DIY LED lighting

[coolwaters]

sorry iv been busy with the new car. bought a new 09 Scion tC.

a month later my mom bought herself a BMW 328i

 

anyhow heres the new array.

not wired up yet. still w8ing for the thermal compound to dry

and yes i can see its not centered....

 

it used to have 10 LEDs but having it in a box is just simpler. next upgrade will be 16 LEDs =p

[evilc66]

Coolwaters, can I ask why you have all your LEDs in such a tight arrangement?

[coolwaters]

Coolwaters, can I ask why you have all your LEDs in such a tight arrangement?

 

to have the MH effect =p

if i do that then i can have the high demanding coral right under it and the less demanding around it.

 

lol seriously i think its just easier for me. (no soldering but over all)

also never had a tank that has shimmers and shadows.

my last 10 LED array was spaced out inches apart and i didnt like the light bleeding from the tank and blue white areas.

 

its just how i did it.

 

you didnt say anything about my car T.T

your not into Japaneses or European cars? you all America? =p

[coolwaters]

just finished my soldering took a while...all thanks to soldering flux for making the soldering job possible.

 

its unbearable to look at directly. so im very confident that this will raise clams =p and SPS.

well see how far this thing will take me.

 

also mounted the PC fan with Great Stuff Foam for quietness.hopefully that will hold up for a while.

i dont expect the fan to be louder then the water pumps...

 

all i need to do now is to clean up my 4g nano tanke and get started reefing.

[evilc66]

you didnt say anything about my car T.T

your not into Japaneses or European cars? you all America? =p

 

 

I think most American cars are very poor in quality in comparison to most European manufacturers. There are som US cars that I like, but my shopping list doesn't contain many of them, and those that are US, are usually 40+ years old. I own a MINI Cooper S personally.

 

Getting back on topic. The reason I asked about having the array so tight is because of the tight viewing angle on the Crees. With a 90 degree spread, you're going to get a very sharp fall off at the ends of the tank. You can still keep high light corals/clams with a slight separation (less than 2"). The beautiful thing about LEDs is their high PAR/Watt, so you don't neccessarily have to cram them all together. You will still get the shimmer from spacing them out too. I know it's a little late now considering that you just soldered everything together, but it's information for future projects.

 

Whan are you getting pictures up of it running?

[DESERTHEATRACING]

I think most American cars are very poor in quality in comparison to most European manufacturers. There are som US cars that I like, but my shopping list doesn't contain many of them, and those that are US, are usually 40+ years old. I own a MINI Cooper S personally.

 

Getting back on topic. The reason I asked about having the array so tight is because of the tight viewing angle on the Crees. With a 90 degree spread, you're going to get a very sharp fall off at the ends of the tank. You can still keep high light corals/clams with a slight separation (less than 2"). The beautiful thing about LEDs is their high PAR/Watt, so you don't neccessarily have to cram them all together. You will still get the shimmer from spacing them out too. I know it's a little late now considering that you just soldered everything together, but it's information for future projects.

 

Whan are you getting pictures up of it running?

 

Nice project and nice tC If you need led work done on the tC, hit me up. www.garage1217.com I specialize in Scions.

[coolwaters]

lol thanks DESERTHEATRACING i'll be looking into it as soon as im done with some performance moding.

 

ok i spent 3 hours cleaning my 4g...its been outside for a few months so its a bit dirty...

 

the only problem now is i have to somehow mod a refuge on it... its a pretty crappy tank so i will be upgrading as soon as i get some money to burn again.

3/8" thick 10" tall tank =) at least 10g again.

 

i'll post pics after i figure out what im going to do with the tank..

[coolwaters]

the pic request from evil

excuse the mess its a garage...and one one cleaned it for months..

 

 

its a really nice blue. the action pics is missing one white LED so its a slightly more bluer then it really is.

(some solder got on the aluminum ring...)

 

 

everything was adds up to about 1200lumens. seems like 15k color...

well a lot bluer then my old 20k T8 bulb...

 

compare to my 26w 6.7k PC bulb it was over 2 times better.

140000lux for the LEDs and 38500lux for the PC

at 6" and about half at 12"

 

 

its a nice solid blend of blue and white since its so close together. but im still going to add a light diffuser. (same thing that your bathroom and kitchen light uses)

[iglowce]

when are you putting it to work? im curious as to how it shows up in the real tank.. FTS too when you have it working..

cant wait!

[coolwaters]

lol as soon as i get my tank up. im trying to get my hands on my uncles table saw but he keeps bring it to work.

 

i just need to cut off the back part of the tank before i do anything else.

at the moment the reefing addiction is telling me to go to home depot and get a hack saw....

[coolwaters]

bump

 

found the regulators again.

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1640

 

with this your can run lots of LEDs with just a standard 12v DC power supply. 4v-18v.

at 12v i could drive 3 LED at 755mA but 4 got it really dim. around 150-250mA.

i'll try to see what your need to do to make the PSU give out around 16v-18v instead of 12.

that should give it enough juice for 4 LEDs at full power

[Zombo]

And on another happy note to this thread, my LEDs arrived! MUHAHAHAHAHAH!

