General DIY LED thread

[Kampo]

Looks like you have a spider on your light [emoji16]

lol my wife said the same. Was kinda bummed I needed a fan. Got HOT with just one of your half mega pros running at 700mah.

 

[Steven Garland]

Come to think of it,I ran 1x AcroStrip and 2x NanoBox strips so 18 leds total at 700mah on a Makers Slim 6" sink and the heatsink barley got warm to the touch...o_O

 

[Kampo]

Come to think of it,I ran 1x AcroStrip and 2x NanoBox strips so 18 leds total at 700mah on a Makers Slim 6" sink and the heatsink barley got warm to the touch...o_O

The strips spread the light out more is my guess

 

[Steven Garland]

Possibly,still weird as hell though. Come to think of it I think i have only used fans on 2 builds because never got remotely close to hot. But definitely something to look into for my current build.

I have a lot to play with and figure out,the goal is to over build the light if I ever upgrade I won't have to change a thing.

 

[Kampo]

so something new i've been looking at. when I got into diy led I got pointed at a project called sslac16 a project by a russian reefer for a esp8266 + PCA9685. this past year he has been porting and upgrading the project for the newer ESP32 board. What this brings to the project is you don't need a PCA9685 board anymore. and it adds control for more such as heaters and such. just need a EPS32 dev board and a RTC under 10 bucks invested and simpler than a reefpi if all you need is a light controller. also it can act as its own AP so you don't need a wifi to hook it too.

setup a very simple 1 channel controller to run on a fresh tank to see how it works tonight. if it seems stable going to roll it out to my work tank

link to the project
https://github.com/bbasil2012/SSLAC-ESP32

 

[brandon clow]

I love the LED DIY threads, best thing on R2R. I went with the rapid 180 kit later last year but added a couple stars to each fixture that I wanted to get more out of. Its x3 of everything listed below. I would just spam the link here but I see it's 404'd. Not sure why exactly but I see they are out of a lot of items included in my kit (perhaps?). I put the Apogee 510 under it and wow...the light has a kill mode at 100% mid tank in the 750-800 par. I have the light at at about 11 inches from the water line with the 60° lenses. I am sure I would get spread of a gradual par when I get my 180 but right now its on my 125.

16 Cree RB XP-G3 on a LDD-H 1000
10 Cree Cool White XP-G3 on a LDD-H 1000
All on a LDD-H 700
4 Semi 410-420
4 Semi 420-430
1 Cree Green XP-E2 520-535
1 Cree Red XP-E2 620-630

My only gripe with this kit is that dang red/green combo on my violet channel, I could stand it more if it was on its own...which I may do but my question is it really even needed? I was wondering if there was a mint I could use in place of the green and if the red is still needed with that I getting out of the whites?

 

[Lingwendil]

Cyan or mint would be a better sub for the green, if you're short on channels and don't run your blues on full blast you can go down to a 600/700mA driver on the blues and run them on the same channel (that's my usual solution)

If it was me I would also switch three or four of your whites over to neutral whites, replace a couple with regular (non royal) blues, and remove the red entirely.

What controller and channel count are you working with?

 

[brandon clow]

Cyan or mint would be a better sub for the green, if you're short on channels and don't run your blues on full blast you can go down to a 600/700mA driver on the blues and run them on the same channel (that's my usual solution)

If it was me I would also switch three or four of your whites over to neutral whites, replace a couple with regular (non royal) blues, and remove the red entirely.

What controller and channel count are you working with?

I am using the pca board with reef-pi. The driver boards have an open slot for another ldd, 4 in total for ldds and a fan driver slot. I have been thinking about that too, adding some 470 blues (in moderation). Maybe 2 or 3 per fixture on the blues.

I am not sure on the whites yet, I am afraid of getting too much of a yellow hue with the warmer/neutral whites but I'm not sure how much impact 2 warms will do against 8 cools.

I am running a 2 bulb aquablue special and coral plus periodically through the day but I really don't like the t5 look (why I went to led). I figure I'm rounding out whatever I am missing. Still not in favor of using this as a solution at all!

3 channels per fixture and 3 fixtures total.

 

[Lingwendil]

Hmmm.

In that case maybe replace the green with cyan, and throw it on its own driver, then you can play with it separately.

I don't think the white will be too warm, especially if it's offset by the cyan. The mint or lime can also be added to help, maybe replacing a white with one and also swapping a couple whites from cool to neutral would work. Maybe try one or two first and see how you like it?

I really like the lime and mint LEDs when you run them as a replacement for a white, it has always given me a great looking result that is easy to tune. Cyan can be overpowering on its own, so a separate channel of control is a good idea if you can swing it.

 

[brandon clow]

Hmmm.

In that case maybe replace the green with cyan, and throw it on its own driver, then you can play with it separately.

I don't think the white will be too warm, especially if it's offset by the cyan. The mint or lime can also be added to help, maybe replacing a white with one and also swapping a couple whites from cool to neutral would work. Maybe try one or two first and see how you like it?

I really like the lime and mint LEDs when you run them as a replacement for a white, it has always given me a great looking result that is easy to tune. Cyan can be overpowering on its own, so a separate channel of control is a good idea if you can swing it.

