Another DIY led...

[dacianb]

Have you considered selling the extra boards you have? im sure a few DIY'ers would be able to make use of them.

I already sold most of them (still have one extra), and even next month I will order a new batch for my friends here.

 

[dacianb]

Another Question Dacianb, How are you reflowing the chips? Are you able to get away with a simple hot air setup or do you need a hot plate or oven to make sure these get soldered up right?

I was thinking about the puck apprach early on but gave up since the Chinese models are so cheap. I'd still like to try one of these days though.



For those of you in the US, look to Sparkfun and LadyAda for tutorials on PCBs. I've been making boards for about 5 years now, got into SMD work about 3 years ago. Its easy once you get the hang of it. High Power LEDs are tricky though.

I use a hot plate (preheat plate called in industry). Basically I manually apply solder paste on the pads, then put the board on the hot plate when is OFF, put all the leds on (have to pay attention to polarity, but position is not critical - normal leds are easy to do, but Luxeon UV are incredible tiny and is a pain in the a** to place them) then turn the plate ON. When solder paste melts leds are magically self-aligning to the pads. Then turn the plate OFF and wait before moving the board. Only trick is to use not too much paste, otherwise can do shorts under the led.

- on this proto of my board you can see a led OFF, but still the circuit works - so for sure there is a short under the led. but I will not re-cook the board and just leave it as it is.

 

[dacianb]

Are these really PCBs or are they al plates with the circuits painted onto one side, like the stars high power emitters are frequently sold on?

gtbarsi, MCPCBs are as real as PCBs. It is not paint on an Al plate. Such circuit plates are made using a sandwich of AL plate + dielectric substrate + copper foil then everything pressed (laminated) together (except Bergquist co which use a higher performance technology) to create the bare boards. Then, based on the design you have, copper layer is corroded and then painted with black in my case for a nicer look. Yes, are the same as the stars you can buy everywhere.
But the trick on such boards is the dielectric layer - thats makes difference between good boards / bad boards (price-wise also visible)

 

[Jlentz]

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I only use the cheap 2layer FR4 boards and hot air for my projects. I do know of a place in AZ that will make anything though. I figured there was more to it than just lots of pours and vias.

Thanks for the clarification! Very cool project!

 

[GrizFyrFyter]

I use a hot plate (preheat plate called in industry). Basically I manually apply solder paste on the pads, then put the board on the hot plate when is OFF, put all the leds on (have to pay attention to polarity, but position is not critical - normal leds are easy to do, but Luxeon UV are incredible tiny and is a pain in the a** to place them) then turn the plate ON. When solder paste melts leds are magically self-aligning to the pads. Then turn the plate OFF and wait before moving the board. Only trick is to use not too much paste, otherwise can do shorts under the led.

- on this proto of my board you can see a led OFF, but still the circuit works - so for sure there is a short under the led. but I will not re-cook the board and just leave it as it is.

I have been thinking about adding some other spectrum leds to my AI Sol Blue units, this beats holding the heatsync over the oven lol

 

[dacianb]

Power board - nothing special here. "Standard" Coralux 6 driver board with 4x Meanwell LDD 1000H drivers. The changes I made - soldered the wires directly on board as I didnt like the screw connectors provided and also adapted a small DC/DC converter (the small black part) for fan (actually convert the 48V in to 12V required by fan)

 

[dacianb]

And this is how the light modules will look like in the end. Can choose any colors for covers, but probably will go for black.
Size is 200mmx150mm with one LED board of 32 LEDs - around 100W consumption

 

[booth2010]

Those look amazing.

 

[dacianb]

Those look amazing.

Thanks :smile:

 

[booth2010]

I wish I was skilled enough in that area to build my own like that. Carpentry I can do, basic electronics yes, this not so much lol

 

[gtbarsi]

Will the covers be Aluminum? If so I would go with an anodized finish

Full pigment (no translucence) black in most cases would minimize the look of the lights, letting everyone focus on the DT. White would have a nice contrast with out being too flashy.
Personally I would go with a metallic look. Gold or Blue would have be very sharp, eye catching, and add a high tech feel. For something a bit more sophisticated a light gold that has an almost delicate look to it, some refer to that finish as champagne.

Since I do not know the rest of your setup, your taste, or the room it is in it is a hard one to call. Regardless it looks nice!

 

[Dubravko]

as first-my respect on this ! :thumb:

I have a few questions:
have you measured how much this lamp gives Lux
which is the dimension of the LED board
where you bought LEDs lamps (link) and which they label for purchase
how many wats has one LED 1w or 3w
where are you located dimer and and which one

thx

 

[dacianb]

I wish I was skilled enough in that area to build my own like that. Carpentry I can do, basic electronics yes, this not so much lol

:smile: if helps you, easiest Ikea shelf takes me 2 days full of pain and sweat... I am an RD guy designing and building lights all my life for craziest industries you can imagine - maybe is just experience.

