southerncowboy316 Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 man thats sick Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 There aren't many quiet 50mm fans. One thing I have found to help is to actually remove the stock molded in fan grill and use a wire fan grill. Cuts down noise a lot. Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Fantastic looking setup sir! For your fans I will have to agree with evil small fans that run at higher speeds are just REALLY loud! Let me know what you find though id be interested to see what you find. Link to comment
gregzbobo Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 There aren't many quiet 50mm fans. One thing I have found to help is to actually remove the stock molded in fan grill and use a wire fan grill. Cuts down noise a lot. Fan: about 23dB, should move enough air to keep the heatsink cool. Decent brand also. Grill: Its wire, chrome plated, umm... its cheap? I get most of my PC style fans and the like from Frozencpu, reasonable prices, large selection. They also carry 5volt fans, and a few line voltage fans. Pretty much anything related to PC fans. Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 i wired in a 10k resistance volume control to the fan series so i can adjust them. i have em running at about 50% it makes it much less noisy and comfortable to the ear. its finally all done and it looks GREAT! thanks again for everything guys, and evil....couldnt have done it without you dude. Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 If you dont mind my asking what was your final cost of the setup? Maybe I missed it but what did you do about your buckpuck problem? Can you explain a little more about how you wired them? Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 all in all it ended up being 200 bucks fully completed. 75 for LEDS, 40 for buckpucks, 20 for heatsink, 20 for power supply, and the rest was shipping. i found out that i had one of my buckpucks wired incorrectly, and it blew up. i ended up having to buy a new one, which made it break the 200 dollar mark. just barely tho. which part would you like me to explain regarding wiring? Link to comment
Sushi Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 wow... you did an excellent job... i'm inspired to do some retro fitting into some of my old pc fixtures! Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 all in all it ended up being 200 bucks fully completed. 75 for LEDS, 40 for buckpucks, 20 for heatsink, 20 for power supply, and the rest was shipping. i found out that i had one of my buckpucks wired incorrectly, and it blew up. i ended up having to buy a new one, which made it break the 200 dollar mark. just barely tho. which part would you like me to explain regarding wiring? Well im looking to put 2 times the LED's on my BC29. I guess im wondering of that PSU will run that many LED's or if I should go with meanwell drivers. I guess I still dont understand the point of having buckpucks what do they do? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Buckpucks and Meanwells serve the same purpose. They are smart current limiting devices. LEDs are current driven devices, not voltage driven like motors or incandescant bulbs. The driver sets the current, and changes the voltage based on the requirements of the LEDs. It is also responsible for dimming control (setting the current). It's also designed to help protect the LEDs from surges and thermal runaway. Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Buckpucks and Meanwells serve the same purpose. They are smart current limiting devices. LEDs are current driven devices, not voltage driven like motors or incandescant bulbs. The driver sets the current, and changes the voltage based on the requirements of the LEDs. It is also responsible for dimming control (setting the current). It's also designed to help protect the LEDs from surges and thermal runaway. Sorry for the hijack I just want to make sure I understand what is evil saying. So you need to have buckpucks period correct? The option we have is to either have a PSU or drivers like meanwells? Can you control the current without the buck pucks correct? Maybe im making this to complicated maybe this will make it easier and anyone feel free to chime in. I would like to run 24-30 LED's and be able to dim them with knobs I put on my lid. Other than the needed items such as LED's Heat sink and wire what should I get. Thanks Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 A Meanwell and a Buckpuck are the same thing. They are both LED drivers. The difference is that the Meanwell has the DC power supply built in, while the Buckpuck needs an external DC power supply. Beyond that, they do the same function. Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 hijack all ya want man....i was here once lol. if he doesnt get back to you fast, i can answer too Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Ok so with a Meanwell I can wire straight to the LED's and Im assuming its got a different wire setup for the dimming. Or I can get a PSU and purchase buck pucks and then wire in the LED's? It seems like the first option would be more reliable and much simpler and cost efficient. Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 the PSU i bought cost 19 dollars, and i can run fans, fuge light etc off it as well. i havent personally messed with the meanwells so i dont know how they are. Link to comment
