GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

[MeepNand]

just order a couple mr16 sockets. no biggie.. and sell the gu10 sockets.. or keep them for when you order moey bulbs

Generally MR16 bulbs require a 12v DC input. You could use a laptop power supply if it is a small fixture. They run at 12v and around 4A. About enough for 4 bulbs. There are also 7A and 10A supplies available. Or you could order different bulbs and return the ones you ordered.

[limpert]

Generally MR16 bulbs require a 12v DC input. You could use a laptop power supply if it is a small fixture. They run at 12v and around 4A. About enough for 4 bulbs. There are also 7A and 10A supplies available. Or you could order different bulbs and return the ones you ordered.

 

Damn

[MeepNand]

Cheer up! The power supplies are only like $10; much cheaper than ordering new bulbs.

I would send a complaint though. Try contacting the seller.

Edited July 28, 2012 by asid61

[uaiu]

Word of warning everybody, would not reccomend this seller

http://myworld.ebay.com/hooper*2011/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 (heres the listing for what i bought http://www.ebay.com/itm/230822873266?ssPag...ht_5275wt_1270)

 

I would rate the quality of the bulbs I received as the rejects of the rejects. 3 of the bulbs are brighter than the others so im assuming the other 5 are less than 1W LED's. They sent me 1 warm white. One of the brighter bulbs broke with the simple act of putting it in the socket and another one the heatsink is held on by 1 of 3 joints.

 

This has been my lesson of you get what you pay for, I should have ponied up for the 5$ bulbs lmao.

 

Otherwise This fixture is great. My blues are perfect, I have the W/B ratio I like and overall this was an easy DIY project. Only tip from me is dont skimp all the way. You're already saving money by making this yourself, dont go for the cheapest bulbs for sale.

[Monsieur Kam]

Looking for more gu10 fixtures, but I cannot find any good ones for a price I am willing to pay. I was getting them from luckzdl2008. Any luck finding another seller of cree/epistar gu10s that aren't 9w?

[TinyGiant]

i just contacted luckzdl2008 to see if they plan on selling again.

 

i'e had good results from gracelighted and ledhk on ebay nothing quite as nice as the epistars though

 

Looking for more gu10 fixtures, but I cannot find any good ones for a price I am willing to pay. I was getting them from luckzdl2008. Any luck finding another seller of cree/epistar gu10s that aren't 9w?

 

 

you might contact some of the ebay sellers that have the 9w versions.. many of these chineese sellers are actually the manufacturers too.. sometimes they are willing to do custom bulbs for the same price. luckz was doing that for a while

[MeepNand]

i just contacted luckzdl2008 to see if they plan on selling again.

 

i'e had good results from gracelighted and ledhk on ebay nothing quite as nice as the epistars though

ledhk also sells 10w leds that have a RB/CW combo.

[TinyGiant]

my question:

Do you plan on selling these bulbs again? I was extremely impressed with them and was able to get many people to order them from you. Our saltwater coral forum has been talking about how upset they are you havent had any bulbs for sale.. do you plan on selling any more? Thanks!

 

 

luckz response:

Dear friend

We are very sorry about that problem.

Our ebay account has a problem now, we can't launch the ads now.

Please wait?a few?days, it could be Ok.

Have a nice day.

Ling

?

 

 

ask and you shall recieve!

[jnad]

Great, hope luckz solve his problem with ebay, i was jus going to order some bulbs when he disapperd from ebay.

 

Did you take a look at these bulbs that i linkes to?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Bright-Epist...1#ht_4501wt_920

 

I did send a Mail to the seller with question about 9W bulbs and heat problems, the seller claims that the heatsink is specially made for handling 9W and that this leds is in their cooling series. Of course i know every seller will claim their product is very good with no problems, but the heatsinks on this bulbs look somewhat different compared for example with luckz bulbs. The heatsinks look mutch more open design.

