(Another) DIY LED Build - Linear Design

[SWF]

ohh i thought 12 LED's for each driver ..

I was planning to get two 36 LED's kit from rapidled which comes with 3 drivers each...

I am missing something again.... ddc-01 controller can handle upto 7 or 8 drivers ...

save me again !!!

[katchupoy]

Sorry i did not catch that you are doing 2x36. so yes you are correct.

[katchupoy]

swf. do you think you can do a diy arduino? are you up to it? i think it would be better to do arduino so you can keep upgarding your skills in DIY?

you know, you can run these drivers without controller for a while. Just simple mechanical timers for instant on and off. And put potentiometer for dimming or adjusting intensity...

Not sure if you saw this already.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1987110

or this one, for cleaner, concised one.
https://sites.google.com/site/caddni...led_controller

Hope this helps.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by SWF

Hi Dennis, Ceasar,

here is the driver that am going to use six of them "Mean Well ELN-60-27P dimmable driver".

for the dimming i was thinking if getting this "DDC-01 PWM Controller" from rapidled.
do you think its a good option for me .. instead of Audrino

Thanks again for all your inputs.

With the Rapid DDC-01 there are some issues that people mentioned which they were not real happy with. It is a simple controler device however if you want to start modifing some seetings it is very limited. I believe it also needs a timer to turn it on after which point it will go through its cysle. To reset it and restart the cycle powere must be turned on and off again.

The Audrino set up I assure you will cost more than the $20.00 to $30.00 someone mentioned. It also requires considerable programing knowledge. Personaly I have worked on controlers since the only working language was machine code on mc6800, and 8080 chips. I would be skeptical on the Audrino tackling a project like this myself. I would consider it though if I could find a used Rockwell or Seimens controler which I'm familuar with.


The drivers you mentiond are set up to run up to 8 XM-L LED's 27 volts at 2.3 Amps. These are great for running the XM-L at 2.3 Amps and roughly 3.2 volts or 7 Watts. However for your XP-E or even XT-E you will probably be branching these onto three strings to bring the 2.3 Amps down to the proper range for these LED's (1 amp or less) so you end up running your LED's at 766 ma. Since they will draw slightly over 3 volts each and your limited to 27 volts you can run a max of 8 LEDs on each leg for a total of 24 LED's. But do you feel skilled enough to do this balancing?

Personaly I would use the 60-48 and internaly adjust the pot so the max driver output would be 1 Amp and you could then run 14 LED's easily on this for your Blues and Royal Blues.

[SWF]

Hi Ceasar, Dennis,

Thank you so much for your inputs.

I will go with the "Mean Well ELN-60-28P dimmable driver"... six of them.

I am not sure if i would be able to do the audrino at this moment ... hence i thought
i will go with the DDC-01 for now and later on switch to a audrino whenever i felt
comfortable..

I understand DDC-01 would need a timer to switch ON and off.. is it really that bad not to get .. should i stick to potentiometer's for dimming purposes?

Thanks again,

[mattclark82]

Look into BoostLED's Typhon. It is Arduino based, and cheaper.

[katchupoy]

SWF. Are you sure its 60-28P? and not 60-48P? There is a 60-27 though.

Ok here is the scenario just to be clear.

1) You build your LED setup using 60-48P x 6 drivers.
2) This will be divide into 3 channels. (previous post) White, Blue and Mixed.

When youre done building it. You will then need....

1) 1 pc of 10volt ac adapter. Similar to this one.
2) You will then need 3 pcs of 5k potentiometers. This is to control 3 channels.
3) You will also need 3 mechanical timers to turn the drivers on and off at certain time.

In effect this will become your temporary setup while you are doing your arduino controller.

What to expect...

1) This temporary setup will be an "instant on" and "instant off" setup. No automatic dimming will happen.
2) This temporary setup will give you the ability to manually dim all 3 channels individually.

1. This will help you fine tune the color you want.
2. This will also help you acclimatize your lights to your corals, example start with 50% intensity and gradually go up per week or month.
3. This will not give you automatic ramp up ramp down. Once you setup the pots, thats it, until you want to adjust the intensity afterwards.
4. That this setup will not be a waste since, when youre ready to incorporate your arduino, then everything stays except for the mechanical timers. You wont need the mechanical timers since arduino will take care of it automatically.