I like this idea. Plus I get to break out the iron so it's a win. Looks like I could run some cree neutrals on the 1000 and a lux rebel lime on the 700. I have to do some more searching for a mint if I don't go lime. Since I'm ditching the red I could look at something else in that place or leave it be.

 

[Lingwendil]

Only source I've found for a pre-mounted mint-

https://www.stevesleds.com/Luxeon-C-MINT-3-Watt-LED_p_382.html

 

[Steven Garland]

I think you will LOVE mint,such a great color. I had 1 on my blue channel mixed with 8 lux es royals and 4 lux es blues and just the 1 mint made it so bright. So I took it out but the 1 on the white channel makes and night and day difference.

 

[Steven Garland]

These are all the leds I have to play with for meow ^^^^^^

So I am thinking since tax time is right around the corner,I am going to order :
-12" Makers Slim Sink
-Inventronics 700ma driver
-2-4x more Violets

Run just the royals and blues on the 11up's on one driver,all the whites and cyans and the whites on the 3up's on the other and the violets and royals on the 3up's off another Inventronics 700mah ;Woot

 

[Lingwendil]

You may want to order a fan, I haven't been overly impressed with the slim sinks on their own, they can't do much with the limited surface area. Maybe for smaller nano builds, or limited heat on freshwater or supplement lighting.

That, or one of the 12" premium enclosures from RapidLED, or maybe a makers "full" sink, that way you get the finange of the heatsink, even if you don't choose to run the fan.

 

[brandon clow]

I think you will LOVE mint,such a great color. I had 1 on my blue channel mixed with 8 lux es royals and 4 lux es blues and just the 1 mint made it so bright. So I took it out but the 1 on the white channel makes and night and day difference.

I checked out that mint, wow! I am really liking that wavelength, enough for me to wonder why this isn't in everything. The only thing I noticed with Steve's is the lower bin, U22F. Is that anything to be concerned about or is that bin good enough, I mean the price looks reasonable.

Scratch that, that bin doesn't look as bad as I initially thought.

 

[Steven Garland]

I actually have a foreman at work that has a 3D printer and Makers has the files for their 3D printed fan covers and maybe run 2 of them depending on the temps.

I have a tem gun we use for HDPE underground pipe I can use as well to shoot it and see what temps I'm getting.

 

[Lingwendil]

Too bad mint isn't an option on 3-ups at Steve's, I'd love to use it on these bad boys I'm working on-



Still need to tap a couple holes to mount the K16 arrays, but these should make for nice compact pendants. Synjet diaphragm coolers, aavid LED heatsinks, rated for 38 watts with active cooling. The cooler can be controlled by a smoothed DC voltage that can be recovered from the PWM drive, or by separate PWM itself. Should be fun :)

On a positive note, this is the first time I've gone without breaking a tap! Celebration is in order!

 

[Steven Garland]

What colors did you use,those looks super wicked !!!

 

[Lingwendil]

So far all I have set in stone is that I am using a single Luxeon K16 per heatsink, and likely run at 500~600mA (42.5~43 volts drop around here) or so, it can take up to 1050mA at 45 volts! I still had five left over from a previous frag growout build I did for a friend, and figured this would be a fun project :)

The pictured single LED stars are just placeholders to test for fit. I'm still deciding on exactly how I want to load them out- I'm leaning towards the idea of a Bridgelux Vero or similar high-CRI white for the white, so that leaves me with two stars open. I'll likely do a pair of 3-ups, so far I'm thinking a Regular blue, violet, and lime on one, and for the other 3-up maybe violet, regular blue, and undecided for the third position. I would like Cyan there but I need to ask Steve's if they can still do them.

Suggestions are welcome :)

 

[Kampo]

So far all I have set in stone is that I am using a single Luxeon K16 per heatsink, and likely run at 500~600mA (42.5~43 volts drop around here) or so, it can take up to 1050mA at 45 volts! I still had five left over from a previous frag growout build I did for a friend, and figured this would be a fun project :)

The pictured single LED stars are just placeholders to test for fit. I'm still deciding on exactly how I want to load them out- I'm leaning towards the idea of a Bridgelux Vero or similar high-CRI white for the white, so that leaves me with two stars open. I'll likely do a pair of 3-ups, so far I'm thinking a Regular blue, violet, and lime on one, and for the other 3-up maybe violet, regular blue, and undecided for the third position. I would like Cyan there but I need to ask Steve's if they can still do them.

Suggestions are welcome :)

looking at simlar simple arrays bsed on a K16. honestly looking at just the K16 a Violet/UV chip or 2 and then either a Luxeon Freshfish cool white, or a couple sunplus whites. the luxeons I have listed have great coverage accross the board with no real holes.

woundering how horrible one of these would be
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3V-6V-12V-...66cdbb91:m:moLPzlxgOZneWzDZjn48WJw:rk:41:pf:0
the "6v" version would be nice, could run in inline with a K16 and be arround 49V (a 10% "over" meanwell should run this on one ldd) at 600ma, would effectively be running the cheap violets at 300ma so they should last. then run a couple luxeons sun plus whites at 1200 and should be a nice setup.