12 foot high ceiling option

[Maniu]

 

Like I'd said these are 16cm square heat sinks so they'll fit in most large shades. The 80 degree optics give a little more than 1.5 feet square of light spread in this 3x2x2 that's perfect for overlap with out wastage. They're suspended maybe 5 inches off what will be the water line. Only just got water and my rock in the other day and haven't had the chance to test all 3 lit over a wet tank, so don't know about shadowing with my chosen scape, however with them suspended on wire I can shift the angle of each array to compensate. This is just one at 100% on everything except true violet as it's not really visible, it'll just bump up my par and pur. The arrays are 12 royal blue, 6 neutral white, 6 430 true violet, 2 ocean coral white and a single 470 blue for moon light on each array. Each array and each colour channel is separate so that's 13 channels including moon light. I'm going to have fun programing storm effects/cloud cover etc as I can fade left to right, right to left, centre out etc all colours and channels independently.

 

That is some serious DIY project. If I had the basic knowledge and skills (but most of all, time) I would at least tried building very own leds. And it wouldn't be budget motivated as it seems like a lot of fun. Not to mention satisfaction and pride lol

I assume that you have some sort of background in electronics ........... or just pure determination is to blame?

[Benny314]

I work nights, when it's quiet I get board lol.

Yeah I have always had a reasonable knowledge and understanding of all things mechanical and electrical. Price is kind of a motivation, I've been able to get bits now and then to move forward instead of one large pay out. I have sourced most things from china direct or ebay. But it's the satisfaction of seeing it come together. Also the options I have, I'm building an arduino based controller, flashy 7" touch screen because I can lol. As I was looking into controllers I found they were all very limited in what they offered for the price tag. My build has been about £150 for the arrays and £150 for the controller, which will not only control the lighting, but run the return pump, wave maker, ato monitor and control tank temp and will have ph, salinity added at some point too. Just got to learn to write code haha, used to be quite good at html back in school so I'm hoping once I've got my head around it I'll be able to make things do what I want.

A basic apex starts around £500 from what I could see and that's just the controller. So this project represents a massive saving on top of being able to say "I did that".

[Horerczy]

Benny where did you get those uber sexy heatsinks?

[Maniu]

Benny got some skills and what he is attempting to do (sophisticated controller with other gizmos) is mind blowing. At least from DIYer point of view. I am truly impressed.

[Benny314]

Heat sinks came from ebay. Couldn't believe it when I found them, £15 each shipped, I was looking at £75 for a metre long one I'd have to cut down to 80cm. With the pins as opposed to fins they have a massive surface area too. While testing with everything except the violets running at 100% and no fans it was 5 minutes before they started warming up, and I never got them hot. I wasn't sure if I'd put to many leds on each to start with, but with a 120mm fan each I think they'll be fine.

 

Thanks for the love Maniu. Got to make it work yet though lol.

[Horerczy]

Pin fins are cooling beasts.

[Benny314]

Yeah I wasn't sure till I ordered them. But they're finished lovely (until I scuffed up the base when I drilled the holes for the fans). 8mm base helps too I think. Can't wait to get them up and running.