Roughly $1000 and unknown hours on my DIY fixture.
43"x 15"x3" (40x10 heatsink), 216w, Active Cooling, Fully Dimmable across 4 channels. All drivers are internal, Fan power supply internal, single power cord to fixture, 2 CAT5e cords for dimming via the Apex.
I'm thinking about optics, as I will be moving to a 150g (48x30x24) soon, so I will see what numbers I get when this happens. Obviously, the extra height of the tank is definitely going to be a factor.
I'm thinking about optics, as I will be moving to a 150g (48x30x24) soon, so I will see what numbers I get when this happens. Obviously, the extra height of the tank is definitely going to be a factor.
I'm very happy with the heatsink, it was money well spent ($160 shipped for a 10"x40" piece). I ran the fixture for several hours before I installed the fans, and could easily "lay my face" onto the fins without worry of being burned, as it was barely warm. The fans are added protection, and look cool too
The framing/channels (aluminum) I made to hold the drivers, is machine screwed to the sides of the heatsink, so much of the heat generated by the drivers is transferred to the heatsink, and then pushed/pulled away by the fans, so the heatsink does double duty in this area. The face of the drivers are in the curved sides, and when I designed the layout for the fans, I mounted the outer fans so that they would push/pull air across several areas. They blow onto/across the top and bottom of the sink, and also down the interior of the curved sides. Those 4 outer fans provide a ton of service!
I took some pictures (when I remembered), but never did a build thread. I designed this for myself, and threw it at my buddy, who owns a LFS here where I live. He's been in the led scene longer than led's have been mainstream in the hobby. He builds tons of custom sized fixtures for customers, and I wanted to add some "elegance" to his design.
As for the "one power cord": Anyone who DIY's an led fixture with internal drivers can do this. The drivers use little to no power (when the leds are off), even when power is supplied to them. So with that in mind, there's no reason to run several power cords, using up sockets on power strips or a controllers outlets (Apex Energy Bar in my case). All the drivers take 110vac in, so the use of "push-in wire connectors" solves the problem of "multiple cords".
I have 6 drivers in my fixture, and used 6 push-in connectors total (2 off of the plug to supply power to both sides of the fixture, and then 2 on each side to supply power to the drivers. They also supply power to power supplies for the fans, which inturn, convert the AC voltage to 12v DC out to the fans.
The female socket (Power Inlet) that the cord plugs into, also supplies a ground for the entire fixture, as well as the fan power supplies.
I've attached an image here of the channel/frame that the drivers are in on one side. At the top of the channel, and in-between the top and middle drivers, you can see the "push-in connector" (it's yellow).
/
