Baby Angelynn's 1st Pico Tank

[plantarms]

Why do you have 4 mounts? i am guessing 2 is for the buckpucks leds, and 1 for moonlight but what about the last one?

fans

 

Here's a couple quick notes. With 4 blues and 4 whites I'd recommend two 12V DC power supplies so you can effectively run both sets without overrunning one power supply. As such you will need to 2x 2.5mm (size N) connectors. This also allows you to set timers to effectively alter the time of day.

 

I would also recommend that you do not use one of your 3W LEDs as a moonlight. The 3W, even dialed down, puts out a LOT of light. A 1W (or less) LED would be just fine since the tank is so small. In fact, the one that comes with the Sunpaq appears to even be a bit bright so I'll have to put some blue plastic over it to cut that down a bit as well.

 

You will need more than a 12v power supply, to run 4 cree xr-e led's in series. Each will draw about 3.6v * 4 = 14.4 +2v that the buckpuck pulls. So any dc power supply above 16.4v. laptop power supplies work great

 

yeah 3w led moonlight is not a great idea, i use a 5mm LED with a resistor for a moonlight

[Bio-Reef]

Sleek lookin tank!

[Angelynn]

fans

 

 

 

You will need more than a 12v power supply, to run 4 cree xr-e led's in series. Each will draw about 3.6v * 4 = 14.4 +2v that the buckpuck pulls. So any dc power supply above 16.4v. laptop power supplies work great

 

yeah 3w led moonlight is not a great idea, i use a 5mm LED with a resistor for a moonlight

 

That's sounds right! i guess i should get one for the fan too. i forgot all about the fan.

 

Where can i find a fan that will fit inside my current usa satellite? Could one fan work for cooling the heatsink or should i get 2 like most build LED fixtures?

 

You have send me a link to buy some power supply but can you recommend me the one i will need the most. i am planning to do exactly like your setup, i think! Thanks

 

Also Can you help me out on the layout of the leds and how to wire them. i am still working on the heatsink but my hands got really tired from making figure 8 motions.

[plantarms]

looking good! i hear you on the heatsink, it took hours for me and i got a good workout!

 

i'm not sure how much space you have in the fixture for the fan, i know mine was a little thinner than yours so i could only fit two 40mm fans, but i think with the dual satellite fixture you might be able to fit 50mm or 60mm fans. if you can fit those in your case, then get the larger size, it will give you more cooling with less noise. look for a fan with a high cfm (cubic feet per minute) and a low dB (decibals) rating. for example: the fans i got were rated for 5cfm and 19 decibals. looking back i wish they had a little more airflow, however the noise level is great, i cannot ever hear them. i would suggest using two fans, just in case one of them happens to fail, you have a safety fan. (50mm = 1.97 inches, 60mm = 2.36 inches). here is a good place to find fans

 

For the fans, assuming you get 12v fans (which most of them are) you will use any 12v dc power supply, you can use this one. for this fan you will want to get a jack as well, but since it has a 2.1mm insert you will want the type M from radioshack. you will only need one jack and one power supply because you can wire the fans in parallel on this one power supply since they do not require a lot of amps.

 

for the LED's i went with alternating them B-W-B-W in two rows to get the best blend and coverage. nice work on the heatsink, have you tapped the holes yet? that part was the hardest for me. to mount the LED's to the heatsink use 4-40 3/8'' screws from homedepot and then i used these nylon washers to isolate the screw from the actual LED and prevent any shorts. you will need to get a total of 16 washers, these come in packs of 8. I accidentally only ordered 8 when i was doing mine and then i had to wait another week for them to come in to finish my build, wasn't much fun

 

these are the power supplies you will want. get two of them

http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/46-30084-5...PA-1600-06.html

[plantarms]

two more things:

 

i would get the drilling and tapping done first, then work on buffing the heatsink. i did it the opposite only to have a tap and a screw break off in a heatsink i spend about 4 or 5 hours sanding down. it was very frustrating.

