GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

[TinyGiant]

started working on a new slim fixture for another member of the NH reef club that i run.

 

first time working with aluminum. i'm digging it so far

 

 

 

going to order the sockets and bulbs tonight and wire it up and have it ready to be plug and play for her

[Loud_mouth22]

I just got mine in yesterday and all i can say is wow theese are very bright. I purchased theese from luckzld2008 5 blue and 5 white with 60 degree optics. Ithink i'll order 10 more with 30 degree optics and the blues will have 1 white led in it. I think the blues are to strong to go 1;1ratio---theese are listed as epistar and they do run hot so I will add a fan. does anyone know where you can buy different optics?

[babboa]

I just got mine in yesterday and all i can say is wow theese are very bright. I purchased theese from luckzld2008 5 blue and 5 white with 60 degree optics. Ithink i'll order 10 more with 30 degree optics and the blues will have 1 white led in it. I think the blues are to strong to go 1;1ratio---theese are listed as epistar and they do run hot so I will add a fan. does anyone know where you can buy different optics?

Email luckzdl. That seller seems to be very easy to work with, and you would be guaranteed to have the right optics. I screwed up one of my bulbs (crushed the little plastic bubble lens over the emitter) by trying to use optics I bought from another ebay seller.

[LexUnit]

I just got my lights from luckzld2008. I've asked the seller to change the optics to 60 D. The lens looks like a diffuser. Is this going to be a prob? And how high should I mount then since there's a diffuser on them. Does anyone else have these?

[ChouDawg]

I got mine with 60' optics too, same diffused lenses, I got two with 30' optics and they have the clear lenses. I dont see any issue with them, I didn't test them to insure they are 60' though. I think at 30' most ppl are hanging them 10" or so off the water, with 30" you can aim for 5-6" I'm doing 6" on mine but it will be adjustable so I will play with it as I see fit.

[Loud_mouth22]

I emailed him and the optics will cost$10 for 30 of them. i'm thinking 2 whites to 1 blue would look the best what do you guys think

[ChouDawg]

That's not bad at all, I have 9x 2B/1W and it's just about perfect for me. I'll try to get pictures up later tonight in my build thread. The whites from luckzld2008 I'd say are a neutral white not cool white like most people are using with the star LED builds so just a heads up it may be too white/yellow. I think everyone else in this thread has been running 1:1 with good results. I got two extra whites in case mine turned out too blue but I like it as is, for now

[mcarroll]

I just got my lights from luckzld2008. I've asked the seller to change the optics to 60 D. The lens looks like a diffuser. Is this going to be a prob? And how high should I mount then since there's a diffuser on them. Does anyone else have these?

 

If you are lighting any coral near the surface of the water, I'd highly recommend the diffused optics...at least trying them. In this scenario, you might even get away with no optics (usually ~120º) and still have adequate intensity, so the diffusers on 60º might be a nice compromise of appropriately reduced intensity with somewhat less light-spill.

 

How deep is the tank you are trying to light with these "60D" bulbs? A fair amount of the light will be scattered at oblique angles, so at a 12" hanging height (de facto standard...YMMV) you will be spilling a fair amount of light out of the tank. Intensity at the lower depths will suffer as a result....but how much is a unanswered question. In the end, it may be just fine.

 

All that said, I haven't tried them yet myself...intended on testing some with diffusors as well as the 25ºx50º ellipsoidal lenses I've seen a few places...once the budget shapes up I'll be underway with some testing.

 

Let us know how things go with the diffusors! If there's any way you could photograph some output results...like what the lighing pattern looks like 12" away from a flat, white surface, would be cool! Esp. if you could compare a like shot of a standard 30º or 60º bulb with clear lenses.

