AquaStyleOnline Club

[hobbzz]

Ah ok. Thanks!

[ReefDiva]

ReefDiva,

 

If your drivers are indeed the LPF series as you mention and as it apears in your picture then you likely have the incorect potentiometer for the white string that isn't working properly. (otherwise you have it connected corectly) Ray may have shipped one of the 22ohm pots that are used for the maxwellen drivers by mistake. with that pot you will get only the minimum output from the driver as is the case with what you are observing. all you need to do is go to radio shack and get a 100kohm pot and it will work like it is supposed to.

 

also the LPFs will simply be all on at 100% brightness if you just cap off the diming wires. they essentialy work backwards from the other 0-10v meanwell drivers (ELN seriese) 0 volts = 100% brightness and 10volts = 10% brightness. they wont' go off completely with the dimmer.

 

 

Jedi and Zachts:

 

Thank you so much for the info. I want to first apologize for the huge delay....finally finished school and now I have time to actually live and breathe.

So, as I do have the LPF Meanwells, I checked each of the two pots I have hooked up to my lighting system you guys are helping me resolve and I noticed that the pots are labeled, "Th-1 100KA." I'm assuming this means that I do have the 100 volt pots. Could this mean that maybe the pot running the whites is malfunctioning---thus the reason that even though they work they are very dim and not at all like the blues in regards to intensity? I can go to Radio Shack today and grab whatever you guys recommend if we can get this all figured out. Thanks.

[jedimasterben]

Jedi and Zachts:

 

Thank you so much for the info. I want to first apologize for the huge delay....finally finished school and now I have time to actually live and breathe.

So, as I do have the LPF Meanwells, I checked each of the two pots I have hooked up to my lighting system you guys are helping me resolve and I noticed that the pots are labeled, "Th-1 100KA." I'm assuming this means that I do have the 100 volt pots. Could this mean that maybe the pot running the whites is malfunctioning---thus the reason that even though they work they are very dim and not at all like the blues in regards to intensity? I can go to Radio Shack today and grab whatever you guys recommend if we can get this all figured out. Thanks.

Well, that would be a good first step. get a 100k-ohm pot and see if it helps out, shouldn't cost a whole lot.

[ReefDiva]

Okay, Will do. Thanks.

[ReefDiva]

Im looking now at Radio Shack and I see two choices:

1. 100K-Ohm Linear-Taper Potentiometer

2. 100K-Ohm Audio-Taper Potentiometer

 

Which should I get?

[jedimasterben]

Im looking now at Radio Shack and I see two choices:

1. 100K-Ohm Linear-Taper Potentiometer

2. 100K-Ohm Audio-Taper Potentiometer

 

Which should I get?

Linear-taper.

[ReefDiva]

Linear-taper.

Thanks. Just wondered as the two I currently have are labeled:

" TH-1 100KA potentiometer." Does the "A" behind the 100K possibly mean they sent me an audio pot instead?

[jedimasterben]

Thanks. Just wondered as the two I currently have are labeled:

" TH-1 100KA potentiometer." Does the "A" behind the 100K possibly mean they sent me an audio pot instead?

I am not 100% sure, but if it was sold as a linear taper, I'd imagine it would be. Possibly just a name scheme.

[ReefDiva]

Here is the Actual Link to the MeanWell Driver that I purchased with my AquaStyle kit. It now includes specs on it saying it is a three in one style. I wondered if this sheds light on what I am missing.

 

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/Me...60D%252d48.html

[jedimasterben]

Here is the Actual Link to the MeanWell Driver that I purchased with my AquaStyle kit. It now includes specs on it saying it is a three in one style. I wondered if this sheds light on what I am missing.

 

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/Me...60D%252d48.html

Three in one simply means that you can use 0-10v, PWM, or potentiometer to dim them.

[ReefDiva]

Three in one simply means that you can use 0-10v, PWM, or potentiometer to dim them.

Cool. So I understand much better. I guess my only alternative is to follow through and purchase the replacement pot at Radio Shack to see if it will work properly at the acceptable intensity levels. I can't understand for the life of me how a pot works enough to have the white less come on, but not at full potential. I'm going to go to Radio Shack and get the linear 100K pot as you suggested.

[jedimasterben]

After running some numbers and looking at the results of my own testing (in combination with uglybuckling's calculations), here's my most up-to-date information about using these LEDs.

 

Each Bridgelux 4500k from Aquastyle outputs less than 150 lumens at 700ma. You might say "but on the site it says 180-200 lumens!", but checking here, here, here, and here, you'll notice that the 10,000K, 6,500K, 4,500K, and 2,800K all have identical specs, which just doesn't happen. As you go down in color temperature, more phosphor is added to the LED diode (which is where you get the colors from) and you lose efficiency and total output. I would imagine the 10,000K chips probably do put out 180-200 lumens, but that would mean that the 4,500K are much lower, at most 150 lumens at 700ma, using 2.6w of power. There is no datasheet on these LEDs to be able to back up any of these numbers, however, so we will take these with a grain of salt.

