evilc66 Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Actually, you will only be drawing 150mA on your fans because you are running them in series. How you forget so quickly 10 LEDs over a 5.5g will work, but you could do with more. It's the extra length that will make the difference. 12 LEDs would be my recommendation. The extra 2 LEDs doesn't sound like much, but it will add a few extra inches in length to cover the length of the tank. My usual rule of thumb for spacing LEDs is about 2"-2.5". That will put you at 12"+ end to end for better coverage. Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 I know! I was just making sure you were paying attention. Haha. Thanks again, Nick Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 All th LED's are soldered. Next is hooking everything up, and mounting hardware. I hope to finish the rest this weekend. Link to comment
iMaGin3 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 excellent thank you both very much for the info! The tank will be 16" long though, so do you still recommend 12 leds or more? you said something about 12" and i figured it would look unevenly lighted? get those pics up!!! haha im excited. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 With the spread of the light coming from the LED, the last two inches on each end will be covered. 12 LEDs should be fine for a 16" long tank. You are welcome to add more if you feel thats not enough. It will add some extra intensity, but not a ton. Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 13, 2008 Author Share Posted December 13, 2008 Alright, I learned something new today. My cube is set up at work, an today is the first day that I brought my cover home (to start fitting the LED/HS into it). I realized that it is going to be a tighter fit that I thought. I gutted everthing from the hood and realized the fixture does not fit flush under the hood. I will probably grind down a few fins to fit it into the canopy. If I were to do again. I would get the HS that NAL did from hsUSA - that is ~5" wide. Cheers, Nick Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Alright, I wired everything up this weekend: White LEDs on 1000mA bp, and Blue LED's on a 700mA bp. The whites looked sweet. They were blazing! The blues were another story. I could not get them all to light up. After checking all my solder joints, I found one or two bad ones. I redid the suspect joints and now they all light up...but very dim. If I run one LED it is kinda bright (Note: less than half as bright is the whites - kinda disappointed), two still kinda bright, same with three, but once I get to 4, they are kinda bright for a quick second and then get very dim again. Also, it doesn't matter if its the first leds in the series or the last, I get the same results as descirbed above. So I switched it up and put the whites on the 700mA bp, and they performed like the blues. I put the blues on the 1000mA bp, and were blazing! So, I think my 700mA bp is not working properly. Could it be bad? How can I verify with a multimeter? Thanks, Nick P.S. I will say, once I get this all straightend out...this array will be the bomb.com!!! Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Glad you got them to all light up. I figured it was something simple. Check the voltage across each LED (multimeter probes on the + and - of the LED). You should see a voltage in the range of 3.2v-3.7v. Next, I would check to see if the pot is at fault. Remove the pot and leave the wires unconnected. This will force a max output. If you still have problems, check the current output. Take the positive wire from the puck to the LED off. Put the meter in current mode (you may have to change probe positions on the meter to a "10A" port), and use the meter to complete the circuit (positive probe on the wire to the puck, negative probe to the LED). With the pot still removed, you should see about 700mA +/- 10%. Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Thanks for the reply evil. With the entire series wired up I got 1V across the LED - Suck I cun the Pot off and got a voltage of 2.3V and still quite dim - but a little brighter. I tested the BP amps and the multimeter showed zero - the circuit was completed tho as the LED lit up. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Sounds like the puck is fubar. Time to call the place you got it for a return. Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 So I called LEDsupply where I got the BP. They told me that the failure rate on the BP is really low...saleman! We went over my setup and he had a few concerns: -He said BP's like only 18-21watts of power running through them. I have 24 (8 LED x 3w). -He also said my HS was too small?!? High Power LEDs need 12-16 in2 of heat sink. My h/s is only giving them about 5 in2 per LED. Thoughts? Anyway, he wanted me to run just my 700mA BP (W/O the 1A) and see how it performs. Call him back and if still not right he will send me out a new one. Again, thoughts! I think he is trying to find reasons why it failed...which is his job. We will see what the results show. Stay tuned. Nick P.S I brought all my stuff to work today so I can work on it! Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 I ran the 700mA BP without the 1A wired and it performed the same. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Well, thats a bunch of crap about the wattage and the heatsink size. Kinda sad, as it clearly shows that these guys are just into the business end of things and not really involved in the technology. You already told me that the blue LEDs work with the 1A puck right? It's pretty clear that it is faulty after the tests that you have done. If LED Supply gives you any more grief, go direct to LED Dynamics/Luxdrive. At the very least they will have a better idea as to the problem. One question though. You did turn the voltage on the power supply down to 32v right? Please tell me you did that (and verified it recently with a meter). Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Yes, I set to 32V...and yes I check that too. Infact I just checked it a third time just now...and it is still at 32V. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Just wanted to make sure Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 So what are your thoughts on him comment about 18-21 watts MAX for the puck? BFD or is it legit? Link to comment
Splumph Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I think it says on thier website these are designed for 6 3w LEDs...I'm sure it's just them covering thier a$$es 700ma Buckpuck Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Yeah I just read that too...CYA is what I'm thinking. I just got off the phone with LED supply and they are going to send me a new one out today. I should get it Wed. I just need to send the dead on back. After the initial BS from them, I cannot complain about the Cust. Srvs. Free replacement. Now............we.................wait.... This should give me time to finish the fabrication of the mounting bracket. Link to comment
Splumph Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I'm in sales so the default line of BS is generally required...in the end they did whats right. I always figure it's not worth losing a customer over 20$. Link to comment
NanoReefGuy Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Hi I am concerned that they say the buckpuck is only good for 18 - 21W. Looking at the complete data sheet here http://www.leddynamics.com/LuxDrive/datash...21-BuckPuck.pdf they indicate a maximum of 32V output if you are using the DC version. Using the 1000mA rating that would make it good for 32W. If this is a real limit I will be replacing the BP with a home brew driver! Keep us in the loop on how it works out. Cheers NRG Link to comment
wesleytf Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 good god reading all these LED threads has me ITCHING to start my own... I found some scrap acrylic a couple days ago, me thinks a new build may be in the works... Link to comment
npain316 Posted December 17, 2008 Author Share Posted December 17, 2008 Hi I am concerned that they say the buckpuck is only good for 18 - 21W. Looking at the complete data sheet here http://www.leddynamics.com/LuxDrive/datash...21-BuckPuck.pdf they indicate a maximum of 32V output if you are using the DC version. Using the 1000mA rating that would make it good for 32W. If this is a real limit I will be replacing the BP with a home brew driver! Keep us in the loop on how it works out. Cheers NRG I really think it was a bunk puck. I ran the same series of LEDs on another puck and it was fine. Does it make any difference that bad puck was a 700mA? I wouldn't thinks so. I will def. keep you all posted on how these pucks hold up over the next months. Nick P.S Do it Wes! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Link to comment
Marteen Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Yeah definitely sounds like you got a "bunk puck" Maybe it got dropped a little too hard during shipping or something. Either way glad you are getting a free replacement. Link to comment
flamethis Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 This is stuff is way over my head but i'm reading alot and starting to understand. What I'm wondering is what is the difference between the 3W Cree whites and the 3W Luxeon whites? I was thinking of setting up a cluster of LEDs rather than an array so I could try to recreate the point source light like a MH bulb. Link to comment
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