LED Aesthetics: What do you really think of your color?

[adambrum]

If you want to drop the extra cash, running your LEDs at low current has some benefits. They're running cooler and more efficient this way.

Not sure if you need tighter optics, I think not...

 

That's a sweet driver. What does the price tag say?

 

No idea on a price yet, the only Uk supplier does not respond to emails ?

 

I have a profilux so the 0-10v is perfect for me and hopfully it will dim right down unlike the meanwells. its one of the thing that i dont like about the array i built the other is the colour.

 

Good thing aswell with profilux is they do dali too, add a dali to dmx converter and there a whole load more drivers available

[skunker]

No idea on a price yet, the only Uk supplier does not respond to emails ?

 

I have a profilux so the 0-10v is perfect for me and hopfully it will dim right down unlike the meanwells. its one of the thing that i dont like about the array i built the other is the colour.

 

Good thing aswell with profilux is they do dali too, add a dali to dmx converter and there a whole load more drivers available

 

If it does dali there are drivers out there for that, too. Check out the drivers by eldoLED.

http://www.eldoled.com/

They aren't cheap but you get a 4-channel controllable driver using 0-10v, dali, or DMX.

[therman]

What are peoples thoughts on powering the leds at say 350ma with tighter optics but using more of them, should help blending the different colours together.

 

Check out my tank on page 13 of this thread. Basically what you describe. The blending is seamless with the CW and RB even around shadows, going to try swapping out some for NW, CB, maybe cyan very soon. Might use 40 deg optics for those so the effects aren't localized, but I'll post my results.

 

FYI after a few weeks with current turned down some of the sps with pale color issues are REALLY improving (red planet getting redder and greener, lokani and bonsai getting purpler, hawkins getting much deeper blue with the purple tips). Almost makes me leery to swap LEDs, but I'm sure it will be for the best. I bet I could light a 4x4 tank with this fixture and just raise the height and turn up the current a little bit...

[blasterman]

What are peoples thoughts on powering the leds at say 350ma with tighter optics but using more of them

 

Color blending issues are caused by spacing different colored emitters too far apart. If you cluster them as close as possible the problem goes away. Just a pet peeve, but there's no law that says you need to evenly space all your LEDs in a perfect grid. It actually causes more problems this way -vs- clustering.

 

Pumarjr, I just got some mroe Acan frags locally, and the color is better with NW -vs- CW by far.

[Giga]

I'm lookin to supplement my ushio 10k but not change the color any would 2 NW and 2 RB keep my crisp white look. The little led spot light i'm makin gonna be mounted 31" away what type of optics would that need?

[fishfanatic88]

would you be able to run the cw and nw on the same string and the same with the cb and rb

[pumarjr]

Ya blasterman, I couldn't be happier with my decision to add those LEDs, what a difference, some of my Acans were beautiful, but now after 2 weeks running the additional colors, the Acans now are showing colors that were not there before. It's beautiful.

 

I have also noticed that my coraline algae has also started to rapidly grow on almost everything, it's now spotting on my back wall, mp10, side glass and rocks, I didn't think that adding those two colors would amount to a hill of beans, but what a nice surprise. If a new color scheme could be created, it would be cw, nw, rb, cb, everyone would love the way it looks.

[fishfanatic88]

evil blasterman do you think it would be ok to run 9cw 3nw 9rb 2cb and 1tv running the whites on one string and the blue and violet on another?

[Hans Dorn]

Hey evil, did you already post a pic with the TV alone lighting a tank?

[skunker]

Hey evil, did you already post a pic with the TV alone lighting a tank?

Not to steal evil's thunder but here you go.

http://reefbuilders.com/2010/09/29/true-violet-led-420/

[Hans Dorn]

Thx

 

Guess the camera had a hard time picking up the real colors.

[blasterman]

evil blasterman do you think it would be ok to run 9cw 3nw 9rb 2cb and 1tv running the whites on one string and the blue and violet on another?

 

I would think not. The average current of the series can't exceed 500mA because of the TV, and you'd have to turn down the power on the entire string so you didn't blow them.

 

I suppose you could always run two TVs in parallel in place of one single TV to double their current capacity, but somebody needs to confirm my shot gun circuit theory on this.