[coolwaters]

And on another happy note to this thread, my LEDs arrived! MUHAHAHAHAHAH!

 

 

post pics this thread is dying again T.T

[evilc66]

So the tight configuration didn't work out too well? With a different LED like a K2 that has a wider viewing angle, it may not have been so bad. Are you planning on moving the LEDs around to improve things?

[Zombo]

post pics this thread is dying again T.T

 

Pics of what? You already know what star mounted LEDs look like

[fsu1dolfan]

Nice project and nice tC If you need led work done on the tC, hit me up. www.garage1217.com I specialize in Scions.

 

 

Wow what a small world....i have seen you on scionlife alot....i have an 05 tC which i have done work on myself...i have seen your website and you do good work!!

[Splumph]

Jeez guys, I work in residential/commercial lighting and have yet to set up my reef tank, but the knowledge on these boards is astounding. I have yet to learn the LED side of the business, and even there it doesnt get this deep (well we dont DIY, we just get the stuff from color kinetics, accolade, etc.) But its also good to know how the guts work. My first reef tank is going to be a 7 minibow, and I just want to start easy with softies and zoas, figure it wont be a terribly expensive task to accomplish, and might be fun, just wondering what combo of LEDs I should use. I'd like to essentially refit the stock hood, and was wondering if this would actually be practical.

[brian92]

Jeez guys, I work in residential/commercial lighting and have yet to set up my reef tank, but the knowledge on these boards is astounding. I have yet to learn the LED side of the business, and even there it doesnt get this deep (well we dont DIY, we just get the stuff from color kinetics, accolade, etc.) But its also good to know how the guts work. My first reef tank is going to be a 7 minibow, and I just want to start easy with softies and zoas, figure it wont be a terribly expensive task to accomplish, and might be fun, just wondering what combo of LEDs I should use. I'd like to essentially refit the stock hood, and was wondering if this would actually be practical.

I plan on doing that for a minibow 5!

 

Here's my thread a few people explained everything you'll need to fit the minibow with LEDS

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=165850&hl=

[evilc66]

Jeez guys, I work in residential/commercial lighting and have yet to set up my reef tank, but the knowledge on these boards is astounding. I have yet to learn the LED side of the business, and even there it doesnt get this deep (well we dont DIY, we just get the stuff from color kinetics, accolade, etc.) But its also good to know how the guts work. My first reef tank is going to be a 7 minibow, and I just want to start easy with softies and zoas, figure it wont be a terribly expensive task to accomplish, and might be fun, just wondering what combo of LEDs I should use. I'd like to essentially refit the stock hood, and was wondering if this would actually be practical.

 

Compared to other forms of lighting, this will be quite expensive to do right. For a minibow 7, you could set up something like 4 whites and 6 blues (heavy on the blue to give a higher color temp). It will give you a good amount of light, and leave you with options for some easier sps, if you decide to go that way. By the time you get everything you need, estime about $175-$225 in costs for all your material.

[Zombo]

I'm into my 5-Q5/8-Blue array to the tune of $200 right now, but it will be WAY freaking cheaper than a Galileo (or whatever they call that) -- plus the bonus of having built it myself.

[coolwaters]

yeah evilc66 AC does scare me too. i was rewiring my dimmer to a switch and got nasty shock. after that my hand was sweaty...

 

i fixed my 9 led array. turns out the leads were a little dirty so the solder didnt stick to them.

my uncle showed me a place near me that sold almost every piece of superconductor component so i can start building my own regulators. and customizing my heatsinks.

 

all i need now some more modifications on my tank and a piece of coral to test on.

[schudini]

yeah evilc66 AC does scare me too. i was rewiring my dimmer to a switch and got nasty shock. after that my hand was sweaty...

 

i fixed my 9 led array. turns out the leads were a little dirty so the solder didnt stick to them.

my uncle showed me a place near me that sold almost every piece of superconductor component so i can start building my own regulators. and customizing my heatsinks.

 

all i need now some more modifications on my tank and a piece of coral to test on.

 

Tagging along.

 

Did you really mean "superconductor"? If so, what is the name of the store?

[coolwaters]

its more of a warehouse and i dont think it has much of a name.

 

probably have to go there with cash lol.

 

i just cut off some stuff from my tank. turns out i messed up on the nozzle and i have to redo them.

im going to tap plastics 2morrow to make my new light hood and get some tubes for a new nozzle.

[Splumph]

I found this sink http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...rksid=p3907.m29 and figured it was a good size for what I want to accomplish, I will just forgo the idea of refitting the stock light hood. I plan to put 10 LEDs to start (5 white 5 blue) then expanding to 15 (7 white 8 blue) With a 2 " spread, this sink will accomodate 30 LEDs which i dont think I will ever move up to, but who knows. I also think I would like to put a few (maybe 3) red LEDs for viewing the nocturnal activity in the tank. This is the way I want to lay it out:

With the lower 5 leds being the next "phase". I might reconfigure them so they better follow the curve of the tank, but haven't decided yet. Let me know what you think

[evilc66]

Sounds good. Thats the same guy I get my heatsinks from. That one is 1.5" wider than the one I'm using on my fixture and I'm putting 64W through it without any issues.