GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

[Belac]

Its ghetto looking right now but I finally got the whole thing installed and running. Which was way over due.

Comparison shot done with the same F-stop and shutter speed.

I may go more blue eventually but for now I am just going to finish getting the tank updated for its 1 year b-day, and enclose the light the rest of the way.

[--chris--]

Daddy likes.

[Nitro Reef]

Nice Job !!!

[mcarroll]

I guess that means I am loseing my glass cover when I finish my lights, depending on how bright they are. I am going to have to build a mesh one I guess.

 

Well just considering the numbers, if your tank is relatively deep like 24" or so, then you're probably right. But for most "nano's" (12" deep or so?) these lights are so intense and (at least with the standard 30° optics) so focused that I don't think 10% will ultimately make a detectable difference. Further,you can hang the light a little closer to gain 10% if you really "need the last drop" of performance.

 

That's by the numbers. In reality I think a coveglass will prove to be incomprehensibly difficult to keep extremely clean in a high flow tank, so your experience may vary widely from week to week. I think for this reason alone I'd at least consider a screen - but don't know what that costs...could be too much $$ to be worthwhile. If the coverglass is SUPER easy and convenient to clean, you might get away with it and be happy.

 

Last, with a $20 LUX meter you could gauge this all yourself! That would make an excellent experiment to report results on, besides being plain useful. :-)

 

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Comparison shot done with the same F-stop and shutter speed.

 

Always worth saying that it's hard to judge from photos, but...

 

The shots with the gu10's look sooooo much better than the before shot! Very colorful yet not as unnatural as the "before" shot.

 

Beautiful tank!

 

-Matt

 

P.S. Bravo on the "hanging canopy"! Although a "skin" will make it nicer, it doesn't look ghetto at all IMHO right now!

[--chris--]

I had a 20 long with a piece of 1/4" glass cut to fit snugly on top, with a small 1/2" gap at the back to allow cords to run into the tank/gas exchange. Im actually setting this tank up again...maybe with the glass top again as well. Which is why ive been asking so many questions on it.

 

It really did not take much work to keep the glass clean. I did a full clean once a month (took it off, rinsed it in the sink and razorblad'd anything that was stuck). I did a once over with a rag every other week.

 

The 20 long had 2 koralia 750's, so the surface was bubbling...but it really didnt accumulate salt spray like you would think. The biggest hassle would be if you lived somewhere warm. I dont think a glass top like that would work in a warmer climate.

[babboa]

+1 on this. Anyone selling their 2b 1w 3X1 epistar bulbs? I need 1bulb but 3 would be nice. I can trade some brand new never used all blue and all cool white 3X1 epistar bulbs if interested. Have a ton of 60 degree optics too.

 

I've been in contact0 with them recently regarding some crappy purple LEDs I bought from them and they wont be able to do or sell anything for another 2-3weeks. They are celebrating chinese new years soon. If you check their store, they already took everything down.

Were the purples the gu10 bulbs? Just wondering because I have been thinking about having him make some Blue (maybe red)/green/purple gu10s with wide optics to make a more full spectrum setup.

[Belac]

Well just considering the numbers, if your tank is relatively deep like 24" or so, then you're probably right. But for most "nano's" (12" deep or so?) these lights are so intense and (at least with the standard 30° optics) so focused that I don't think 10% will ultimately make a detectable difference. Further,you can hang the light a little closer to gain 10% if you really "need the last drop" of performance. That's by the numbers. In reality I think a coveglass will prove to be incomprehensibly difficult to keep extremely clean in a high flow tank, so your experience may vary widely from week to week. I think for this reason alone I'd at least consider a screen - but don't know what that costs...could be too much $$ to be worthwhile. If the coverglass is SUPER easy and convenient to clean, you might get away with it and be happy. Last, with a $20 LUX meter you could gauge this all yourself! That would make an excellent experiment to report results on, besides being plain useful. :-) -Matt

Well the glass may or may not stay. Just depends on what I decide I need. Lowering the lights will be the same way, if I need it only. I don't have super high flow right now, its higher then it has been still doesn't get a lot of salt splash on the glass. If you flip it over every few days and wipe it down it stays pretty clean. I wasn't doing it near enough because the previous lights were sitting ON the glass.

 

I may try and get the PAR meter from one of the LFS so I can get a reading on them side by side.

 

Always worth saying that it's hard to judge from photos, but...

 

The shots with the gu10's look sooooo much better than the before shot! Very colorful yet not as unnatural as the "before" shot.

 

Beautiful tank!

 

-Matt

 

P.S. Bravo on the "hanging canopy"! Although a "skin" will make it nicer, it doesn't look ghetto at all IMHO right now!

I have never figured out why it came out purple before. It never looked purple in person.

 

I have a skin on 4 of the 5 sides. I accdently cut the wrong bored for a side so I ran out for the front. The skins were all left over scrap. I am not buying any thing to cover the front. Next time I have the scrap I will put it on. I may stain or paint it some day, I just wanted it up.

