LED DIY BUILD – plug & play and open source join forces

[evilc66]

evil, what are your thoughts on the 10000k leds?

Typically, I haven't been exactly thrilled with high kelvin whites. They typically raise the blue content, and kill the red, and some yellow. Makes for a fairly washed out look, creating color issues that are even worse than people are complaining about now with 6500K whites. Of course, it's always possible that jfarabaugh may have found something that looks reasonable.

 

Cool. I'm not sure I'd call it common knowledge as there are people asking about it. And I had to call LuxDrive to find out for myself.

 

I'm interested in the "other glaring issues" if you have a moment to PM me on it. Thanks!

Sorry about that. We went through all of these issues about 2 years ago when we really started kicking the DIY movement into high gear. Sadly it took some of us some expensive experiments to find out many of these issues, even after calling Luxdrive to confirm things. Some of the shortcomings of the Buckpucks lead us to most of us going for the Meanwell drivers.

[jfarabaugh]

Typically, I haven't been exactly thrilled with high kelvin whites. They typically raise the blue content, and kill the red, and some yellow. Makes for a fairly washed out look, creating color issues that are even worse than people are complaining about now with 6500K whites. Of course, it's always possible that jfarabaugh may have found something that looks reasonable.

 

Yeap. They are more blue looking than the CW. You can see from the pics I posted. I will put them up against the spectrometer to see what it is actually given off though.

[jfarabaugh]

More LEDs came in so here are some more color comparisons. I added some different color stones for some reference. They don’t react to the light like corals do but it is a start until I get the driver unit and the PSU all hooked up and can put it over the tank.

Hopefully next week I will go back and capture the analog spectrometer output of these and post the results.

 

Cree NW

 

Cree CW

 

10000K White

 

K2 Cyan

 

Cree Blue

 

Cree RB

[autopro]

So would you recommend Steve's LED's compared to the CREE? Do you feel they have about the same output or would you need more of Steve's to get the same output?

I am about to place an order and I would appreciate your input.

Thanks,

[jfarabaugh]

So would you recommend Steve's LED's compared to the CREE? Do you feel they have about the same output or would you need more of Steve's to get the same output?

I am about to place an order and I would appreciate your input.

Thanks,

 

 

They look just as bright but that is just with my naked eye. I have done nothing to measure them yet in any way. For how cheap they are (about $2.15 each) I would give it a try if you are worried about cost.

[jfarabaugh]

I have been struggling for a few days now on how to arrange the LEDs on my heatsink and keep good coverage with all the colors. So far I have come up with breaking my heatsink in half (not literally). Both are mirror images of each other and will have low angle reflectors surrounding them. I got this idea form looking at some lighting fixtures that have multiple halides in them. I could go even further and break the heatsink into fourths. I am very open to comments and suggestions with this

[madadi]

i had a hard time getting an even color spread in my nano. i ended up having to spend more money then i had planed and clustared the leds so i have 6 groups of 3leds each with one white, blue and UV led. the only thing that i would do diferent is get warm white leds instead of the cool whites. warm whites balance out the overly blue look in my opinion and produce more natural red and green color.

[autopro]

Did you ever get the spectrometer in? Curious to see what you came up with.

[jfarabaugh]

Did you ever get the spectrometer in? Curious to see what you came up with.

 

Yes, I got an analog spectrometer but I will not get a chance to do anything with it for maybe a week or two. Work and Life are getting in the way

[jfarabaugh]

So much has happened in the LED world on this site in the past month since I started this. Starting to work this again as my sump project is now done.

[marinoob]

as someone who built a steves led fixture i would love to know what readings you get compared to crees. im running 24 3w steves over a 11g Cube im pretty sure it is enough but would love to see some par numbers. do you have access to the instruments(quantum/par meter) to do that?

[Genj]

jf,

 

I'm anxious to see what you come up with. I'm in the middle of my build which will include a good mix.

 

Chan 1

 

10 RB

2 CB

 

Chan 2

 

8 CW

4 NW

 

Chan 3

 

3 TV

2 Cyan

 

I was thinking about placing the finished hood on top of the tank, and taking a few pictures while the tank was empty, but placing some white matte board inside the tank to get color shots.

 

Any other thoughts on items that I should place into the tank to create some color shots like yours that would be helpful?

