Another DIY led...

[dacianb]

A 1210 package (3225 metric) should bridge the gap pretty well. Vishay CRCW12100000Z0EA is rated up to 5A

 

Thank you - I will check your suggestion.

Nice idea for me, Could I used you idea for my project?

 

Once on a forum means that is open for everybody. Enjoy your build and maybe will even improve it.

[flowerboxcn]

 

Thank you - I will check your suggestion.

 

Once on a forum means that is open for everybody. Enjoy your build and maybe will even improve it.

Thanks for your understanding,When I complete this,I will show it at here.

[dacianb]

- After few weeks with the new LED system corals start growing (all are more than 1 year old under T5 and no grow at all until LED). All Euphyllia divided their heads in 2-3 new heads. Caulastrea have nice grow. A red / green favia have much nicer green, but the red part become pinkish (washed out) - probably too much light for it. A 2 headed Blastomussa have 6-7 new polyps already at 1-1.5cm diam.
- My previous never ending algae problem disappeared with the LEDs, but turns out in a Cyano nightmare. I reduced the light on time and things are going into right direction (less and less cyano every day). I know the filtration system is bad, so I dont expect miracles. Hopefully in the new tank will be different.
- ratio of neutral white / deep blue LEDs needs to be changed (now 50%-50%). Putting both channels at same level the color is too "sunny" for my taste. The nicest color in my opinion is with white at 50% comparing with deep blue channel. So ideally should be 75% deep blue and 25% whites. Probably adding few deep blue leds on the white channel will solve the issue. Anyway, I will never use the white channel alone. Tank under it looks like under sun light, not so nice.
- Trying to change some whites with deep blue leds (third time cooking the board) I burned out couple of other leds... So I was rather angry and decided to make new boards, in a complete new concept - instead of a single board with 32 LEDs on, rather impossible to change afterwards, I am redesigning the system by using 6 individual boards with 6 leds each. So I will make the lights with a bit more LEDs (36 / side) and 6 channels. Will be much easier/ cheaper to change such an individual board - even if fails, throwing away 6 LEDs is cheaper than 32. Such boards I can make with any footprint, so in future I can experiment with Cree, Luxeon etc next to Osrams. I think is a modular light I wanted from beginning. The 6 boards will be very slim, so space between LEDs will stay small enough to avoid disco effect.
- I have also a bad news, regarding the thermostat - bad choice I made after all. I ordered 3 thermostats, first failed after 1 day after mounting it (actually had no hysteresis (saw the fan continuously on / off) - so I though my bad luck. Mounted the second one, after 3 weeks dead, lucky me I noticed how hot light became. Mounted the third one, completely dead. So now the light is with fan always ON. Need to find a better way to do it. Those were 8 EU / piece thermostats, industrial grade, 100 000 clicks, etc. Contacted supplier few weeks ago, silent as a fish.

[evilc66]

Sorry to hear about the thermostats. Odd to see them fail so quickly.

 

On the LED boards, if you put in a little effort on the LED pad design, you can actually make them universal between a 3535 footprint and a Rebel footprint. Here is an example. That will give you the ultimate flexibility.

[Sherman]

This is a very profession led build.

What is your profile dimension and has how many slots?

Mind to share where you get them from

 

Thank You

[dacianb]

Finally get the boards... 50 pcs to build my lights and play with different combinations and spectrums.

This board can handle:

-up to 6 CREE XB-D LEDs

-up to 12 Luxeon Z or Luxeon UV LEDs

-up to 6 Osram Oslon SSL 80, Oslon SSL 150, Oslon Square, Oslon Signal, Oslon Black, etc.

 

 

 

[Horerczy]

That's awesome looking.

 

Flexible too.

[dacianb]

That's awesome looking.

 

Flexible too.

 

actually are quite rigid as they are metal core boards... hahaha, just joking.

Indeed, the idea behind was to be very flexible system. I plan to make also exactly same boards but with footprints for Cree XP range and also for Luxeon Rebels. Then I can say I have a flexible light and I can test all kind of LEDs.

[Horerczy]

Good to hear. Especially the rebels part. The Z lime has nothing on the Rebel ES lime where output is concerned and I don't think anyone but Lumileds has lime yet which is a pity since they can really boost brightness without altering the color temp a lot.

[dacianb]

The lime leds were designed to fit exactly the human eye sensitivity curve, this is why looks so bright. Actually human eye can see each and every photon coming out from lime leds. Comparing with whites, where a lot of energy is in 450 nm range where humans have very low sensitivity.

