DIY Light Build - Nanobox Edition - Complete! Photo Dump

[Marc.The.Shark]

I figured I'd start a thread in the lighting section for my DIY build in addition to posting it on my build thread. This will be lighting my 36x12x10 tank. Will be featuring 4 of Dave's V3 boards & controlled by Bluefish full version that I bought a while ago to use on my other tank and never got around to it. Total length of the fixture will be 32" x 4" wide.

Most of the light will be acrylic, here are most of the parts..

Heatsink is 29", drilled & tapped for the V3's

Here, a base is added to the clear splash shield to mount the heatsink to. The heatsink will be screwed to the base for removal when Dave comes out with V4's. The splash shiels is 1/2" clear acrylic and will have a 1" lip all around the fixture. I also rounded & polished the edges of the splash shield.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Main body of light attached to base & all wiring completed & tested. Everything works, except my fan control from the Bluefish, have to revisit that. Also had the outer fins of the heatsink milled out by my buddy with the Bridgeport to accommodate the screws that attach it to the base & also to facilitate the wall mount I'll use.

Side view

Lid to fixture with fans attached, still has the paper on the black acrylic till I figure out if I want black or aluminum screen over the exhaust holes?

 

More to come on my mounting system.......

[Marc.The.Shark]

The fan issue I have to attempt again. On the expert advise of The JediMaster, I Purchased a Meanwell SCW and an O2 adapter. But I didn't realize that the SCW attaches to the O2 adapter then to the Coralux board, which makes it too tall to fit in the fixture.

 

So I attempted to solder directly to the pins of the O2 adapter to get the fans to run off of the Bluefish. And while I got it to work, something is not right. They will only turn on with the channel set @97% -100%. They do get faster at 98, 99, 100%, but sound funny. Something's wrong, need to make another attempt & O2 was kind enuf to send me 2 adapters, so I have a spare in case I really screw it up. I found his build diagram & will attempt again.

[evilc66]

Howdy neighbor! Forgot you live close by.

 

Build is looking good. Can't wait to see it finished.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Thanks Evil, yeah I'm not too far. 1st time really working with acrylic, not too bad tho. Believe me, this wouldn't even be possible without all the help I got from you on my first DIY build years ago!! You're an OG! Lol

[gus6464]

Are your fans truly pwm? Some fans require a certain amount of voltage to spin up and the ones you have seem to require almost the full 12v to spool up. A better fan like a noctua pwm will fix that and spool up at lower voltage.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Are your fans truly pwm? Some fans require a certain amount of voltage to spin up and the ones you have seem to require almost the full 12v to spool up. A better fan like a noctua pwm will fix that and spool up at lower voltage.

Yes, 4 wires, but O2's boards only require the + and - connections. I tried them on a variable voltage walwart adapter & they spin fine even @ 3V. I think I might have damaged the SCW, did a bonehead move & soldered to the board pins while the SCW was attached. I tried the 2nd one that he sent me plugged into the Coralux board & now it has quit entirely, so must have fried it. Oh well, not gonna order another one right now, I'll just use the Apex to control the fans & set them about 75% power, they're quiet, no biggie.

 

On another note, here is the bracket to mount the light to the wall. It's a projector mount that's rated @ 60lbs. The light is about 20 or so lbs., so should be no issues. Has adjustments, in & out from the wall, as well as side-to-side and up & down for the fixture. It's screwed directly to the heatsink via an aluminum L channel on the inside of the fixture.

[jedimasterben]

The funny sound is because the fan is being turned on/off only 480 times each second (the BF Mini uses 480Hz PWM). Needs to be much higher than that.

[Marc.The.Shark]

The funny sound is because the fan is being turned on/off only 480 times each second (the BF Mini uses 480Hz PWM). Needs to be much higher than that.

I don't understand Ben. I have the full Bluefish & changed all the jumpers to work with the LDD's. You're gonna have to explain it to me like I'm a 2 yr old! Lol.

[gus6464]

Yes, 4 wires, but O2's boards only require the + and - connections. I tried them on a variable voltage walwart adapter & they spin fine even @ 3V. I think I might have damaged the SCW, did a bonehead move & soldered to the board pins while the SCW was attached. I tried the 2nd one that he sent me plugged into the Coralux board & now it has quit entirely, so must have fried it. Oh well, not gonna order another one right now, I'll just use the Apex to control the fans & set them about 75% power, they're quiet, no biggie.

 

On another note, here is the bracket to mount the light to the wall. It's a projector mount that's rated @ 60lbs. The light is about 20 or so lbs., so should be no issues. Has adjustments, in & out from the wall, as well as side-to-side and up & down for the fixture. It's screwed directly to the heatsink via an aluminum L channel on the inside of the fixture.

image.jpg

 

So you had power only going to the SCW and then the PWM cable going to the bluefish? Once O2's LDD board is in an LDD slot you can't use that channel like a normal LED channel. It now is only meant to provide power the SCW and nothing else. You have to split the wire of the fan with red and black power going into SCW and PWM wire going directly to the bluefish channel.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Yeah, i understand that. I had it on its own channel on the bluefish. I have 4 channels for the V3's & had an open slot on the Coralux 5up, used that slot & used channel 5 on the bluefish. O2's adapter has a power led & that was lit, so the board was getting power. If you look st his board diagram, its supposed to take the PWM signal & pulse the power to the fan. The way i understand it, i dont need the PWM wire from the fan connected

[jedimasterben]

I don't understand Ben. I have the full Bluefish & changed all the jumpers to work with the LDD's. You're gonna have to explain it to me like I'm a 2 yr old! Lol.

