General DIY LED thread

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Trying to get an idea if it would be feasible/cost-effective to go the DIY route for lighting on a 48x24x24 120g mixed reef.

I'm still in the planning stages of the entire project and will be DIYing as much as possible. When I comes to lighting, my plan was to go with either SB reef 18"x2 or a single SBReef 45". My question is, for the cost of the 45" fixutre (~$440), would one be able to DIY better or equal LED lighting solution (controlled via reef pi) at an equal or lower cost?

Sourcing mostly from Steve's, but I don't mind going ebay/rapid etc.

 

[oreo54]

Sort of..
You can buy 100 3W Royal Blue LED's for $13.80......................
198W at nominal drive current of 550mA.
Figure 9 ldd-HW (wires no board needed) drivers @ 600mA $54.. (up to 220 real watts)
48V 350W DC Meanwell power supply $33.49..

$101.29..

Keep in mind you can mix colors. I only picked rb as an example..

60 degree lenses..
100 for $37..

$138.29

Now heat sinks.. that's sort of the tricky one..
Anywhere from .19 to $11 per inch..

6" x 12" Premium Heat Sink and Enclosure

Affordable LED Lighting for Growers and Makers. Build your own high quality LED lights using name brand parts at an affordable price. Minimal knowledge required, let us show you how!

www.rapidled.com

$25 for 6'x12" working surface..
Lets just throw in 3..
$75

$213.29

Then you have wire and heatsink compound.. Minimal cost..

Can't see it much cheaper than that and best to double it anyways...
So yes and no....

now if you want to build something that looks like this yet color tunable from this to daylight.. that's another story..

viosys violets from Steves.. 10 =$39
Lumileds 6500K 'fresh fish" COB's.. $174..

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Sort of..
You can buy 100 3W Royal Blue LED's for $13.80......................
198W at nominal drive current of 550mA.
Figure 9 ldd-HW (wires no board needed) drivers @ 600mA $54.. (up to 220 real watts)
48V 350W DC Meanwell power supply $33.49..

$101.29..

Keep in mind you can mix colors. I only picked rb as an example..

60 degree lenses..
100 for $37..

$138.29

Now heat sinks.. that's sort of the tricky one..
Anywhere from .19 to $11 per inch..

6" x 12" Premium Heat Sink and Enclosure

Affordable LED Lighting for Growers and Makers. Build your own high quality LED lights using name brand parts at an affordable price. Minimal knowledge required, let us show you how!

www.rapidled.com

$25 for 6'x12" working surface..
Lets just throw in 3..
$75

$213.29

Then you have wire and heatsink compound.. Minimal cost..

Can't see it much cheaper than that and best to double it anyways...
So yes and no....

Haha I had a feeling it wouldn't be easy and clear-cut. How does one determine how much lighting is needed per tank? Is it watt/gallon?

 

[oreo54]

Sort of.. but PPFd is better..and it depends on what you want to raise..
One advantage of DIY is it's really rather easy to expand and change, though both have a cost penalty..

"guesstimating" involves simple math and some on line calculators and luck and faith..

My "forte" if you will.. is over-powering fw tanks..but the concepts are pretty similar..
first thing I ask people is what do YOU want it to look like..

That's where you get better w/ equal $'s.. Like buying Radions and wasting like 20% of their potential..

myData fresh-fish-v2.csv [120°] x9
myData viosys420(2).csv [70°] x10
----------------------------------------

* SIMULATION DATA
----------------------------------------
Luminous flux : 33,285 lm
Radiant flux : 133,739 mW
PPF : 580 umol/s
TCP : ‑ K
CRI : 50
λp : 418 nm
Color : #A98BFF
----------------------------------------

* PERFORMANCE @ 50cm
----------------------------------------
Irradiance : 77 W/m²/s
Illuminance : 14,213 lx
PPFD : 316 umol/m²/s

By "dimming" the above violet channel..you get a "purple" tinted daylight..
CRI so most colors are natural and a 10000K look.
* MIXING LIST
----------------------------------------

myData fresh-fish-v2.csv [120°] x9
myData viosys420(2).csv [70°] x4
----------------------------------------

* SIMULATION DATA
----------------------------------------
Luminous flux : 33,261 lm
Radiant flux : 128,136 mW
PPF : 561 umol/s
TCP : 10530 K
CRI : 75
λp : 418 nm
Color : #CBB6FF
----------------------------------------

* PERFORMANCE @ 50cm
----------------------------------------
Irradiance : 62.5 W/m²/s
Illuminance : 14,151 lx
PPFD : 266 umol/m²/s

Remember manuf. of LED's are really shooting for a broad base clientele where you.. well are just one..