Lime was designed for StreetLight, as a way to maximize the efficiency of such lights (no color rendering requirements, etc) just a pure bright emitter. But back to corals, I don't see the added value of Lime. I will test them of course, just for understanding.

 

As design of my lights goes on I will have 144 LEDs on 6 channes, even 8 or 16 if will change the controller. So I can put all kind of leds and play with.

[VW_TDI_02]

The lime leds were designed to fit exactly the human eye sensitivity curve, this is why looks so bright. Actually human eye can see each and every photon coming out from lime leds. Comparing with whites, where a lot of energy is in 450 nm range where humans have very low sensitivity.

Lime was designed for StreetLight, as a way to maximize the efficiency of such lights (no color rendering requirements, etc) just a pure bright emitter. But back to corals, I don't see the added value of Lime. I will test them of course, just for understanding.

 

As design of my lights goes on I will have 144 LEDs on 6 channes, even 8 or 16 if will change the controller. So I can put all kind of leds and play with.

From my understanding, lime doesn't do much for the corals and is more for viewing pleasure in that it brightens up the tank for us.

[dacianb]

From my understanding, lime doesn't do much for the corals and is more for viewing pleasure in that it brightens up the tank for us.

 

Yes, you understood correctly. Lime is a white led without blue range of spectrum in it. Technically speaking, lime is just for brightness of the tank as we see it, but very low effect of corals. Using white LEDs, the effect is double - visible range is for brightness and 450 nm range is for corals (so both of us benefit from it).

I still think that high CRI white leds are the best choice, together with cyan (as Lime also lack this range) and here and there some deep red / far reds.

My first test for this light was a bit too warm for my taste as I used 1:1 deep blue / neutral whites, but the new version will be:

- channel 1 - violet / UV - covering range from 400-430 nm

- channel 2 - deep blue - 450 nm (real 445-450 nm leds) - some of the Cree LEDs for example are more in 455-460 nm range

- channel 3 - 4500-5000K whites, but with high CRI (85-95)

- channel 4 - combination of blue, cyan and hopefully to get the converted blue in time (those last leds have a very large 450nm component, but also still lot of "normal blue" in)

- channel 5 - deep blue again, but this time the 455-460 nm range (Cree or Osram SLL)

- channel 6 - deep red / far reds - 660 nm and 730 nm either stand alone, or mixed with some deep blue. Such a mixture can be used as hydroponic light as well, so if I plan a refugium with algae farm in, this would be the grow spectrum (chlorophyll A)

[Horerczy]

You should try a couple limes on single stars next to your arrays just to see if you like the effect.

 

I won't be building anymore lights without limes just because of the brightness they make. Much easier to gauge the lighting than my older lights.

 

Though I will agree that high CRI whites make the best base. Lime are just an enhancer LED that blends well.

 

Now if only they could make wide spectrum blue and violet diodes ...

[dacianb]

I just received the new driver boards . Are still "naked", I will have to add sockets, connectors and pins / jumpers on.

Basically this board:

- will have sockets were I can place any LDDH or high current LDDL drivers - 4X. Also can remove / change them later if needed.

- Next to the 10K drop resistor, there are some jumpers also - so light may be OFF if there is no PWM signal in, or by removing the jumper the light will be ON at full power of the respective driver. There are such individual jumpers for each channel on the board. If the light controller fails in the future, I still can choose to turn ON some of the channels until a new controller will arrive.

- There is also a dedicated socket for different types of DC/DC converters which can be used for FAN or other component in the light which may require constant voltage (I may place in the light the Storm controller, then can be powered from here)

- Except the DC IN which is made with 5mm pitch connector, everything else on the board is 2.54mm, so I can use pin connectors, screw connectors and any other kind .

- Also holes are slotted, so easy for DIY holes, where some errors may occur.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

 

I just received the new driver boards . Are still "naked", I will have to add sockets, connectors and pins / jumpers on.

Basically this board:

- will have sockets were I can place any LDDH or high current LDDL drivers - 4X. Also can remove / change them later if needed.

- Next to the 10K drop resistor, there are some jumpers also - so light may be OFF if there is no PWM signal in, or by removing the jumper the light will be ON at full power of the respective driver. There are such individual jumpers for each channel on the board. If the light controller fails in the future, I still can choose to turn ON some of the channels until a new controller will arrive.

