24 DIY LED Budget build

[marinoob]

Looking good marinoob, but with all that room in that housing, you couldn't have put the drivers internal to clean it up a bit?

 

 

yes there is a ton of room in the housing but this is just temporary because my arduino is on the way :-) i dont want to take the time to take it out of the box it is in and put it into the housing then have to disassemble the thing again to hook up the arduino. im just going to wait till the arduino is done and take everything apart and fit the arduino inside of it with a lcd on the front. it is just temporary i will make it look better when it is finished :-) my arduino should be here in about a week hopefully. they look really fun to play with. im not sure if it will make it onto my light......

[imagex]

in the fixture are you using his 30 deg optics?? cause in the pic it looks like you took them off.. if so what was your experience with his 30 deg lense cause he referred me the same thing..

[marinoob]

with the 30* lenses their is some spotlighting effect on the sand but thats because the leds are only like 16" off the sand bed. when i raise the whole fixture up another few inches it looks fine. but very intense.

[marinoob]

well a little update my tank has had zoas in it for a few weeks and i have noticed good growth from my $2 steves led's. but i have not noticed good coloring in my zoas. i have some imitation red hornets that i have the mother colony in my main tank and a frag in my led cube. the growth is better in my led tank. but the color is way better under my t5ho but growth is slower using t5ho. im going through a small cycle though in my cube i tihnk also though. so that could be the problem with the coloring. we will see. im going to switch some frags around and see what happens. also i might have melted them. i lost 20 kedds reds before i turned the light back down and the last 8 are making a comeback. im still running at around 30% of total power now that i turned it back going to let it here for a few weeks maybe i bleach the zoas and the color will comeback.

 

unscientific study so far:

 

steves led's growth = great

color = not so great ( but that could be my fault.)

[marinoob]

so i decided to post all my 1 month results. i was going to keep track weekly but that because too much

Names probably arent right but thats what i have been told i really dont care as long as they grow.

 

A: adult (full open can tell what it is)

 

B:Baby ( a little nub that isnt full yet)

 

Solar flares

10-9: A: 8 B: 0

11-9: A: 11 B: 3

 

Rainbow or skitles cant figure it out

10-9: A: 1 B: 0

11-9: A: 1 B: 1

 

kryptonites

10-9: A: 6 B: 1

11-9: A: 7 B: 1

 

light green paly

10-9: A: 2 B: 0

11-9: A: 4 B: 2

 

knockoff red hornets

10-9: A: 7 B: 2

11-9: A: 13 B: 3

 

Orange center brown skirt

10-9: A: 5 B: 0

11-9: A: 7 B: 3

 

pink center brown skirt

10-9: A: 2 B: 1

11-9: A: 3 B: 0

 

kedds redds or however you spell it

10-9: A: 20 B: 1

11-9: A: 7 B: 0

 

blueberry

10-9: A: 2 B: 3

11-9: A: 7 B: 1

 

nuke green only had these like 2 weeks.

: A: 2 B: 0

11-9: A: 2 B: 1

[Reefgeek]

What happened to the Kedds Redds? Am I reading that right or did you lose over half your colony? I just placed my order from Steve last week, so be sure to check out my build thread

[marinoob]

What happened to the Kedds Redds? Am I reading that right or did you lose over half your colony? I just placed my order from Steve last week, so be sure to check out my build thread

 

 

send me a link to your thread and yes i did loose a crapload of the colony :-( i liked them too. i added them later after i had raised the led brightness and i think they melted they stayed close then actually releaded themselves from the disc. i moved them onto the sandbed and lowered the leds back to like 20-30% and the last 7 survived

[marinoob]

a video of my cube in HD you just have to chane the resolution on the video. there isnt much rock in the display it is all in the sump the 10g sump is practically full of rock from my main tank. i have 14lbs of small rocks seeding in the display of my main tank right now.

 

[BigBad82]

great looking tank, enjoyed the vid! an excellent DIY build wish I had the knowledge to try something like this. keep up the good work.

[marinoob]

a few updates:

 

-LED's still seeming to do great minus the coloring issue :-( still everything seems to be dull. so i turned the whites down and the blues up. u prefer blues anyway but i was trying to keep them even in the beginning. i head the actinic (blues) bring out the color. hopefully thats right.

 

- Found some code (HERE) for the arduino that will do the basic ramp up stay on for 9 hours then slowely ramp down. he also has code that will do a LCD display with time and levels i just need to add to the code to get the temp probe working also. i am going to need the RTC (real time clock) for my arduino for the second bit of code to work. will be ordering it wednesday. so excited to actually find some code that will easily work for what i wnt it to do. Thanks Cptbjorn :-)

 

- added 18lbs of rock to the display and glued my zoas all over it.

 

- Picked up my first SPS to see how it does under the LED's i think it is a green birdsnest i got from a local club member

-should they be spot fed?

-how do you tell if it is happy? polyp extension?

 

- added xenia to the back wall hoping it will spread to the wall.

 

-added hairy mushrooms i got from a local club member.

 

here is a HDR pic i did tonight.

