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Top Shelf Aquatics

bit the bullett and got an edge 6g


MOJOEJOEJOE

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MOJOEJOEJOE

I plan on keeping some zoas,shrooms and maybe a hammer.

Would 2 x 3ups , 1x OCW and 3 hyper violets be enough light?

I already have them installed and they look ok but a bit on the dim side by eye.

Im ok starting over if this is a horrible mix. I just had them hanging around collecting dust.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Ughhh I screwed up one of my 3 ups. I broke the connector and it pulled up the pad with it.

Anyway here is what it looks like with one of the 1x 3up, 1x ocw and 3x hyper violet. I f you look at the last picture you can see the broken connector, also in my OCW but I was able to salvage that one LOL.

 

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Well time to have surgery on my esophagus. Hopefully that goes well so I can play with my lights a little more LOL.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Hope it goes well!

Thanks all went well. The plan for tomorrow is to make a real heat sink at work. Does a heat sink need to have fins on it or can it be a an aluminium block say 3/8 thick with some fans mounted on it. I know that heat is conducted and releaed better bwith a conventional heat sink but would a block works as well? If so that would make this build much easier for me.

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MOJOEJOEJOE
  • back at it today. I managed to fix my 3 up led by lifting a couple of the pads and re-soldering. Not the cleanest solution but it does have me back up and running. I also added a 4th violet and 4 strips of Flex FIRE LED`S. The flex fire are real bright for smd`s. I do not plan on hooking them up right away but they are installed just in case I ned more coverage. I doubt I will need them but its nice to have options.Here is what it looks like right Now. I also made a slash shield that needs to be installed and some clean up needed on the wires. But not bad for some lunch time work.

post-48841-0-21614200-1396461703_thumb.jpg

 

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MOJOEJOEJOE

back to the drawing board. Its obvious just how much a proper heat sink is. I made a mounting block out of 3/8 aluminium and attached my leds. Not a good way to remove heat at all. Well it sort of is because it gets hot as heck but with the fans off I could barely touch it and that was only at 50% light output. I guess I need to go dumpster diving and get a real heat sink or I could be in trouble. On a good note the lights look great.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

I got a little time on my fixture this afternoon. I was able to stay with the Aluminium plate (heat sink) for now. I simply installed 2 real quiet fans directly over the plate. It keeps it nice and cool up to 80% power for over an hour. Chances are if it stays cool for an hour it should maintain the temp. I also installed a temp sensor on the plate(heat sink). I did this as a fail safe. If the heat sink gets above 150f the lights will dim for 20 minutes. If the temp does not lower in the 20 minutes the lights will dim even more. It will repeat this loop to help cool just as a back up. I also managed to rebuild my drivers with better fets. They stay cool even at full power. This part of my build is important because of the structure of my driver housing. I tried to make my housing match the back of the tank.

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The heatsink fins are so you have more surface area to dissipate heat.

 

Heatsink usa is always a viable option if you need a heatsink but can't make one on the cheap.

 

Jelly of your programming skills btw. wish i could make a sensor like that for my heatsinks.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

The heatsink fins are so you have more surface area to dissipate heat.

 

Heatsink usa is always a viable option if you need a heatsink but can't make one on the cheap.

 

Jelly of your programming skills btw. wish i could make a sensor like that for my heatsinks.

I cut a piece of heat sink this morning and hopefully I can attach it later this after noon. Its probably not the best heat sink but it`s better than just a piece of stock aluminium. I was thinking about just drilling through my bar stock and attaching it direct will that work.

As far as my code it works but im not crazy about it. Im using lm35 as a temp sensor. It does not seem steady. I can the temps bouncing all over the place. Below is some code that Im playing around with for my fan. I may use this.

 

 

int fan = 10; // fan pwm connected to digital pin 10

int fanintensity;

int pin = A0; // analog pin temp sensor

int tempc = 0,tempf=0; // temperature variables

int samples[8]; // variables to make better precision

int i;

void setup()

{

Serial.begin(9600); // start serial communication

}

void loop()

{

 

 

for(i =0;i<=7;i++){ // gets 8 samples of temperature

 

samples = ( 5.0 * analogRead(pin) * 100.0) / 1024.0;

tempc = tempc + samples;

delay(250);

}

tempc = tempc/8.0; // better precision

tempf = (tempc * 9)/ 5 + 32; // converts to fahrenheit

Serial.print(tempc,DEC);

Serial.print(" Celsius, ");

Serial.print(tempf,DEC);

Serial.print(" fahrenheit -> ");

tempc = 0;

delay(250); // delay before loop

 

if (tempf>130){analogWrite (fan, fanintensity=255);}

else {{analogWrite (fan, fanintensity=128);}

}

}

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You mean just putting the piece you made against the aluminum plate you're using? That should work just put some thermal grease or adhesive between the two for all the little imperfections.

 

That code is mostly gibberish to me. I'm used to the old if then programming and stuff from like ragnarok online.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Apparently the code is gibberish to me as well. It does not work the way I want LOL. Anyway I secured the plate to the heat sink and ran the lights for an hour at about 50 % with good success. Obviously a simple plate is not effective for many leds. I just need to secure my fans and dress up the wires a little and my fixture will be done. I dont think I will be doing anything super fancy with programing. A simple timer with fading is all I need.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

almost done !!! I just need to seal some of the gaps because of how close the fixture is to the water. I ended up taking out the strip leds and replacing with 3 white 3watt leds I had hanging around. When I get some time I will replace these with cree`s NW.