 

Jnad

my question:

Do you plan on selling these bulbs again? I was extremely impressed with them and was able to get many people to order them from you. Our saltwater coral forum has been talking about how upset they are you havent had any bulbs for sale.. do you plan on selling any more? Thanks!

 

 

luckz response:

Dear friend

We are very sorry about that problem.

Our ebay account has a problem now, we can't launch the ads now.

Please wait?a few?days, it could be Ok.

Have a nice day.

Ling

?

 

 

ask and you shall recieve!

[limpert]

Are there any other recommended sellers for the 3w cool whites? I'm currently looking at the following ad: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GU10-MR16-E27-3W-4...=item257201cca0

 

Any advice would be appreciated before i make another purchase... and this time ill make sure to buy the GU10s and not MR16...

[uaiu]

I bought these, theyre in the US so ill have them supposedly by the 3rd. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...#ht_1972wt_1270

 

If you can wait I can tell you what I think of them when they get here

[babboa]

I bought these, theyre in the US so ill have them supposedly by the 3rd. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...#ht_1972wt_1270

 

If you can wait I can tell you what I think of them when they get here

 

That would be very impressive and quite convenient if we could find a competitively priced US seller. If they could get the blues in (preferably epistars) it would cut out a lot of shipping time. Keep us updated on this.

[Swip]

Did you take a look at these bulbs that i linkes to?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Bright-Epist...1#ht_4501wt_920

 

I did send a Mail to the seller with question about 9W bulbs and heat problems, the seller claims that the heatsink is specially made for handling 9W and that this leds is in their cooling series. Of course i know every seller will claim their product is very good with no problems, but the heatsinks on this bulbs look somewhat different compared for example with luckz bulbs. The heatsinks look mutch more open design.

 

Jnad

The bulbs you linked got the same heatsink like the 4x1w from ledhk. Won't be enough for 3x3w.

[jnad]

Yes i see that now, thanks

The bulbs you linked got the same heatsink like the 4x1w from ledhk. Won't be enough for 3x3w.

 

 

Have anyone tried to use glass covers on the tank when using gu10 bulbs, i mean top glass covers just like in fresh water tanks? Just thinking if the use of leds add less heat to the tank it could be possible to use glass covers to gett less evoporation.

[babboa]

My 5X1w mixed color bulbs came in today. I'm liking the look of the mixed 1nw/2cw/2blue, but the 2cw/3blue and 2nw/3blue look pretty nice too. I will take come pics with a better camera than my iphone and post a comparison soon.

[MeepNand]

My 5X1w mixed color bulbs came in today. I'm liking the look of the mixed 1nw/2cw/2blue, but the 2cw/3blue and 2nw/3blue look pretty nice too. I will take come pics with a better camera than my iphone and post a comparison soon.

Where did you get them?

[uaiu]

Theres a seller selling 2red1blue bulbs, would these be good to round out the spectrum more? I wanted to add a bit more blue (originally did a 2-1 W/B ratio.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GU10-LED-Grow-...#ht_6788wt_1270

[MeepNand]

Looks like regular red, not deep red. Deep red is needed for corals and plants.

Nice avatar, by the way.

Edited August 2, 2012 by asid61

[C.I._Reefer]

Theres a seller selling 2red1blue bulbs, would these be good to round out the spectrum more? I wanted to add a bit more blue (originally did a 2-1 W/B ratio.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GU10-LED-Grow-...#ht_6788wt_1270

 

 

Those will be WAYYY to red and very overpowering.

[babboa]

Where did you get them?

 

From ebay seller hk_bestshop. Pretty quick shipping as well. They were here in less than 2 weeks.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/hk_bestshop/m.html...p;_trksid=p3686

[uaiu]

Getting the ones I purchased from the US today, ordered on the 30 (at like 1AM) getting here on the 2nd (today) hope they are good so we can have a cheap US based source.

 

Also decided to go as this for my lighting plan.