 

 

 

That's not bad at all, I have 9x 2B/1W and it's just about perfect for me. I'll try to get pictures up later tonight in my build thread. The whites from luckzld2008 I'd say are a neutral white not cool white like most people are using with the star LED builds so just a heads up it may be too white/yellow. I think everyone else in this thread has been running 1:1 with good results. I got two extra whites in case mine turned out too blue but I like it as is, for now

 

The star-board world's nomenclature (including "neutral") does seem to be showing up in the bulb sales world a little more often. Still more often than not, you're going to find only two options for sale at most GU10 vendors: Cool White (or simply, White) and Warm White. Cool will be the traditional 5500K-7000K and Warm will be in the 2500K-4500K range. The more "sophisticated" vendors might offer the third option of a 7000K-9000K bulb, rebranding that to Cool White and the classic 5500K-7000K range as "Neutral".

 

While the Cool White's (~6500K) are indeed a bit too yellow on their own (actually not horrible if I were lighting a freshwater fish or planted tank), I actually kinda thought the 1:1 Blue:White standard was a little too blue for my taste. I really like the look of my tank since replacing my all-blues with the 2B:1W's from luckzld2008's. Hard to judge for sure since they're mounted so close to the blues, but I think the white emitters in those may be of the higher Kelvin white - in excess of 7000K. They look to me a lot less yellow than the "classic" cool whites in my other bulbs. Maybe not 10000K, but closer to that than 5000K. (Again, attempting to compare the whites in a 2B:1W to 3:W.) If I had the budget, I'd like to try all 2B:1W bulbs just to see how it looks. Color blending should be way nicer. Might have to get some custom 2W:1B's to offset the too-much-blue factor, though.

[papaj10789]

Even though no optics looks perfectly fine over my tank I decided to order 60deg optics from luckzdl just to see if the intensity would help color things up more and for 10$ for 30 it should be worth. Completely satisfied with these so far.

[ChouDawg]

 

Here's mine 9x 2B:1W 60' optics, hung 13" from the water.

[Loud_mouth22]

also i was thinking of trying to buy some 1w leds that are uv to add in theese bulbs to try to get a fuller spectrum. Have you heard of anyone adding other colors to the lights? I was wondering if soldering theese would be a pain

[TinyGiant]

Doing another build for a club member of the forum/club i run.

 

decided to go really slimline with aluminum from home depot.

 

Drilled holes for the #4 bolts and for the wires to go through

 

Used two C channel pieces so that i could screw them together with a plate to make it square. that way i could wire it easily then enclose it

 

I drilled a few sets of holes through the uprights so that i can be adjustable. this is after i did the wiring too.

 

two coats of rustoleum professional enamel paint

 

and here is the test fit after paint

 

 

I'm just waiting for bulbs now. the banks are wired to GFI plugs for extra safety. I charged $240 including all parts, bulbs and labor.

[TinyGiant]

a friend ordered some LEDs the other day on ebay and i guess there was an issue with one.. so he contacted the seller.. check out the response

 

 

 

i think there might be an armless chinaman tomorrow.

[Loud_mouth22]

lol I just picture some $1 a day worker getting cained at the assembly table. I was refering to a purple 1w uv led i see them selling on ebay. I'm gonna order 2or 3 of them and take out 1 blue led and swap in the uv so i'll have 2blue and 1 purple uv in 1 gu10 bulb. I'll post how it goes but dont hold your breath cause of shipping and my funds right now. I think i'll just email the guy i bought my last gu10 from and see if I cant get another worker punished : slap:

[hooligan_78]

Forgive my intrusion, long thread, didn't look through it all. I am seeing some of the gu10s in differnt colors and wondered if anyone has tried a "full spectrum" setup yet? Also yesterday, I found a bulb with 2 reds, 1 blue. Can't seem to find one today. Anyone's thoughts on removing the optics and trying these?

[ChouDawg]

Forgive my intrusion, long thread, didn't look through it all. I am seeing some of the gu10s in differnt colors and wondered if anyone has tried a "full spectrum" setup yet? Also yesterday, I found a bulb with 2 reds, 1 blue. Can't seem to find one today. Anyone's thoughts on removing the optics and trying these?

 

I dont think anyone has tried full spectrum yet, most all I've seen have been 1:1 B:W and more recently with the 2B/1W bulbs, 2:1 B:W like I'm running. Judging by the photos of the bulbs with the lenses removed, unsoldering and soldering in a 1W UV/Red/Green/etc. bulb shouldn't be too hard to do add in a bit more variety. Sounds like Loud_mouth22 is planning to do something like that. I might swap out a few of my W with UV/Red as well when I get a chance.

