GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

[mcarroll]

Wow to say I had to read your post more than a few times is an understatement. I have a strong feeling someone else studied engineering. Actually I think a friend of mine has a Lux meter, if it's water proof I may have to borrow it for some nerdiness. It's funny I learned all about light reflection and refraction in school and even did labs on it but none of it came to mind when doing my brainstorming.

 

Thanks for the info on the light diffusion, makes a bit more sense now. i think I'll leave my lights as is, as my corals are all very happy, no one seems to be stretching for light and aside from the bleached out green birdsnest everything else is colored up nicely.

 

As far as the True Violet I was referring to the hobby name for the ~420nm spectrum LEDs. The TV, Turquoise and Red are supposed to help bring out the reds, greens and oranges and hit the photosynthetic spectrum that the RB/CW LEDs don't cover. Most full spectrum setups use RB and Neutral White instead of Cool White so I may see if "luck" has some of these as well. Just got a reply back that Turquoise is not a color he has so I will have to re-do my "full spectrum" ratio.

 

Tbh I haven't fully gathered all the information regarding full spectrum lighting but after some research I WANT! If you haven't taken a look yet, the Full Spectrum LED thread on N-R has all the info you could ever want.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/294733-full-spectrum-led-tank-pictures/

 

No Engineering for me or I'm sure my answer would have been better. All my study time (and some of my sleep time!) since the early 90's goes into this hobby. (Long way of saying: I'm still figuring all this stuff out!) After you dig in and boil it down, this is really just triangle math. Now, back to it...

 

Take the angle of your lens, drop an imaginary line from the lens to the water surface. This is one leg of an imaginary triangle. It is also the height of your light from the water's surface. It bisects your lens (angle÷2) and naturally creats a 90º angle at the water. Voila, you know two angles of a triangle.

 

Now, with the height, those two angles, a triangle calculator (google one, or I like this one, or this one show what's going on in a little more explanation), and a little ingenuity, you can compute the length of the bottom leg of the triangle - which is the radius of the base of your light cone. Or, if you know what radius you want, you can compute the height that your lights need to be. Lots of other ways to use this too. Very handy to say the least.

 

Don't worry about getting a waterproof LUX meter - the $15 ones I mentioned are not - just do your sampling in air. It's not that big a deal to infer the performance of the light in the water from the math cuz with all the waves on the water there's a ton of variability in the actual operating environment. Computing it will give you an average of sorts - a good one.

 

Checked out several pages of that "full spectrum" thread for example photos....not sure I'm sold. The theory seems interesting, and there's some great info on that thread, but I think there's some more balancing of colors yet to be done in order to get a "good looking" "full spectrum". The ones I liked the most look more or less like my own tank (which is "plain" CW:2RB). Of course, we'll see how these types of systems continue to develop!

 

For another alternate take, check out some of the photos (know that link pains me to post..and beware if you don't have a lot of reading time...it's deep) of so-called "hybrid" Multichip LEDs. (assuming you haven't already)

. They most typically use high-kelvin whites and blues in a 1:2 ratio. Quite nice looking IMO. I still have to see it for myself though....once time and budget permit I'll at least build a small prototype to play with. BTW, the MultiChip folks are working on a multi color solution as well, for those interested!

 

-Matt

[ChouDawg]

Oh believe me, I dabbled in the Multichip thread for a few weeks already Since I've already bought and built my GU10 fixture I'm really just focused on swapping out the 1W for different colors. Best part, if I don't like it, I can always swap it back or change it again. Trouble with all these different lighting styles is seeing one in person is much different than seeing one in a photo. With all the white balance adjustments and post processing who knows really what it will look like when it matters most, in front of you. I actually almost jumped in on that full spectrum Multichip group buy but decided to save the money for livestock. Tbh I'm quite happy with my "budget" GU10 fixture, I just have bad ADHD so I always need to tinker/research something.

[mcarroll]

More or less me too. All these corals I have growing at the surface and not doing well under 30º lenses (way too strong...and I've got a good idea why now) is really the main thing that's been motivating me to keep at it. I suspect if I had a "normal" (i.e. mostly brand new with small coral colonies) tank, I would be well on to something else and just enjoying the light! :-)

 

-Matt

[Chino]

Hey guys, this question is off the current topic but would anyone happened to know the difference between these optics. The right one is the originals that I had which are 30 degree optics. The left is the 60 degree optics I recently purchase from the "luck" seller (took almost a month to receive) which seems to make my bulbs seem less intense. I believe someone somewhere in this thread explained the difference of the one on the left but I cant seem to find it again. So many pages in this thread. Cant search it because I cant remember what the left optics were called.

 

I bought a 48 pieces and thinking about only using 18 or so. So if anyone needs any 60 degree optics of this kind I can ship some for super cheap.

 

[ChouDawg]

I have both the 60º and 30º optics from "luck" and the ones on the right are 30º and the ones on the left are 60º

 

It makes sense that the 60º would make your light seem "dimmer" since it's not focusing the light in as tight a cone. You're trading spread for intensity. Quoting mcarroll the 30º will about double your intensity from running 60º optics. Changing the height of the fixture will also change the intensity as described a few post up. I'm using all 60º optics right now.

