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Led Lighting

Looks good but at £250 a bit steep compared to a DIY version if they are claiming an equiviliant of 150Watt MH from 10 Cree 3w bulbs my planned 12 will be more than enough for my tank and i am hoping to do mine for just under £100.
 
That unit *could* actually be making plausible claims on the output it's making, depending on what Cree model it's using. As above though, it will cost you 2-3 times the ammount of DIYing them yourself, and the size of the unit when passively cooled says the LED's life will be shortened on most Cree LED's due to runnign them too hot... Cree's need forced (active) cooling on all the DIY rigs I've seen thus far, when they have used enough of the correct ones to make a 150W halides output...
 
rabbut said:
That unit *could* actually be making plausible claims on the output it's making, depending on what Cree model it's using. As above though, it will cost you 2-3 times the ammount of DIYing them yourself, and the size of the unit when passively cooled says the LED's life will be shortened on most Cree LED's due to runnign them too hot... Cree's need forced (active) cooling on all the DIY rigs I've seen thus far, when they have used enough of the correct ones to make a 150W halides output...
Click to expand...

Oh gawd Rabbut, you are talking in that foreign language again :p

Seffie x

:fish:
 
Rabbut, would you be up for making LED units privately for people in the forum? Maybe then Seffie gets some LED units and they will be worthwhile..

Just an idea

Regards
 
That is a good guide, though still only half finished :sad: (or it was when I last read it)

I would think about building rigs for people, but it's a legal mine-field. If it set's fire and kills/seriously injures you, I could end up facing manslaughter charges unless I could show I was a competent person to build them, and the units would have to be kite marked along with complying with various regulations e.t.c. (think PC lighting and the ballasts, if you are making stuff for someone else, you have to comply with complex legislation, or you break the law when you supply units that don't comply). Really though, a DIY rig can be as simple as wiring up a house lamp if you want just on and off settings :good: Power from a supply goes into a driver. The LED's then connect to the driver. Then, you just have to mount the LED's over the tank and fit heat-sinks to them :hyper:

Seffie, Active/forced cooling is where you run a fan over the heat sinks to push the heat away. Passive cooling is without the fan to push are across the heat sinks :nod: Hope that was closer to English for you :lol:

I should be able to help out anyone that's DIY'ing an LED rig though, if they post, from what gear they need to actually wiring up, just start a thread and I'll get to it as and when I can :nod:

Al the best
Rabbut
 
rabbut said:
That is a good guide, though still only half finished :sad: (or it was when I last read it)

I would think about building rigs for people, but it's a legal mine-field. If it set's fire and kills/seriously injures you, I could end up facing manslaughter charges unless I could show I was a competent person to build them, and the units would have to be kite marked along with complying with various regulations e.t.c. (think PC lighting and the ballasts, if you are making stuff for someone else, you have to comply with complex legislation, or you break the law when you supply units that don't comply). Really though, a DIY rig can be as simple as wiring up a house lamp if you want just on and off settings :good: Power from a supply goes into a driver. The LED's then connect to the driver. Then, you just have to mount the LED's over the tank and fit heat-sinks to them :hyper:

Seffie, Active/forced cooling is where you run a fan over the heat sinks to push the heat away. Passive cooling is without the fan to push are across the heat sinks :nod: Hope that was closer to English for you :lol:

I should be able to help out anyone that's DIY'ing an LED rig though, if they post, from what gear they need to actually wiring up, just start a thread and I'll get to it as and when I can :nod:

Al the best
Rabbut
Click to expand...

Being low voltage you coould make up the units minus the power supply and let people know which psu to use. I have made a couple of units my self and I used some old laptop powersupplies that I had lying around so there is no mains anywhere near the tank.
 
TigerIssey said:
What exactly is a heat sink, and how does it work??

I wired my own 55w PC's so that is now sounding alot easier.
Click to expand...

It is a piece of metal which is flat on one side and has fins on the back to radiate the heat away. The heat sink is attached to the device you want to lower the temperature.

some heatsinks have fans attached to them to increase the termal efficiency.

If you look inside a computer you will see a number of various size heatsinks attached to chips on the motherboard
 
TigerIssey said:
What exactly is a heat sink, and how does it work??

I wired my own 55w PC's so that is now sounding alot easier.
Click to expand...

Hi TigerIssey

Basically its a lump of copper or aluminium with fins on its purpose is to take the heat away from the LEDs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

The LEDs can be as easy or complicated as you want.

I am basically going for 12 LEDs intialy 8 white and 4 Blues attach indvidual Heatsinks (about 1 euro each) Some PC fans to blow over the heatsinks.

6 whites will connect to one buckpuck with pot (These act as a dimmer in simple terms)

4 blues and the other 2 whites will connect to a second buckpuck (each buckpuck has a max of 6)

Then I will get a laptop type powersupply wire them all up with some solder (The LEDs I am ordering have a star heatsink attached do easier to solder apparently)

I have some luminare type arms I will make some sort of enclosure Acrylic most probably and hang them above the tank

most of this info gleamed from UR and nanoreef.com I do have an electronics backround but this should be easy enough to make enclosure is worst part for me but might even use guttering yet
 
I don't want any dimming, want them to be as easy as possible.

I have no problems making an acrylic enclosure, which can be mounted to the hood. Just unsure about the heatsinks, everything else sounds exactly like wiring my PC's. Apart from the fact I need to use a soldering iron.

How many LED's should I be using for a 6ft tank and what distance apart. I am presuming the ratio of blue to white is down to personal taste.

IE how many LED's and how many Drivers.
 
TigerIssey said:
I don't want any dimming, want them to be as easy as possible.

I have no problems making an acrylic enclosure, which can be mounted to the hood. Just unsure about the heatsinks, everything else sounds exactly like wiring my PC's. Apart from the fact I need to use a soldering iron.

How many LED's should I be using for a 6ft tank and what distance apart. I am presuming the ratio of blue to white is down to personal taste.

IE how many LED's and how many Drivers.
Click to expand...

Depends on several factors:-

Depth and height of tank, marine or freshwater, planted etc. In my 30"x15"x12" I have used 5 White 3 W LED's spaced equidistant and 3 x Blue 3W Led's

See the link below

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=290887&hl=

I used one driver for each LED but later worked out with the help of Rabbut that I could fire 5 LED's of each driver. I ended up on another project using 3 LED's to each driver
 
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