 

[dacianb]

Will the covers be Aluminum? If so I would go with an anodized finish

Full pigment (no translucence) black in most cases would minimize the look of the lights, letting everyone focus on the DT. White would have a nice contrast with out being too flashy.
Personally I would go with a metallic look. Gold or Blue would have be very sharp, eye catching, and add a high tech feel. For something a bit more sophisticated a light gold that has an almost delicate look to it, some refer to that finish as champagne.

Since I do not know the rest of your setup, your taste, or the room it is in it is a hard one to call. Regardless it looks nice!

The main body is made from black anodized Al, but the colored parts in above pictures are 3D printed parts made of polyamide, either dyed or painted.
Those lights will be placed on a RS Reefer (hopefully to buy it in May / June) which hopefully will be white. Keeping everything black, will make them invisible almost comparing with the fully lighted white tank.
The room have white walls with white furniture, black sofas and so on; except my current tank which is wooden like - so last piece of old furniture (maybe this why my wife approved a new tank so easy :roll:

 

[dacianb]

as first-my respect on this ! :thumb:

I have a few questions:
have you measured how much this lamp gives Lux
which is the dimension of the LED board
where you bought LEDs lamps (link) and which they label for purchase
how many wats has one LED 1w or 3w
where are you located dimer and and which one

thx

Thanks for your appreciation. I will try to answer your questions one by one:
- have you measured how much this lamp gives Lux - lux is not the correct parameter to judge a reef light. Maybe PAR, but even that is not OK. On the picture bellow you can see the spectrum of a white LED (green line), the human perception curve (red line) - actually what human eye can see, and with yellow line an average of different photosynthesis absorption. Corals use mostly the 400-480 nm range, a range which actually is almost invisible to humans and having almost no Lux (lux is a measurement of what human can see). The 480-650 nm range is less used either by corals or plants, but is what we truly see. Above 650 nm (red, deep red leds at 630nm and recently on market the 730 nm leds) help a bit the corals, but are ideal for plants (planted tanks, refugiums or even indoor plant farming).

- which is the dimension of the LED board - 90x90 mm
- where you bought LEDs lamps (link) and which they label for purchase - can buy leds from tons of websites as Digikey for ex. Second part of question I dont understand, sorry
- how many wats has one LED 1w or 3w - there are 6W and 3W leds on this board, but everything is powered at max 3W - better efficiency, longer lifetime
- where are you located dimer and and which one - Storm Controller, for the moment externally in the special box Coralux sell, but considering place it into light itself a bit later. Even further I plan to build a new controller based on Jarduino concept. But this after the lights will be ready and I will become bored in the afternoon. :tongue:

 

[dacianb]

Initial idea was to make the top cover look like a spider web, but I get lazy and went to such hexagons air inlets. Also at first I thought to make covers with a semitransparent, frosty look and place some leds inside light and use the extra dimming channels I have to change the color of fixture depend my mood. But I keep the idea for Version 2 of the light.
I can change the covers easily anytime if I will change my mind (is similar to phone covers) - every week a new look, a new color :nerd:

 

[gtbarsi]

Have you considered the bluefish mini led controller? It has 6 channels of PWM, with enough voltage to drive 3 LDD / channel, integrated wifi, location simulation including moon phase, ios and android apps for control and configuration. The manufacturer page is having some certificate issues atm but, RapidLED has some details on their web page.

 

[dacianb]

Have you considered the bluefish mini led controller? It has 6 channels of PWM, with enough voltage to drive 3 LDD / channel, integrated wifi, location simulation including moon phase, ios and android apps for control and configuration. The manufacturer page is having some certificate issues atm but, RapidLED has some details on their web page.

Thanks for suggestion. It is interesting indeed, but already have the Storm controller at home . I dont really feel that controlling the light from my phone is really worth almost double the price of the storm controller. I can walk couple of steps next to tank and tune the light . Anyway, once the lights will be ready I am planning to start something based on Jarduino system with a nice touch screen. But thats for later - will see how time and budget will allow it.

 

[dacianb]

This is the light seen from above (no covers / fan) mounted yet.
On the right side of it there is a thermal switch which will turn the fan ON/OFF depend by light temperature, together with the fan connector. It is an industrial grade thermostat, with more than 100 000 clicks life. The fan will start when main plate temperature reach 50°C and will be off at 30°.

And a side view of fixture:

 

[Dubravko]

perhaps it would be better if the fan runs constantly
fan will be constantly switched on and off
LEDs quickly heated surface and the fan will constantly switched on and off (my opinion, I could be wrong)