vanep Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 The layout seems fine, but I'm sure you could cut back on the number of LEDs required to light the tank. Not saying that you can't use that many, just that you could save a little money. You could easily remove the middle row. This setup (any DIY setup for that matter) will give you far better performance than the Aquaray units. I haven't seen a tank yet that looks good with those. Giga, you would probably have to have them almost touching to elliminate it. Thanks for your response! Once I have my "shopping cart" ready, before purchasing anything, I will ask you for more advice, if you don´t mind. 1 Quote Link to comment
skeet103 Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Evil Love the new Pico light in your other post, but I think I want to do my own LED set-up to have more control over the blue and wht lights independently. that being said I am having my acrylic cut today for a pico and the dimensions will be 10" long x8" widex14" high. My guesetimate is for 8WHT and 8 R BLU + 1 UV Cree's I was going to do 4 rows of 4 leds horizontal alternating colors. then stagering the rows vertical to blend the light across an 8.5 X 8.5 Heatsink. I was going to use 60 degree optics since it is 14"deep with the ability to upgrade to 40degree if I wanted higher par levels down the road Is this overkill on such a small tank even though it is 14" deep? Cheers! Evil not sure if you missed this since it was the last message on a page, any help would be great Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Sorry man, completely missed it. LED layout sounds ok, but I don't see a need for optics on a 14" tank. If you want a little bump in performance, you could use 80 degree optics, but 60 would be the limit. 80 degree optics will push you well over 200 PAR at the sandbed. Quote Link to comment
skeet103 Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Sorry man, completely missed it. LED layout sounds ok, but I don't see a need for optics on a 14" tank. If you want a little bump in performance, you could use 80 degree optics, but 60 would be the limit. 80 degree optics will push you well over 200 PAR at the sandbed. Thanks for the quick response evil! I can order them today As far as the optics go it just saves me more money not having them! Cheers Quote Link to comment
keli Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 How would one wire two (or more) buckpucks to a single potentiometer? Use the +5v of one of them and connect the other end of the pot to the signal line of all of them? Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 You can just wire each +5v and each CTRL line together to the single pot. Quote Link to comment
keli Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 So basically bundling all the +5v together to one pin of the pot and all the ctrl lines together to another pin on the pot? Quote Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Hey evil, Would an 8.5" x 11" heatsink be good for a 12 LED array (6 white/6 blue)? Also, I don't understand what is meant by drilling and tapping the heatsink. Did I just miss that in this write-up or is there a good example somewhere else? Thanks. Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Sounds plenty big, as long as it's good for the size of your tank. Drilling and tapping is where you create threads in a material for screws to be threaded into. It's typically for finer thread machine screws. Screwing the LED pcb down is prefered for the best thermal transfer. Quote Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 My tank has a footprint of 11" x 12" w/ 12" of water until the sand bed. What would you recommend as far as LED configuration for the tank and dimension of heatsink? 6blue/6white? or would you go with less/more? I don't really plan to use optics at first, but I'd like to have the lights close enough together to add optics later and not get the spotlight effect. Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 No need for optics, but another 3 LEDs would help. With a somewhat wide tank (for it's dimensions), 3 rows of 5 might work out better for coverage front to rear. Around 2" spacing length wise will get great coverage down the length. Running at 1000mA and no optics, you should have no trouble hitting 200 PAR at the sand, which will be enough for sps if you like. Going with 15 LEDs complicates things if you use Buckpucks to drive them, but you could go with the Meanwell drivers when I do my group buy and will cost you about the same as it would for 2 Buckpucks and an appropriate power supply. You can run 13 LEDs on a single ELN-60-48 if you wanted. Quote Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 No need for optics, but another 3 LEDs would help. With a somewhat wide tank (for it's dimensions), 3 rows of 5 might work out better for coverage front to rear. Around 2" spacing length wise will get great coverage down the length. Running at 1000mA and no optics, you should have no trouble hitting 200 PAR at the sand, which will be enough for sps if you like. Going with 15 LEDs complicates things if you use Buckpucks to drive them, but you could go with the Meanwell drivers when I do my group buy and will cost you about the same as it would for 2 Buckpucks and an appropriate power supply. You can run 13 LEDs on a single ELN-60-48 if you wanted. 