 

also for wiring the LED's you will have the blues on your 750mA buckpuck and the whites on the 1000mA buckpuck. then wire the positive wire for the LED to the positive pad on the first LED, and the negative wire to the negative pad on the last LED. And wire them in series, there are pictures on my thread. Also soldering them together can be a lot more simple if you have the right tools. You will want to rough up the small metal tabs on the LED's to give the solder something to stick to. Here are some tools that will really help

 

Wire Strippers (16-24awg)

Soldering iron (40w is good)

60/40 Solder

22 awg stranded wire(a couple colors, it is a lot easier to use than thicker wire, especially when soldering)

Steel wool (i think you already have this)

Heat shrink (they have it at home depot in the electronics deparment, get a couple of the small variety packs)

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste (you will want to use this between the LED star and the heatsink, very thin layer)

 

hope that helps!

[HumblePie]

First and foremost, let me say congrats on the new addition to the family!!!

 

Concerning the fans, With my LEDs I use two Rasurbo 50mm fans at each end of the Sunpaq. They push a lot of air and are really quiet. However, I should say that I wired these in series along with the two 6" LED strips I got off of eBay. As such, they are not running at full speed. When I had them wired directly to the 12v with a potentiometer, full speed was really loud. I was always forced to turn them down.

 

As for the drilling and tapping. On my first try on a different pico, I busted my tap in one of the drilled holes and was unable to get it out. For my current pico I went with the thermal paste.

[plantarms]

when you get the bits for drilling and tapping i would definitely suggest getting 2 or 3 sets. i ordered 2 when i did it and of course i had a tap break. tapping is a lot cleaner and more practical than thermal paste (i have done it both ways) but it is also a lot of work. the fans should not be too loud in the case if you get a dB rating around 20 or so

[HumblePie]

the fans should not be too loud in the case if you get a dB rating around 20 or so

 

The ones I have are rated at 19dB @ 4000RPM, 12VDC . Unfortunately, even wired in series on a 12v power supply they were too loud to sit by. Making it worse was closing the case which amplified the fan noise. If I cracked open the splash guard a bit to let more air flow in the sound went down dramatically. That's why I add the Pot to it so I could turn down the voltage and fan speed to make it more tolerable. I now run the fans at about 2500-3000 RPM and I can't really hear the fan when I am sitting right next to it.

[Angelynn]

BAD NEWS because it all happen this morning before you all help me out on some advices about tapping. i will post picture later of my accidents.

 

BUT...

 

i kinda made it work even though i messed up 2 times!

[Angelynn]

The ones I have are rated at 19dB @ 4000RPM, 12VDC . Unfortunately, even wired in series on a 12v power supply they were too loud to sit by. Making it worse was closing the case which amplified the fan noise. If I cracked open the splash guard a bit to let more air flow in the sound went down dramatically. That's why I add the Pot to it so I could turn down the voltage and fan speed to make it more tolerable. I now run the fans at about 2500-3000 RPM and I can't really hear the fan when I am sitting right next to it.

 

 

Thank you HumblePie and Plantarms for your help. i will definitely look into the fans very soon when i get this heatsink all prep up and done with drilling. But the next step is the confusing part for me because i am not an electrician. I probaby will mess up on the soldering too! Looking at the cree leds that i have order from nanoturner.com all it printed is just + and - sign. So maybe a very close up picture of the LED layout would help me alot then explaining in terms.

 

I will definitely will look into the adjusting the fan speed pretty soon, because i probably can't stand the loud noise for my little born

[cdelicath]

 

You need to run from + to - making a chain.

 

Make sure you have a decent soldering gun 40W +

 

Tin all the stars with a good mound and then set the wire on top and press the gun down a bit until the solder melts and the wire will sink as you pull the solder up.

 

I will make a video for you tomorrow showing you how to solder if you need one.

[my93camaro]

 

You need to run from + to - making a chain.

 

 

 

after seeing this i think i wired mine wrong...but they have been working fine.......hmmm

 

i went from positve of buck to negative on led and negative from buck to positive on led

[cdelicath]

I don't know that it matters but maybe Evill will chime in.

This is how I wire all mine though.

[Angelynn]

Picture will be posted tomorrow, Need to recover my hands from buffing the heatsink.

[plantarms]

BAD NEWS because it all happen this morning before you all help me out on some advices about tapping. i will post picture later of my accidents.

 

BUT...

 

i kinda made it work even though i messed up 2 times!

uh oh... did you break a bit off in the heatsink??