- There is also a dedicated socket for different types of DC/DC converters which can be used for FAN or other component in the light which may require constant voltage (I may place in the light the Storm controller, then can be powered from here)

- Except the DC IN which is made with 5mm pitch connector, everything else on the board is 2.54mm, so I can use pin connectors, screw connectors and any other kind .

- Also holes are slotted, so easy for DIY holes, where some errors may occur.

 

 

I didn't understand anything you said but the board is shiny and looks cool. I feel like a really dumb blond looking under the hood of a car.

[dacianb]

I didn't understand anything you said but the board is shiny and looks cool. I feel like a really dumb blond looking under the hood of a car.

.... is not complicated. Maybe you know the Coralux style Meanwell LDD boards. This is similar, but with some changes / more features I considered I need. Or is my explanation so dumb that nobody understand it ?

[VW_TDI_02]

.... is not complicated. Maybe you know the Coralux style Meanwell LDD boards. This is similar, but with some changes / more features I considered I need. Or is my explanation so dumb that nobody understand it ?

This explanation is more my speed. I just didn't know what you were talking about with the jumpers, pitch connectors, etc. All I know about these boards is that you mount drivers on them so that they're all neat and put together in better way.

[dacianb]

This explanation is more my speed. I just didn't know what you were talking about with the jumpers, pitch connectors, etc. All I know about these boards is that you mount drivers on them so that they're all neat and put together in better way.

 

OK, lets take it slowly, on this I can put either LDD-H or LDD-L drivers (up to 1.5A current) + another style of drivers so I can power a fan, a controller, etc. As you know, coralux driver are not working without PWM signal (which is a great feature, so will not burn out your corals), but I just put some jumpers which can skip this feature if I want to. Also, on a normal board, if you solder something is almost impossible to be removed - this is the reason of sockets. I can change drivers anytime, without effort. Referring to pitch - there are few standards for connectors (5 mm, 2.54mm and lot more), but the 2.54mm is very common, so there are tons of types of connectors for this pitch. I hope is a bit cleared now.

[VW_TDI_02]

 

OK, lets take it slowly, on this I can put either LDD-H or LDD-L drivers (up to 1.5A current) + another style of drivers so I can power a fan, a controller, etc. As you know, coralux driver are not working without PWM signal (which is a great feature, so will not burn out your corals), but I just put some jumpers which can skip this feature if I want to. Also, on a normal board, if you solder something is almost impossible to be removed - this is the reason of sockets. I can change drivers anytime, without effort. Referring to pitch - there are few standards for connectors (5 mm, 2.54mm and lot more), but the 2.54mm is very common, so there are tons of types of connectors for this pitch. I hope is a bit cleared now.

Alright, that makes a lot of sense. I take it with these boards, you only need one cable, well two if you count + and -, coming from the power supply to the board instead of wiring each of the drivers together and then to the power supply.

[dacianb]

Finally, this weekend I find the time to finalize one of the new power boards. All sockets, pins and connectors are soldered - this week I hope to fully test it.

As I have many more than ever need, I can afford to destroy some of them, just for sake of science . Minimum order was 50 and I need 4 of them.

 

[Horerczy]

That's a sexy LDD PCB.

 

Been keeping up with your website. Everything is looking good so far.

[dacianb]

Finally I started working on the new (400mm) light.

As you remember after testing the short version for few months, I decided to make some changes.

- one of the heatsinks drilled and tapped for the new MCPCBs (linear / modular solution)

- light fixture main structure. The main plate was changed from previous 2.5mm to 3 mm (a bit more heavier, but larger thermal inertia). The plate was drilled by a pro company according to my drawings.

- this is the new side cover. I went from 3D printing to aluminium covers to increase rigidity / lifetime of the light. Covers were painted in electrostatic field for good protection of aluminium. Looks a bit wavy in this picture, but is quite nice and shiny.

- here is the light with heatsinks and one cover mounted.

-I placed a led module (just for size comparison). In the end should be 13 such strips in it (225-250W).

[Horerczy]

Vera vera nize.

[dacianb]

Vera vera nize.

thanks.Basically it is only the chasee until now. Still I realized that forget to mount the spacers for driver boards.

[dacianb]

Now that my RS Reefer 350 is cycling I had some time to play with the proto version of the 400 mm fixture, but I am rather unhappy. It is way too powerful and covers only half of the tank. So I need 2 of those and needs to be dimmed probably around 50%. Putting 500W LEDs on a 275 liters tank means almost 2W/liter which is an overkill.

Going back to 2 or even 3 of the 200mm version would give a perfect coverage and more than enough light to grow anything in the tank. Hard decision anyway ...