Black Box Light Improved

Reefs of Space · Feb 14, 2019

I ended up using 2 less 6500k and 2 more 470nm. Final layout

55 3w leds
2-390nm
7-410nm
2-420nm
10-440nm
20-470nm
2-520nm Green
2-660nm Red
2-3000k
2-6500k
6-10000k

Flippers4pups · Feb 14, 2019

Reefs of Space said:
I ended up using 2 less 6500k and 2 more 470nm. Final layout

55 3w leds
2-390nm
7-410nm
2-420nm
10-440nm
20-470nm
2-520nm Green
2-660nm Red
2-3000k
2-6500k
6-10000k

Bookmarked.

Ashley Kekua · Feb 14, 2019

redfishbluefish said:
LED beads may be attached in two different ways. Either a dab of thermal grease or thermal adhesive and then soldered in place (making sure the positive and negative are on the correct poles).

The majority of these LED's simply use thermal grease. So to remove, use a solder iron and either a solder sucker or solder wick to remove the old bead. The new bead gets a very small dab of thermal grease and is soldered back in.

My experience with those attached with thermal glue required that I destroy the old bead to get it out. Again, gluing is not found in many of these CBB's. Actually the only fixture I've worked on with thermal glue were Fathom Hydra's (now out of business) Here's what I usually end up with after removing the glued bead.

with a solder sucker to suck solder, can that solder be reused again?

redfishbluefish · Feb 14, 2019

Ashley Kekua said:
with a solder sucker to suck solder, can that solder be reused again?

I'm going to say NO. If you were stuck on a foreign planet and the only choice was to dig out the dribble from the sucker....that's another story.

This is but an example, but you'll need something like THIS.

theatrus · Feb 14, 2019

redfishbluefish said:
I'm going to say NO. If you were stuck on a foreign planet and the only choice was to dig out the dribble from the sucker....that's another story.

This is but an example, but you'll need something like THIS.

An extra no as the old solder will have no flux. Use whatever rosin core solder you can find.

Ashley Kekua · Feb 14, 2019

ah ok make sense. thank you to !

Reefs of Space · Feb 14, 2019

These black box companies hardly use solder to begin with. Once I popped them off, almost nothing left behind. I just pre tinned the board then greased the back of each led, and soldered them on while applying slight pressure to make sure the led is flush with the board.

Ashley Kekua · Feb 14, 2019

Reefs of Space said:
These black box companies hardly use solder to begin with. Once I popped them off, almost nothing left behind. I just pre tinned the board then greased the back of each led, and soldered them on while applying slight pressure to make sure the led is flush with the board.

the SBREef;lights LEDS are weird. They seem to have Solder on the center of the LED...LEd must be destroyed and heated on center to melt the solder and pop off metal base!!!! the + and - were easy to remove solder...but the center is hard!! unless one has trick to share!!!!

redfishbluefish · Feb 14, 2019

I've never changed out LED's on SB Reef....but it sounds from your description that they use thermal GLUE, not thermal paste.

Any time I've dealt with thermal glue, you end up destroying the LED when you remove it.

Reefs of Space · Feb 14, 2019

Ashley Kekua said:
the SBREef;lights LEDS are weird. They seem to have Solder on the center of the LED...LEd must be destroyed and heated on center to melt the solder and pop off metal base!!!! the + and - were easy to remove solder...but the center is hard!! unless one has trick to share!!!!

The diodes in my unit were glued down too. Could not pull them off to save my life. I had to use a tiny flathead screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit and lightly tap it under each one to pop them off.

Ashley Kekua · Feb 14, 2019

Reefs of Space said:
The diodes in my unit were glued down too. Could not pull them off to save my life. I had to use a tiny flathead screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit and lightly tap it under each one to pop them off.

do you need to heat it with the solder gun?????? before you try to pop it off?

Ashley Kekua · Feb 14, 2019

Reefs of Space said:
The diodes in my unit were glued down too. Could not pull them off to save my life. I had to use a tiny flathead screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit and lightly tap it under each one to pop them off.

what you use to tap the flathead screwdriver with?

redfishbluefish · Feb 14, 2019

I've actually used a 1/4 inch wood chisel...that still destroys the LED. The sharp hit of a hammer usually releases the LED.

Reefs of Space · Feb 15, 2019

Ashley Kekua said:
what you use to tap the flathead screwdriver with?

I was using the pliers to tap on the screwdriver, but just because they were right next to me. If you had a small hammer, that would work too. I was able to save the leds with out breaking them, and even reused them.