 

For the record, I just pulled my CB's off line until I can get things more sorted out. They are simply too over-powering. I want to get a firmer ratio set as to how they work ideally with RB's, and that means more dimmable power supplies.

[pumarjr]

Blasterman, what type of psu are you currently using on the CB's? On mine im using the 1000ma Dimmable Buckpuk, it dims the LEDs almost to the point of them becoming a moon light.

[pumarjr]

Wow, I just got the quote for the Trinity LED Driver, $695.00 us. Thanks but no thanks.

[DaveFason]

blaster - For the Blues I have found that...

 

4 NW

8 RB

2 CB - 350mA

 

-Dave

[MDreefer]

So on one driver, what do you think of this combo?

 

(1) 10w 445 nm (satistronics)

(3) NW Rebels

(4) RB xr-e

(1) CB xr-e

 

Run below 900ma because of the 10 watter, and probably around 700ma or so. Depending on PAR measurements.

 

They will all be placed as close as possible with no optics.

 

P.S. Dave, I think I received the emitters today, just got a package notification.

[swampy42]

Just to verify, CW(Cool White) has a color temp ~ 7K, while the NW(Neutral White) ~10K?

 

I'm planning for my 20L on a 4" x 20" heat sink:

Driver 1:

14( b ) - Royal Blue

 

Driver 2:

10(w) - Cool White 7K

2( c ) - Cyan Green

2(n) - Neutral White 10K

 

b w b w b w b w b w b

_____b n c b n c

b w b w b w b w b w b

[Hans Dorn]

NW is 5000K...

[swampy42]

NW is 5000K...

 

Ugh, after reading all 18 page some how I missed that. Makes more sense now. So the question now is should I mix 7 and 10ks or just stay with all 7k (Cool White)

[Mr. Microscope]

Just to verify, CW(Cool White) has a color temp ~ 7K, while the NW(Neutral White) ~10K?

 

I'm planning for my 20L on a 4" x 20" heat sink:

Driver 1:

14( b ) - Royal Blue

 

Driver 2:

10(w) - Cool White 7K

2( c ) - Cyan Green

2(n) - Neutral White 10K

 

What kind of driver are you using for 14 LEDs? Are you running in parallel?

[swampy42]

What kind of driver are you using for 14 LEDs? Are you running in parallel?

 

stevesleds double driver wired in series.

[Mr. Microscope]

stevesleds double driver wired in series.

Cool. Thanks. I forgot about Steve's LEDs. Though, I'd be careful if you plan on using any other LEDs than the ones on his website. I imagine, you wouldn't be able to run as many CREEs on one of those.

[blasterman]

Ugh, after reading all 18 page some how I missed that. Makes more sense now. So the question now is should I mix 7 and 10ks or just stay with all 7k (Cool White)

 

Not sure where you guys are getting these numbers, but they don't seem right

 

'Cool Whites' can vary from 5000k all the way to 10,000k. All depends on what bin. NanoTuners typically sells WG's, which are around 5700-6200k as I recall. It's rare to find cool whites warmer than this, but more often than not they are cooler, such as the ones DX tends to sell. Warmer bin cool-white LEDs tend to be the ones most sought after by commercial LED light makers, which is why cool bins are more common with LED discounters. I'm pretty sure Evil chose WG's for a reason.

 

The higher the color temp of cool-white emitters the *worse* the problem gets that we originally were trying to solve. Basically, the cooler the cool-white the more blue and green dominate. As we've all learned, you can't have a decent tank dominated by just blue and green.

 

Neutral white emitters tend to range from 4000-4500k. They will have much higher red/amber components than the warmest cool-white.

 

I can either hold my tongue on this, or be blunt and call it as I see it: I assume you guys would rather I spoke out and take the knocks. Anyways, while my first recommendation will always be to try various colors and establish your own preference, I've yet to see a decent looking tank using 7000k or 10,000k emitters.

[swampy42]

Anyways, while my first recommendation will always be to try various colors and establish your own preference, I've yet to see a decent looking tank using 7000k or 10,000k emitters.

 

Thanks for the info and blunt is always the way to go. Have you/anyone seen the Ecoxotic's Panorama System which is using 48 x 10k and 24 X 460nm blue which seems like it would be a very sterile white/blue setup.

[OneTrickPony]

From Acrotrdco on RC

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...17#post17836317

 

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:

 

 

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 similar 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.