Trick Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 Here's some pics. i got some of the parts in and i'm beginning the build. I don't actually have all the led's on, but i just put some of them on to see what it would look like. Also, i put in a picture comparing the old fan to the knew larger and silent fan. Link to comment
iDream Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 This is gonna be one helluva little power cannon, especially with those optics Link to comment
gabe_j Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! lol light it up, take the pichers, now! seriously man i gotta see this thing lit up. Link to comment
Paleoreef103 Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Wow! This thing is going to be a cannon! My advice is to try it out with a PAR meter before mounting it over anything. With 40 degree optics, you might hit 200 PAR at five or six feet.... My much less focused rig with 60s hit 200 par at 42 inches through air so watch out! (I'm also only running stuff at 700 mAs, by the way) Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 WOW! that looks like its going to blow a hole through something! Are those LEDGroupBuy.com LEDs? Trick you should put your name in the hat for the free $100 since you already are doing the hard work and diong a build thread! here is the info http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/free-leds/ Link to comment
Trick Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 Ok, most of the LED's i'm using are from http://www.ledgroupbuy.com . I decided to build a project like this because I liked the idea of having a small fixture that sits high over the tank all while throwing off adequate light and having good coloration at the same time. To accomplish this I would need the most power i could get in the smallest package at the best price since i don't have a large budget. In order to put all these high output LED's in a small space i would need really good cooling, so i searched for the largest CPU heatsink i could find(a thermaltake server fan/sink). Heat pipes and active cooling are a must in this project since there are so many LED's being run close to their maximum capacity in a small space. Also, another member here stated that the stock fan on the CPU would most likely run very loud. He was right, it sounded like a small aircraft taking off. So i looked into a quieter fan and i found an excellent solution, an adapter that would mount a much larger fan to the heatsink from frozen cpu. I also found an absolutely silent fan that puts out the same airflow as the thermaltake fan. Everything in this project is built upon the fact that I will be using 4 Cree NW XM-L's running at 2.67 amps (dimmable of course) which i purchased at LEDGroupBuy.com. In order to balance out the color I'm using 15 XP-E Royal blues and 2 XR-E Cool Blues. I did search for the elusive royal blue luxeon rebel es's but i could not find them in a 3-up pattern or at an affordable price, otherwise i would have used those. Milad at LEDgroupbuy.com really has the best price for one-up stars(that i could find), and they were more than enough so i used those. That being said, if i had a larger budget and a mansion i would be using 45 LED Emiters in a 3-up pattern with 10-30 degree optics and the light would be hidden/recessed in a ceiling maybe 20-30 feet above a larger rimless tank. ( i can dream right?) Link to comment
DaveFason Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Looks great! You really do not need a huge heatsink/huge fan as long as you have some sort of fan blowing across the heatsink. I've made a few of these 48up boards for people... A few things for you to watch out for... One hot spot in your tank. While the readings will be unreal you will need to tone it down a lot! When I did PAR testings, it could not even read with just the blues on! I'm sure yours will be in the same boat. Also the spread will be very concentrated. If this is going on a larger tank possibly keep the optics off. Anyways keep it up! -Dave Link to comment
zangmann Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Anyways keep it up! -Dave 48Up board WITH optics?? Crazy! Link to comment
Trick Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 I designed it to be about the same as the AI Phoenix powerwise, but in a much smaller package. With the 40 degree optics i plan on having it hang at least 2 feet above my 39 gal tank. Link to comment
Trick Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Will do, now i have to make a new mounting arm. Link to comment
Trick Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Trick - Try 3-4' -Dave Do you think i could use 6pin telephone wire to go from my project box to the fixture? it would be about 7-9feet. I was thinking the amperage might be too high for wire to handle... Link to comment
nickjqz Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 This is going to be sweet, I can't wait to see it lit up! Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Do you think i could use 6pin telephone wire to go from my project box to the fixture? it would be about 7-9feet. I was thinking the amperage might be too high for wire to handle... Too high for telephone wire Go to your local electronic store and they have all kinds of connectors you could use that are designed to carry power. Link to comment
Trick Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Too high for telephone wireGo to your local electronic store and they have all kinds of connectors you could use that are designed to carry power. speaker wire it is. Link to comment
Trick Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 contemplating adding 660nm and CW Link to comment
TMG Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 You could summon aliens with that light! Link to comment
Trick Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Thanks for the compliments, it helps! Unfortunately i've already got all the LED's attached to the heatsink so i'm going to have to pull off two of the XM-L's before i can replace them with the Cool White XM-L's. Any tips on taking off an LED that has already been glued on with thermal adhesive would be great. Link to comment
nickjqz Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Chisel, but it depends on how much thermal adhesive you used. I am sure there is another safer way though. Link to comment
AnthonyPf Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 I just used a screw driver and lightly popped the LED off. Came off clean and I did not scratch the heat sink. Good Luck! Link to comment
gabe_j Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 needle nose pliers where the starboard accepts the screw and twist. should pop right off. Link to comment
nickjqz Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Let us know how you did it because I need to replace one as well. Link to comment
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