General DIY LED thread

[Steven Garland]

That is very true I can completely agree with you on that. I have normally in the past sourced my violets from Rapid and Steve's,seeming they had 400-410,410-420,420-430 respectively.

Now Steve's carries the VioSys violet which is pretty dang bright and under $4. Which I can swing. But if you are buying in bulk,I can if you need 4-6 and you buy 8-10 you are bound to get good enough ones to use lol. Good enough logic,right ?

 

[Steven Garland]

tempted to contact one of the ebay led vendors to see if they will do one of the 4ups with 2x420s and 2x395s

If they do let me know.

 

[Lingwendil]

didn't know they sold them...but ouchy!!! 20 bucks a led except for 405nm which is a "cheap" 10 bucks. there the best uv led though...but ouch.

I spun up a 4-up with some things on there, and the price is not too bad, but I'd really like the other wavelengths to be cheaper :( I wonder if it will fit my heatsink though?

However- The "VioSys" violet at Steve's claims 1040mw @500ma, vs. the Luxeon Z at Saber being 625mW~725mW for the same current, so there isn't very much cost savings, in fact, it will be far more expensive to reach the same output in a pair of the Z versus a single VioSys from Steve's. It's even better than the SemiLEDs units :)



Some more info on VioSys-
http://www.seoulviosys.com/en/product/171110_Catalogue_EN.pdf

tempted to contact one of the ebay led vendors to see if they will do one of the 4ups with 2x420s and 2x395s.
where do you go for your diy audio tinkering, i've dabbled a bit with simple diy speakers, but wanting to get a bit more into it.

I'm over at https://www.diyaudio.com/index.php, in the Full Range and Tubes forums, mostly. I've got a few PCB designs going over there for some low power tube amplifier designs, that's where I first got into doing PCBs.

 

[Kampo]

yeah I looked into the viosys more today. 3.9 from steves for one doesn't seem half bad now.

 

[Lingwendil]

Since it's the same 3535 size as the Cree and SemiLEDs style LEDs, I would love to mount several on a 3-up, or maybe a pair with a regular blue or cyan, but finding US distributors that will sell one-offs (or even ten) is nigh on impossible. I wonder who Steve's gets them from?

 

[theatrus]

Since it's the same 3535 size as the Cree and SemiLEDs style LEDs, I would love to mount several on a 3-up, or maybe a pair with a regular blue or cyan, but finding US distributors that will sell one-offs (or even ten) is nigh on impossible. I wonder who Steve's gets them from?

The distribution on these sucks in the US, and the local Shenzhen market doesn’t have attractive prices right now.

If you want a few 385mm Viosys I have a reel on hand (125deg dome, not the narrow one Steve’s has). The 395 was over my random buy budget based on the 10 reel MOQ from Future.

 

[Lingwendil]

Hey Theatrus!

I would take a few, but don't have any way to reflow them, unfortunately :(


Any comments on the LED layout on those synjet pendants I'm doing? I've got the K16, and still deciding what to do for the supporting LEDs. I'm thinking of two sunplus cool whites, and a 3-up with maybe a regular blue, violet, and unsure on the third diode. Not sure if a lime or something else would be a good bet. Only room for three total stars to support the K16.

 

[Steven Garland]

I was thinking like 4 of the 4up Z's but pricing was kinda high.

I think LGB is the last seller Lux M's Royals at $10.75 correct ? I know Steve's has 5k M's for $5 now,they have been on sale for months.

Shoot 2x M Royal's,1x M 5k and a few violets 2x true blue and mint and BOOM !!!

 

[Steven Garland]

What about a RGB to simulate a white ? @Lingwendil

 

[Lingwendil]

Eh, no RGB for me. I already have blue, I'll get my red out of my whites (it doesn't take much) and the green will come from either lime, mint, or cyan most likely, but it all depends on how the royal blue and the sunplus white look together once I rig them up and test them. The sunplus cool white already has a good bit of green and cyan in t, so I'll see what it looks like before ordering anything else.

On the M, it looks like there are still plenty around on Ebay, and I would probably be inclined to just buy more K16s at the price they come at, only downside is the high-ish 42~ volts the K16 take at typical drive currents. Hard to beat 44~ watts of royal blue for ~$5 each!

 

[Steven Garland]

I have seen so many people run them and it doesn't look that terrible. But have never personally tried it.

I think mint would do the trick though. Besides eBay,LGB is the only one to have them. I have found loose diodes but no pcb's to flow them on to... If its not one thing its another I swear.

 

[Kampo]

K16 is defiantly the best bang for buck Blue, downside is if your making a small 2 channel light there is little to no voltage headroom to add a couple violets.

 

[Steven Garland]

K16 is defiantly the best bang for buck Blue, downside is if your making a small 2 channel light there is little to no voltage headroom to add a couple violets.

