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dibblm

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OK. I was probably the first one to get my hands on the 1st or close to the 1st Solaris hood that premium had in stock.

Let me say you get what you pay for in service from PFO. And here's the story.....

First lights that were being shipped out were built in house. The programming for the controller was drawing too much juice from the power supplies and overheating them and shutting them down. There was also a phase of bad wiring where the leads werent thick enough. Then there were also issues where the display was grounding out on the housing.

I experienced first hand each one of these issues plus a couple more smaller ones.

Heres the kicker though. PFO stoood behind there product 100% of the way. I talked directly with Pat (from PFO) each time. He understood and knew my issues each time knowing exactly what the issue was. I am now on my 3rd and final hood from PFO as of last December. Never a complaint or second thought from these guys about sending me a replacement especially when it was costing them money in the end.

Does it WORK? Absolutely!!! I have SPS's, LPS's, Shrooms, Clams, You name it. They all love it..

Now everyone asks why did I do it now and spend my life fortune on lousy light?

You guys with the high output hoods are changing your lights every 6 months or so. Not me. Im good for 8 to 10 years before I will EVER need to change my lights.

Heat ? What heat ?

High energy prices. Smaller more efficient power supplies.

Chiller ? What chiller ? What extra cost to run, maintain, and initially buy one?

FACT and or FICTION: I read someone that someone did confirm that it was fiction with the light changes for breeding a certain fish. However they didn't mention that the lights do fade throught the day for cloud cover. What does it do? When I read about it I thought that the lights would roll (Like the clouds passing over the sun) where in fact they just dim to 50% at certain times of the day and then back up again.

Dont get me wrong. Im not a VHO or MH basher. I just love my light and the daily costs it saves me.
 

shawnww

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I am very interested in this idea! I know you are on to something big here and I look forward to hear how everything is going.
 

mr_X

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initial cost is what sways me.
meanwhile, i don't need a chiller, but i do pay some electric bills.

3 fixtures huh. for the price they charge you for one of those things, i'm suprised they don't fly out to your house and repair the light in person. and then cook you dinner for your trouble. and then tuck you in bed before they leave. 8O
 

felch

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bdejong: could you estimate the amount of your Xlamp LEDs needed for a typical 240 l tropical aquarium? With accent to plants. I would like to try them and redesign my controller for LED lighting (since controlling fluorescent tubes gives unsatisfactory results).
I have used super-bright LEDs for effect lighting but not for main lights yet.
 

endomorphious

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Hi,

Found the idea of the LED's as a light source fascinating. Would you be willing to put together a DIY guid on how to build a unit and where to locate the items for someone who has almost no experience with these items? Especially for a small nano usage for those who are interested in creating a anecdotal database of effectiveness.
 
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Anonymous

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Great idea! Let me know if anyone is interested in contribute to the LED guide, and I can put a sticky on the forum!

Start a new thread for discussion?
 

Mihai

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Sorry - did I miss it? Where is the new thread? Very interestead in a DIY LED fixture. Actually, I'm fascinated by the possibility to dial in the temperature: does anybody know of a programable LED driver (more precisely programmable on the fly from a computer)?

Thanks,
Mihai
 
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Anonymous

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A close approximation is linear interpolation of the color temperature when you want to "dial" in.

That is, if there are two kinds of LED, one is 60kK and the other one is 120kK, and you want to dial in at 90kK, then you need half of each. If you want 10.5kK, then the ratio will be one 60 to three 120. As to how to implement it on hardware, it can be difficult unless you have a PLC or have a preset temperature for the user to choose from.
 

Mihai

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Yes, this is what I had in mind. However, for this to happen I'll need to be able to control the current in the LEDs. I saw the LED drivers that bdejong posted above:

http://www.mmintrl.com/products/LED_driver/ml350.htm

and they say that they are constant current driven and that the value of the current is programmable. Unfortunately there is almost no information on that website whatsoever on what "programmable" means. Is it by switches? Is it via an USB? An EEPROM? Can you do it on the fly? I'd dedicate a computer to set the current in those drivers to change the color and intensity of the LEDs (as well as yearly cycles, etc.).

M.
 
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Anonymous

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ML 350's "350" means that it is for driving at 350 mA. See the specification. The device label on ML 700 is incorrect, saying that it is 350 mA. This and other issues with the specification does not surprise me since it is a foreign company. So don't be surprise if it is misrepresented.
 

geelite

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sparau

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hey guys,

picking up this old thread, my bro is an electronics engineer (masters) and im a computer programmer.

I was already looking at making a led light using luxeons like the solaris, here in sunny qld we have coal power or we pay 30% extra for green power (which we do), and i believe electricity here in aus is quite a bit more expensive than over in nuclear reactor powered USA. So i was not even contemplating paying for 500W of power for 12+ hours a day !!!

i will get my bro to check out that driver since all the ones we could find would only drive 1 or two leds.

His simple and easy suggestion was to drive them using a pc power supply and plug pack timers.

but like the originator of this thread i would like to slowly change the lighting - something you cant do with a pc power supply... Making a custom power supply would solve the problem but was too much work for a 1 off project (i am almost thinking it is worth making a couple of these as the LED's get cheaper if you buy 100 of any color.)
 
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nbc

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Any updates on this?

LED's are cheap in HongKong...

It's the controller where I will need help.

The LED's used for HID Lights for cars are rated at 10000K... would those do?
 

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