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GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)


TinyGiant

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coastie what did you end up using for a driver?

 

Sorry I didn't see that until now. I used 2 different drivers actually, a meanwell for one set:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

And this buckpuck:

http://ledsupply.com/03023-d-e-700p.php

With this power supply:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

and power supply connector (Completely unnecessary but I wanted sleek and figured this would look better than splicing)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

Hope that helps. The buckpuck is good up to 6 LEDs whereas the meanwell will run 12. The buckpuck I used was dimmable whereas the meanwell wasn't . Nice part about the meanwell is all you have to do is wire up a plug to the input side and you are good to go. Though again, it isn't dimmable.

 

 

May try toying with one of these as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/3w-LED-Driver-MBI6651-...=item588df74b7f

Edited by Coastie
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Dolphins18

I'm going to use acrylic, so would 5 be enough 2 white 3 blue, considering I already have 36 watts of t5 over a 10 gallon?

Or should I just ditch the t5 and get 10 gu10 bulbs?

Edited by mark1234
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wow, that looks SWEET Eric! very nice set-up. =)

 

My pvc fixture is complete and operational. Just waiting on the bulbs to come in due end of next week.

 

Someone should buy a whole bunch of these, mark em up a couple bucks and put them back on eBay! I would have paied a couple extra dollars if I can get them sooner! I nonminate Tiny! =p

 

 

Phil.

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i would if i had the money. .but we started our own landscaping company last year and its slowly growing.. lol extra spending is at a minimum :)

 

eric i think you've inspired the design i will probably go with for my long shallow tank. I really like the shelf hood idea :)

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OK, I should have my bulbs today, but here is my setup. I ended up with 21 total over my 33 long. They are about 9 or 10" above the surface of the water. 2 banks, as you can see, with the blues towards the front of the tank, the whites behind, towards the wall.

 

Pic 1: The hood/shelf being built.

Pic 2: Installing the sockets.

Pic 3: Sockets in, hood mounted (tested with basic gu10 bulbs that you buy at HD for the track lights)

Pic 4: The setup as it will be.

 

I'll update with pics with the bulbs in hopefully later tonight or tomrrow!

 

Total cost of everything involved in this is right about $150, including all the hardware/supplies.

Very nice setup. Might go with something like that over my BC29 this fall. Following this thread very closely as I feel some people are significantly overpowering, and therefore overspending on, their LED setup.

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Very nice setup. Might go with something like that over my BC29 this fall. Following this thread very closely as I feel some people are significantly overpowering, and therefore overspending on, their LED setup.

 

:)

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So I went home for lunch and low and behold, I had bulbs! I couldn't wait, so I twisted my little heart out and got them going. WOW. Simply put, WOW. I dig these hardcore. Not only are they an AWESOME color (I used 11 blues and 10 whites), but there is very little ambient light outside the tank. I will be adding 4 more blues along the wall, just to make sure the back of the tank is well lit, too, but that's it. So, grand total for this hood/shelf setup with 25 bulbs will be about $175.

 

BIG MAD HUGE CRAZY PROPS to my home skillet TinyGiant for going all guineapig on us. Thanks a lot, man, and I do hope this thread gets stickied.

 

I have no corals under these lights yet, so I cannot speak to growth for a couple months yet, but as of right now, they are most certainly something I am happy I tried. I will continue to watch this and add in my feedback as things go along. I will be moving into my 33 long in about 10 days, so from there, who knows what'll happen!

 

And thank all for the nice comments on how it looks- I just wanted something clean, and it looks like it worked!

 

And as a side note, the bulbs are set up like so:

W W W W W W W W W W

B B B B B B B B B B B

Pics:

post-59395-1305671528_thumb.jpg

post-59395-1305671534_thumb.jpg

Edited by Erics5.5
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looks great!

 

anyone wanting to donate to the buy tiny bulbs fund feel free lol

 

i wish i had some sort of stake in these.. the china sellers will get a big increase in sales as these things get noticed. I just hope they keep pricing the same and they stay available.

 

it is really nice that they are pretty directional.. you dont waste any light outside of the tank.

wait until you get some corals in there. they will love it and the tank will POP at night

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I also bought an led string that's about 36" long (96 leds) in blue as a moonlight (these are NOT meant for growing corals, it's more like auto mood lighting). I had a small one of these on my 10 gallon, and they work perfect. I'll take more pics when that's on, too.

Edited by Erics5.5
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I should mention, I didn't even want to use visible brackets on the shelf, but I couldn't find a floating shelf bracket big enough to use for this... So I mounted the brackets up under the hood to recess them in a bit deeper. If anyone every finds a HUGE floating shelf bracket that can hold ~100 lbs, let me know!

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I was worried about what I'm going to be putting on top, which is probably a few potted plants, and those can weigh quite a bit. The lighting hardware weighs almost nothing!

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englishreefer

Has anybody tried these with the bulbs only a few inches off the water surface? I want to give some a try inside a river reef hood but am concernd that being so close to surface i will get a bad lazer effect.

