fishnlou Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 So about a year and a half after my last led build I'm once again building another lol. With the somewhat recent release of the bluefish controller and me hating my Dim4 I feel as if its time to move on and try something entirely new. After roughly a month of experimenting with different led combinations I finally settled on what to me looked the best. My current tank is a 90 gallon and I plan to have 4 clusters of what is listed below. Channel 1 = 1 Phillips COB (LHC1-4090-1204) 4k,97 typical CRI, and 1600 lumens @ 450mA Channel 2 = 2 Luxeon M Royal blues (LGB) Channel 3 = 1 Luxeon Rebel cool blue(475-480nm) and 1 Cree XP-E2 blue(465nm) Channel 4 = 2 Luxeon Rebel Lime and 1 Luxeon Rebel Cyan(495nm) Channel 5 = 1 Luxeon Rebel 2700k warm white and 1 Luxeon Rebel deep red(660nm) Channel 6 = 3 LGB 430nm true violets The drivers being used will be the Meanwell ldd series all controlled with a Bluefish controller. Each cluster is going to be on its own heatsink. I did this for 2 reasons, 1 - because I would like to upgrade to a larger tank within a year or so and this gives me the ability to simply build 2 more separate clusters for it and 2 - because I will have the ability to hang each cluster where ever I would like. I currently have a canopy and I plan to mount the cluster inside at 8 inches off of the water surface, so I will not be using optics. Since there are no optics I am placing the leds in each cluster as close together as possible. I glued all of the leds down last night and plan to finish up all the soldering/wiring later today. Attached are 2 pics, one of the leds glued down and the other is a clusters wired/soldered. Ill keep up with posting as the build continues. Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 Just a little update with some pictures. I finished the wiring on each heat sink/ cluster, drivers, and fans. For attaching the fans to their heat sinks I simply put a little bit of jb quick weld on each corner of the fan gluing it to the heat sink. I could have made brackets, but I've been jb welding fans to heat sinks for years and haven't ever had an issue. If a fan goes bad I can simply break it off with a screw at the epoxy and glue down a new one. I also Made some brackets out of 1/2" angle aluminum to run across the inside of my canopy and hang the heat sinks from. Should have it all mounted up and on the tank by tonight. Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 So I finally got everything up and running! I must say with the addition of limes... WOW! What a difference! I was a little nervous that the limes would hurt color rendering, but I am unable to notice anything. I tried it with only neutral whites on and only limes, but I must agree with jedi that a 50/50 mixture is the sweet spot. With the limes on the tank appears so much brighter now and I am extremely pleased with how this setup turned out. The bluefish controller is absolutely amazing and its my favorite part to this entire build! It makes it so easy to adjust the lights to just that perfect setting. All of my corals seem to have transitioned to the new light great, with the exception to my toadstool. It hasn't opened since the new lights went on. I moved it to the sand bed hoping that may help. If anyone has suggestions im all ears? I only have a camera phone so sorry if the picture quality seams a little sub par. One thing I have to say about this setup that is different from any of my other led builds is how I dont have to adjust the color ratios to make pictures look right with my camera. These pictures look similar to what the tank looks like in person and I didnt change the color ratios from my regular settings. Not sure if thats because of the limes? Lime is the only color I havent used in any previous builds. Link to comment
bdevillier19 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Your tank looks great. Looks like a well established reef. Great job on the lights as well. Link to comment
RiddleEagle18 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 How did you route power for the fans? Does the board have a 12v pass through? It looks like you used 1 board to drive 2 clusters is that correct? If so I assume you can split the dimming signal to each board so, each group of clusters dim on one channel? Link to comment
