Diy Led

[SLIM]

I would like to learn how to make my own high powered LED light unit, exactly the same sort of thing ps3steveo did.
Can anybody point me in the right direction, links, experience or anything that will help so I can learn exactly what equipment is needed and how to put them together, and how the whole thing works?

 

[SmexxyNick]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLFh3Q_FEA Watch the whole thing, it's soder free too

 

[DrRob]

Have a read of this thread, an oldie but a goodie. Good run through of the ideas but no recent stuff in there.
 
I'm about to do a build, but I cheated and bought outdoor floodlights (should have been finished but it took a while to get the ebay store to actually send me lights, rather than some of the other stuff I now have).

 

[ech0o]

I have several builds planned out, all WAY CHEAPER than the DIY kits uraujoey uses in his videos.   Those are pretty cool, and solderless is great, but you save SO MUCH MONEY by just soldering a few things and getting your LED's wholesale.  A soldering gun is CHEAP you can probably find one used for a few dollars, and its not rocket science, it doesn't have to be pretty.
 
That being said you do have to find a heatsink to mount the lights onto, and a method for how your fixture will sit/hang/mount onto your tank.  What length tank are you trying to build this for?

 

[SLIM]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLFh3Q_FEA Watch the whole thing, it's soder free too

Thank you, i shall give this a watch shortly

 

[SLIM]

Have a read of this thread, an oldie but a goodie. Good run through of the ideas but no recent stuff in there.
 
I'm about to do a build, but I cheated and bought outdoor floodlights (should have been finished but it took a while to get the ebay store to actually send me lights, rather than some of the other stuff I now have).

Thanks Dr Rob, iv been looking for this thread. I had a brief read last night, gona give it a proper going through today. I seem to be reading conflicting information tho on wiring.
Does the + - wires go to led to led or is it just the + wire that chains them together then a - wire running from the last led back to the controller to complete the circuit. It appears this is how supercole did it. But surely each led needs a + & - ?

 

[SLIM]

I have several builds planned out, all WAY CHEAPER than the DIY kits uraujoey uses in his videos.   Those are pretty cool, and solderless is great, but you save SO MUCH MONEY by just soldering a few things and getting your LED's wholesale.  A soldering gun is CHEAP you can probably find one used for a few dollars, and its not rocket science, it doesn't have to be pretty.
 
That being said you do have to find a heatsink to mount the lights onto, and a method for how your fixture will sit/hang/mount onto your tank.  What length tank are you trying to build this for?

Hi thanks for your reply. I do actually plan to use solder for the wiring
And im aware about heat sinks. The build will be for a 6ft tank. I already have 2 custom made LED light strips over the tank which a member on here built for me, but feel i could benefit from a third led light strip which i kinda want to build myself.
Its something iv always wanted to learn.
It sounds like your experienced with this kinda thing. Anychance you could draw me a simple wiring diagram?
Just something simple showing the leds, controller and DC adapter and how to wire them all together?
Im just a little unsure if the + - should run to every led chaining them that way OR chain them with just a + then completing the ciruit with a - off the last led.
Thanks for any help in advance

 

[DrRob]

The confusing bit is that they run in chains (length of which depend on your driver power output, your LED power and how bright you want to run them).
 
So they tend to connect in series, but you may have more than 1 string.

 

[SLIM]

Also can anybody recommend a good supplier of 3w LEDs. Must be 6500k and the "star" type led.
Links apprechiated

The confusing bit is that they run in chains (length of which depend on your driver power output, your LED power and how bright you want to run them).
 
So they tend to connect in series, but you may have more than 1 string.

The build will be for 1 string/strip with 10 x 3w leds stretched over 6ft.
I already know the exact driver i need for this set up i just need to know how to wire the chain correctly

 

[SLIM]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLFh3Q_FEA Watch the whole thing, it's soder free too

Just watched the whole video and researched into the whole solderless led. They are truely awesome they really are, just a little on the pricey side. Im confident I could build my led lighting for half that price if I do my own soldering and buy all the components seperately.
Thanks tho the video was enlightening! Its given me a better understanding of how the circuit should look.

 

[ech0o]

They can be connected in a series, positive to negative, then you usually run a few paralell series to lighten the load on each series of lights.  Ebay has lots of 50 of the 3W LED's for like 14 dollars, cheap backplates are another $10 for 50, you need thermal adhesive(i prefer the double sided cuttable pads), wires, heatsink, fan and of course LED driver.  The most expensive part of the ordeal is getting good heatsinks for a decent price, I am always on the lookout for a heatsink!!!!

 

[DrRob]

Aye, it's amazing what has heatsinks. Old amplifiers were good for this. Think of bits of kit that get hot that shouldn't, and was built in the 90's so is obsolete, cheap and was from the era when aluminium was cheaper than cooler chips and fans.

 

[SLIM]

I plan to use a hollow aluminium tube as a heatsink. 2"X1"Xlength.
I just need a basic circuit diagram now to make sure I do it correctly

 

[ech0o]

There is the 2 individual paralleled series diagram.  The boxes represent current drivers, both powered by one power source, but unable to direct current for enough power to run the entire system themselves, therefor multiples are used.  The reason you don't try to run the lights directly from the power supply is you would be running your bulbs at way too much power and cause them to burn out faster, and also because you can add an array of shades of white and blue to your panel and have the colors individually dimmable to preference. 

http/aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/diy-projects/diy-high-power-led-aquarium-lighting-%E2%80%93-part-iii/
 
there is the page that I pulled the diagram from, seems to have some useful information!

 

[SLIM]

Fantastic thanks for that.
So just to be clear, can you please confirm which diagram below is correct?
 
 
Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

If i had to guess i would say Fig 3?
 
I have also seen diagrams which look like this below.
Infact Smexxynick's solderless leds kinda look like this..
 
Fig A

OR.. Fig B (without the end loop)

Can you see why im a little confused lol any help is appreciated

Sorry dunno why the diagrams came out so small with such huge gaps inbetween.