davce99 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Evilc66 i find this option i will like to make the same thing with +12 and -12 = 24 volts http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Computer-...ab-Power-Supply Link to comment
evilc66 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Not sure if thats the best idea. To get 24v you have to connec the -12v and +12v, and the -12v is typically very low amperage and could be damaged from running drivers at 1000mA. I'm not sure how that will affect things. Have you tried ebay yet? Seriously, look for 24v laptop power supplies. Link to comment
davce99 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Evilc66 thanks for everything i found this think in my city but i don't know the price, i will call the store tomorrow http://www.logingelectronics.com.mk/data/T...EW-DR-120xx.pdf Link to comment
evilc66 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Thats better. Hopefully the price isn't too outrageous. Link to comment
Minadin Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 Well Anna from ETG emailed said my parts were finished/mounted and mailed out today so I should have some pictures soon. So far it has been a great experience with ETG. Scott Link to comment
evilc66 Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Good to hear. Anna is good people. Link to comment
davce99 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Good to hear. Anna is good people. But ETG have a free shipping??? Link to comment
Minadin Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 But ETG have a free shipping??? No, but shipping for 24 leds mounted & 24 optics was only $7.00. After hours of scouring for "deals" I feel ETG has done me right on price, quality & service. I will update with pics/info once they arrive Monday. Others such as evil believe in ETG also which prompted me to check them out. Scott PS- My material list includes shipping for all items. List is maintained on first post. Link to comment
davce99 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Thanks a lot, my next projekt will be the same Thanks Link to comment
Minadin Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Well UPS dropped off my optics & leds today. Fast shipping no issues with packaging. The pcbs are nice, thick & good looking unlike some green pcb board ones I have seen. Not that this matters I guess if they work. I was surprised by the size of each star they are alomst exactly the diameter of a US nickel. I put an optic on one of the leds and it fit like a vise, I almost was worried it would not come off. Perfect fit! I am now marking the layout on heatsink to give it to a friend for drilling. Will update more in the future. Enjoy Scott Link to comment
evilc66 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Well UPS dropped off my optics & leds today. Fast shipping no issues with packaging. The pcbs are nice, thick & good looking unlike some green pcb board ones I have seen. Not that this matters I guess if they work. I was surprised by the size of each star they are alomst exactly the diameter of a US nickel. I put an optic on one of the leds and it fit like a vise, I almost was worried it would not come off. Perfect fit! I am now marking the layout on heatsink to give it to a friend for drilling. Will update more in the future. Enjoy Scott Now you see why I recommend these optics Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 Ok so today & yesterday were my days off and I got busy. Starting with the updates and LOTS of pictures. I layed out all my holes for drilling and then tapped them. Broke one bit & one tap, the tap didn't really feel like there was a lot of pressure but it broke like it was made of lead. These additional expenses were added to main material list on first post. I drilled 3 holes per led star just in case anything weird happened during layout (hole not lining up etc).. I then applied a thin layer of Artic Silver under each star & screwed them in place. Using my super soldering skills, super after 10 or so tries, I wired everything. I then put my project box together for plug & play power. Power in the end - Power out on the side for LED's. I took the aluminum bar listed in materials list and bent it to fit the heatsink. I drilled 2 holes underneath which screwed into stock hood existing holes. A hole was then drilled on both sides through the aluminum & heatsink sides which I then tapped. I used two washers and screwed everything in place. I think it came out great. Link to comment
Waterproof Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Very clean. Looks fantastic! Will this fit within the acrylic splashguard? Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 Very clean. Looks fantastic! Will this fit within the acrylic splashguard? Absolutely! Even with optics and with no cutting. Thanks Scott Link to comment
NanoReefNovice Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Awesome. Fire it up!! ^ Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 Pics coming of it lit up soon just want to keep pics in order. Ok to continue: I drilled 4 holes on top of hood for potentometer stems as i wanted a clean look and easy access for dimming etc. I used 3M doubled sided adhesive squares to hold down the drivers. It worked like a charm helping me keep a clean look. Here's a shot of pot's mounted. I cannot find my little baggie with other 4 knobs..sigh. I need my knobs!!! Here's a couple of shots of hood after I attached optics. No glue was needed as the optics fit like a glove & tight as a vise. ...nods Evil The question was asked earlier if this fit within the stock splashguard. My answer was yes and here are some pics. I think there is 1/8" clearance and that was without trimming anything on the hood. Ok out of room for more pics next post is with it lit up. Thanks Scott Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Tight squeeze, but looks awesome. Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 Shots of unit being tested before inserting into hood. I couldn't get any lights to come on at first and went over everything to no avail. I then just used another outlet and BAM! blindness. Never have your eyes right up to stars looking at soldering when turning on the units. And the money shot! I found that with the optics on I get more focused beams but dark areas. I took off the front row of optics to lighten up the front sand bed area. I will rearrange the rock in a sloping formation against the back wall to take better advantage of the light. I would like to thank those whose prior projects & instructions I pulled information & ideas from. Most of all I thank evilc66 without whose help this would never have began much less finished. Thanks Scott PS - Evil and others I have a new problem I need help with in my next post These are drawings I made to help me wire/assemble/layout this project. I put them all in one jpeg. I find these visuals really are better for me than written instructions as I barely know what an amp is. Hope they help anyone else. Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 So I have the lights up and running with no fans and in less than 20 minutes I check on the unit. The heatsink is hot to the touch. I took the hood off for now and am using a customsea life pc light that was in the closet. Here's where I need the help of my peers, how do I hook up the stock fans electrical wise? I just don't want ruin anything at this stage or I would experiment. These are shots of what came out of hood you will see 2 fans, 2 moon lights and 1 on/off switch and a circuit board. Larger Shot of complete unit: The fans say they are DC 12V 0.11A. Only two wires connected from my ballast to this fan/moonlight combo. 1: Will I be able to just run 2 wires from my PSU to this setup? 2: If not what will I need? 3: Do I need to ground the yellow wire (guessing it was a ground as it was attached to old reflector)? If so then can I just attach to the heatsink? Still searching for the lost baggie of knobs Scott Link to comment
evilc66 Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Ditch the board and run the fans right off of the power supply. Run two fans in series on the 24v source so they run correctly. You will have to do this anyway if you want to add more fans to the hood. Link to comment
jsmi2024 Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Very nice outcome ive been following along with this closely because im gonna be doing the exact same thing. Just a quick question do you think that adding more lights would take care of the streaks of light also stagering there placement a little more. Link to comment
Minadin Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 evil - ok will do, shame I can't use those 2 moon light leds jsmi2024 - I could have added up to 2 more inches on length of heatsink but I left room for fans. The streaks are just the leds focus beams??! Part of the problem I am sure is that my live rock is too large, it goes from the back to within 6 inches of front of my tank. I will take more pictures once I get fans running going to play with psu now. Wondering what "run in series means" Scott Link to comment
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