[Nate17]

How many and what would be a good bulb combination for a fluval spec V? The dimensions are 20.5" x 7.5" x 11.6". It's an AIO so I'll probably have some cheato in there so do these bulbs work well as a fuge light? Also, what's the best material and way of securing the sockets down? Does everyone just screw them down to whatever they are using? Thanks

 

Edit: the tank will most likely have a clam but other than that just softies and maybe one or two Lps corals

Edited November 1, 2012 by Nate17

[blakesgst]

Hey guys, i ordered up my leds a few months back and am just now ready to start my build. I thought i had seen something in one of the older or original posts about how many you can wire up together but cant seem to find it now, does it matter, any recommendations? I have 50 total.

 

Thanks,

 

Blake

[Loud_mouth22]

i dont think it matters. they pull such low wattage 50 bulbs at 3 watts =150 watts probably more like 2 watts per bulb. who did you purchase your bulbs from?

[ChouDawg]

Hey guys, i ordered up my leds a few months back and am just now ready to start my build. I thought i had seen something in one of the older or original posts about how many you can wire up together but cant seem to find it now, does it matter, any recommendations? I have 50 total.

 

Thanks,

 

Blake

 

If I remember correctly it was 12-15 bulbs per string. But really I think it depends on the extension cord you use. Each bulb is 'rated' at 700 mA, so for instance my cord is max rated 15A. If I'm correct, current adds together for each bulb on the string so you could in theory run ~20 bulbs and still be under the 15A max. That being said, I'm only running 9 bulbs on mine. Hopefully someone can confirm my info.

[blakesgst]

If I remember correctly it was 12-15 bulbs per string. But really I think it depends on the extension cord you use. Each bulb is 'rated' at 700 mA, so for instance my cord is max rated 15A. If I'm correct, current adds together for each bulb on the string so you could in theory run ~20 bulbs and still be under the 15A max. That being said, I'm only running 9 bulbs on mine. Hopefully someone can confirm my info.

 

Thanks for the response, funny you would say you thought 12-15 because i thought i read 14 someplace in this thread! lol. As to the previous question as to who i bought them from, i can't remember. At the time the guy that was recommended to use from this thread, "luck" something or other, was unable to sell for about a month or more so i had to go through another source.

 

Blake

[ChouDawg]

I said 12-15 because I remember reading that same post lol, it took me a long time to get through all 1.5k post but I read it front to back.

[TinyGiant]

quick pic from the girl i made my last custom fixture for. everything opened up really nice in the tank after making the switch to LED. she's loving the light. she said the tank in person isnt as bright in the front as it appears in the picture that its pretty even looking

[punklibrarian]

So, so, so, SO glad I found this thread =) I'm building a display refugium (70cm (L) x 27cm (W) x 23cm (D), though the actual area of display, where the macro will be, is going to be 51.9cm (L) x 27cm (W) x 23cm (D) ) and had been wanting an LED light fixture but didn't want to spend a tonne. The fuge is for a pico I'm building (but mainly so I can have a macroalgae garden Figured I should put it to use).

 

I've ordered the following:

• 1 x 3w Cool White (6000-6500K)
  2 x 3w Warm White (3000-3300K)
  1 x 4w Neutral White (3700-5000K)
  1 x 3w Blue (460-465nm... I think)
  

I'll also be running them without optics. I didn't really know what I should be getting so I sort of threw one of each into my basket xD;; Plus they weren't very expensive so no harm no foul. I also bought sockets and 10 x 1watt Red (620-630nm) LEDs which I'll be soldering into the white GU10's (removing one white LED and replacing it with a red). Is my light selection enough? Or just wrong? Or needs a little adjustment?

 

I'm thinking of a layout like this (not to scale)?:

 

 

It's been rather brilliant reading through all this Should also say that I'm new to all of this (both reefs and LEDs).

Edited November 7, 2012 by punklibrarian

[Fnard]

what would any of you think the deepest tank you would recommend for these bulbs to be able to keep an anemone? would be willing to swap out optics.