That's why I liked the M's because of the lower voltage. Which is still "high" but not as high as the K. I think its what 11 or 12v at 700mah ? LGB is saying 5.25-6v @ 2A which I find that hard to believe,I remember them being like 11-12v at 700ma,but my memory is that a handicapped squirrel lol.

 

[Lingwendil]

There were several versions, the lower current/higher voltage ones you remember are hard to come by. All LGB has left are the higher current version. Parallel internal dies, rather than series, otherwise same internal dies. Run them at 1~1.5A and keep them cool to get good life out of them.

The M series is pretty much a set of K dies under a common lens, btw :) harder to remove heat from such a small area, so I prefer the K16, it's roughly equivalent to four Ms anyway, and cheaper. Run them lower current and the larger surface area makes them easier to keep their internal die temperature in a safe area.

 

[Kampo]

so budget bruiser nano light. here is what i'm thinking:

LEDs
K16 $5
2xSunplus Whites $4
2x Steves Hyper Violets $8

Heatsink (need to figure out a neat way to mount it to the nano. maybe some sort of gooseneck connected to the light)
6" Steves led bar heatsink. $10

Drivers/Control
1x1000mah LDD-HW $5
1x600mah LDD-HW $5
ESP32 Board $8 (going to run SMAC16)
Real Time Clock Module $2
Project box $5
Misc connectors and wires $5

PSU
50watt Meanwell 48V PSU (will run 10% over to get enough voltage for a couple violets on the k16 channel) $13

Total: $70 for a wifi light, not too terrible, roughly 35 watts of output (I have a lot of the parts so project won't cost me that much)

 

[Lingwendil]

Sounds very doable. To save a bit more you could even use round CPU heatsink/fan combos with a 3-4" PVC coupler as a shroud and make pendants, I find cheap or free PC takeoffs all the time that would be perfect for things like this for those on a budget.

What I really want is a 3-up star with footprints for the 3535(cree/semi/viosys) and the luxeon sunplus/C footprint. Then you could do a 3-up of violet/violet/white, and/or white/violet/cool blue, would be very handy for small builds, just combine with a CoB for royal blue for reef, or cool white for freshwater applications. Designing a PCB would be trivially easy, getting them made would require a good quantity be made, and initial cost would be high. I'm not sure there's enough demand.


I miss having a salt nano (I have a 20 long, but it's still a bit big in comparison) around the ~5 gallon size. My freshwater planted is a Marineland portrait 5.5G, and I would love to have a sister tank as a frag growout setup, with an identical makers 6" sink on top :) One on each nightstand on either side of our bed would be neat.

I almost want to build a small reef light just as an excuse to set one up. I need help lol

 

[Kampo]

anyone have any ideas how you could attach a 1/2in EMT conduit light arm to a rimless tank?

Sounds very doable. To save a bit more you could even use round CPU heatsink/fan combos with a 3-4" PVC coupler as a shroud and make pendants, I find cheap or free PC takeoffs all the time that would be perfect for things like this for those on a budget.

What I really want is a 3-up star with footprints for the 3535(cree/semi/viosys) and the luxeon sunplus/C footprint. Then you could do a 3-up of violet/violet/white, and/or white/violet/cool blue, would be very handy for small builds, just combine with a CoB for royal blue for reef, or cool white for freshwater applications. Designing a PCB would be trivially easy, getting them made would require a good quantity be made, and initial cost would be high. I'm not sure there's enough demand.


I miss having a salt nano (I have a 20 long, but it's still a bit big in comparison) around the ~5 gallon size. My freshwater planted is a Marineland portrait 5.5G, and I would love to have a sister tank as a frag growout setup, with an identical makers 6" sink on top :) One on each nightstand on either side of our bed would be neat.

I almost want to build a small reef light just as an excuse to set one up. I need help lol

I did the PVC idea with a intel heatsink + pvc works fine. but this light is in my office at work. so don't want it to look like a "science" project, and the steves heatsink suposubly will disapate 100watts passively per foot. so figure the 6in one can handel a 30-40watt light no sweat and is clean looking.

I've got a fluval chi in my bedroom thats mty currently. i'm super tempted to do a no fish invert only zoa garden in it. only thing stopping me is I don't want to deal with manual top off and no pretty atos i've seen for nanos.

 

[dantimdad]

The pvc couplers look nice when done properly.

I actually used to use hybrid 20watt leds on the spiral pc heat sinks in them and they worked pretty well.

That was in the days when blue/CW was king. ;)

 

[Kampo]

as far as the 3 up stars an idea might be to see if @theatrus has any of his 6led strip boards left. I beleave they have the pads to do what you want.

 

[Steven Garland]

I have 6 of his blank boards if you guys would like any :)