[Chino]

I have both the 60º and 30º optics from "luck" and the ones on the right are 30º and the ones on the left are 60º

 

It makes sense that the 60º would make your light seem "dimmer" since it's not focusing the light in as tight a cone. You're trading spread for intensity. Quoting mcarroll the 30º will about double your intensity from running 60º optics. Changing the height of the fixture will also change the intensity as described a few post up. I'm using all 60º optics right now.

 

So the fuzzy style for the 60 is normal?

[ChouDawg]

Ya it's normal for "luck" optics, other optic manufacturers might not use the same lens style to achieve the same angular results.

[Swip]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/2/review

Have you guys seen this article? I don't really understand all of it but since some of you seem to know quite a bit regarding aquarium light i thought i'd post it.

Also, has someone measured the par of lucky's leds?

[Belac]

Yeah there is a par some where in these 70 65 pages, apperently the new format changed the page count. They were pretty good numbers too.

[Swip]

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/267432-gu10-led-build-thread-chinese-ebay-lights/page-34#entry3628709 there is the par reading.

It's seems to be from the 4x1w ledhk ones but i wanted to know if someone tested the 3x1w epistar bulbs from luckzdl2008.

[Belac]

If some one has then I am unaware of it happening. I probably will take my 3x1w into the LFS that has a par meter when I get the whole set up finished. I probably won't be buying from luckz but it will at least give a number for 3x1w style bulbs.

[mcarroll]

 

So the fuzzy style for the 60 is normal?

Each facet on the face of the 60° is like a little reflector to help spread the light a bit more evenly. Works a bit like a frosted lens but with less loss. (The LED kinda casts a shadow or silhouette of itself in the light of a clear lens, which doesn't look that great depending what you are lighting.) FWIW the 60° lenses I bought look identical to your 30°'s.

 

I suspect for our purposes there is close to no difference.

 

-Matt

[Chino]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the optics guys. I guess if there is no difference in the facet optics vs the clear then I should not worry too much.

I currently am in contact with the seller luck to see if he can do 2blue 1purple bulb and he said that its possible but he gave me a crazy quote of $42 for 6 bulbs which is around $7 per bulb.

[mcarroll]

I think those purple beads are abt $5 each. $7/bulb is actually a nice price IMO. Whether it's justifiable for your reef is another question.

[Belac]

If your so inclined to just swap out a purple your self. These are some of the cheapest beads I have seen in a while. There are some cheaper if your willing to buy 50 of them...

[Nitro Reef]

I've seen just purple led's and UV purple led's. Which are recommended if I decide to replace one of the beads?

[Belac]

I honestly can't tell you. I can tell you its more of the NM range then any name that they are given. So I would find a purple/vilot/UV Nm that most people are useing and go with that or something really close.

[ChouDawg]

You want something that peaks around 420nm, most are sold between 405-430, so you want the higher end for coral benefit and lower end for more fluorescent effect this is what I've gathered from the full spectrum thread. The LEDs I got for my build peak towards 430nm.

[Nitro Reef]

I just picked up the ones that belac mentioned. They're 420-435nm.

[Chino]

I think those purple beads are abt $5 each. $7/bulb is actually a nice price IMO. Whether it's justifiable for your reef is another question.

 

Yeah, I just learned that the purple LEDs are suppose to be more expensive according to luck's email response.

 

If your so inclined to just swap out a purple your self. These are some of the cheapest beads I have seen in a while. There are some cheaper if your willing to buy 50 of them...

 

This seems like the best way to go but unfortunately Im not so handy with soldering. Actually, Im not handy at all. Never done it before.

 

You want something that peaks around 420nm, most are sold between 405-430, so you want the higher end for coral benefit and lower end for more fluorescent effect this is what I've gathered from the full spectrum thread. The LEDs I got for my build peak towards 430nm.

 

Thanks for this info. I totally forgot to ask him about the nm for these purple LEDs. Waiting for his response.

[dustbust]

Im going to try this layout for my 7.5 DIY AIO cube. the display area is 12"x9.5"

 

cant decide on weather to go with 30 degree optics or 60. it will hang roughly 9-10" above the tank.

 

the centered warm white I will take the optics off so it will have a nicer spread.

 

ANy thought on this setup? not sure about the mounting yet. I have a few ideas in the works. I like the modern industrial look though.

[dustbust]

Sorry after a little more reading im going with 30 degree optics. Thanks ChouDawg & Mcarroll

[Nitro Reef]

I've got UV purple, red and aqua blue led's coming. I'm gonna try different combinations with my royal blue's and cool white's over my 5.5g build.

[Julian_blnc]

I found some cheap gu10 fixtures at ikea, they hold multiple bulbs and the one i got was 10 bucks

All you have to do is hardwire them it split an eletric plug and plug them into a outlet

[Belac]

Nitro make sure you get some pics of those. I want to see how red the reds are before I go out and order some.
I wish my bulbs would get here! One set (whites) was shipping from the USA and I still don't have those, getting impatent.