snowlancer2720 Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 awesome man, thanks for the write up! that should be in the how-to's! I really appreciate it! I hope i can do it Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 29, 2007 Author Share Posted October 29, 2007 I don't doubt you can do it. Just take things nice and slow. One other thing I will say, is don't cheap out on equipment when it comes to tools, soldering or otherwise. Good tools make all the difference. This is the butane iron I have. http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail...tualkey557-7977 Worth every penny. I use that thing so much it's not funny. It's great having a soldering iron that can heat up in seconds and take anywhere, and then change tips and use in to shrink heatshrink tube. Not good for fine work, but has plenty of grunt for everyday uses. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 Ok. Got the LEDs lit up over the tank. I leak tested today, and so far it passed with flying colors. As usual, the picture doesn't do it justice (keep in mind the LEDs are not over the center of the tank). Very bright and even color. I think with 33% blue, 66% white balance, the color looks very nice. Think 10000K MH kind of nice. You can't really appreciate the brightness though on the picture. This week I will be finishing off building the next three boards, and tapping the heatsink in the propper places. Exciting stuff! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 how many gallons is that? and is it me or is there a empty space there? is that the sump? would be cool =p anyways thats a nice crisp white light. great work. cant w8 to see mine in action... also im giving up reefing since my mom forced me to give my aquarium (brand new just made...) to my cousin... but im still going to finish the LED project. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 Thats too bad Coolwaters. I had mentioned before in this thread that the tank was 1.6gal. the space you see below is for plumbing. Go check out my tank thread here. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 i just love how clear the cell cast is...thats wat i made my 7g out of... i'll show u a finished pic of it at my cousins house once i get the LEDs on there... or maybe ill just throw in a 6.5k bulb and just take the LEDs for myself. XD Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 Thats not cell cast. It's extruded! (oh no, I'm going to acylic aquarium hell! ) But I do love how clear it is. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to start working on the closed loop system. With school and work it's taking a little longer to get all this done. I hope you're not "giving" your LED setup to your cousin? Thats a ton of cash! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 lol i got it back from them...a hellish drive back... turns out my uncle doesnt want it...too much of a hassle he thinks.... its on my computer desk. i just need to get my heatsink silicone glue i ordered a while back... after that im good to go. my lights at 700mA is bright as heck. i think it would be too much light... Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 31, 2007 Author Share Posted October 31, 2007 You are using silicone based adhesive? Why not silver or ceramic based? Try something like this http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_...al_adhesive.htm This should be readily available from many online PC retailers. It's silver based and will have much better thermal conductivity than silicone. Might be a little more expensive than what you paid. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 yeah im using that to mount the LEDs on the plate. but im using the silicone to mount the plate to the heatsink. cuz i dont have enough... today suxs...i had to rip off a blue LED cuz the leads fell off...so i cont solder it.... now i have to put in my last white LED.... im still w8ing for my last shipment. turns out they had to back order some of the things so they shipped them in different packages... i tested my driver with 10 LEDs and its working fine. had to w8 3 seconds for everything to light up tho but its working. Very bright im getting afraid that my corals will bleach...so im trying to find ways to install legs to my hood. instead of having it 1" above the water i'm thinking 4-5. cant w8 to see it in action. Link to comment
snowlancer2720 Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 hey evilc, what are you using as the housing for the lights/mounting them too? or did i miss that? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted October 31, 2007 Author Share Posted October 31, 2007 Haven't really got that far. I have the heatsink (6x6x1.5" ) but I haven't decided on how I'm going to do the shroud around it. Maybe aluminum, maybe wood, maybe acrylic. Don't know yet. This weekend will be cool. I'll have the entire heatsink and LED array set up and running. I'll post details of course. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 7, 2007 Author Share Posted November 7, 2007 Ok, here's the next update. I got the heatsink drilled and tapped for 9 total positions basically on a 3x3 grid on 3" centers. It's the only thing I didn't take a picture of last night, but I'll get one later. I'm currently running 4 PCBs with 2 white (130lm each), and one blue (30lm) on a 6x6" aluminum heatsink. I ended up changing the current regulator for a different design. Still DIY, but far more efficient than the LM317 based regulator I was using before. Big problem I had was the amount of heat that was generated by it. The new one only needs a small heatsink to cool it well. I'll post details of it soon. Everything is running perfectly. The LEDs are cool to the touch as the heatsink is complete overkill. The current approximated light output from this is 1160lm! Not too bad. You can see that the light saturates the camera a bit Even the flash can't overpower it. I still don't quite know how I'm going to package it though. Whats nice is that I can now add up to 5 more PCBs if I need (up to 2580lm ) Let me know what you think Link to comment
