coolwaters Posted July 21, 2007 Author Share Posted July 21, 2007 its that i wired everything just like the diagrams but each LED is still being overworked. i must have fryed 10 LEDs by now... im just going to hold off on this until some new LEDs come out. and then buy about 15 and use the ballast without any regulators. Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 its that i wired everything just like the diagrams but each LED is still being overworked. i must have fryed 10 LEDs by now... im just going to hold off on this until some new LEDs come out. and then buy about 15 and use the ballast without any regulators. Just buy yourself some buckpucks and you won't have these problems. With a 12v source wire them in series of three, one buckpuck for each series of three. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 21, 2007 Author Share Posted July 21, 2007 thats about another $85...with shipping if anything i'll run the LEDs straight from my adaptors. i didnt notice any negative effects from doing that. Link to comment
adinsxq Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 people still use 56K? Don't forget to grease the wheels on your chariot before trundling off to the Roman senate for work. Less work on your horses and kills that annoying squeak. i haven't even had the land line to use dial-up for the past 5 years Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 21, 2007 Author Share Posted July 21, 2007 alright i slept of the frustration... running a LED on a 10g tank is just too big of a project for me right now... especially if u onlyl have about a total of 1000 lumens of LED... so im going small scale first. i'll w8 for thos new 145 lumen per watt next year and make a array that can give off over 4,000 lumens. (could have been an easy 6,000 but blue LEDs doesnt give off a lot of lumens...) just an update this morning and afternoon i was wire 6 LEDs (6 of the 10 that survived...) on a flat heatsink with fan. its 12v but im going to run it at 7.5v cuz its really quiet and pushes a lot of air. i also have 30 degree lenses which i love. (its super glued on) Link to comment
TurboBrett Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 btw TurboBrett r there lenses on thos K2s? Yes, i used several different lenses so I could decide which I will get when I complete the project(havent decided yet :-p ) These things are super bright when fired correctly and with lenses. Circuit design is key for them to last long though. Reading their spec sheets they don't have much tolerance for current fluctuations. Wow look at those corals glow, like that last photo, what is it? Explain what you did so others can learn. Also www.instuctables.com is a cool site have you ever checked out www.make.com? Thanks for the compliments. The corals light up so bright because all i am doing is hitting the tank with these blue lights, it's just like turning on actinics only. I'm holding the 4 LED array in my hand and pointing it at the tank. The circuit I used was for test only: 8AA's with enough resistors (used an online calculator) to not over power the LEDs. The last coral is a an orange-red flower anemone from reeftopia.com. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 22, 2007 Author Share Posted July 22, 2007 ok i did a stress test on the 6 LED array and its running better then expected. heat was minimal but the adaptor was getting a little warm.. might do something about that if it becomes a problem. coral life uses just adaptors and it seems fine...so im going to try it too... i'll update u if theres any negative effects. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 22, 2007 Author Share Posted July 22, 2007 oh wow the transformer that was lighting 4 LEDs got really hot... guess it the non endurance adatpor... this suxs that means i have to get a bunch of small crappy adaptors just to power 1 LED... Link to comment
Coyote Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Hi coolwaters, Can you post a close up of this picture without the rubber on the regulator. It seems that you made a mistake with your wiring... I'm not sure, that's why i want to see better... What kind of resistor did u use? As for the lens, 30° is to small. I've tried 10, 15, 22, 30°,... and the only one giving good result is 45° Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 22, 2007 Author Share Posted July 22, 2007 the 30 degree is great for small tanks which im an planning on use them on. i doubled check theirs no mistake on the wiring...and those are 1.3 OHMs 2w resistors. it looks like i wired them the wrong way but i didnt. i just flipped them. because the base was a Vin and i didnt want that to touch the heatsink. the problem was that the heat sink go soooooooo hot just after 10 mins it fryed the resisters (i think) and plus im not very happy on the lumens thats one of the reason im stopping on the 10g and going for the 3g. dont worry i'll start again once i get my hands on the newer LEDs. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 heres a pic update of my 6 LED array. not much right now since the adapter is getting so dam hot... im just planning to install a fan on it to cool it down. Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 heres a pic update of my 6 LED array. not much right now since the adapter is getting so dam hot... im just planning to install a fan on it to cool it down. What are your adapters rated at? If you're running these without any current regulation then your probably maxing out your adapters. Have you measured how much current your feeding each led? My guess is your on the fast track to burning out more leds. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 the multi-meter says around 3.5-3.8v per led. yeah im maxing out the 15v 1amp adaptor with 4 LEDs. but since i added a PC fan right on it it seems fine. i'll see how it goes later. im thinking about the 45 degree lense but thats too much of a spread right now since these K2 are pretty weak... lol i was reading the solaris specs it seems that their using 40 lumens/watt they now have 120 lumens/watt now. i wonder what the new series will be. O.O Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 the multi-meter says around 3.5-3.8v per led. yeah im maxing out the 15v 1amp adaptor with 4 LEDs. but since i added a PC fan right on it it seems fine. i'll see how it goes later. im thinking about the 45 degree lense but thats too much of a spread right now since these K2 are pretty weak... lol i was reading the solaris specs it seems that their using 40 lumens/watt they now have 120 lumens/watt now. i wonder what the new series will be. O.O So with led's forward voltage is somewhat irrelevant, what you really are after is current. Since you're not running any current limiting hardware, you are either (1) providing the leds with as much current as they want based on their forward voltage, or (2) using the power supply to limit current. lets say for a second that your power supply actually puts out power within 5% or it's rated spec. That would be 15.75v, driving a series of four leds. Then lets assume that against all odds you got perfectly matched leds such that their Vf characteristics are all identical (extremely unlikely, but I'll go ahead and give you that for the sake of argument). So now your left with four leds each running at 3.93 volts, pulling ~roughly 2300ma. Even for the K2 this is 800ma over the rated maximum. So whan I was talking about different Vf characteristics in series leds, what that means is that even very slight differences will make one led pull 3000ma while the next pulls 1600ma. The only saving grace for you is that unless you are using something like a laptop power supply you're it's probably rated for a max of 1000-1500ma. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 i'll get each LED tested later with a mulit-meter. fyi the 1w blue LED from coral life is going around 370mA XD Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 i got around testing the LED driver. its at 5.14-5.15 amps 12.5-12.9volts thats a pretty stable amp lvl...but the voltage is another story... Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 i finally got the chance to test each LED...turns out...its pretty bad... im not sure y my 12v 1300mA (im running it at 7.5v) is giving off 3800mA... is it because im running 2 fans and 2 LEDs with it? the fans r in parallel. and the 2 LEDs r in series. oh btw i retested the 1w LED from coral life turns out that its running around 870mA. Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 i finally got the chance to test each LED...turns out...its pretty bad... im not sure y my 12v 1300mA (im running it at 7.5v) is giving off 3800mA... is it because im running 2 fans and 2 LEDs with it? the fans r in parallel. and the 2 LEDs r in series. oh btw i retested the 1w LED from coral life turns out that its running around 870mA. You know, for all the money you've thrown at frying leds you could have just diy'd a 70w mh setup and then bought some cool corals. I'm just sayin. Link to comment
juin21 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 For all his hard work you come up with a response like that? I don't think he is trying to come up with a cheap solution but is trying to advance DIY Led hoods for the rest of us. Please ignore this guy! By the way coolwater, your light looks awesome! Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 For all his hard work you come up with a response like that? I don't think he is trying to come up with a cheap solution but is trying to advance DIY Led hoods for the rest of us. Please ignore this guy! By the way coolwater, your light looks awesome! Hey, having been there with the diy led setup myself, I'm just pointing out the alternative. There's a reason why PFO spent two years developing the solaris and it costs $1800. If somebody thinks they can build something comparable for a couple hundred bucks then more power to them. That's what it will take to move led lighting in to the diy reefing realm, otherwise, the alternative now seems to be opening your wallet for PFO. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 You know, for all the money you've thrown at frying leds you could have just diy'd a 70w mh setup and then bought some cool corals. I'm just sayin. lol dont remind me... im just in it for the experience and something out of the ordinary. plus the LEDs last like forever... when i get home i'll try to run a array with the regulators again. (just hope some of them survived...) i'll do a small scale test to avoid anymore frying... btw does anyone know the best way or a good website that shows you the easiest way to mount a luxeon rebel LED? i can barely pick them up... Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 lol dont remind me... im just in it for the experience and something out of the ordinary. plus the LEDs last like forever... when i get home i'll try to run a array with the regulators again. (just hope some of them survived...) i'll do a small scale test to avoid anymore frying... btw does anyone know the best way or a good website that shows you the easiest way to mount a luxeon rebel LED? i can barely pick them up... Check these out... http://ledsupply.com/07007-pwc-10-3.php Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 whos the genius that put the cathode on the bottom.... Socalsuperhero thats way too expensive...i cant believe how their ripping us off with that... fresh star board is like 40 cents... and the LEDs is like $6 each maybe i'll get one of these and take it apart to fit the rebels... http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4512 can someone help me find a place that sells Star Connection Board for a rebel? like with no LEDs on it Link to comment
Socalsuperhero Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 whos the genius that put the cathode on the bottom.... Socalsuperhero thats way too expensive...i cant believe how their ripping us off with that... fresh star board is like 40 cents... and the LEDs is like $6 each maybe i'll get one of these and take it apart to fit the rebels... http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4512 personally, for $/lm output right now you really can't beat the seoul p4. You can pick them up in cool white for under $8 each and they'll go 220+/lm at 1amp. Dont' know how big the tank is you want to use this for, but grab something like this to install the leds on, locate a 24v/2a powersupply, and snag two 1000ma buck pucks. Put twelve leds on the heatsink, run in two series sets of six with a buckpuck for each group. 2640 lumen pico light, done. 12 ssc p4's $96 2 1000ma buck pucks $36 heatsink $10 powersupply free (assuming you can scavange one) <$150 in parts. So obviously you'll want some blue in there, and i don't think the p4 is available in anythign but white. Perhaps p3 or just use some k2's. With the lights relatively close to the top of the tank you shouldn't need optics. whos the genius that put the cathode on the bottom.... Socalsuperhero thats way too expensive...i cant believe how their ripping us off with that... fresh star board is like 40 cents... and the LEDs is like $6 each maybe i'll get one of these and take it apart to fit the rebels... http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4512 can someone help me find a place that sells Star Connection Board for a rebel? like with no LEDs on it That's because there's three 100lm/watt rebels on one star. Also, be aware that there are different bins of leds. Just because you buy a rebel for $6 doesn't mean it's a 100lm/watt bin. They made the rebel down to 60lm/watt. Plus unless you can reflow solder, you may want to stay away from diy'ing the rebel emmitter. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 im well aware of the bins. the $6.60 is for the 100lm/w this site is probably the cheapest u can find luxeon LEDs... http://www.futurecb.com/Store/InCategoryFi...ame=41102010000 without the blue LEDs there really is no point for this project... one of the reasons i wanted to use Luxeon is because they have so many colors and the K2s were the easiest to handle. and cheapest. but the rebel is just wat i need but its so dam small...and to make matters worst some dumba$$ installed the cathodes on the bottom... Link to comment
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