Plantarms LED Pico Fixture 10''

[plantarms]

[travisurfer]

AWESOME!

[gregzbobo]

AWESOME!

 

Agreed.

 

I'm definitely going to do this to my 12" Single Satellite come tax refund time, probably with 8 LEDs like you've done.

[plantarms]

thanks guys, i still have to put everything together and get some temperature reading from the heatsink to see if i want to add additional fans, but i'm pretty happy with it

[plantarms]

i've been working on testing the temperatures of the heatsink and led's after some runtimes, i only ran the led's for an hour to get some info, but they were run at 100% (actual usage will be more like 30%-50%)

 

without fans the hottest temp i got on the heatsink after an hour was 99.5f and the hottest temp on the actual led was 101f

 

with the fans the hottest temps i got anywhere on the heatsink, fixture or led's was 85f, and that was with inverted heatsinks.

 

what are normal or safe temperatures to keep the led's at? obviously the cooler they run the better, but at any point will the temp significantly decrease the life?

[evilc66]

I typically shoot for 140F or under. 101F sounds great without fans, but if the room temperature rises, the heatsink temp rises. You will also be putting the fixture over a warm body of water, which will also help creep the temps up a little. A fan is a safety policy.

[plantarms]

alright that sounds good, will the temperature of the heatsink keep increasing after an hour, or will it generally be at the hottest temperature it will get to around that point?

[evilc66]

Considering the size of your heatsink, it should reach a stable temperature in about 20 minutes. A little longer test wouldn't hurt though. The more mass in a heatsink, the longer it will take to reach a stable temperature.

[plantarms]

thanks, i'm hoping this will run cooler than my 36w pc fixture right now. i'm getting about 103F temperature from the fixture on the pc and the lights and inside are at about 126F

[plantarms]

just finished my build! check out the pictures

 

holding heatsinks together

 

i put the blue moonlight on the switch that originally turned on the bulbs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[evilc66]

thanks, i'm hoping this will run cooler than my 36w pc fixture right now. i'm getting about 103F temperature from the fixture on the pc and the lights and inside are at about 126F

 

You shouldn't even need to worry about that. A PC bulb running at 103F will put in more heat into the tank than an LED array running at 140F. There is very little IR put into the tank from an LED setup.

[plantarms]

You shouldn't even need to worry about that. A PC bulb running at 103F will put in more heat into the tank than an LED array running at 140F. There is very little IR put into the tank from an LED setup.

good to know

[plantarms]

i'm running my fixture at about 10% power right now to give my coral a chance to acclimate, i'm getting a heatsink temp of 78f with that and ambient temperature in the room is 71f

[badfish816]

Pretty sweet build man. Turned out really nice.

[plantarms]

Pretty sweet build man. Turned out really nice.

Thanks man, i'm liking it a lot! Next project is to build my reef controller and connect my light to that

[plantarms]

Update: new LED light has been on the tank for 5 days now and the corals are all doing about the same, i've been gradually increasing the light intensity, i'm probably at about 25% now and it's looking great

[plantarms]

Has anyone used a graphic lcd display or oled display connected to arduino to create a gui for a reef controller?

[plantarms]

Currently working on building a DIY reef controller and wiring the new LED build to the arduino to simulate sunrise/sunset and gradually increase color temps and intensity. I will also have temp sensors on the heatsink

[CleveDawgPound]

Great work and I personally think it is admirable any time someone takes on a project like this. One question, though.

 

I am not sure I understand the two heatsinks on top of each other? While it adds mass, I would imagine any gain in mass would be negated by the poor thermal transfer between the two and the greatly diminished air circulation.

 

I would think the single heatsink would perform as well or even better.

[plantarms]

thanks! yeah you are completely right, the air flow between the two heatsinks is a lot less and it does hurt thermal transfer, however there were several reasons i did this. First of all since it is such a small light i wanted the extra weight in the light to keep it more weighed down on the tank and not have the power cords push it around. Also inverting the two heatsinks (which i got for free from a broken tv in my section) centered the LED's perfectly in the fixture and it was a simple matter to add some arctic thermal adhesive on the flat side of the heatsink to keep it there. Also I ran some tests with my infrared thermometer with one heatsink and two heatsinks, and the results showed that there was not a huge temp difference and the max temperatures of the whole fixture did not even come close to any harmful levels.

[plantarms]

i've had the LED light over my tank for 2+ weeks now and everything is still looking great! I am running it at about 70% power now and the polpys on my orange monti cap have just gone crazy, the trumpet coral also seems to be responding well too. GSP looks just the same as always, and zoas may have gotten a little smaller? If they did it is really not very noticeable.

[amnesiak]

I loved this thread. It's a great overview of the effort required for an LED retrofit by someone that hasn't done it before. You did a fantastic job of asking questions, documenting, and showing problems and how you dealt with them.

 

This is an awesome reference for anyone that wants to build a like fixture and knows what to expect! Great job.

-a

[plantarms]

I loved this thread. It's a great overview of the effort required for an LED retrofit by someone that hasn't done it before. You did a fantastic job of asking questions, documenting, and showing problems and how you dealt with them.

 

This is an awesome reference for anyone that wants to build a like fixture and knows what to expect! Great job.

-a

thanks! yeah i definitely did not have any knowledge of how to do this going into it but it worked out great!

[Angelynn]

Very nice build! I am trying to do the same like yours but another way. I was wondering where did you get your power supply from. I am using 4x cree RB and 4x Cree Xre white and 2 700ma buckpucks but need to know where u got your power supply.

[plantarms]

Very nice build! I am trying to do the same like yours but another way. I was wondering where did you get your power supply from. I am using 4x cree RB and 4x Cree Xre white and 2 700ma buckpucks but need to know where u got your power supply.

thanks, i got my power supplies from amazon, they were about $13 each which is a really good price. Are you going to get a 1000ma buckpuck for the whites or are you set on using 700ma for both? Are you going with dimmable drivers, i would highly suggest it