W B W B W B W

BWWBWWBWWB

 

 

17 bulbs over a 20L. More than reccomended but this is how I got the lighting to how I wanted it

 

 

Edit: It appears my luck is in full force this week! They sent me MR16 bulbs instead of GU10 (listing was for gu10) Time to wait more ugh

Edited August 2, 2012 by uaiu

[babboa]

Here are some comparison shots of the 3 different color blends I ordered. I'm not sure how helpful they will be, but I think I can tell a difference between the color mixes. Pictures were taken with the bulbs mounted in a gu-10 to e27 base adapter plugged into an adjustable floor lamp ~12inches away from my 2g pico with no other lights on in the room.

 

2 neutral white/3 blue

 

 

2 cool white/1 neutral white, 2 blue

 

 

2 cool white/3 blue. This is more blue than it looks in real life. I tried to adjust the picture, but gave up because the image editing software for my olympus's raw files is giving me problems.

 

 

And a comparison in bulb size to the 3X1w bulbs from luckzdl. The 5X1w bulb is the taller one. The heatsink is visibly bigger longer on these, so hopefully it is enough to keep the heat down. I have tested it by running one of them for ~4 hours, and while the bulb is warm it is still not too hot to handle.

 

Honestly I can't tell a HUGE difference between the brightness of these and the 3w bulbs. These are brighter, but I can't quantify it without a par meter or something like that (working on borrowing one from a reef club member). Also, I can't say for certain that these are running at 5w because I don't have a kill a watt or something similar (also looking for one to borrow). As for color, I'm split between the 1nw/2cw/2blue and the 2cw/3blue being my favorites. All three color mixes had pretty good color blending at ~8'' (less disco effect than the 3w bulbs). The 2cw/3blue did a better job on bringing out the fluorescence, but didn't do as much for the other colors. The 1nw/2cw/2blue mixed bulb brought out a little more of the reds and purples in the live rock and coralline, but didn't give as much fluorescence. If I was making a fixture out of these bulbs, I think I would lean towards running a 50/50 mix of the 1nw/2cw/2blue and the 2cw/3blue, or maybe a mix of the 1nw/2cw/2blue and some straight blues with wide optics and wired on a different circuit for a little extra blue pop during the day and moonlights at night. Just my thoughts. I hope some part of this ramble helps someone out. Feel free to ask questions or disagree with any of this.

Edited August 3, 2012 by babboa

[mcarroll]

Have anyone tried to use glass covers on the tank when using gu10 bulbs, i mean top glass covers just like in fresh water tanks? Just thinking if the use of leds add less heat to the tank it could be possible to use glass covers to gett less evoporation.

 

Shouldn't hurt to try, but the same downsides as always still apply: glass will reflect x% of the light and filter the light you are directing into the tank; glass will also get dirty and salty fast and will most likely need weekly rinsing.

 

Looks like regular red, not deep red. Deep red is needed for corals and plants.

Nice avatar, by the way.

 

The seller doesn't list this in the details that I see and you cannot tell from a pic - digital cameras filter most low red thru IR out completely and they do color correction. 660nm LEDs aren't that rare - my guess is they are the correct red. But....

 

Those will be WAYYY to red and very overpowering.

 

...i agree wi CI.

 

If you try something like a red, you want it with no lens or a lens that's designed to spread as wide as possible.

 

Those bulbs might still be interesting as an experiment though!

 

-Matt

[Wizzy]

I want to put these over a Fluval Spec. Approx. 2 Gallons 6" Wide, 9" Deep

 

What would the best bulb combo be?

 

I want to light the Display as well as the Back Chambers.

 

Do I need extra wire to connect the LEDs?

 

How do I connect these to an outlet?

 

Also, how do I make sure I'm buying the "real thing" on eBay?

[avs262]

I bought these, theyre in the US so ill have them supposedly by the 3rd. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...#ht_1972wt_1270

 

If you can wait I can tell you what I think of them when they get here

 

uaiu,

 

Did you receive your lights from the USA seller on ebay?