dshel1217 Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 I finally finished my LED lights. I’ve been working on these on and off since the summer. I built the outside two of the summer and added the middle around x-mas. The breakdown is… 21 royal blue 14 neutral white 14 UV 6 Color pucks- 4 red ,4 blue, 4 green --- All each of the three colors is on single large LED 7 Cool White 6 Meanwell drivers dimmed with a control box (diy ), each color is dimmed independent except for a few. 3 temp controlled fans – they automatically speed up if the temp on the heat sink increase which very rarely happens Note for those thinking about doing a DIY LED Use cat 5 cable for dimming and powering LED . They are common, easy to connect and keep everything together. I think you can have 9 separate lines in one cable. Draw schematics- really helps keep everything together and good for troubleshooting Label all your wires- schematics are great but if you have multiple same colored wire it will it will save hours off your builds AC/DC converters and power cords are super cheap at the Good will computer center (the power cords are around $.95 and $4 for ACDC) Get your fans from a computer web site they are quieter, longer lasting and better quality than the LED site sell and normally close to the same price Make everything detachable via Cat 5, or computer wire connecters ect. Most of these tips I learned the hard way DON’T make my mistakes. End of Report 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 6 meanwells holy SHTI. Talk about controllability! Awesome job man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 I've been married for a while.. I need to control something in my life ... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nwehrman Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Looks great - can we see more pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 I've been married for a while.. I need to control something in my life ... Lol. Does 6 of those work? I've been married a year, but could use that... Awesome build. Nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Wow bud nice set up. Do you have a picture of those RGB LEDs and the pucks? Just curious how they look. Awesome build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Wow bud nice set up. Do you have a picture of those RGB LEDs and the pucks? Just curious how they look. Awesome build. Here is the color pucks, Im pretty happy with them except they are a pain to solder. The solder pad are about half the size of of the normal leds. Ohh all LED are Cree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Here are some more pics. The two things I was triving for when making these is controllablity and ease to modify and add on if I get a better tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I finally finished my LED lights. I’ve been working on these on and off since the summer. I built the outside two of the summer and added the middle around x-mas. The breakdown is… 21 royal blue 14 neutral white 14 UV 6 Color pucks- 4 red ,4 blue, 4 green --- All each of the three colors is on single large LED 7 Cool White 6 Meanwell drivers dimmed with a control box (diy ), each color is dimmed independent except for a few. 3 temp controlled fans – they automatically speed up if the temp on the heat sink increase which very rarely happens DSC_1385.JPGDSC_1387.JPGDSC_1401.JPG Note for those thinking about doing a DIY LED Use cat 5 cable for dimming and powering LED . They are common, easy to connect and keep everything together. I think you can have 9 separate lines in one cable. Draw schematics- really helps keep everything together and good for troubleshooting Label all your wires- schematics are great but if you have multiple same colored wire it will it will save hours off your builds AC/DC converters and power cords are super cheap at the Good will computer center (the power cords are around $.95 and $4 for ACDC) Get your fans from a computer web site they are quieter, longer lasting and better quality than the LED site sell and normally close to the same price Make everything detachable via Cat 5, or computer wire connecters ect. Most of these tips I learned the hard way DON’T make my mistakes. End of Report Are you manually dimming or do you have it setup to an RK or Apex? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Your setup looks great. Do you have a diagram of the fixture with your led placement? Can we see a full tank shot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 I finally finished my LED lights. I’ve been working on these on and off since the summer. I built the outside two of the summer and added the middle around x-mas. The breakdown is… 21 royal blue 14 neutral white 14 UV 6 Color pucks- 4 red ,4 blue, 4 green --- All each of the three colors is on single large LED 7 Cool White 6 Meanwell drivers dimmed with a control box (diy ), each color is dimmed independent except for a few. 3 temp controlled fans – they automatically speed up if the temp on the heat sink increase which very rarely happens DSC_1385.JPGDSC_1387.JPGDSC_1401.JPG Note for those thinking about doing a DIY LED Use cat 5 cable for dimming and powering LED . They are common, easy to connect and keep everything together. I think you can have 9 separate lines in one cable. Draw schematics- really helps keep everything together and good for troubleshooting Label all your wires- schematics are great but if you have multiple same colored wire it will it will save hours off your builds AC/DC converters and power cords are super cheap at the Good will computer center (the power cords are around $.95 and $4 for ACDC) Get your fans from a computer web site they are quieter, longer lasting and better quality than the LED site sell and normally close to the same price Make everything detachable via Cat 5, or computer wire connecters ect. Most of these tips I learned the hard way DON’T make my mistakes. End of Report Are you manually dimming or do you have it setup to an RK or Apex? I am doing manual dimming at the moment but I hope to switch over to a controller. Im going to build my own controller with the help of cap obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Your setup looks great. Do you have a diagram of the fixture with your led placement? Can we see a full tank shot? I dont have a diagram of my led lay out, I did at first but I ended up changing it around. But if you are in my area and want to stop by shoot me a pm and I can show you the whole deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 very cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Which meanwells are these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 dave are these the same LED's I saw on your tank before? or did you add more to it?! Looks pretty bright! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 dave are these the same LED's I saw on your tank before? or did you add more to it?! Looks pretty bright! I added the third unit after xmas probly brighter, but my camera picks up the white alot. It doesnt look this bright in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Which meanwells are these? D's I have heard there are ways to programs theses but not as easy as the p versions. Do you have any input Cap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Would have been much better off with the P variety, but it is possible with the D series, but the process is completely different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mlaw Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Do you feel like the UV added enough dimension to be worth the effort? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Do you feel like the UV added enough dimension to be worth the effort? You can’t really see the UV light, if anything they look purple, with that being said they don’t add much, if any, to the overall appearance. But they do add to the light to the far left wavelength range. Mine are the 405nm type. In my opinion they are worth the $4.50 each price tag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshel1217 Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Par values at lights 5" above water line. Thanks George for letting me borrow the meter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Nice data broheim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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