Same thing, really, the PWM frequency of the 'full' Bluefish is only stepped up to 580Hz. PWM is pulse width modulation, which doesn't send a variable voltage signal like analog does (so 50% gives half the voltage, etc), PWM pulses the full voltage for a variable amount of time, so it looks like this (top is 10% duty cycle, middle is 50%, bottom is 90%):

 

The frequency determines how many duty cycles there are per second, so more duty cycles means that it pulses on/off much faster, but still for the same percentage of time. (top frequency is twice the bottom, so two times as many duty cycles, but still only on 50% of the time)

 

 

O2's board simply takes the PWM signal from the Bluefish and uses that to pulse the power going to the fan. If you had a true 4-pin PWM fan, you would need to up the frequency going to it - to 25kHz, significantly faster than the Bluefish can do. Since O2's board doesn't do that, it can only pulse at 580Hz, which we can hear on most fans. O2's custom boards with the Arduino onboard steps up the 580Hz signal to 25kHz, which is so fast that we can't hear the fan power being pulsed and is quiet.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Ok, I think I got it. I have true 4 wire PWM fans. That's the problem? If so & I provide my own 12v juice to the fans, will the Bluefish signal be enuf to control them directly or at least turn them on & off? Or do I need to use good ol' 2 wire fans?

 

I incorporated a large heatsink and am running the V3's at lower than rated power (350ma whites & 700ma everything else), so that I wouldn't have to run fans at full power anyway. Active cooling from the heatink should handle most of the heat dissipation. I'd like to have mabe 50% power to the fans & I can do that with my walwart & Apex if push comes to shove. But I'd rather turn them off & on with the Bluefish and save a socket on my Apex. I'll have a 4 pair cable running to the fixture with only 2pair used so far (LDD power & ground and Bluefish power & ground). No biggie to run 12v for the fans too.

 

And I thought the fans would be the easy part!! Lol

[MrNanoReef]

Def the best DIY LED build yet, you make me want to build my own

[Marc.The.Shark]

Def the best DIY LED build yet, you make me want to build my own

Do it!!

Just think how much better it'd be if I had your skillz! It wasn't too bad working with the acrylic, def not my thing tho. I liked the Oraphek lights with the bulky splash shield that protrudes from the fixture, that was my inspiration, but wanted the best LED combination (nanobox V3's). Figured this light would last me quite a while, as well as the tank, so making it the way I want. Who would've thought the fans would be giving me this much headache! Lol.

[HarryPotter]

Do it!!

Just think how much better it'd be if I had your skillz! It wasn't too bad working with the acrylic, def not my thing tho. I liked the Oraphek lights with the bulky splash shield that protrudes from the fixture, that was my inspiration, but wanted the best LED combination (nanobox V3's). Figured this light would last me quite a while, as well as the tank, so making it the way I want. Who would've thought the fans would be giving me this much headache! Lol.

And how much cheaper do you think this DIY will be compared to the NanoBox quad?

[Marc.The.Shark]

And how much cheaper do you think this DIY will be compared to the NanoBox quad?

No cheaper than the Quad. But the quad was only 24" and I wanted something a little wider. Total width is 32", tank is 36". Plus I get the satisfaction of making it the way I want, which is the biggest factor here. Half the fun for me is the build.

[jedimasterben]

Those fans will be looking for a 25kHz PWM signal, not 580Hz. You will need an Arduino in between to convert it.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Those fans will be looking for a 25kHz PWM signal, not 580Hz. You will need an Arduino in between to convert it.

Yeah, well that sucks. Oh well, Apex for the fans it is. No wonder they would only spin half-ass. The good thing is they're quiet, so I'm gonna just use 'em. The loud part is the Meanwell 48V power supply, that thing sounds like a turbine ramping up when I kick the V3's on!

[jedimasterben]

Yeah, well that sucks. Oh well, Apex for the fans it is. No wonder they would only spin half-ass. The good thing is they're quiet, so I'm gonna just use 'em. The loud part is the Meanwell 48V power supply, that thing sounds like a turbine ramping up when I kick the V3's on!

That's why I only use HLG

[Marc.The.Shark]

That's why I only use HLG

No kiddin, wish I woulda known, but hell I got this thing super cheap a while back for like $30 new! My current setup is small & I'm still using a laptop power supply & 2 Luxdrive Buckpucks! lol, I don't hear anything! hahaha

[Marc.The.Shark]

The light is done! Think it came out pretty well for my limited acrylic working skillz! Now I can get on to the tank & plumbing.

Got everything set that I wanted with the exception of the fan control from the Bluefish, oh well. All 4 channels work. Think I might take it back apart and add the diffuser to the inside splash shield after talking to Ben. Easier to do it now than later. On to the pics! Drumroll......

 

 

Moar.....

 

 

lights on...

 

Now this is SEXY!!!!

 

 

Whaddya Think??

[Addinali]

[HarryPotter]

Looks incredible! Love that sleek black look

[jedimasterben]

dat shark tho