[Angelynn]

uh oh... did you break a bit off in the heatsink??

 

i broke two bit off in the heatsink but when i cover the cree led you'll probably not see it. i will try today to hammer the broken bit off. hope it will work

 

your help on the nylon washers work out pretty goog though!

[cdelicath]

I use 2 part epoxy compound on all mine. Drilling and taping is not worth the hassle IMO. No added benefit other then it's about 10min faster to replace a tapped one then a glued one. And how often do you have to do that?

[Angelynn]

I use 2 part epoxy compound on all mine. Drilling and taping is not worth the hassle IMO. No added benefit other then it's about 10min faster to replace a tapped one then a glued one. And how often do you have to do that?

 

sound easy to do then the tapping hassel but it's probably too late to do that. I finish tapping and drilling all the holes already so the next part is to finish buffing the heatsink. Is it necessary to buff it til you see your reflection or is it just for looks? Also I am starting to concerned about how in the world I am be able to make the fixture hold on the heatsink inside? What is the best way to make it attach to the body of the fixture?

[cdelicath]

Again just my opinion but buffing is a waste of time too. All you are doing with sanding and buffing is trying to gain a tiny bit more contact between the heat-sink and LED star by taking out groves. It can actually be counter productive if you do it by hand and make the surface of the heat sink uneven. It's basically for looks and a bit more light reflection back off the water into the tank. Take a look at the back of the LED star... that is as good as your heat sink needs to be. The heat-sink compound will fill any scratches and voids that's what it's there for. You need very little compound just enough to fill those tiny tiny voids.

 

As far as securing it to the housing I would drill and tap 2 holes in the heatsink and then 2 in the housing and run 2 threaded studs in to affix the heat-sink to the op of the light housing.

[plantarms]

Again just my opinion but buffing is a waste of time too. All you are doing with sanding and buffing is trying to gain a tiny bit more contact between the heat-sink and LED star by taking out groves. It can actually be counter productive if you do it by hand and make the surface of the heat sink uneven. It's basically for looks and a bit more light reflection back off the water into the tank. Take a look at the back of the LED star... that is as good as your heat sink needs to be. The heat-sink compound will fill any scratches and voids that's what it's there for. You need very little compound just enough to fill those tiny tiny voids.

 

i second this, i didn't realize the minimal effect that buffing would have when i put all the work into mine. if there are any noticeable scratches or grooves where you are planning on mounting the cree xr-e stars then it would be useful to do that, but otherwise it does take a lot of time for not a very huge gain.

 

how can you get an LED off when you apply it with thermal adhesive compound? that stuff is pretty much impossible to remove

[cdelicath]

Again just my opinion but buffing is a waste of time too. All you are doing with sanding and buffing is trying to gain a tiny bit more contact between the heat-sink and LED star by taking out groves. It can actually be counter productive if you do it by hand and make the surface of the heat sink uneven. It's basically for looks and a bit more light reflection back off the water into the tank. Take a look at the back of the LED star... that is as good as your heat sink needs to be. The heat-sink compound will fill any scratches and voids that's what it's there for. You need very little compound just enough to fill those tiny tiny voids.

 

i second this, i didn't realize the minimal effect that buffing would have when i put all the work into mine. if there are any noticeable scratches or grooves where you are planning on mounting the cree xr-e stars then it would be useful to do that, but otherwise it does take a lot of time for not a very huge gain.

 

how can you get an LED off when you apply it with thermal adhesive compound? that stuff is pretty much impossible to remove

 

Wood chisel and a hammer. One tap and it will pop right off. Then you sand off the remaining compound with 180G,400G,1200G and then a scotchbrite. Good as new.

I have done it on 3 stars that I fried tinkering with PWM on new drivers.

[zjharva]

and as you can see, these buckpucks do not support the use of peanut butter with them.

[cdelicath]

and as you can see, these buckpucks do not support the use of peanut butter with them.

 

 

At first I was like Waaaaa!

Good Eye, Good Eye

[plantarms]

haha it took me a while to figure out what you meant, haha funny

[Angelynn]

At first I was like Waaaaa!

Good Eye, Good Eye

 

omg. so funny guys! aww no support for peanut butter!