3) Savings because you wont need to buy DDC-01 instead save it for the Arduino project or the Boostled arduino mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

[SWF]

Hi Ceasar,

the driver that am going to pick is 60-48P .... sorry for my typo above.

This is exactly what i am planning to do :
1) You build your LED setup using 60-48P x 6 drivers.
2) This will be divide into 3 channels. (previous post) White, Blue and Mixed.

I think i will go with the boostled arduino .. at this moment i dont think i am
comfortable enough to think of attempting a DIY Aurdino...

I think the boostled arduino is exactly what i need at this moment

I think its time for me to book my led's now and i will keep pestering
everyone with my questions going forward ..

Thanks again for all your help and answer's ... without which
i wouldnt even dare to make this attempt..

Best Regards,
SWF

[katchupoy]

Good plan SWF.
Boostled has 4 channels. 3 channels you will use. The 4th channel, if you get creative, can be your moonlight, or fuge light.

Good luck.

[SWF]

Hi Ceasar, Fishman65, Dennis,

Just wanted to thank you guys for helping me with all the questions.
I orderd my LED's. 2 sets of 36 dimmable kits from rapidled and they are with me now.
I also have the boostled control with....
I have to start looking around for the aluminium C channels and other stuffs needed...

Can you list out all the miscillenous things and tools that i should get my hands on so before
i start my build. so that i dont miss out on anything.. Please !

Thank you so much again... you guys gave me the confidence to go LED's ...

Special thanks to you Ceasar .. for your inspiring thread !!

Best Regards,
SWF

[katchupoy]

Here is a link of my list, scroll in the middle.
Hope this helps.

[TheFishMan65]

Looks like a good list to me.

[katchupoy]

tnx Fishman, wish i can go back to my posts and edit them so I can keep updating it...

[beginnersluckpg]

I really hope you can offer some advice as to how big too go. Currently running 95 gallon wave tank and will be for awhile,eventually going to a 6 ft 150 gallon. I want to switch to LEDS and bulb replacement time is near. I am currently running 2x250W mh and 4t5's. Sps, lps. Etc. I liked yur design an will be using channel instead with fans and will have to build some skirting as well. My question is should I be making modules and then adding? Or do u think I can make a 48 fixture work on both?

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by beginnersluckpg

I really hope you can offer some advice as to how big too go. Currently running 95 gallon wave tank and will be for awhile,eventually going to a 6 ft 150 gallon. I want to switch to LEDS and bulb replacement time is near. I am currently running 2x250W mh and 4t5's. Sps, lps. Etc. I liked yur design an will be using channel instead with fans and will have to build some skirting as well. My question is should I be making modules and then adding? Or do u think I can make a 48 fixture work on both?

I'm not 100% sure of your tank dimensions but Im guessing your 95 gallon is 48" X 18" and you will be going to a tank that is 72" X 18". With that in mind I would look at making the modules 24" X 18" so you can have 2 modules now and then add a third module when you move to the 6 foot long tank.

Based on what you have now your basicly running 700+ Watts of lighting on your 95 gallon. With LED's you can easily cut that in less than half. From what you have now I'd look at using 48 LED's per module. This will reduce your present 700+ watts of power usage to around 288 Watts for the 95 and eventualy about 432 Watts for the 150 Gallon.

For LED's on these units I'd start with 8 Neutral White XP-G, 4 cyan Philips Rebel , 16 Royal Blues XP-E and 20 Blue LED's XP-E, For each Module. Note this is more than I'd normaly put on a tank this size however you do have a lot of light on it right now and looking at matching your PAR ratings.

For drivers I would actualy run 4 for each module with each on its own timer so the lights can come on in and off in phases.