 

I see similar numbers for the royal blue chips. For those, there actually is a datasheet available (here), and it proves something that I've been wondering for a very long time now, but have never researched 100% - the royals blues seriously lack total radiant output (measured in milliwatts of radiance versus lumens, unlike white LEDs are). The F2 bin that Aquastyle sells is 360-380mW of total radiant output at 350ma. The graph on the datasheet shows that at 700ma, the chips emit 170% of the light versus 350ma, so that brings them to 612-646mW of radiance, while using 2.5w of power. So that comes to 258mW of radiance per watt of power used.

 

 

 

In practice:

For a 29g Biocube tank, the recommended base LED values for Cree and Luxeon are 6x neutral white and 12x royal blue (a 1:2 ratio) at 1000ma, so that totals to 1,920 lumens of white and 19,440mW of royal blue. To match this using Bridgelux from Aquastyle, you'd need 12x NW and 30x RB (a 2:5 ratio), over a 50% increase. You can use less, but this is what would give you the most PAR without running into issues of having too much light after all is said and done.

 

 

Now, I have been saying for some time now that a 2:3 ratio of 4500k and RB should equate to roughly 14K. After seeing this in person now, without dimming the whites, it just doesn't look like it's that way, looks closer to 10K. Dimming the NW string and measuring the amperage and calculating output, I can say that it is very close to the 2:5 ratio via calculations.

 

 

If anyone has any questions or anything to add, please let me know and I'll try to address it.

[dustbust]

Its my first LED build. Its for a planted tank. I wanted to test my abilities on something smaller before I do my 30g cube.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=312510

[jedimasterben]

Its my first LED build. Its for a planted tank. I wanted to test my abilities on something smaller before I do my 30g cube.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=312510

Looks good! Just be aware that with cool white LEDs you won't be able to keep any plants with red leaves.

[Reefgeek]

I just built a 4NW x 8RB fixture and I have to say, it looks a lot closer to 20K than 14K to me. I'm thinking about trying 5NW x 7RB or maybe 4NW x 7RB x 1 10K. I have a good mix of 4500, 6500 and 10K available to play with.

[jedimasterben]

I just built a 4NW x 8RB fixture and I have to say, it looks a lot closer to 20K than 14K to me. I'm thinking about trying 5NW x 7RB or maybe 4NW x 7RB x 1 10K. I have a good mix of 4500, 6500 and 10K available to play with.

Maybe I had gotten a bad batch of the 4500's, then. That, or their output is lower than I calculate.

[Reefgeek]

Let me qualify that.... on a maxwellen driver.

[jedimasterben]

Let me qualify that.... on a maxwellen driver.

[Reefgeek]

I know, I know, it needs an upgrade. What can I say? It was free.

 

~edit - hey that was post 500

[jedimasterben]

I know, I know, it needs an upgrade. What can I say? It was free.

 

~edit - hey that was post 500

The driver doesn't particularly matter as far as output goes, just the forward current does. I was using a driver maxing out around 690ma, so very close to the 680ma the Maxwellens use.

[sticks]

So you are saying to get the same results as a rapid led kit that uses all Cree LEDs you would need almost 60 aquastule LED's(including the exotics)?

[jedimasterben]

Depends on which kit you're talking about, but comparing the actual output of the LEDs (which is linked to the PAR they put out), yes. There will be slight variations between each LED, but like I have mentioned before, there is little quality control in these chips. :/

[kenziesnano]

So I just ordered the 36 dim kit with 17RB, 14NW and 5 Violet.

With the new numbers do I need to order 15 more RB to make up for lost par?

I have a 20Long which equals a 29g cube size. It's a mixed reef of zoos and SPS's at the top.

Are the extra RB's really needed?

[jedimasterben]

So I just ordered the 36 dim kit with 17RB, 14NW and 5 Violet.

With the new numbers do I need to order 15 more RB to make up for lost par?

I have a 20Long which equals a 29g cube size. It's a mixed reef of zoos and SPS's at the top.

Are the extra RB's really needed?

Just see how it looks and works out - the royals are still far less powerful than they should be, but with those numbers you should be ok. I would have ordered less NW for RB though.

[kenziesnano]

Just see how it looks and works out - the royals are still far less powerful than they should be, but with those numbers you should be ok. I would have ordered less NW for RB though.

 

 

Thanks for the reassurance, I am planning on using 10 NW for 15RB. Adjusting or adding for color as needed after that, The extra NW are going to be used for a different fishie project in my daughter's classroom. They have a FOWLR and wanted to see how solar power can light the tank with LEDs