 

 

if you go here you can click on it to zoom in it is a big image :-)

http://www.pashooter.com/uploads/1291142079.jpg

[imagex]

I too have been trying to figure out the arduino just been laying there as well... do you just copy and paste everything on his link??

[doug105]

here is another source for arduino info and code.....

 

here

 

 

DougN

[marinoob]

here is another source for arduino info and code.....

 

here

 

 

DougN

 

this code requires a whole bunch of other hardware the code i linked too is very simple just load code to arduino connect to 5&6 pin PWM and your good to go.

 

THIS is the code im going to use. and he is talking about integrating a temp probe into it.

 

i tihnk im going to buy a arduino nano and load the first code onto it then im going to build the other unit with the second set of code.

[krisko]

WOW your tank is sick!!!! Going to be following this to. See how both are cubes turn out. I almost went with the steves LEDS and I would of but he took 2 weeks to get back to me and I had already ordered somewhere else. Looks amazing and can't beat the good prices your paying.

[imagex]

what other parts for that code??? just a rtc right??

[marinoob]

what other parts for that code??? just a rtc right??

 

i tihnk the second bit of code only needs a LCD display 16x2 and a RTC module. Capbjorn says he used the DS1307 so that is what im going to order also.

 

pretty simple to control your led's

 

-Arduino kit on ebay with wiring breadboard and lcd screen $35+13shipping

 

-rtc ds1307 $20+shipping

 

- and capbjorn's code free

 

 

and you have a controller that individually ramps your whites and your blues seperately to creat a nice dusk-dawn effect. plus you can in the future make it do much more. like add the temp sensor and other stuff.

[krisko]

i tihnk the second bit of code only needs a LCD display 16x2 and a RTC module. Capbjorn says he used the DS1307 so that is what im going to order also.

 

pretty simple to control your led's

 

-Arduino kit on ebay with wiring breadboard and lcd screen $35+13shipping

 

-rtc ds1307 $20+shipping

 

- and capbjorn's code free

 

 

and you have a controller that individually ramps your whites and your blues seperately to creat a nice dusk-dawn effect. plus you can in the future make it do much more. like add the temp sensor and other stuff.

 

 

This is going to be sick!!!! Please if you can write a DIY on how to make this?

[marinoob]

This is going to be sick!!!! Please if you can write a DIY on how to make this?

 

no problem will take pictures of the process

[cruzH20polo]

Im getting the same tank as you!!!

 

yours looks awesome, how are you liking it?

[marinoob]

i absolutely love it 14" seems perfect unless you actually want to put a light on it :-) you could do a viper or some kinda clip on or do a DIY light with LED's :-) i dont like all the excess overhang i see on peoples tanks. just looks kinda crappy to me. and steves LED's seemed cheap enough to give it a try. if it doesnt give me the results i want i will buy a clip on MH light like everyone else. but im getting good growth so far

 

the only tihng i didnt like was that i had to drill my return holes but he would probably do it if you ask.

[marinoob]

just ordered my RTC ds1307 module and a new 16x2 lcd screen that is black with white letteringonce i get this finished and working i am going to put this inside the hood instead of instide a project box screwed to the back.

 

also going to replace 6 of the 10000k leds with 6-6500k leds

 

also would like to change 6 of the actinic leds with 6 of the new actinic led's not sure if they are out yet. i cant find the link to them anymore. try searching actinic led in the search........ spend all day looking :-) maybe evil will link here *wink* *wink*

 

would it be better to replace all 12 with 6500k or would just 6 be fine?

[marinoob]

so my RTC and my new LCD screen cam in last night. i realise that this is probably costing me more than a controller that is already out but whatever it is a learning experience.

 

took some crappy picture with my sell phone camera.

 

last night i stripped all the wiring i will need but only had 2 colors black and red but didnt have alot of red. so i soldered the black to the lcd display it only uses 12 of the 16 terminals on the display. and it is the outer 6 terminals so the middle 4 are empty.

 

then i used red wire and did the same on the 5 terminals on the RTC module

 

the 5 terminals on the RTC are:

 

SDA

SCL

SQW

GND

5V

 

i can take a pretty good guess and get the GND and 5V hooked up but i have no idea where the other 3 go. im pretty much stuck right now. if i can get a answer i will finish wiring it up tonight,

 

 

 

 

 

[krisko]

Looking good so far!

[marinoob]

Looking good so far!

YEAH EXCEPT FOR I FOR OUT HOW TO WIRE THE rtc MODULE UP BUT IT DOESNT DO #### THE DISPLAY ONLY SAYS 12:00:00 EITHER HE CHANGED WHAT THEY GET WIRED INTO OR THE rtc MODULE IS A DUD. ANYONE KNOW WHAT SPARKFUNS EXCHANGE POLICY IS......

[marinoob]

well im taking this fixture off of the tank until i get it working the way i want. im tired of trying to work on stuff while it is on the tank. i bought a 150w viper and a pendant which will beused to replace the led's until i get the led unit 100% operational.

 

problem is i might like the halide too much :-)

 

going to be replacing my 10000k leds with nuetral whites as per evil's suggestion and that might be a while till i get them.