gregzbobo Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Ok so with a Meanwell I can wire straight to the LED's and Im assuming its got a different wire setup for the dimming. Or I can get a PSU and purchase buck pucks and then wire in the LED's? It seems like the first option would be more reliable and much simpler and cost efficient. Main advantage to the big Meanwells is a reduction in equipment when running more than 6 LEDs per color for the most part. They can drive 13 LEDs each IIRC, so really would be better to go with buckpucks w/pots unless you're retrofitting a larger fixture imo. I believe that unless you get your meanwells from nanotuners or another place that does it for you, you'd have to adjust the amperage with the internal pots to avoid frying your LEDs. Plus the D series I know require a 0-10V DC power source to get it running/dimming, 0V=off, 10V=full power. They interface with the Digital Aquatics ALC module quite nicely though. Caps, how'd the hole drilling go? Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 drilling for mounting the LEDs? Link to comment
gregzbobo Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 drilling for mounting the LEDs? Aw hell, my bad, some reason I thought I was replying in Plantarms thread. Sorry man. <---me on the right. Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 hahaha i was about to drop the thermal tape bomb on you too Link to comment
gregzbobo Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 hahaha i was about to drop the thermal tape bomb on you too Heh. Speakin of, thats the one item on my to-get list that I've got for my build. Had to get in on the RKE drawing y'know. Haven't got an email from the 'tuners, so I'm betting my name was at the bottom of the hat. Durnit. Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 haha, the tape worked great for me.....and what drawing are we talking about here?! Link to comment
gregzbobo Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 haha, the tape worked great for me.....and what drawing are we talking about here?! Nanotuners ran a 5th anniversary promotion from November till earlier this week, every purchase entered you in a drawing for a ReefKeeper Elite system, I think they were going to draw the winner on the 17th. Link to comment
Austinsminireef Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 ok so if I wanna run 24 LED I would need to get a PSU like the one CAPs got and 4 buckpucks? What are pots? I dont really need them to dim it just would be kindda neat that way I can do a light cycle and make some days darker but it doesnt even matter at this point cause I would want a controller to do it for me or have it hooked up to my PC where I can write a program to control the lights. None the less I was wondering if Evil could chime in here is 24 LED's with 60 degree optics enough to get 150w MH par readings? Or would I be better served shooting for 30 LED's I dont wanna bleach everything in the tank but I wanna make sure thers enough light to keep acros and make them have great color. Also are Optics really needed? Link to comment
HeyLookItsCaps Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 Nanotuners ran a 5th anniversary promotion from November till earlier this week, every purchase entered you in a drawing for a ReefKeeper Elite system, I think they were going to draw the winner on the 17th. i better have got in! i bought LEDs from them....i wonder how i check. ok so if I wanna run 24 LED I would need to get a PSU like the one CAPs got and 4 buckpucks? What are pots? I dont really need them to dim it just would be kindda neat that way I can do a light cycle and make some days darker but it doesnt even matter at this point cause I would want a controller to do it for me or have it hooked up to my PC where I can write a program to control the lights. None the less I was wondering if Evil could chime in here is 24 LED's with 60 degree optics enough to get 150w MH par readings? Or would I be better served shooting for 30 LED's I dont wanna bleach everything in the tank but I wanna make sure thers enough light to keep acros and make them have great color. Also are Optics really needed? what size tank is it? im not even using optics in my setup. pots just control dimming. so if you wanted to dim 4 different strips of lights youd need 4 bukpucks with wired pots. if your not interested in dimming. just use regulars. Link to comment
plantarms Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 how does the thermal tape work compared to the arctic silver thermal paste? just curious, i already have the thermal paste so i'm using that, but i'm always interested in new things Link to comment
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