Egginis Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Very nice well stocked and mature system. Love the coralline growth on the rocks and the corals look healthy and vibrant. How old is your system? Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 19, 2014 Author Share Posted August 19, 2014 How did you route power for the fans? Does the board have a 12v pass through? It looks like you used 1 board to drive 2 clusters is that correct? If so I assume you can split the dimming signal to each board so, each group of clusters dim on one channel? All 6 fans are ran with a single 12v power supply and they are not tied into the board. I simply ran wires from the 12v power supply up to the fans. Yes you can branch the pwm output from each channel on the bluefish to more then one driver giving the ability to control multiple drivers from the same channel. There are 2 separate drivers for the white channel(2 NW cob leds ran in parallel per driver powering 2 clusters) and 2 separate drivers for the royal blues(4 luxeon m ran in series per driver powering 2 clusters). Each color/channel from there has one driver. So technically every color(except neutral white & royal blue) has its own driver and powers the leds on that channel for all 4 clusters. Very nice well stocked and mature system. Love the coralline growth on the rocks and the corals look healthy and vibrant. How old is your system? Thank you very much! The tank has been up and running for 1.5 years now. A few of the corals were transferred over from my bc29 as I got he 90 gallon going. Looking at those pictures made me realize that every coral in there(except the torch) started from a small frag or few polyps that I had been collecting in my bc29 over the years. Having the ability to grow something beautiful from a tiny little frag is my favorite part about this hobby! Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 One word of caution - driving in parallel should only be done if the LEDs are on the same heatsink, otherwise you could run into issues with thermal runaway. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-6/issue-2/features/led-design-forum-avoiding-thermal-runaway-when-driving-multiple-led-strings-magazine.html Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 One word of caution - driving in parallel should only be done if the LEDs are on the same heatsink, otherwise you could run into issues with thermal runaway. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-6/issue-2/features/led-design-forum-avoiding-thermal-runaway-when-driving-multiple-led-strings-magazine.html Thanks for the link! Thats an interesting article and I had never thought of the possibility of thermal runaway since the heatsinks are separated. When ever I drive leds in parallel I almost always design things for a worst case scenario so that if something does go wrong the other led can handle the extra current. The luxeon 1204 COB has a max drive current of 900mA and I'm running 2 in parallel with a 700mA ldd. I could only see the possibility of thermal runaway occurring if one of the fans go out and in that case the entire cluster is gonna be in a bit of trouble. Link to comment
farkwar Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Thermal kill switch. They pop open at 50C. Like $2. Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 Thermal kill switch. They pop open at 50C. Like $2. Please tell me more. How do they work? Where can I buy them from? Link to comment
farkwar Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Let me keep looking, I need a couple too. This one turns on at 50C http://www.dx.com/p/my-428-ksd9700-thermal-sensor-temperature-control-switch-for-fan-black-golden-246147?tc=USD&gclid=CPCa-PyRncACFQGqaQodkHIACg#.U_IdUji3O2c Link to comment
evilc66 Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 When using those, do not use them to break the LED side if the driver, only the DC power side of the driver. It will just end in heartache if you disconnect the LEDs. Link to comment
farkwar Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I was looking for thermistor speed control of fans, instead of using PWM. I did find some that looked like that that break on high temp, just couldnt find again them for fishnlou. They are made for dishwashers and water heaters overheating. I think this is the site I found. http://www.bimetal-thermostats.com/supplier-25224-bimetal-thermostat Link to comment
fishnlou Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 I was looking for thermistor speed control of fans, instead of using PWM. I did find some that looked like that that break on high temp, just couldnt find again them for fishnlou. They are made for dishwashers and water heaters overheating. I think this is the site I found. http://www.bimetal-thermostats.com/supplier-25224-bimetal-thermostat Wow I never knew something like that existed. Here is a link to some I found on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-KSD9700-75C-N-O-Plastic-Thermostat-Temperature-Switch-Thermal-Protector-/230914739230?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c3974c1e Link to comment
farkwar Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 5Amps is pretty low, unless its a small light. Maybe if it interupts power to the controller, and not the power supply itself. 75C is just about right on the money. Price is nice. Link to comment
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