 

I am also consiering drop curtians on the sides to keep light spill to nothing. (The tank is right by my bed.) I just haven't decided if the light spill is almost nothing due to the lense angle. I was suprised that it is less then the previous lights even as high off the tank as it is.

 

The back 'arms' are not exactly square one of them has a bit of twist in the board I didn't see tell it was installed. I just clamp the arms onto my metal stand, every thing comes apart rather small. I figured that I will be moveing some time in the next year so I am trying to make sure any thing I do easily movable.

 

I had a 20 long with a piece of 1/4" glass cut to fit snugly on top, with a small 1/2" gap at the back to allow cords to run into the tank/gas exchange. Im actually setting this tank up again...maybe with the glass top again as well. Which is why ive been asking so many questions on it.

 

It really did not take much work to keep the glass clean. I did a full clean once a month (took it off, rinsed it in the sink and razorblad'd anything that was stuck). I did a once over with a rag every other week.

 

The 20 long had 2 koralia 750's, so the surface was bubbling...but it really didnt accumulate salt spray like you would think. The biggest hassle would be if you lived somewhere warm. I dont think a glass top like that would work in a warmer climate.

 

Well I had been razor bladeing it when I remembered then spritzing it with a spray bottle and wipeing clean. I discoverd yesterday that those magic erasers work pretty well with out a razor.

[Belac]

Not sure how I missed you two ealier...

Nice Job !!!

Thank you.

 

Daddy likes.

I don't think you are my daddy....
But I understand what you mean and thank you.

[lambertdavisj]

so i guess no one wants to answer meh? hahahah

[--chris--]

alright

so i plan on upgrading to a 29 gallon tank

is that too high? i wanna keep sps and lps

the only softies i keep are a few mushrooms and zoas so

if i use the lights

how many blue to white will i need? i want a 16-20K look

for sps i wanna have montis and millis

maybe a few acros and prolly a birdnest

 

I think most people who read the question also did this

 

 

Trust me, the answer is buried somewhere in this 70 page thread. Use google operators to search it. Just guessing, id say 2:1 will get you a 20K look. I have zero hands on though, thats just me guessing from what i have seen in here.

[jbowser]

Has anyone thought of changing a white or blue led with a red one?

 

I'm retrofitting the hood of my 15g aquarium (a standard 24x12x12) with either 10 or 8 (depending on how the coral will react) 4W bulbs and I was thinking of adding 2 1W reds (660nm) to supplement the spectrum a bit.

 

Any thoughts on adding 1 or 2 reds?

 

Jb

[Belac]

I have thought of it. Just ahven't tried it.

Keep in mind that a little red goes a long way.

[MeepNand]

Some information on soldering gu10 bulbs to your personal preference:

Don't do it, unless you are exceptionally cheap and poor like me. Took me an hour and a half to solder 2 blues on a white bulb and replace the blues in the other bulb with 2 white beads, plus 2 leds broke.

Removing the plate with the leds was easy; what was not was replacing broken leds.

I guess in the case of reds or purples you can, but you will lose a couple unless you are good at reflow soldering.

[Belac]

Reflowing isn't that hard it just takes practice.

 

How did you break the leds?

[ChouDawg]

Its ghetto looking right now but I finally got the whole thing installed and running. Which was way over due.

 

Comparison shot done with the same F-stop and shutter speed.

 

I may go more blue eventually but for now I am just going to finish getting the tank updated for its 1 year b-day, and enclose the light the rest of the way.

 

Awesome comparison shots man, looks like you're build turned out well. I like how you laid out the timers in line right in the front for easy adjustment. A nice, pivoting front panel and a skin around the rest with some staining will make it look finished and professional. Are you not going DIY full spectrum? So many people in this thread I might have you confused with someone else, but I remember someone saying they threw out the DIY full spectrum because the drivers + replacement LEDs just wasn't going to work.

 

Some information on soldering gu10 bulbs to your personal preference:

Don't do it, unless you are exceptionally cheap and poor like me. Took me an hour and a half to solder 2 blues on a white bulb and replace the blues in the other bulb with 2 white beads, plus 2 leds broke.

Removing the plate with the leds was easy; what was not was replacing broken leds.

I guess in the case of reds or purples you can, but you will lose a couple unless you are good at reflow soldering.

 

I'm not exceptionally cheap or poor but I dont think either of those have anything to do with soldering GU10 bulbs. I'm willing to bet a cheap soldering iron is your problem. I used my friends Weller WLC100 (~$43) and it worked great. I was able to unsolder/solder the 1W LED bulbs without removing the LED board at all. Multiple other people have removed, swapped, replaced their GU10 LED without any issues as well.

[Belac]

Awesome comparison shots man, looks like you're build turned out well. I like how you laid out the timers in line right in the front for easy adjustment. A nice, pivoting front panel and a skin around the rest with some staining will make it look finished and professional. Are you not going DIY full spectrum? So many people in this thread I might have you confused with someone else, but I remember someone saying they threw out the DIY full spectrum because the drivers + replacement LEDs just wasn't going to work.