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

What I want is the problem, being my first tank I lack a point of reference. All I know is that I don't want it overly blue. I do a good bit of diving (mostly tropical) and underwater photography, so fighting the blue/color correction is always a fight, but I also don't want to be devoid of blue.

I think I'll have to go with a commercially available light to start, then play with lighting on the side, maybe fot my QT to get a feel for colors. I would love to have a ton of controllable channels, but my reef pi setup will be limited to 3 channels. Though I could always run a Storm X and figure out what I like, then find a way to narrow it down to 3 channels (RB/Whites/UV).

May grab a couple of Radion clone pucks and play Round with them.

 

[oreo54]

The "build" I posted is only 2 channels..
Yea DIY is a "commitment to a cause" not a $'s game..

 

[oreo54]

Had some time so I played w/ spectrums a bit..
you know, most people don't really want "natural"..
Note the tone swatch in the upper left corner.
3.2 and 1.6 ft ones are actual ocean spectrums..
Note the preponderance of cyan/green..
bottom right spectrum is a composite of the LED vs 3.2ft
Light grey is daylight, darker grey is the LED.
dotted line.. not sure. Haven't found a reference for it but prob some ocean depth.. 20m? who knows.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

I'm going to start by getting a couple of those 5 Channel Cree led pucks from fleaBay and supplement the white and blue channels with RBs and Mint from Steve's. Maybe drop a couple more UVs. Grab a 8up driver board from Steve's and a handful of 700ma and 1000ma drivers; I know the pucks mention rating to 1500ma on some channels but I think they're being, let's call it "optimistic"; plus running them lower should help longevity. For HS get that that 6x12 w/fan. Power it all with a meanwell 350w 48v psu.

Then go from there.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

As far as arrangement over a 48x24x24 tank..... Would clusters work better than straight rows/columns (grid)?

I've picked up 10 Luxeon K16s, figured supplement them with sunplus whites, blues, hyoerviolets/UVs, and mints... Though not sure how many of each... Maybe 2each of supplemental leads? 3ups or singles?

 

[oreo54]

Got to remeber the sunplus series has a WIDE angle native spread.. like 140 degrees..

 

[oreo54]

First off 10 k16's will push 93500mW of Royal blue (450nm)..
Don't think any reasonable amount of small emitters will have any visual impact on the tank.

Adding the violets of course gives you an added wavelength spread.
Mints are just limes w/ more blue (again at 450) Which you certainly already have an abundance of..

3 rows of 5 k16's is probably the best pattern.
At about 6" off the water line they only need to be a few inches apart..That's the space for the "colored"

In that inner row I'd pack sunplus whites,violets and possibly some cyan...
single stars..Should be able to get about 40 total..

sunplus are fairly balanced from cyan to red so adding things like lime or mint isn't very
productive. Or things like PC-amber unless you have a specific wavelength you want to target..

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

I wasn't planning on using all of the K16s. Just bought 10 to have a few spares. I was thinking of using no more than 8 total (maybe even 6 across 2x24in heatsinks) , 2 K16s per/ft of tank which would give ~67-90w of blue per ft, which I would think be plenty. Add a couple of cool blues to bring down the intense blue of RBs. Hyperviolets to get some of that 420nm, maybe 2 per K16. Then sunplus whites to cover aditrional spectrum and tame down the extreme blue and get to ~4:1B:W ratio. My thoughts on using cyan/mint along with sunplus was to further blend the colors; but I will defer to those with more knowledge than me on the subject.

 

[oreo54]

Less colors less blending necessary..


even 6-8 K16's will overpower any colors.. Good they are there but won't be very visible to the eye AFAICT.

I'm going to refer you to a Jedi.. ... who has a lot more practical experience in building reef lights than me..

Help me "evil cluster" my tank!!!! Led lighting for those that don't know. - Page 3 - Reef Central Online Community

Page 3- Help me "evil cluster" my tank!!!! Led lighting for those that don't know. Do It Yourself

www.reefcentral.com

I find that with neutrals, you need around a 1:14 ratio (minimum) of lumens of white to milliwatts of royal blue.

