evilc66 Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Well, I'm sure some of you knew I have been up to something. Well, the cat is officially out of the bag. This started life as a Current USA 1x18W Satellite fixture, but didn't stay that way for long. Inside it's sleek black exterior lies an LED array consisting of 4 Q5 whites (1A), 5 Cree blues (700mA), and one UV (700mA). The amount of light is perfect for a pico, and everyone knows that these fixtures fit perfectly on many different tanks, including JBJ Picotopes, Finnex 4g (pictured), and AGA 2.5g. Everything is fan cooled, and adjustable. You can see the adjustment pots on the side for the whites and the blues. The ability to adjust the color temp and brightness is great. Even with all the LEDs turned all the way up, it gives a very crisp 14K look, but can be adjusted from 6500K to 20,000K+. The blue LEDs do a great job at adding fluorescence to the corals. I even went to the pains of keeping the stock on/off swich and the moonlight. Sorry for the flash. The numbers on this are pretty nice too. I did a direct comparison to what most of us use for picos; The Current USA Dual 18W Satellite. Current USA Dual 18W Satellite (@ 14"): Lux: 2080 PAR: 42 New LED fixture (@ 14"): Lux: 4400 PAR: 130 (PAR measurements were taken with an Apogee QMSW-SS Quantum Meter, Sunlight setting) Nice little improvement! It's a considerable upgrade from PCs, and gets close to a 70W MH at that depth, but without all the heat and evaporation. I know that a lot of people love the idea of having an LED setup, but don't have the know how or the tools to get it done effectively. If there is interest for these, I am going to set up a group buy for them in the classifieds section. I'd like to get a minimum of five, but can work with less or more. I'll leave the pricing details there so as to not break any of the rules. Group Buy What do you think? (Mods, sorry if this isn't kosher. Let me know and I'll change things) Link to comment
SwiftSparks Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 i would be interested. Though i suppose that would all depend on the price Link to comment
clownfish1124 Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 awesome! i wish i could just mail you my fixture and pay for supplies, labor, etc because i am not handy! maybe for my next pico project i will try to do some leds Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 20, 2008 Author Share Posted November 20, 2008 Swiftsparks, follow the link to the group buy at the bottom of the first post. Price is listed there. Clownfish1124, maybe we can work something out. Shoot me a PM. Link to comment
pismo_reefer Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 *jaw hits the floor* that is seeeeeeeeexxxxxxxyyyy!!!!!! Link to comment
glennr1978 Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Wow, that is sweeeeeeeet. Link to comment
jeremai Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 What about the ballast, endcaps etc that you take from the fixture? Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 wow glad to finally see the leak! thats sweet man. looks great Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 20, 2008 Author Share Posted November 20, 2008 What about the ballast, endcaps etc that you take from the fixture? Add $10 and I'll throw everything in. Bulb, ballast, socket, and reflector. Jer, if you want them and not the fixture, I have a set here if you want. Thanks everyone for the kind words. This has been a long work in progress and I think the results came out well. I absolutely love the color it gives to my tank, and makes my Astralux look pathetic in comparison. Whats nice here is that, while there is an increase in light, it's not so much that all the corals are shocked from the change. The only thing I'm bummed about is that my huge ric is still a huge ric I was hoping he would shrink a little now that there is more light. Link to comment
Zombo Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 evilc66, truely a work of art and science! Now, if you crank out the 14"/16" fixtures and I do 20" fixtures (like my Coralife), we can open a business Link to comment
TheUnfocusedOne Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 do you think this is enough lighting to keep high light corals/clams? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 20, 2008 Author Share Posted November 20, 2008 Clams like croceas might be pushing it, but sps should be no trouble. Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 The only thing I'm bummed about is that my huge ric is still a huge ric I was hoping he would shrink a little now that there is more light. Cut that bad boy and I will take half! Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 20, 2008 Author Share Posted November 20, 2008 Cut that bad boy and I will take half! But now he's a better looking huge green ric Link to comment
sweevo Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Great work, that looks fantastic. I've spent most of my time of late trying to figure out how I was going to house my own LED project once i've built the prototype on breadboard etc. Link to comment
NanoReefGuy Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Sweeeeeet! Nice job. Looks totally clean Cheers NRG Link to comment
sweevo Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Are you running those LED's at their max current ratings, ie 1A for the Q5 Whites and 700mA for the blues ? I saw these mentioned in the first post of this thread but wasn't sure whether you were actually driving them at that level or not. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Thats the max current set by the drivers, and the max current that the measurements were taken at. Still working on that underside shot for you. ElFab wanted it too. Link to comment
sweevo Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Does running the LED's at the max rated current shorten their lifespan? I'd sort of got it into my head that driving them at the top end wasn't a good idea long term. Not sure where I got the notion from. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 You can drive them as hard as you want providing that you can get rid of the heat. As long as you can keep the die temperatures under the max temp threshold (150C for these LEDs) you will get a long life from them. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Ok, as requested here are the underside shots. Link to comment
Angelynn Posted January 25, 2010 Share Posted January 25, 2010 What's the measure on your heatsink evil? i am trying to do the same thing on a 12" dual Current Satellite actinic Link to comment
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