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GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)


TinyGiant

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just have it end on a socket. So it ends on the last light. No need for tails :)

 

Yeah i was going to wire in more sockets for when I get the 10gal but left tails for now.

 

Btw: no electrocutions(caused by this project). I owe you a frag at the next swap.

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Timer is currently setup to go on and off several times a day to light acclimate. I have the fixture up high because I ran out of chain. The color blending is pretty much the same at 2" as it is at 20". No spotlighting at all is noticeable with 60degree optics.

 

Fear not! The brackets will be painted black. Or the next permanent box will be white. Undecided.

Chain is 10lb load

2c44eac3.jpg

 

It is slightly bigger than 17x9x4". I wanted something less tall, but re-thought this in case I want to put in a fan. It is built from mdf (hence temporary, until the husband can get hardwood scraps or waterproof materials) and primer coated black. I like the primer, but it does show every fingerprint. Most of the marks you see can be whiped off.

 

Wiring. It looks really messy, but that's cause I overkill taped everything up post wiring.

There will be 3-4 more bulbs added later

 

6cb72373.jpg

 

My big "ugh". See those 2 big dots? I went through the other side with wire holding screws. Dumb dumb dumb.

eb388367.jpg

 

And fts as close as I'm willing to get. Right now there's tons of red dictoya (apparently, lights off only fueled the stuff) Kenya tree, and mini mini nems. this picture is slightly more blue then real. It is quite blue, however the neutral whites in there make the red algae and pink/purple in the mini nems "POP" so it's not washed out blue at all. After staring at this tank, my blue+ on the 37gal look green.

 

What else you see in this picture: my coffee plant, aipstasiax, rodi water. Apparently there were aipstasia I didn't know about before I took the pc light off a couple weeks ago. When I put this on I would've though I was purposely culturing them -.-

9e247840.jpg

Edited by Neya
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Hey there guys, I'm utterly confused. I've spent a few days searching on Ebay for these lights and I've found dozens of them, but I can't make heads or tails. I'm looking at building them for my 40b project, so I was thinking along the lines of 24 lights. But I can't figure out if I should get 3x1w or 3x3w, or 4x1w etc etc... Anyone think they can shed some "light" on this for me? I know I want either Neutral white or cool white and the blue in a 2:1 ratio. But I was hoping to have a single solid Blue that was a moonlight. and was hoping to be able to dim the other blue and white lights.

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Hey there guys, I'm utterly confused. I've spent a few days searching on Ebay for these lights and I've found dozens of them, but I can't make heads or tails. I'm looking at building them for my 40b project, so I was thinking along the lines of 24 lights. But I can't figure out if I should get 3x1w or 3x3w, or 4x1w etc etc... Anyone think they can shed some "light" on this for me? I know I want either Neutral white or cool white and the blue in a 2:1 ratio. But I was hoping to have a single solid Blue that was a moonlight. and was hoping to be able to dim the other blue and white lights.

 

Any will work for 40br. The 3x3w have been said not to run at 3w each;but 2w. It's possible the 3x3w or 4x1 throw more heat and may fail sooner. I don't know yet.

 

To get them in a 2:1 ratio in each bulb you have to find someone willing to customize the bulbs - I've done the legwork and found 2 sellers willing to do so in previous posts in this thread. The upside to this is they also custom the optics. The downside is you cannot time the blues separately from the whites (having say blues only wired to seperate timer come on for one hour in the AM/Pm).

 

My husband also wants to do a 40br build and we havent yet figured out how many bulbs we need, so I'm hoping for suggestions also.

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thanks Neya, so its not a must for me to get 2:1 bulbs or customized bulbs. I can do the blues and the whites, slap a dimmer switch on each string and call it candy right?

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thanks Neya, so its not a must for me to get 2:1 bulbs or customized bulbs. I can do the blues and the whites, slap a dimmer switch on each string and call it candy right?