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There is that, and that the bulbs are not dealed against moisture. The closer they get, the greater the chance of them failing.

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englishreefer

Im not to concerned with moisture as my plan is to seal them with silicone into the perspex splash guard already installed. I presume that the lenses on the underside off the bulbs will be sealed.

 

¬Y¬Y¬Y¬Y¬ Like this but upside down.

 

Do you think this will be ok.

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How "bad" the lazer effect of these bulb a few inches above surface depends on the depth of your tank and clarity of the water. I'd think there would be some strong beam patterns right below the surface but should difuse out with increased depth.

 

I don't think the beams are necessarily bad. It's not much different from the way it looks when I was snorkling in Hawaii and saw the sun light beaming into the water.

 

As far as the bulbs, they are not "sealed". The optics sits over the LED and kept in place by the housing that acts also as heat sink. But the housing is vented with multiple slots on the side and bottom where moisture can easily get to the circuit board that the LED's are soldered onto.

 

Not sure what your hood looks like, but if you plan to install these into a hood, I'd add a fan or two. The housing of these bulbs(3x1w cool whites) heats up to ~115F.

 

By the way, thse bulbs can be run with the LED optics/housing can be removed to eliminate the lazer beam effect. of course w/out the 30degree optics, the light intensity isn't as focused/strong.

 

Phil.

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grafxalien
Has anybody tried these with the bulbs only a few inches off the water surface? I want to give some a try inside a river reef hood but am concernd that being so close to surface i will get a bad lazer effect.

 

I would also like to know about this. I am custom making a hood that doesn't cover the entire length of the tank. Im thinking of maybe mounting them at angles inside the hood to make sure everything is covered

 

Also, anyone try the 4x1watt bulbs?

Edited by grafxalien
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I got a couple of 4x1w blues from LED-HK that came in today... probably because they are blue, they don't seem near as bright as the 3x1w cool whites.

 

A bigger issue with the 4x1w blues from LED-HK, they BARELY fit in the GU10 sockets. They slide in fine, but I had to use force to turn them so they lock in. And with force, I was only able to get them turned like 15degrees as they are JAMMED in. I could use more force but I didn't want to break the leads of the bulb or the socket. In comparison, with the 3x1w cool whites, they slide in, and I could easily turn it ~45degrees at which point they gently lock into place.

 

My 4x1w red bulb also came in... that sucker is RED! lol I'll snap a few pics later when I get home. All the LED's are soldered in the circuit board... maybe I can get them off and experiment with color combinations like maybe 3 blue + 1 red. We'll see. =p

 

Phil.

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I'll probably stick with the 3x1w if you were having compatibility issues with the sockets. I have a club frag swap this weekend in NH and hope to sell enough frags to get some more gu10s for my 20L grow out tank i just setup a few weeks ago :) currently has a 2x36" T5 on it and it looks foolish hanging over the edges.

 

I would also like to get some to make a couple slick looking fixtures to sell :)

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YouKnowBlev
Just ordered 5 more blues so I can add a couple towards the back and have a couple spares!

 

 

Which particular bulbs did you buy and from who? I look around the original OP's ebay recommendation but that ebayer doesn't have any blues that have been recommended?

 

Links?

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either the 4x1w blue or the 1x3w blue. i dont see much of the 3x1w bulbs anymore, i think there selling the 4x1w's instead.

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The 3x1 watt bulbs are available, you just have to email and ask the original people about them, I think it's LED-HK? They always have all the colors, just don't list them. If you want green, red, white, or blue, they should have them all.

 

Easy people to deal with. Going price is about $5.50 or $6 per bulb, and it is perfectly safe to purchase outside of ebay from these people. They are good and ship same day, even thought it still takes 2 weeks to get here. All my purchases ahve been through them directly so far.

 

Hey Philip, I'd love to see what you come up with on that red bulb... Sounds pretty neato. I'm still thinking about taking one blue and putting it in my white bulbs, and vice versa. I don't think it'll do anything different, as I have 21 bulbs on there already, and 4 more coming, so a total of 25... None of them are more than about a half inch apart, so color is great.

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I tried to take some pics of the red/blue bulbs but they aren't turning out very well. What's in the picture isn't as RED or BLUE as it is the way I see them.

 

I found some 3x1w blues on eBay yesterday by searching for "GU10 blue 3w" and bought 3 from DreamMacys in Hong Kong. Looks like they shipped today already!

 

Also, stopped in IKEA today during lunch and bought 2 sets of 3 GU10 fixtures for $9.99 each set: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90151103 It would have saved me a lot of work and time rigging my pvc fixture! lol They also carry other GU10 fixtures if you search ikea.com for "GU10"

 

I was mainly looking for just GU10 sockets to see if the set of sockets I bought were the problem instead of the bulbs from LED-HK. And indeed, the bulbs go into the IKEA sockets nicely. Not tight at all. So I guess I just happen to get a batch of GU10 sockets that were not quite in spec.

 

Will let you know if I do go ahead with switching out the reds into blues.

 

Phil.

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