coolwaters Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 lol thats a lot for something that small. SPS? and clams?? XD Link to comment
Fieroguy19 Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 WOW!!!! Finally someone came up with a LED light that has too much light output. I would love to do some experimentation using the Rebel LEDs, except I don't have the tools/knowhow to do the fancy soldering on them. Any chance you will be able to measure the PAR of your setup?? I know my local reef club will loan out their PAR meter for members use if you don't have one. In a few years I would like to set up a big tank with DIY LEDs as the main light source. It looks like the rebel would work well due to the small size and cheaper price. I'm looking forward to more results. BTW why are the blue ones only 28 lumens? That is like nothing compared to the white ones. If you wanted to have separate actinic boards and white boards on timers the blue would not be strong enough to light the tank. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 7, 2007 Author Share Posted November 7, 2007 Thanks everyone for your comments. I would love to get my hands on a PAR meter. I need to get in contact with someone in a local club to see if I can borrow one. I really don't want to have to spend $200 jsut for a one time use. There isn't anyone on this board that would be kind enough to loan me one for a small fee would there? Maybe I'll post a thread and see if anyone bites. The light output in the picture is a little misleading, but not by much. It is very bright. Maybe tonight I'll do a side by side picture next to my BC14 with 36W PC. I am not intending to separate the white and blue off on timers at this point. The blues are only 30lm because thats what they make. It's really only the whites that have the super high output because they are intended to be used for area lighting. If I need to add more light, I can pretty easily and I can mix and match the colors of the LEDs to get whatever color I want. I'll get some more pictures up soon. Link to comment
snowlancer2720 Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 hey, is that heatsink you are using the one that coolwaters gave you the link for? I tried looking for one, but they are all too small. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 yeah that is. I got the guy to cut it into two 6" lengths. It's way overkill, but it is so much easier dealing with a piece that is almost the same size as the tank. Link to comment
Gomer Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 BTW why are the blue ones only 28 lumens? That is like nothing compared to the white ones. Lumen's is a measurement relative to human eye sight, not photon counts. Your eyes are extremely sensitive to green and you have a really hard time seeing light bluer than 400nm and redder than 700nm. I'll do a side by side picture next to my BC14 with 36W PC. Doesn't the BC14 come with 2x24 bulbs? Either way, I;d love to see a photo of your tank with stock BC14 lights, then while keeping your camera settings the exact same (same Fstop, shutterspeed, kelvin, distance), get a photo of your BC14 with your LED setup over it. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 I'll try and get one this weekend. And you are right, it is 2x24W. I have no idea where I got 2x18W from Link to comment
Gomer Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 I have a BC 14 so I am interested in how yours turns out. I have done other LED lighting projects but for FW tanks. I am planning a BC retro with some CREEs. not sure yet if I want to use my current 6LEDx700ma drivers (I got two running 12 K2's), or figure out a solution for driving them at 1amp. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 K2's? your not talking about the luxeon K2's are u? thats like a total of 1680lumens for a 14g tank. well thats if u get it running at 1 amp. and K2s get really hot... and if your getting all cool white LEDs. less lumens with blue LEDs. iv noticed that Crees Blues are better then K2 LEDs... Link to comment
Gomer Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Yes, Luxeon K2's. They are quite bright, but nothing close to the new generation of LEDs. http://webfiles.uci.edu/algomez/K2 Link to comment
coolwaters Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 lol dam thats pretty closely packed together... hope heat isnt a problem... Link to comment
Gomer Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 lol dam thats pretty closely packed together... hope heat isnt a problem... Not a problem at all. That fixture ran from when it was built (back in oct or nov 06) till august 07 when I moved. Still works like a charm and isn't very hot. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.