 

post-48841-0-47286800-1397062743_thumb.jpg

 

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MOJOEJOEJOE

the light is now over my tank. I think it looks great but I do want to look into the Nachia`s. The last thing to do is add my RTC to my Arduino and program it . I migh use my old code from my 10g build to get started.

The picture below is at about 45% or so. I dont need the whites for brightness but more for white coverage.

 

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the price is right.. you know anyone who has tried them yet?

Nope. I'm the big multichip Guinea pig so someone else needs to be the single chips Guinea pig. :P

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Nope. I'm the big multichip Guinea pig so someone else needs to be the single chips Guinea pig. :P

well I went ahead and got 3 of them. Ill keep you posted on how they do.

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MOJOEJOEJOE

added an adjustable side shield. This will allow me to raise or lower my fixture and also keep it in place. Not the best looking fixture but it does not look horrible either. I need to run only the current whites and take a couple pics and repeat the test when the Nachia`s come in.

 

Here it is today.All led`s set to 45% power.

 

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Playing around with some temperature code. This will allow my fans to come on at a set temp and gradually speed up as needed to help cool. When things get cooler the fans will slow down and go off at a min temp. I need to do more bench work to get it smoother but right now it seems to work well. Other guys using an arduino should give it a tray and see if it works well.

 

int fan = 10; // fan connected to digital pin 10
int fanintensity = 0x80;

int pin = A0; // analog pin A0 temp sensor
int tempc =0,tempf=0; // temperature variables
int samples[8]; // SAMPLES
int i;

// temperature variables
int iTmpDelta;
int iTmpLoopCount = 0;
int iLastTmp = 0;
int iTmpFd;

// Use these to set your temperature operating range
int iTmpSetPt = 120; // Set point
int iTmpLowLimit = 80; // Low limit

// This is the minimum speed (DAC) to be applied to the fan
int LedBoxFanLowLimit = 0x80;


void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600); // start serial communication
}

void loop()
{
//************************************************************ TEMP SETUP.
for(i =0;i<=7;i++) { // gets 8 samples of temperature

samples = ( 5.0 * analogRead(pin) * 100.0) / 1024.0;
tempc = tempc + samples;
delay(250);
}

tempc = tempc/8.0; // better precision
tempf = (tempc * 9)/ 5 + 32; // converts to fahrenheit

delay(250); // delay before loop

//************************************************************* TEMP CONT.
if (++iTmpLoopCount >= 5) // Only do this once every 10 seconds (5 x 8 x 250ms)
{
// Print the current temperature
Serial.print(" Celsius: ");
Serial.print(tempc,DEC);

Serial.print(" Fahrenheit: ");
Serial.print(tempf,DEC);

// Reset the delta adder
iTmpDelta = 0;

// The first derivative delta/time gives us a direction
iTmpFd = tempf - iLastTmp;

// Below low limit - self levels at 0x80
if (tempf < iTmpLowLimit)
{
// Fan is fast and temperature is low so slow it down
if(fanintensity > LedBoxFanLowLimit)
iTmpDelta = -8;
}

// In range or above
else if((tempf >= iTmpLowLimit) && (tempf < iTmpSetPt))
{
if (iTmpFd < 0) // decrease cooling
iTmpDelta = -8;

if (iTmpFd > 0) // increase cooling
iTmpDelta = 8;
}

// Above upper limit and cooling is on so increase it
else if (fanintensity < 0xff)
iTmpDelta = 8;

if (iTmpDelta != 0)
{
fanintensity += iTmpDelta;
fanintensity = _max(ElBoxFanLowLimit, fanintensity); // Set to max of 0x80 or new speed
fanintensity = _min(0xff, fanintensity); // Set to min of 0xFF or new speed
}

iLastTmp = tempf;
iTmpLoopCount = 0;

analogWrite (fan, fanintensity);
}
} End Loop

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MOJOEJOEJOE

got the nichia`s in yesterday and installed them this morning. I started at a real low pwm value just to see what these things can do.Holly crap are they bright. I have 3 of them to help give coverage because of how the fluval edge is made. I ended up setting at a real low power level. Im probably only using about 20% power right now but thats plenty for this size tank. As a matter of fact I may even lower it more. My older white leds were set at 100% power and did a good job all the way down to about 75% (pwm). IMO this is seems to be a good light. By the eye the color looks good and when mixed with my other leds (ocw,3up,and violets) I get a real nice blue color. With my driver setup and arduino I can program them to give a wide array of colors but the windex blue works for me.

Below are a few pics.

 

old white leds at 100%

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new whites at about 20%

 

post-48841-0-58836900-1397826349_thumb.jpg

 

new whites mixed with existing led`s

 

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MOJOEJOEJOE

Badass man! Killer build!

thanks it`s been a fun project. I really need to add my clock to the arduino for time keeping. Im already sick of manually turning the lights on and off LOL. The clock is built and ready to install, code is done I just need to get a little time to finish it up.

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