Yeah, you don't need to do custom ones. I'm the only one in this thread who has so far. I like my 2 customs for the pico, but may end up doing just blue and white bulb only for a 40br.

You can only dim certain ones. They'll usually be listed as dimmable and cost a little more. But dimmable ones are out there on eBay. Otherwise it's just on/off on an analog timer ($4.90 @ home depot).

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most of these aren't dimmable. Make sure it says it is if you plan to dim them. I would go with 1 blue gu10 for every white gu10. The 4x1w are pretty bright. Just got some today . If you went 3zx1w in white and 4x1w in blue you woulg a nice color

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perfect. I found three different ebay items that are 3x1w dimmable Cool White GU10 lights. but this is where I get confused...which one is the one that would work best for me? I'm assuming i could just dim the white and leave the blue alone...this would still allow me to tune it to get the color that i want right?

 

here are the three auctions I found.

 

first one

second one

third one

 

 

I'm still hunting for Blue. Also is there any different between GU10 and Es27 sockets?

 

the arrangement I was thinking is this

 

BWBWBWBWB

WbWBWBWbW

BWBWBWBWB

 

all the Blue will be 4x1w while the one's labelled "b" will be the moonlights so I was thinking 3x1w on those, not as bright. the whites are all 3x1w dimmable Cool Whites. I would wire the whites up together, the blues minus the moonlights, and then the moonlights together. the fixture would be 27"x9". do you think that this would give even coverage on a 40b if hung 10"-12" above the water? also, what degree lens' should I be looking at?

Edited by DIstudio
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DIstudio the arrangement looks good. I would buy ones with 60 degree lens. Send the seller a message when ever you figure out the ones you want and im sure they will have blue. If not the guy tiny and i bought from has everything you will need and will customize them for u. I going to get some custom ones build and replace the standard ones i have.

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Fote03, I did email the seller and he responded within ten minutes. he said he has 4x1w blue's and can do 14 blues and 13 whites. blues being 4x1watt, whites being 3x1w dimmable for a total of $220 shipped. I think thats a pretty good deal, you>?

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220 /27 is 8.14 per bulb shipped you can get the whites from ledhk for 6 each shipped.. and the blues for 7 each..

 

sometimes they dont do as good of a deal if you deal directly and they try to get more out of you for shipping. most times its easier to deal through the listings.

 

but considering the whites are dimable its an okay deal :) I honestly dont see the point in diming. i'm pretty sure you will like it 50/50 if not just sell some of the ones you dont want and play with the color mix rather than diming it. anyone on here will buy the ones you dont want to save on shipping time :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

another ebay listing refresher.

all these sellers have been great thus far :)

 

 

 

sockets

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot10-GU10-Lamp-Bulb-W...=item1c1b33208e

 

Blue LED 3x1

http://cgi.ebay.com/3W-Gu10-High-Power-Foc...=item2a10b82134

 

or

 

Blue LED 4x1w

http://cgi.ebay.com/1pc-GU10-85-265V-4W-Bl...=item19c650193f

 

 

 

White:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3W-GU10-High-Power-Whi...=item2c58ddcc60

 

white:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1pc-GU10-85-265V-White...=item19c6c16b14

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanted to note. that i had three bulbs burn out (bad drivers. LEDS tested okay). Its been about 1.25yrs since i started with them. I ran the bulbs without the optics for probably 4 months of that and probably caused them to over heat because of that. So i dont blame the quick death on the craftmanship. The seller i bought them from LEDHK replaced the three bulbs free of charge (i did order a few more too while he was being so nice .. figured it would help him with shipping.)

 

 

the new ones i ordered were the 4x1w. they are noticeably brighter.

Edited by TinyGiant
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Fote03, I did email the seller and he responded within ten minutes. he said he has 4x1w blue's and can do 14 blues and 13 whites. blues being 4x1watt, whites being 3x1w dimmable for a total of $220 shipped. I think thats a pretty good deal, you>?

