Come in and join me....

[Gomer]

I've purchased a heatsink just like that, that I was machined down for my first LED project. Purchased it on ebay. Infact, you can find someone selling some sort of extruded heatsink like that just about anytime.

[evilc66]

Ebay is the place. The seller I bought it from is actually not too far from my house. His is listing them as heatsinks for power amps and has them listed all the time.

 

Thanks everyone for the comments.

 

Like I mentioned before, there will be an acrylic splash guard going over the LEDs a little later this week, as well as acrylic going over the rest of the fixture. Should look nice when it's done.

[evilc66]

The enclosure is nothing more than a Radioshack project box (5x2.5x2"). Used a holesaw (1-1/2") to cut the opening for the fan and popped a couple of holes in to mount it.

The fan was a tight fit and I had to grind down the sides of the mounting posts in the box to fit. The fan was wired directly to the 12v incoming power that feeds the regulators.

 

 

Drilled a couple of 1/4" holes on the other end as an intake.

 

 

The FETs for the regulator circuits are clamped to the lid to use it as a heatsink. Some velum paper is used to electricaly isolate the tab on the FETs from the clamp and the lid. The tabs are the output for the FET so they need to be isolated from each other. A little dab of thermal compound finishes things up.

 

 

The regulator circuit is only made up of five parts (3 resistors, 1 npn transistor, 1 N-channel mosfet) and cost me only about $3 (including shipping) to make. There is one regulator for each star, so I have four. I found the circuit on Instrucables here. It runs considerably cooler than the original LM317 regulator circuit I was using. That circuit will work great for lower power LEDs, but just had to work a little too hard for the high power stuff we are using.

 

So there you have a small-ish, simple, totally DIY regulator for LEDs. The nice thing is you can just keep adding more circuits to handle the LEDs you need with minimal cost increase. I'm not going to say that this is as efficient as a buckpuck or Xitanium driver, but it sure is a lot cheaper.

[SaltyJohn]

First off, Merry Xmas all... and I hope you also have a great New Year!

 

Thanks for the pics Evil!

 

Funny, but I am using the same regulator (hence I wanted to know more about yours) from Dan, at Instructables. Here he has posted a higher voltage regulator (I think up to 60VDC with proper heatsinking) just like the one you are using from his other instructable.

 

Evil, should I pay attention to the heatsinks of the FETs? I will be feeding them with 45-48VDC and the array each will handle, would be around 12 Crees (3,3V X 12 = 39.6V) so I need a 6-8 voltage drop at the FET. Do you think it will need extra cooling? What are you doing there (input voltage versus voltage consumed by array) and how cool are your FETs running?

 

When things calm down around here I will eventually also finish on the coding for the PWM sunrise/sunset are you interested? In the instructable I mention I used above, circuit #5 shows PWM connectivity.

 

Let me know if interested I can program the chip and send it out with a proper circuit drawing to connect to its power supply and to the regulators. One chip will PWM all the regulators (up to a limit of 5 I think, but more experimentation will tell me details later).

 

It's gonna be an extra 10-15$ for proper sunrise/sunset, not too bad huh?

[evilc66]

I'd say you are deffinitely going to need a good heatsink to cool the FET if you are dropping 6-8v across it. I have less than 2v drop and the fets somewhat hot. You could try going to a higher power N-Channel MOSFET. It will be more efficient and the junction temps of the fet will be lower. Only downer is the additional cost of the part. Using something like a TO-220 heatsink like the ones Radioshack sells, with a little active cooling should do the trick.

 

So far my long term tests on the FETs have gone well. The surface temperature of the lid nevers gets 2-3deg F above ambient. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

Let me know when you get the circuit straightened out. I would deffinitely be interested in giving it a try.

[reefkingdom]

I've been reading this thread for some time now and would like to say Good Job guys.

 

Now, I have been doing some research and needed some advice on a LED setup I found.

http://www.ledreeflights.com/

 

I have a 16x16x20 setup with a 16x16x8 canopy, 5.5" from the top of the canopy to the water line.

I want to be able to grow sps and Lps, would this be a good bang for my buck? $599

[evilc66]

I am a little sceptical about all the info produced on that website. The numbers are astronomical, and there are no pictures of the underside of the unite to see what the arrangement of LEDs is. The 5 day garantee is useless as it will take longer than that to see any apreciable difference in the growth of your coral.

 

I would be VERY careful with this. Sounds like snake oil to me.

[reefkingdom]

I am a little sceptical about all the info produced on that website. The numbers are astronomical, and there are no pictures of the underside of the unite to see what the arrangement of LEDs is. The 5 day garantee is useless as it will take longer than that to see any apreciable difference in the growth of your coral.

 

I would be VERY careful with this. Sounds like snake oil to me.

 

50,000k seems a bit high. Another thing I noticed was he had no measurements for the actual item...

I think you're right, something seems fishy.

[coolwaters]

lol looks pretty crappy.

something u see in the 80s....

 

if the hood looks like solaris or thos new VHO type hoods i would be interested.

 

yeah everyone knows 22k kelvin is the limit >.>

 

what kind of LEDs is he using? and how many?

thos fans doesnt look like its going to do much.

[SaltyJohn]

Completely OT!

 

lol looks pretty crappy. something u see in the 80s....

 

Hey, hey! Take that back!

 

Don't you go bashing on the 80's! For some of us, those where our..... tender years :P

[evilc66]

They may have been our tender years, but some of us still want to forget them

[evilc66]

The dust has settled, and so begins the cycling journey.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the pictures had the white balance adjusted so it didn't saturate. I think it turned out well.

