matts 2 gallon pico reef Dymax IQ3

[tylernt]

What emitters did you use -- XP-E, XP-G, etc?

How are they wired -- series, parallel, how many in each string?

What driver did you use -- how many mA does it output?

Does the driver run on 110V (wall power) directly or did you use something like a 12V wall wart to power the driver? If so, what voltage and mA rating does the wall wart have?

 

If you're picking up voltage on the heatsink, you may have a short that fed the LEDs direct unlimited power, bypassing the driver.

[gimptastic matt]

The leds are from stripped down gu10 fittings so thetes 4 rings of 3 1w leds

 

Im running them i this order wall socket 240v (uk) , then driver which is a 300ma 21v/45v 12w

then ive wired each ring seperatly

there not a named led just cheap chinese things

[tylernt]

then ive wired each ring seperatly

Each ring is in parallel? That's not good. What happens is the ring with the lowest Vf gets the more current than the other three rings. It burns out, which causes the next to burn out, etc, which causes the last to burn out.

 

Unless you have a driver with 4 separate outputs, do not wire in parallel without balance resistors (and even with balance resistors. it's a nonoptimal setup).

[Cheese-Lover]

Yeah, with that driver you are supposed to wire them in series.

 

 

With electricity as a general rule, wire in series to drop volts. Wire in parallel to drop amperage.

 

Edit: Ignore the fact that the boards are missing LEDs. Pretend that there are LEDs there... >.>

[gimptastic matt]

Cheers guys ill order sum more gu10s then

and redo the wiring

on another note how and where do i attach a dimmer and what dimmer should i use

cheers

[tylernt]

Cheers guys ill order sum more gu10s then

and redo the wiring

Ok. I'm confused by this though:

 

then driver which is a 300ma 21v/45v

If the driver is 45v, then you can wire up to 12 LEDs in series. If it's only 21v, you can only wire up to 5 in series before you run out of voltage (estimate 3.6V per LED).

[Cheese-Lover]

Cheers guys ill order sum more gu10s then

and redo the wiring

on another note how and where do i attach a dimmer and what dimmer should i use

cheers

 

Umm... Have you got a link to the exact driver you have?

Also; do you have a multimeter to see what its pumping out?

[gimptastic matt]

No multimeter sorry

Check out this item I found on eBay:

 

8W 12W 8-12X1W LED Constant Current Driver for High Power LED 300mA UK Stock

 

Link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8W-12W-8-12X1W-L...k-/280832948141

 

(Sent from eBay Mobile for Android)

i will be using a different driver same spec just dimmable

[tylernt]

Ah, it has a minimum voltage of 22V. So you need to put at least 6 LEDs in series, with 12 being the max.

[gimptastic matt]

Thanks for the help ill need more lol

cheers loos like ill get mote ptactice with the soldering iron

[Cheese-Lover]

on another note how and where do i attach a dimmer and what dimmer should i use

 

Looks like you've got a no-dimmable driver... Which will make dimming a pain in the arse.

In fact it would probably be easier to get a whole new driver... Since you need new LEDs anyway, why not get just the LEDs rather than whole new gu10's?

 

Suggested for 110v with easy dimming:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dimmable-LED-Dri...=item1e62dd7f02

 

Suggested driver for 240v with super easy dimming:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-12-x1W-9W-12W-...=item336e4c0099

 

Super lazy dimmer for suggested drivers:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brushed-stainles...=item3cc574152f

 

Some cool white 1w Leds to put on your boards:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-1W-High-Br...=item4cfd30b6ad

 

I couldn't find star-less royal blues... But something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-1W-Extreme...=item1e6bd6bb94

If you are willing to take them off their star and put them on your things...

 

 

Or. You could just not bother with GU10's and just get LEDs on stars and do it like most other people do theirs? Assuming you can easily get the stuff off your heatsink...

[gimptastic matt]

Cheers cheese lover

I ordered a dimmable driver a couple of days ago

and its the 240v one youve suggested

ill gt sum more gu10s as it works out cheaper

again thanks for the help

 

should i be adding any other colors in to the mix now that im starting afresh

with the rings a warm white or a purple , red

[Cheese-Lover]

should i be adding any other colors in to the mix now that im starting afresh

with the rings a warm white or a purple , red

 

You could add a warm white if you really want to, I personally like a little bit of warm white every now and then.

Purple you could add one of those too if you feel the need. Although a UV would be my preferred over a purple... But that's all personal taste.

A single red LED will be way too much for your tank. You wont be able to pull it off in my opinion.

[gimptastic matt]

Ohh i thought uv was damaging to organisams

[Cheese-Lover]

Ohh i thought uv was damaging to organisams

 

In large amounts it can be.

A good article to read would be http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/11/aafeature