 

 

Well was going to put a front door on it to start with then I mis-cut the front pannel. I did find a pice of scrap big enough the other day so I am going to cut that down eventually and get it put on. Not going ot worry about staining it ulness I stain the rest of the stand. Honestly I kind of like the color of the wood as is.

 

The timers were because I only wanted one cord out the back, and I wanted easy adjustment. Haveing delt with multiple light cords on other things I have built it just ends up frustring you more then its worth, in my opnion.

 

I wasn't planning on going DIY full spectrum. Though I would like to throw some other color beads in the mix eventually.

[ChouDawg]

Ya it looks pretty cool already as is, for me I always have these grand visions of making things all professional and finished looking then the DIY takes a long time and I just end up being happy it works even if it looks ghetto lol

 

Ya adding in different LEDs to your GU10 bulbs is what I meant, I think I got links from you for those, not a full on full spectrum build like I went with.

[Belac]

I am fully capable of makeing professional looking stuff myself. I kind of end up in the same boat though. After a while I just move on, after all I am the only one that has to look at it. So looks don't matter that much, just functionaity.

Right now I am trying to get every thing tidy in the stand and on the floor of my work room/bed room. (Single room living arangments are a headache when your a big tinkerer...)

Next going to replace the sump and put in modified power heads. THEN I am going to order those different beads.

[MeepNand]

Reflowing isn't that hard it just takes practice.

 

How did you break the leds?

Left them on the plate too long, and sat the soldering iron on one. :facepalm:

Didn't help that I used my stove instead of an actual hot plate.

 

Also, though i did use an old soldering iron, the bulbs were reflow soldered onto the gu10 base; this allows for better thermal transfer. If you don't reflow solder, I suspect they leds will have a much lower battery life.

[lambertdavisj]

So

I looked at the approximate amount of bulbs formula and for a 20 long (30x12x12) It said I needed 14 -16 bulbs

I am just adding one or 2 possibly just in case

But 14

Is that 7whites and 7blues?

Or 4whites and 10 blues?

What's the idea on blue to white

I know the general 2:1

But is that always right for a long tank?

[Belac]

Haveing tried a ratio of 6b:5w I am going to go with the 2:1 crowd soon. So yeah I would go that route if I were you.

Yeah over heat and leds = bad news.
You shouldn't have had to reflow them with a hot plate you should have been able to get them off with a soldering iorn and a little solder vac/wick.

[lambertdavisj]

How come I can't find blue bulbs for 2 dollars but I found white ones!!! With free shipping!

Anyone have a seller with blue bulbs for under five dollars?

[Belac]

I got my blues for roughly 3.50$. I had to buy 10 of them at that price though. For some reason the blues seem to be cheaper if you buy larger lots. They are going to be more expensive because blue LEDs are just more expensive then white.

Make sure those white are daylight/cool white and not warm white.

[--chris--]

 

MR16 is technically the bulb shape ('m'etallic 'r'eflector, 16 eighths of an inch across) and when you're shopping can be considered a "naked" version of the bulb - no connector (only two leads in a push-fit molding), no AC power conversion. That's right - usually they are ready for DC current, only. Usually 12v. However, they are the same size and shape (on the lamp end) as the GU10 bulbs in this thread.

 

There is another common, as well as similar, bulb shape - MR11 - that is much smaller at about 1.125" in diameter. But that's another thread altogether....don't know anyone using them for our purposes (yet).

 

GU10 is the connector version we use in this thread almsot exclusively. Selling "GU10" bulbs is shorthand for "MR16 bulbs with a GU10 base".

 

E27 (edison, screw-in base - common houshold bulb) can be had as well. Again, selling these as "E27" bulbs is just shorthand for "MR16 bulbs with an E27 base". There's nothing wrong with using these instead of GU10, but the sockets to hold these bulbs are typically more expensive than the GU10 sockets.

 

Both added bases make the overall bulb a little longer (measuring from plug-to-lens) than the "MR16" versions due to the additional circuitry to support AC power and the new base. (E27's being a little longer than GU10's) MR16's are typically (not always) a little cheaper for this reason as well.

 

I believe it is possible to find AC powered MR16 bulbs (i.e. with AC circuitry, but no connector base) but I couldn't swear to it. If you do find them and decide to try them, make sure they're good for 120v power not just 240v.

 

-Matt

 

Bumping this in case anyone else (like me) is wondering if the E27 base bulbs would work. Apparently yes, but the Gu10's are cheaper.

 

I decided that im going with GU10's for my frag tank, which means no glass top. Im going to wait until the 18th when our favorite seller starts shipping again. If i find a good deal on some T5's before then, ill go that route but it would have to be a real good deal to make me do that.

 

 

Luckzdl2008's store is still empty

 

http://stores.ebay.com/luckzdl2008