Joe Dirt Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 I am in the process of doing a conversion on my NC28. What do you guys think of this configuration for the placement of the LEDs on the heatsink? FYI, the ratio is 2 RB : 1 NW. I was thinking of imitating the configuration of the AI Sol. Anyone try this? Or should I just go with a daisy chain configuration? Thanks. Dirt. Link to comment
surgicalsense Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 I want to covert my NC24 ... but I am scared. Haha! Just want to change the lighting, not the complete hood. I do not recall Joe, is your hoodless? Link to comment
iball1804 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 The only advantae to clustering is color blending. It reduces the "disco ball" effect. I would daisy chain. That way you get even coloring and no shadowing in the tank. Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 4, 2011 Author Share Posted November 4, 2011 I want to covert my NC24 ... but I am scared. Haha! Just want to change the lighting, not the complete hood. I do not recall Joe, is your hoodless? I ordered the 36 LED DIY kit from aquastyleonline. I had them do 24 RB and 12 NW. I also had them replace the heatsink with this one instead of the one that comes with the kit. I had to cut the heatsink down 1/2" so that it will fit in the hood. I went with the 36 instead of the 24 because they are the same price and that means extra LEDs for me. I am going to take pics along the way because I don't recall seeing a step by step with the aquastyle kits for a NC28 conversion. I could be wrong. The only advantae to clustering is color blending. It reduces the "disco ball" effect. I would daisy chain. That way you get even coloring and no shadowing in the tank. Plus it looks cool Daisy chain it is! Link to comment
iball1804 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Yup I got the 14 Aquastyle Dimmable kit. Works well and daisy chained. I have noticed that the supplied drivers have a "sweet zone" where in this spot the LEDs don't blink, they stay steady. If the LEDs are blinking and you can physically hear the driver, then turn it ever so slightly one direction to get a "sweet zone." My .02 PS - everything above will make sense once it is all put together. Document the process and build! I'd love to watch! Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 4, 2011 Author Share Posted November 4, 2011 I'm kinda torn. I really like the configuration of the clusters. Even if I daisy chained them. The spacing wouldn't be that far off from what I have shown in the picture. Link to comment
iball1804 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Go ahead then! Clusters it is Whatever works for you. Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 So I finally finished the conversion this weekend and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I am going to show what worked for me with the aquastyle kit. I am not going to get into too much of the "how to" in regard to the soldering and the LEDs because there a ton of threads on that already. Without further ado. I ordered the 36 LED DIY kit from aquastyleonline. I had them do 24 RB and 12 NW. I also had them replace the heatsink with this one instead of the one that comes with the kit. I also had them switch out one of the drivers to this one because I would be only running 10 NW. I had to cut the heatsink down 1/2" so that it will fit in the hood. I went with the 36 instead of the 24 because they are the same price and that means extra LEDs for me. This turned out to benefit me because I ended up accidentally melting a few LEDs while soldering late at night and tired. First off, I hot glued three LEDs (2RB:1NW) in a cluster. I did this in the center of them on top of parchment paper so that they could come off easily. I then arranged them like this. Then I figured out my power routing like this. Joe Dirt style! Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 Next I gutted the hood off all the CF parts. I only left the fans, the control board for the fans, and the moonlight LEDs. I have the moonlights on a timer, so they were left in tact. The power for those is the red and black wire on the bottom left of this pick. To the right, you'll see a blue and brown wire. Those power the stock fans. I'll get to that later. Link to comment
iball1804 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Very ghetto wire diagram. I likey! Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 After soldering all those LEDs up (What a PITA!), I started mocking this bad boy up. The fan they give you works pretty good as a spacer to rest the heatsink onto between the top of the hood. I hot glued it into place while mounting the heatsink. I had to drill 4 holes through the heatsink and I used 6-32 x 2" bolts to mount it onto the stock mounting holes. I decided to mount the dimmers under that control panel. All mounted up and locked into place! Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 I wanted to keep a stock appearance, so I removed the grommets and dremeled them out a little bigger I also felt that it was important to maintain the seal of the inner part of the tank so that moisture wouldn't get in the electronics. All soldered up. Lastly, I mounted the drivers with velcro in the same place the old ballast was. All done with mounting of the LEDs in the hood. I took this pic before I did it but, I removed the hot glue from the centers of the clusters. Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 The kit comes with a 12V power supply, so I wired the two stock fans and the fan included with the kit in parallel. The power supply is rated at 1A, and the fans combined don't get near that. Boosh! Looks stock! Sweet! ...and a new FTS under LEDs! I will be adding my corals from my frag tank over very shortly! All in all, it was a fun build and I saved a ####-ton of money. Enjoy. Link to comment
Tenor Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Light is looking very nice. Do you have the clear cover to protect the led? Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 It's hard to tell in the pic, but the stock glass cover is there to protect the LEDs from SW. All the rubber seals were left in place. Link to comment
surgicalsense Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 I want to do this so bad to my hood with the leds. Yet, I am so intimidated and honestly do not want to break anything. Haha! Geesh. Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 I wouldn't jump into a project like this unless you are pretty comfortable with soldering. Other than that, its not too bad, just a lot of soldering and double and triple checking your polarity. LEDs don't like to be wired backwards! Link to comment
Joe Dirt Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Thanks Tam. I knew my mad heli soldering skills would come in handy one day. FWIW, I'm very happy with the kit thus far. Link to comment
surgicalsense Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 I totally need to talk turkey with you regarding the LED's you did and my hood. I have a few idea's and wanted your imput asap and also, if your interested in my idea. If not no harm, no foul. Kapish? Link to comment
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