Finished diy led light

[bluedevils38]

So I researched for months about upgrading my t5s for some modern leds but the price was way to expensive for my taste so I decided to tackle building my own. I'm a very crafty person and am very good with tools of all different kinds. I researched a lot on what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. Here's the run down and some pictures of what I did I'll be posting each step in a reply.

 

[bluedevils38]

First I ordered 2 makers led 18" heat sinks for me they were the best option 1. Because they offered a t-slot design and I could move the leds in the future and 2. Because it already came with a fan. The second picture you can see I marked where the leds were going to go I decided I wanted 3 rows of 8 alternating between 3w Cree royal blues and 3w cool whites

 

[bluedevils38]

I then started putting the leds down using thermal grease then screwed them in place

 

[bluedevils38]

This is both of the heat sinks with all of the leds down

 

[bluedevils38]

For wiring I used 22 gauge stranded from leds to led and from the leds to the driver.

 

[bluedevils38]

As far as the drivers went I thought it made most sense to go with 2 of the makers 2up pros since they fit right into the heat sink and came with 2 ldd drivers with each one. Also I wanted the dimming control. I used 2 1000mA ldds on each one 1 for 12 cool whites and one for 12 royal blues on each heatsink. I wired them all up and for the power supply I used 20 gauge awg since I was running the power source a little further away.

 

[bluedevils38]

I decided to go with the 80 degree optics since the light wasn't going to be super far away from my tank and used optic paste to glue them down. Some were pretty tricky to get to stay but after curing for 24 hours they were solid

 

[bluedevils38]

This is both of them all wired up and tested them and they worked great the bars going across are for my mounting hardware

 

[bluedevils38]

The first picture is my old t5 and the bar going across is what I'm mounting the new light to. The second picture is with the leds on the bracket and I loved the way it turned out. It cost me around $600 for everything and wasn't that difficult to do just time consuming. But way better than paying retail for leds. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[kv69]

Awesome build!

 

[bluedevils38]

Thank you!

 

[dmort]

This looks really nice. I think you did a great job. Excuse the noob question but how do you control the dimming? Is it just an inline dimmer?

 

[bluedevils38]

On top of the maker 2up there is two dimming knobs one for each driver so in total there are four dimming knobs

 

[dmort]

Why did you decide to go with two sections of heat sink as opposed to one longer fixture?

 

[bluedevils38]

I liked the look of two separate and one big one I thought would have been a little over kill

 

[bobman]

Nice build what did that run you

 

[dmort]

It cost me around $600 for everything

 

[bluedevils38]

Yeah give or take a little bit but the best estimate would be 600