Phase 1 = 12 Blue LED's
Phase 2 = 8 Royal Blues + 4 Cyans
Phase 3 = 8 Royal Blues + 4 Neutral Whites
Phase 4 = 4 Neutral Whites + 8 Blues

Build up one module first then run it and see how you like the color. There is a lot of personal taste on how moch blue one person likes comopared to how much white another person likes. this is a 5 Blue to 1 White ratio that I like when I use the neutral whites. It compares with a 2 to1 ratio if you used Cool Whites which I do not recommend.

When you build the second module as you order parts remember you can pull say some Blues out of the first module to use on the secod and replace them with more whites or vice versa to balance the color to your personal taste.

I personly like the Alumnium channeling for heat sinks. But unlike others I prefer 2" X 1" rails with 1/2" to 1" gap between the rails. The 2 " rails give more surface are for heat dispensation. with these rails on a an 18" tank you could go with 6 rails using a 1/2" spacing. so you have 8 LED's per rail and a 3" spacing between LED's. If youy use 700 ma drivers you will not have any heat issues, and you might even be able to run them up to 1050 ma without fans. At 700 ma your talking roughly 120 Watts per module, and with 1050 MA drivers about 170 Watts per module.

[katchupoy]

@Beginnersluck,
Tell me your tank dimensions for both. Do you have already in mind what kind of LEDs to use? Do you have color preference? Are you a blue guy? An iwasaki guy? Or a ushio 10k guy? What mh bulbs brand and kelvin are you running now?

[TropTrea]

just ran across these drivers. Could be a strong posibility for larger builds.

http://www.xppower.com/pdfs/SF_DLA50-150.pdf

[TheFishMan65]

If you don't want dimming they should work. I think dimming is important.

[jgwinner]

Originally Posted by katchupoy

Here is a LED calculator I just made for all of you....

PLS CLICK HERE.

Hope this helps.

Did the spreadsheet disappear? I thought it was great!

I've got a 20x10x10 Nano I want to illuminate with some LED's and narrow lenses. I want to eventually keep SPS in it, but I have a month or two while the rock will grow out and cycle. Don't even have the tank yet

== John ==

[katchupoy]

try this one ...

https://sites.google.com/site/caddni...led-calculator

[wardda]

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone else has done a design like mine and if so if you are getting color separation (disco effect, white spots dancing with blue spots)? Which I would like to reduce or get rid of.

It seems that when I have blues only the tank looks great and uniform but when I turn on the whites I get white spots dancing with blue spots. I have 80 deg optics on all my leds on a standard 90 gallon.

I have 36 LEDs 12 XPG Whites at 1amp, and 24 XTE Royal Blues at .75amps 9" over the water with 80deg lenses in a linear configuration.

my config is 12 leds per 48" strip (B is royal blue, W is white, they are about 3" apart)
B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B (Strip 1)
B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B (Strip 2)
B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B-B-W-B (Strip 3)

Thanks

[katchupoy]

warrdda.. you will have the effect because of your arrangement... you should have staggered it....

See the effect is very obvious if the arrangement is parralel to your eyes... But if the arrangement is perpendicular, its not much...

Try to look at it on the side of your tank, do you still see the effect?

[beginnersluckpg]

Originally Posted by katchupoy

@Beginnersluck,
Tell me your tank dimensions for both.
95 gallon wave
48L x 16 deep on left side and 24 deep on right side x 25h

150 gallon
72L x 24W x 20H

Do you have already in mind what kind of LEDs to use?

From what I'm reading Cree and oshram but I am definitely open to suggestions. Don't want to waste my time by trying to save a few more bucks.

Do you have color preference? Are you a blue guy? An iwasaki guy? Or a ushio 10k guy?

I am a bright coral guy, i do prefer a bit of a blue overtone. I want it to mimic my mh fixture I have now but save some money over time.

What mh bulbs brand and kelvin are you running now?

2x250 geismann 13000k
2 x Fuji pink t5
2 x Super actinic uri's t5

[beginnersluckpg]

But I hope u can decipher my blather.

[beginnersluckpg]

Thanks so much for your info, I do have a little over kill on. Lighting and I should have mentioned my schedule as well.
T5....11-11
Mh left is 2:45-6:45
Mh right is 3:00-7:00
Moon lights run
From 10 pm to noon