blob(2-3 sec)>remove

 

Worked great, I had solid connections all around on the first go. Much easier than it was cutting and stripping all 20 something 2" pieces of wire lol

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Tried to look through the Thread and did a search couldn't find anything

 

Has anybody installed the 24 kit in a Red Sea Max 130?

 

Ordered the 24 Dimmable Kit with extra 6500k Leds and extra Royal Blues (Just in case I am not happy with the 12x RB and the 12x 10k)

 

what's the best lay out 1w1b1w1b1w1b ? and same on the bottom row?

or 3 rows of 8?

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Ordered the 24 Dimmable Kit with extra 6500k Leds and extra Royal Blues (Just in case I am not happy with the 12x RB and the 12x 10k)

 

what's the best lay out 1w1b1w1b1w1b ? and same on the bottom row?

 

How many rows of lights are you going with? I did 3 rows of 8.

 

Here is how I did mine. Sorry, not the greatest pic.

post-32610-1333719919_thumb.jpg

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How many rows of lights are you going with? I did 3 rows of 8.

 

Here is how I did mine. Sorry, not the greatest pic.

post-32610-1333719919_thumb.jpg

 

3 rows Looks good is that 12 white(10k) 12 Royal Blue?

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godfathernikki
*Update on my driver issue*

 

I received tracking for my replacement driver today from Ray. It went out USPS and looks to be about a week for ship time. I was surprised at how smooth the warranty process went.

 

 

I just popped in to see if anyone else had driver issues, I guess I found my answer! Except mine lasted about 2 days :(

What did you have to do for the warranty? Just an email?

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Here's build

 

DSC_6824.jpg

 

Mounted in the hood I made

 

DSC_6826.jpg

 

Another shot showing all the driver mounts and pots mounted to the front panel

 

DSC_6829.jpg

 

Front of the hood while it's closed

 

DSC_6830.jpg

 

Hood open for tank access

 

DSC_6831.jpg

 

The big concern of mine is the quality of the pots. The blue circuit flickers when dfjusting the pot and you can hear the driver making a noise at the same time as the flickering. Where did everyone get replacement pots?

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