[reefkingdom]

Are there any other knock off lights for the salris yet?

[evilc66]

Other than the other one you listed, AquaIlluminations has a setup similar to the PFO Solaris and a pricetag to match. There have been rumors that some other major companies are developing prototypes, but nothing confirmed to be released yet.

[paOol]

ive kinda been keeping up with this thread.

so what is your lighting equivalent to in terms of wattage and light?

 

would be it like in between power compacts and metal halide?

what kind of coral can you keep with those?

[Gomer]

ive kinda been keeping up with this thread.

so what is your lighting equivalent to in terms of wattage and light?

 

 

Best answered IMO with direct photo comparison of a standard vs the LED at various shutter speeds with everything else fixed, or aperature (and fix the rest)

[NanoReefGuy]

Hi Evil & crew

 

Nice work! I love what you are doing with the LEDs.

 

I have been tinkering with high output LEDs for a while and have been thinking about retrofitting some additional lighting into my BC29. Having been inspired by your work I took the plunge today and ordered a few different types of newer LEDs. Picked up some Rebel stars, some spare green and blue Rebels(to add to the 2 unused locations on the stars), some Cree P4 stars, couple of Cree Q2 , some blue stars and a couple buckpuck drivers. I want to see what the raw LEDs looks like and to see what the effect of optics on the Crees will do. Then I will make a decision about a final config.

 

Basically I am thinking about adding some additional light power to the BC. Hopefully enough to keep clams. Plan to run this all off a 250W 24V switcher that I have. If this comes together OK I will be looking at using a uC to simulate sunrise/sunset and moon cycles... but I digress.

 

Thanks again for the great thread and inspiration to get back on this project.

 

Cheers

NRG

[strangelove]

Saweeet, that sucker will dissipate heat for sure. Where did you get the aluminum?

 

[coolwaters]

it bet its from that guy on ebay.

 

i was about to get some off him but its to thick for me...

 

i got some .40" fins instead which i will be using with a peltier (at low votlage to save power...)

even at 3v its gets really cold so i'll see how that stands against 20 LEDs.

 

but of curse i'll be adding fans on the side. PCI slot fans.

[evilc66]

The heatsink is from the guy on ebay. I haven't seen him list anything recently though. The rest of the aluminum is from the hardware store.

[coolwaters]

hey guys im trying to get my hands on a u1 copper heatsink but thats pretty hard since the copper is really expensive...but i'll probably get it one why or another...

 

the one im trying to buy is about 4" X 3" and its only less then 1" tall. i can probably fit like 20 LEDs on it....

but not going to try just about 15 would be great. the rest will go on the sides. which is going to be small aluminum pieces put together. also going to make a refuge light. the refuge is only less then a gallon so 1 white, 1 red, and 1 blue should be enough. the heatsink on that is going to be passive. so no fans.

 

i'll be raising SPS and other high req. light corals in there. i also ordered a lot more LEDs. im hoping to get more good white LEDs soon.

[Gomer]

I got my heatsink from newegg. so far so good. With a little flow, easily cools 12 LEDs.

 

If you want other heatsinks, check this out!

http://www.alphanovatech.com/

[NanoReefGuy]

Got my Luxeon Rebels today (540lumens!!). Holy are they ever bright! I screwed one onto a heatsink that I had kicking around and powered it up with a lab power supply in constant current mode. I can still see three little spots when I close my eyes .

 

Just for fun I taped a thermocouple to the side of the heatsink and tried running it at various currents. Up to 400mA I was able to easily keep the temp below 35C. I tested up to 600mA and then lost my nerve. The temperature was getting up around 50C on the heat sink and I suspect that the junction was pushing 60C. Not wanting to cook them on the first day I put things away.

 

The shimmer with this over the aquarium was amazing!

 

I also got a used BC29 canopy from my LFS so I'll have a platform to mod without impacting my original canopy .

 

Gotta wait for the parts from Kaidomain that CW recommended. Then I'll get busy.

 

More details to follow when the next parts arrive.

 

 

 

CHeers

NRG

[coolwaters]

lol the only thing i hate about that site is their air mail takes 3weeks to a month well for me at least...

 

when i actually get a really good BIG tank i'll get a copper plate and aluminum heatsink fins on top of that. best combo i heard.

 

btw nanoreefguy what light did u get?

 

has anyone feel like the copper heatsink gets hotter then the LED? XP

 

im still thinking about how the heatsink is going to look like...

and the hood.

i spent like hours thinking about how im going to place the LEDs...i want this to be perfect....

cuz have u ever taking something apart when it doesnt work? a real pain in the but...

[NanoReefGuy]

Hi CW

 

I got the Luxeon Rebel 3xLED star 540 lumens at 700mA.

 

I also bought a couple of stars with only a single LED, and some loose Rebels in white, blue & green. I was thinking of having 3 stars running in the center of the tank with 7 white, 1 blue & 1 green LEDs. Soldering the Rebels looks like it will be quite challenging (but I've done a fair bit of SMD electronics assembly so I hope these will go together OK)

 

I hear what you are saying about a copper core heat sink with aluminium fins. They use them in Intel CPU heat sinks. Why does this do a better job of dumping heat?

 

Now to wait patiently for the other CREEs to arrive. Really interested in seeing how they look compared to the Rebels. Also I have 30degree optics for the CREEs so that may change how things work considerably.

 

 

Ciao

NRG