 

 

At over 8 a bulbs I personally think thats too high (if the blues are usually at $6 ea then your white dimmables are $10.46). I was locating dimmable 3x2w for about $8-9

I think you could find a better deal if you were willing to keep looking. OR Find the cheapest blues 4x1 or 3x1, then search for the cheapest 3x1w dimmable white and order seperately.

 

I find that interesting they try to charge more when ordering more. The one guy I was working with said anything above like 10 bulbs would be cheaper per bulb even fully customized. I guess it depends on each sellers standpoint.

 

Just a note too, my bulbs are 2:1 blue, and it may be too blue for some tastes. I like it though as I got a very neutral white for them so while the tone is very blue, the reds, pinks, and purples are not drowned out. Still, its so blue that after looking at the tank I go to my 37gal and the ATI Blue+ look green

Edited by Neya
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i noticed something interesting today.

 

the new 4x1w run cooler than the 1x3 or the 3x1w

 

I just wired up another 10 string of sockets and will be adding 5 more bulbs to each side of my row of 22. the 5 will help get the blue on the corners of the rock piles i have. I held them up spaced about 8" apart and it made a great difference..

 

 

so i will have a total of 21 blue and 11 white.

 

I just need to remake what the bulbs are mounted to.

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I have emailed 4-5 sellers and LEDHK is by far the cheapest and most helpful seller on ebay that i have dealt with regarding these led. Bulb combo and the amount you put on your tank is all up to you and the coral you want to keep. Tiny has proved to all of us that they work and they work well.

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Yeah, LED-HK really has the best communication and fastest shipping. I've also upgraded to their 4x1w bulbs for both blues and whites.. whites should be here next week.

 

The 4x1w blues does run a bit cooler with the design of the heatsink.. but there is also a lot more stray light that's making my room glow blue. Lastly, yes, they are brighter than the 3x1w but the lens seem to focus the light more in a tighter angle.

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I will be ordering a few more blues at some point.

 

I added sockets for 10 more blues today . I got 6 in the mail and i have two more in route.

 

 

the 4x1w i got today were just for getting color on the sides of my rock columns so the wider spread works better for what i got them for. Tank looks much better with the extra 3 bulbs i have on there now. it will look great with a total of 10 more bulbs.

 

 

i have a frag rack on the back side of the tank that wasnt getting any light so the xtra ones are getting more of the blue where its needed. Looks better for sure :)

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michelleshusband

Finally, I've figured out how to post pictures.

 

Here is my setup with 4*1w bulbs. Never tried 3*1w so I can't really say if they run cooler or not but they run pretty cool.

 

This is my 2.5g setup with 3 blue and 2 cool white. Bought them from HK LED folks.

SAM_1105.jpg

 

Pretty blue

SAM_1101.jpg

 

 

This is my 5.5g setup with 5 blue and 4 cool white.

SAM_1188.jpg

 

Lights on

SAM_1194.jpg

 

FTS

SAM_1180.jpg

Edited by michelleshusband
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michelleshusband

Detail on the build.

SAM_1185.jpg

 

super glued to wood

SAM_1184.jpg

 

power on

SAM_1183.jpg

 

SAM_1182.jpg

 

one of the white seems little weak. am i mistaken?

SAM_1181.jpg

 

other side of the wood

SAM_1186.jpg

 

on off switch

SAM_1187.jpg

 

SAM_1192.jpg

 

SAM_1193.jpg

 

SAM_1195.jpg

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few things I'm worried about...

 

1. shouldn't be hard to find screws to mount the sockets...? superglue... I don't know... :unsure:

2. while you are at the hardware store, get a roll of electrical tape to replace the scotch tape! :eek:

3. search the DIY forum on making a snail guard for your float switch asap. :scarry:

 

also recommend that you take the coral off the plugs and mount them to the rocks. it'll look10x better.

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michelleshusband

superglue some powerful stuff.

3M makes some good tapes.

its designed to keep snails off.

 

agree on coral off the plugs. too lazy.

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