So say a k16= 9200mA of royal blue you need 657 lumens of white or related (in this case he used "warm" or neutral whites though for the calc) "at a minimum"..

So 4 sunplus per k16 though pretty sure it's still REALLY blue..


See tank but note they are using large white COB's as well

Feedback on LED quantity/ratio 100g reef tank

New member and totally new reefer over here and I'm trying to get my feet underneath me in regard to DIY led lighting. I've read a ton of posts here and they've taught me a lot, but they've also showed me there's a lot more to learn. Hoping I can stand on the shoulders of some of you giants in re...

www.nano-reef.com

The Toshiba chips are basically k16's..

The budget bruiser LED build... - Reef Central Online Community

The budget bruiser LED build... Do It Yourself

www.reefcentral.com

for fun and ideas..

DIY LED Fixture - Pointers for future build - Reef Central Online Community

DIY LED Fixture - Pointers for future build Do It Yourself

www.reefcentral.com

 

[oreo54]

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Well then.....

Not gonna lie, I have no idea what that graph means. However, based on your earlier reply about K16s overpowering whites, maybe run it off of a 500ma driver and double the white channel (sunplus cool whites and mints) and run them off of a 1A driver.

I'll definitely take a look at the links you posted later tonight once we're done with our dives.

Thanks!

 

[oreo54]

Chart just tells you what colors mean and mixing for specific overall tone..
It's just a fun reference in color theory..
And where "pure" colors lie on the chary (outer ring)

Or like the 10000k line it can be many different tones

 

[User]

Wouldn't go with optics. And I'd go with 12 clusters of 1xk16 2xmint 1xsunplus white 1x480blue and 2-3 violets.

Just getting time to get back into this.

Thanks for the info

But if I’m reading correctly, the K16 have a 44v Vf, 1000mA. With a 48v ps, that’s 1 x 700mA driver each if I do 70%. So I’d need 12 drivers and 8.4 amps of available power (2x6 amp supplies- just for the blues).

Then more power supplies and drivers for the other Leds.

Also- heatsink. I already have a 4’ makerslim. I’m thinking of cutting it into 16” sections so I can fit them over the open sections of a 6’ long 180 so I don’t waste lighting the braces. Then ordering another and doing the same. For 6 modules tied together with angle aluminum.

Each module will have 2x k16 and the associated other colors, and I’ll hang 2 modules over a 24x24x24” section of the tank. Each module will have a fan to provide ~130w cooling.

Sound about right or am I out of date again, lol

 

[oreo54]

RSP-500-48 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. RSP-500-48 – Enclosed AC DC Converters 1 Output 48V 85 ~ 264 VAC, 120 ~ 370 VDC Input from MEAN WELL USA Inc.. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

44 (average) x .7 = 30.8 W each = 369.6W..

$106

@ about $200 you can upgrade to a 750W ps..
RSP-75-48

"Usually" one large is close to cost of 2 small in same or like brands..

 

[User]

RSP-500-48 MEAN WELL USA Inc. | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. RSP-500-48 – Enclosed AC DC Converters 1 Output 48V 85 ~ 264 VAC, 120 ~ 370 VDC Input from MEAN WELL USA Inc.. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

44 (average) x .7 = 30.8 W each = 369.6W..

$106

@ about $200 you can upgrade to a 750W ps..
RSP-75-48

"Usually" one large is close to cost of 2 small in same or like brands..

Thoughts on the $40 amazon versions?

Adjustable DC Power Voltage Converter AC 110V-220V to DC 0-48V Module Switching Power Supply Digital Display 480W Voltage Regulator Transformer Built in Cooling Fan

And 1 was thinking of one supply for blues, and one for white and other colors instead of one big one. I could, of course, run half of the strings on one, and the other half on the second, so if one supply goes out, only half my lights go out

 

[oreo54]

Good power supplies should last at least 5 years..
Bad ones 2 years..as the power caps fail..

That's what I think of the Amazon ones..

Actually I suppose it's worth a shot.. BTW same one, slightly cheaper..
Odd..





the Meanwell is voltage adjustable from 41V to 54V DC.

always add 10% to calculated watt output..
405W....for headroom

not sure on either but fan noise and lifespan is important to some..