[xmasia]

anymore updates from anyone??

[jfarabaugh]

no more updates.... the sump install, work, and life got in the way. it should be all said and done before xmas. With ofcourse updates to this thread along the way

[Hans Dorn]

Time to do this right! Spectrometer is on its way!

LED spectra are quite boring

[acrotrdco]

Guys,

 

I received a PM on RC asking to re-post the following stuff I've posted on RC:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...076&page=19

 

So here it is.

 

====================================================

 

Based on the information found here and on the web, I've customize the layout of LED bulbs trying to enhance the aesthetics of my LED fixture.

 

Assuming I'm emulating a 8x T5HO, with something like 4x ATI AquaBlue Plus (Actinic blue), 3x ATI AquaBlue Special and 1x KZ Fuji Purple, using the spectrum I've found online, I should be using the following color bulbs

 

400-420nm for purple range - both ATI bulbs have a tint of 420nm, right now I don't have any but I've already placed order and will be getting 2x 420nm bulbs to replace the 400nm purple installed on my fixture by default.

 

445nm Royal blue (SemiLED) - that's the peak wave length shown in the blue spectrum for both ATI blue bulbs.

 

460nm Royal Blue (Cree XP-E) - that should fill the missing gap between 450nm and 480nm blue.

 

480nm Blue (Cree XP-E) - that's the near-cyan color spectrum.

 

I didn't use any 503nm cyan, because according to the ATI bulb spectrums, there's very little cyan color in their bulbs, and the 480nm Cree XP-E blue already have a strong tint of cyan.

 

10000-12000K white (SemiLED) - that will cover most of the green to red spectrum

 

16000K white (15w x 4, SemiLED) - these will be turned on only 5 hours a day to simulate the brightest period between 11am-4pm.

 

620nm red to add a tint of purple to the overall appearance, to emulate the KZ Fuji purple color.

 

Therefore the layout should be something like this:

 

 

 

 

Now some images, they're all taken with the same ISO, white balance, shutter speed and aperture, on a tripod.

 

Everything turned on, with a blue:white ratio of 1:1.5

 

4x 15w white turned off, with a blue:white ratio of 1.5:1

This is giving a very similiar appearance of a T5HO set.

 

Blue only

Notice that the cyan color stands out pretty obviously, that previously not seen when using all 445nm royal blue bulbs.

[jfarabaugh]

Getting back into things and have been toying around with the LED layout.

12 NW

12 RB

6 CW

6 B

6 violet from nanotuners when they become available.

 

This is what I have come up with so far. Feel free to comment.

 

[jfarabaugh]

New design and I like it better as it should help avoid strips on any high rocks in the tank

 

[dhraakoxr]

New design and I like it better as it should help avoid strips on any high rocks in the tank

 

 

 

I just can't wait to see the fruit of all your work. I plan on throwing on a couple of NW and TV's on my setup when the TVs become available.

[jfarabaugh]

If I can get the wiring firgured out . I hope to start the build this weekend and hopfully have some pics by sunday night..... We shall see

[dhraakoxr]

If I can get the wiring firgured out . I hope to start the build this weekend and hopfully have some pics by sunday night..... We shall see

 

With the violets? If you have violets hook me up with your source lol.

[jfarabaugh]

With the violets? If you have violets hook me up with your source lol.

 

 

Sorry the build will be done without the violets until nanotuners gets them in.

[jfarabaugh]

Almost all of the LEDs are on the heatsink except for the violets and the wire layout is on paper.

 

[ajmckay]

Very cool man... I like the progress.

 

As others have stated I'm excited to see how this all works out.

 

Acro: Nice post. And a nice looking reef you have there.

[jfarabaugh]

Update: LED array is built and is like looking at the sun. Hitting the tank with it brings out some colors I haven’t seen before. But I am currently having some controller issues and trying to figure it out. If I can't get it figured out real soon (next few days) I am going to use potentiometers and timers for now to avoid having to buy a new set of PC-Rs bulbs and then continue to work on the controller. Hopefully it will be installed and pics will be posted in a week or two.

 

12 NW @ 500 mA

6 CW @ 1000 mA

12 RB @ 500 mA

6 B @ 500 mA

6 TV @ 500 mA