13 LEDs would have to be the same color though if I wanted to do dimming and color control, right? So I'd need two drivers - one each for blue and white. How much are the meanwell drivers? Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 You would need two drivers to control color, just like you would for the Buckpucks. You don't have to run 13 LED. Thats just the limit. Price on the drivers is around $33 plus shipping. The price could go down depending on how many drivers we can end up ordering. Quote Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 You would need two drivers to control color, just like you would for the Buckpucks. You don't have to run 13 LED. Thats just the limit. Price on the drivers is around $33 plus shipping. The price could go down depending on how many drivers we can end up ordering. Ok, so lets say 8 white and 8 blue LED's with two drivers and the above heatsink. All-in-all, what am I looking at cost-wise after I get the rest of what I need? Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Depends on where you get your parts from, but I'd say worst case is about $250. Quote Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I can do $250...ok, moving on with planning. I'll hit you up after I've researched a bit more. Thanks man. Quote Link to comment
Roxyplace Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 (edited) Can anyone post where to get the best deals on the web to by the LED as this is getting popular. Will these work? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394 K Edited April 8, 2009 by Roxyplace Quote Link to comment
TB!^ Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 hi guys, im l have being looking at building an LED light for about a week. but ever time i look more there seems to be an easier way, like avoiding buckpucks or grouping wires to one adjuster. so what is the easiest way for a 12gallon JBJ? i dont really care if it cost a little more as long as its neat and efficient. Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 hi guys, im l have being looking at building an LED light for about a week. but ever time i look more there seems to be an easier way, like avoiding buckpucks or grouping wires to one adjuster. so what is the easiest way for a 12gallon JBJ? i dont really care if it cost a little more as long as its neat and efficient. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=188085 Quote Link to comment
vanep Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Can anyone post where to get the best deals on the web to by the LED as this is getting popular. Will these work? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394 K I am not an expert at all, but after reading data sheets at cree.com, I think that´s a suitable cold white led. In fact I am thinking on purchasing those. I also have a question concerning cree leds at DX, which blue or royal blue leds are these? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1775 thanks! Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 They are an XR or XC blue (not XR-E or royal). The XR-E royals are far better color and output. The DX and KD Q5s are nice and cheap, but the PCBs are not that great. The ones from ETG, LED Supply and Cutter are far better quality. ETG has really good prices if you hit their minimum order. I will be offering LEDs in my group buy that will be starting in about a week. I'm trying to negotiate a better price than we normally get. Quote Link to comment
vanep Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 They are an XR or XC blue (not XR-E or royal). The XR-E royals are far better color and output. The DX and KD Q5s are nice and cheap, but the PCBs are not that great. The ones from ETG, LED Supply and Cutter are far better quality. ETG has really good prices if you hit their minimum order. I will be offering LEDs in my group buy that will be starting in about a week. I'm trying to negotiate a better price than we normally get. I´ve seen ETG web page, and looks great. But I don´t know if they ship to Spain. DX offers free shipping everywhere, and that´s an advantage. I will ask about shipping to ETG people. Thanks evil! Quote Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 ETG may be able to help. There are some places in Europe that will be able to ship to you, like LED-Tech. Quote Link to comment
vanep Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 ETG may be able to help. There are some places in Europe that will be able to ship to you, like LED-Tech. thanks again evil! and here´s a stupid question... what´s the difference between the round pcb and the star pcb? I am checking LED-Tech. Also a local supplier (es.rs-online.com), and they have leds not mounted on a pcb, or at least that´s how it looks to me... Quote Link to comment
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