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DIY AI SOL insipred LED light


disaster999

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  • 1 month later...
disaster999

my friend liked my build so much he asked me to build one for him.

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this is just a simple build with 1 red LED for color. its going over a 14" cube which with this light is MORE than enough to cook all his corals if he wants to.

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disaster999

question about drivers and red led.

 

so right now i have 12 LED per driver on my build and according to meanwell, i can run 14 led on the ELN driver. would i need to go and re-adjust the current on the driver or is it as easy as adding 2 more led per string?

 

another question is the cree xpe red led. i was testing the LED with a battery and it will flash for a second and just barely glow. the white and blue ones will stay on with the same battery. whats up with that?

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disaster999

almost finished with the lights, got all the wiring sorted out, fans hooked up. just need to get some acrylic bent to make a skin for the light. and its pretty much done.

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driver box

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wire exits through a hole in the heatsink and out the top for a clean look when hung

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see those black dots on the wood? the light was hot enough to burn the lacquer. it was on the desk for like 5 mins tops

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disaster999
Where did you get that enclosure for the drivers? I'd like something similar in black.

 

i got it at a local hardware store. not sure where you can get something similar in the states

 

what kind of retrofit did you use for the T5s ? also where did you get it ? thanks

 

the reflectors are from ice cap. the ballast is from osram. i got it locally at a LFS, but you can get all that from reefgeek.com.

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would i need to go and re-adjust the current on the driver or is it as easy as adding 2 more led per string?

 

If you're just adding LED's in series you don't need to adjust the driver, although if you're stressing the maximum forward voltage of the driver sometimes you need to turn down the max current on a cheaper Mean Wells or the string won't fire. Don't ask me why.

 

another question is the cree xpe red led. i was testing the LED with a battery and it will flash for a second and just barely glow. the white and blue ones will stay on with the same battery. whats up with that?

 

If you we're comparing an XPE -vs- a XPG / XTE the answer would be forward voltage. The later two have much lower forward voltage (2.9-3.1) so they would be easier to fire up with a low voltage battery. However, standard blues aren't available at a low forward voltage yet, so I'm assuming we're talking about typical 3.5-3.6 Vf ranges, which tells me the LED is blown. Plus, a battery won't cause an LED to flicker like that unless the LED is defective.

 

You're running neutrals in the above tank, correct?

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disaster999
If you're just adding LED's in series you don't need to adjust the driver, although if you're stressing the maximum forward voltage of the driver sometimes you need to turn down the max current on a cheaper Mean Wells or the string won't fire. Don't ask me why.

thanks, i just added 2 more LED to each string and they both still fired

 

If you we're comparing an XPE -vs- a XPG / XTE the answer would be forward voltage. The later two have much lower forward voltage (2.9-3.1) so they would be easier to fire up with a low voltage battery. However, standard blues aren't available at a low forward voltage yet, so I'm assuming we're talking about typical 3.5-3.6 Vf ranges, which tells me the LED is blown. Plus, a battery won't cause an LED to flicker like that unless the LED is defective.

 

You're running neutrals in the above tank, correct?

 

i added the red LED to the white string and adjusted the driver accordingly and all LED fires up perfectly and the dimming control works for all. im running 6500k whites on the fixture above, not really sure if thats neutral white or cool white or whatever. im pretty happy with how it lights up the tank tho.

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disaster999
Where'd you mount the t5 ballast-in the fixture on ballast box? and how are the optics held on?

At first i wanted to have the ballast on The driver box to keep tthe weight down but then it means i would need to run 8 more wire to the light fixture and that could be a pain. I found a pretty good spot on the fixture to mount the ballast so i went with that instead.

 

The original optics i bought needed to be glued on to the led but I've tried all sort of glue and it didn't really work. The new ones i bought are friction fit. The lens have a square base which is just big enough f to fit over the LED chip. Give it a twist and the plastic deforms a little and its on strong enough not to come off and at the same time easy to take off if needed.

 

Awesome build man! makes me wanna go build one now. lol

You should

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The standard blues you added really add some zing to SPS, along with hellacious PAR. Glad you did this.

 

Heard a lot of grumbles about the AI unit burning up monti caps, but that's what dimmers are for.

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Can we get some pics of more blue color levels (rb 80%, b 50%, w20%) or something like that. You don't even have to do that. I just want to see different color settings.

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disaster999

haha, im sorry to disappoint you but i cant adjust each color channel individually. i have all my RB and blue on one string and the white and the rest of the blue on the other. ill take pics of different power settings to give you an idea.

 

The standard blues you added really add some zing to SPS, along with hellacious PAR. Glad you did this.

 

Heard a lot of grumbles about the AI unit burning up monti caps, but that's what dimmers are for.

another member here, sammy, warned me about the blue giving the tank a windex look, but the color blending of each LED "pod" balances everything out nicely. the 2 T5HO helps alot with adding more spectrum to the tank.

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disaster999

Alright I too some pictures of different setting on my led to show you what it looks like at different power levels for the white and blue channels

 

I took these pictures with a dslr, no raw, just straight to JPEG, white balance set to cloud at vivid mode.

This is what my tank looks like normally with the led set to the color i like and t5ho on

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Blue at 100%

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White at 100%

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Blue and white at 100%

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Blue 100%, white at minimum output

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Blue at 100%, white at 50%

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White at 100%, blue at minimum

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White at 100%, blue at 50%

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White at 100% with t5ho

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Blue at 100% with t5ho

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disaster999

finally finished the light for my friend

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Excuse the fallen lens, i fixed that already

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interesting observation....the door at room temp

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same door with the light shining on it for an hour with everything at full power

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heatsink max temp with fan on its lowest setting

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the driver box exhaust temp

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the mess

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disaster999
Awesome job! Including the mess, haha.. How long was the labor.

longer than i wanted. i would say if i have to sit down in one session and finish this light it would probably take me 4 hours from start to finish, given that i have everything i need to finish this light laid out. what takes the longest is the wiring. everything else just gluing measuring and drilling.

 

How did you attach the fan to the heatsink? Standoffs?

i have plastic tabs glued into the side where the fan rests ontop. i just used some double sided tape to tape the fan on the tabs. while i was finishing this like i thought of another design in my head...a better way of wrapping the light with acrylic and mounting the fan. will need to explore it again...anyone want to buy the next light i build? :P

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