DIY LED Demo presentation: Questions and Answers

[OOtzie]

I believe they only sell increments of 12 LED kits as I don't think you can run 14 per driver. If the driver is dimmable, I would just dim the lights since they're probably too strong. If they're not dimmable, I would either space it more or use less LED's

Your right, I bought the 12 led set, no driver they provide in the kit isn't dimmable.

+1 they are not opening because of the light configure. They should od been spaces out evenly. Better spread. Also how how do yoy have the light from your tank and what was your old light before leds.

I installed the heat sink to the hood. So its obvious that I need to space out the LED's but what config should I run?I have

White - blue - white - blue
blue - blue
blue - blue
blue - white - blue - white

* the colony and others under the blue LEDS are the only ones growing while everything else doesn't look bad, but doesn't look not right.

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

I would center the center section. Also are yoy running this all off of one great sink? Also I would add a white to the center just so you don't get a blue spot effect unless that's what you are looking for...

 

[PeterD]

You can see how they compare to other bulbs by lumens and there is a device to measure that. Also i want to build an array for a 8 gallon zero edge tank i'm making how much would i be expecting to spend. The demo really inspired me.

 

[stage3-S4]

I haven't made a write up on my controller but if anyone is interested I can tell you what you need to get and I can send you my program I wrote. Its fairly easy. Its a very primitive setup. I'm working on integrating a touch screen for it, this way you don't have to connect to your PC every time you want to change something. Here is a picture of my Driver circuits I designed using a national semiconductor lm3404 current regulator IC.

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

You can see how they compare to other bulbs by lumens and there is a device to measure that. Also i want to build an array for a 8 gallon zero edge tank i'm making how much would i be expecting to spend. The demo really inspired me.

With an 8 gallon tank you wont need many that's for sure. No lenses, I'm going to say 6 leds 3 and 3. with a buck puck driver. Fan, transformer, I would say like under 100 bucks and that's with a heat sink. Or if you wanted to you could go with a par38 bulb. I haven't used it myself but I have heard nothing bur good things. Just not really controllable.

 

[tosiek]

I added a bunch of links to LED places, as well as linked Sanjay's lighting comparison article that compared MH and LED's.

If anyone can find Sanjay's speech on LED's from any of his more recent reef events or from last Pratt Swaps speech can you please link it? I can't seem to find it.

 

[PeterD]

Thanks

 

[nybb1001]

led

With a 22" tank I would recommend using 80degree optics for the par at the bottom of the tank. As for how many that depends on the usable space for each opening if there is a center brace.

planning for a rimless, no center brace.

 

[OOtzie]

I would center the center section. Also are yoy running this all off of one great sink? Also I would add a white to the center just so you don't get a blue spot effect unless that's what you are looking for...

the middle section is centered I just couldnt get it to stay wher I left it in the message. yes the kit only came with one large heatsink and a single ballast. I want the best possible lighting and now I'm not sure if I should leave it alone or spread em out?

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

Well in my experience you could run 13 leds on the meanwell drivers. I would buy an extra white and what are your spaces right now.

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

planning for the future, expect to upgrade in a few months to something like 48"L*24"W*22"H(Deep)

Personally I would go with 8 rows of 12 on 2 heat sinks. All with 80 degree optics. And mean well drivers. With 1.5" spacing.

 

[nybb1001]

Personally I would go with 8 rows of 12 on 2 heat sinks. All with 80 degree optics. And mean well drivers. With 1.5" spacing.

thanks, haha, just though I can get away with something like 72 leds.

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

thanks, haha, just though I can get away with something like 72 leds.

The reason I said the amount I said is because of the optics.

 

[OOtzie]

Well in my experience you could run 13 leds on the meanwell drivers. I would buy an extra white and what are your spaces right now.

I'm running 8 blue and 4 white

-----w-b-w-b-----
-------b-b-------
-------b-b-------
-----b-w-b-w-----

I'm thinking maybe I use the same ratio and do

---w--b--w--b---
----b------b----
----b------b----
---b--w--b--w---

or a blue ring in the middle and whites in the 4 corners

which is best? ( i'm running mushrooms) also thinking about SPS maybe

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

The configuration you are showing is only 10 leds.

 

[Rapid LED]

I think 72 LEDs will be fine, even for some SPS (especially if you're going to use XP-G's). 96 LEDs will basically ensure you can keep any type of coral you'd ever want without having to worry about sufficient lighting. If you're going to go with 96 I'd recommend going dimmable so you can acclimate the tank to the lighting, sometimes corals are shocked by the intensity of the light and it takes a few weeks for them to adjust.

thanks, haha, just though I can get away with something like 72 leds.

 

[ming]

I haven't made a write up on my controller but if anyone is interested I can tell you what you need to get and I can send you my program I wrote. Its fairly easy. Its a very primitive setup. I'm working on integrating a touch screen for it, this way you don't have to connect to your PC every time you want to change something. Here is a picture of my Driver circuits I designed using a national semiconductor lm3404 current regulator IC.

I'd be interested in seeing the writeup for this. I'm sure a lot of other users would too for a cheap DIY controller.

 

[stage3-S4]

Yea i was thinking of making 2 threads, one for my diy driver and one for my diy controller. The diy driver deff would require some understanding of electronics and working with smt components, which was not a problem for me being an EE. The controller is a board that i found that utilizes an ardunio type setup but has a ds rtc chip built in. Mostly this is all programming. Hopefully this weekend i can get everything finished up and write a small diy thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[Cadiz.Jonathan]

How about a 24 gal aquapod how many LEDs and should it be 3 watt LEDs or 5 watt LEDs?


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[tosiek]

An arduino controller DIY type thread would be awesome. =0)