New Build - old driver/heat sink

[donb]

I am planning a refugium light geared to green macros.

 

I have an old led setup with a strip heat sink (18") and driver. Somehow the led strip in the light fried, dunno, might have been the trip into the tank, not sure

 

So I am looking at the following LED GB to replace. All solderless.

 

4 bridgelux royal blue

2 cree xp-e red

4 cree cp-e white

5 Exotic deep red

 

I am planning on using the star shaped thermal pads.

 

Questions.

1. will this string of 15 leds work together?

2. the driver I have, is there a way to use a multimeter to test and see if it provides the correct electrical output for this string of leds?

 

Looking forward to this build.

 

Thanks

Don

 

[jedimasterben]

What size refugium is this going over? You want to pump as much light into a refugium as possible, aim for 300-500 PAR at the surface of the macroalgae.

[donb]

Understood and thanks for the input.

 

The refuge is 20 side to side, 12 front to back, and 15 top to bottom. Right now I have a 18/19w 6500K CFL (can't remember and at work now) in a tulip shaped metal reflector from Menards/Home Depot and while it does grow cheato I would like to get some ulva growing if I can for pods and better more consistant growth out of the cheato. I based the combination of leds in the OP from a 'commercial' green algae refuge light I saw.

 

Saw the 6" ATS build on your list of howtos and could follow that recipie with blue/red but would like to lean a litter more red based on others input.

 

I would like to use the heat sink and power supply/driver I have from the previous lamp. The electronics of that light 'LOOK' alot like one of the Inventonics PS/driver you have on your site. Has an ac supply in and I assume DC out with a dimming cable that can be connected to apex etc.

 

Can I just read the mA/W with my meter on the dc output to get an idea or is there some special thing I might be looking for.

 

Thanks again,

Don

[jedimasterben]

Most commercial lights are just tossing in a bunch of LEDs lol. Some have a rhyme/reason for it (specific terrestrial plants use more light of specific wavelengths, but it gets VERY particular), but most don't lol. Sticking with the typical 4:1 ratio of deep red to royal blue is about the most efficient that you can get without a lot of spectrometry for your specific plants. I have been adding in some warm white diodes to the mix (about as many as there are royal blue, so a 4:1:1 ratio overall) and I have seen slightly better growth, so while not a necessity, they seem to help in some cases (again that's something that takes a lot of technical work to get more efficient ).

 

Is there no model number or anything listed on the driver? Just about any number can be googled and turn up something

 

But you can read the amps and volts and figure out what the limits of it are.

[donb]

OK, Thanks for the tips Jedi Master....will take into account when I order.

 

I did try to google the only number on the outside label I could see (old eye syndrome don't you know) and it returned a generic buy 100,000 at a time chinese export driver. Will open it up over the weekend and look into it some more. Again, thanks for the opinions and tips and I'll get my order ready to send in.

 

Don

[donb]

OK, do I feel like an idiot. I peeled off the brand name sticker off the driver and found the spec label underneath and here is what it reads

 

Input Voltage (Vin) 100-270 Vac 50/60Hz

Input Current (Lin) 0.3A @ 100 Vac

Power Factor (PF) 0.98

Output Voltage (Vo) 24-72Vdc

Output Current (Lo) 0.035A-0.35A

Dimming Voltage (Vdim) 1-10Vdc

 

On the input side there is

 

L (Black)

N (White)

G (Green)

 

On the output side is

 

10V Output (Yellow)

1-10V Input (Purple)

GND (Green)

V+ (Black)

V- (White)

25W ROHS IP67

 

The output side has a 2 pin DIN connector which goes to the led strip on the heat sink. I have to believe this is DC +/-.

 

In addition a cable with what looks like a stereo jack with a plug in it that has both side soldered together. This is where the Apex dimmer cable would plug in. I believe this is connected to the 0-10v dimming green/purple

 

The closest to these specs I could find on LEDGroupBuy.com is

 

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-25w-driver-700ma/

 

The specs on the LEDGB says it can drive 10 LEDs.

 

Looking at what I provided, does this look like my driver would be about the same?

 

Thanks.

[jedimasterben]

LOL, yeah, they're usually hiding in plain sight

 

Your driver is 24-72v output at 350mA. You're at half the current of the other driver (so about half the brightness), and can run ~12-32x deep red, or 8-20x royal blue (the bridgelux chips, you could run 9-25x XT-E). You can use that driver and just double the amount of LEDs you were planning to use, or swap it out for the higher current driver.

[donb]

cool, cool

 

I really appreciate your help on this matter and after I place the order I will update you here with the progress. I have enough Electrical DIY knowledge to kill someone, or something, haven't yet, but that is mostly because of help from fine folks like you.

 

take care

Don

[donb]

Ok, I got the LEDs (6 ex red, 2 cree rb, 2 cree cw).. I got the solderless to make my limited soldering/diy electrical experience a little easier. I tested the LED with a digital meter and they all glowed as they should. I then connected 2 red in a series + to - to + to - and then the first - to neg on PS and last + to pos on PS.

 

A flash of light and Zzzzzzzzttttttttttttttttttttttt. Ooo, Ooo that smell, can't you smell that smell. Minus 2 red LED. Oh well, guess its good I have more money than sense.

 

Did I wire something wrong or were 2 red LED not enough for the power supply? In your opinion is the power supply bad?

 

Thanks.

[jedimasterben]

If you're using that same driver you were talking about earlier, then you need a minimum of 11x of the deep red LEDs for them to even strike, but using only two of them shouldn't have done that unless the driver was bad.

 

Got a pic of how it was connected?

[welight]

If the min output is 24V and you only had two leds powered, then you needed 6v and you gave it 24V unless I missed something here

[donb]

OK, here are pics requested:

 

Label on the driver showing white being - and black being +.

 

 

Here is the end cap showing black connected to white (-) and red connected to black (+)

 

 

Here is how I had the LEDs wired

 

 

Don