Snoopie's LED Build

[snoopie]

Led's from Bill at reefledlights.com Thanks for answering all questions!

Shipment Of Led's Are In!

Drivers

Half The Led's

I First Started By Pre Tinning All My Leds Before I Did Anything Else.

After I Did My Pre Tinning The Next Day I Went To Radioshack And Got
4 - 4 Pin Molex Connector
4 - 2 Pin Molex Connector
2 - 6 Pin Molex Connector
2 - Ac Jack Connector
1 Project Box.

That Is Male And Female For All Of Them. I Started To Wire Everything In The Project Box Form Here.

Front

g

Back Of Wiring

After All This And Testing All Wires I Got My Heat Sink 2 Days Later. This Gave Me Time To Also
Hook Up My Apex And Start All My Programming For It. Also 2 Days To Read About Programming Them.


So Heat Sink Gluing Time.
Note : Pretin Leds Because Its Harder If There Are Glued On The Heat Sink But Still Doable.

After Letting The Thermal Epoxy Dry Over Night I Start To Wire All My Leds. I Did 3 parallel
Strings Of 12 That's A Total 48 Blues And 24 White With Only 3 Drivers. I Have A Total Of 6 Drivers
For Backup And Also When I Get My Xpg High Noon Lights Later On.


After Wires Up I Did Test Them Then I Used My Two Cans Of Led Seal To Seal Them Up.
Under Water Leds!!!!

 

[snoopie]

70 Degree Optic Time!

Dried Over Night. Went To Lowes Got More Mounting Equipment And Went To Lee's House To Pick Up
My Custom Cree Led Fixture Housing :) Thanks Lee!

Mounting To The Clear Part Of The Fixture.

Test White

Test Right Blue Only

Mounting Fans

Everything Mounted Up

 

[snoopie]

This Is Put Together Test Fit With Ceiling Mount Chains.

Cables Rapped. Small Project Box Holds The 4 1amp Fuses For Only The Blue. There Are 2 More
For The White.

Mounting Drivers And Hook Up Box To Stand

Test Run While Mounted To Ceiling

Blue Only Before Plexi Being Cleaned.

Inside.

 

[snoopie]

With Canopy On

Half Blue And White

Lit Up

Apex :)

Questions comments concerns?

Lol
Thanks to Lee, Will, and Bill from Reefledlights

 

[CJO]

Looks nice! I didn't see you mentioning it, so I wanted to double-check. Did you bin your LEDs so that both of the parallel strings had close to the same forward voltage? Did you add inline fuses in case one of your LEDs failed closed?

CJ

 

[snoopie]

Yes all parallel strings close on same voltage and there is the 5watt resister with 1 amp fuse just incase one led blows then the fuse will blow protecting the rest of the leds as if one blows there would be over 1.3 amps of power rushing to them all.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Sweet looking build Snoopie!! Thanks for all the pics...i only wish i was that handy to make my own lighting system!! How many watts is it?? What size tank is it over?

 

[snoopie]

Well each driver goes from 0-10volts I have not done wattage on it. 3 drivers at 1.4 ma so 4.2ma total compared to 6a from my halides. Its over a 90 gallon.

Also ATM I got 4 new sps frags and I am taking weekly pictures so show growth and color. So ill update on that.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[CJO]

That's twice the number of LEDs I have over my 65 gallon! Yours is 72 LEDs with an average forward voltage of about 3V each = 216. Since you are running them in parallel, the maximum current is approximately 700ma => roughly 150 watts of LED goodness.

CJ

 

[snoopie]

What's funny it this drivers are rated at 1.3 a but they can for up to 1.7a so dunno 1.4 is enough I say

Sent from my EVO.

 

[FiReBReTHa]

looks awesome! great build!

 

[snoopie]

Thanks.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[Electrobes]

I think I missed it, but what ended up being your total cost? How handy should one be to pull off a project like this? I am tempted to eventually try something like this, and am handy with tools and a solder if need be, plus have wired halides, T5's, etc... but electricity and I haven't always been friends. :xd:

 

[snoopie]

Very very simple solder is your best friend as well as cleaning ur tips frequently. Only thing that I got confused on was how to test the ma coming out its simple. When ur ready ill leave my number is needed and u can call for help. Bill from reefledlights also helps a lot I called him over 30 times as well as email. Total cost of led kits were 600 plus apex 500 miscellaneous stuff about 100. Plexiglas case free because Lee is the best but I been helping him with he's apex total of 6+ hours at he's house lol. So 1200 +/- total. I'm still adding high noon xpg lights so another 60 as I alrdy have the drivers. And moonlight's another 100 from Neptune lunar lighting. It would of been about 100+ less hut I ordered extra leds and drivers.

Also reason I went DIY as I was going to buy evolutions but when somthing changes ur stuck with the fixture. Warranty wise... well I built it I can fix it. Instead of sending it out. I can make changes as leds change and stay with the technology instead of being stuck with one fixture.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[Troylee]

Awe isn't that sweet... I'm the best...1smile1 buhahahahahahaha no worries I take care of my peeps...;)

 

[snoopie]

Lee I forgot to add ur nuts lol.... hey when u want me to add new programming CJ posted I figured it out runs better.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[Troylee]

When you got time... I need to get my phone back online... I still can only acsess it on my wifi and when I'm gone it don't connect... I did the port forwarding, dyndns addy the whole thing and still no luck...:(

 

[snoopie]

Lol k will get it back up and update it.

Sent from my EVO.

 

[GR808]

awesome looking build snoopie... I'm curious to the size of your tank and heatsinks? Did you get par readings on your tank?

 

[snoopie]

90 gallon 49x18x24 fixture is 42x11x4.5 two heatsinks inside measure 18x8.5 each. total of 36" 4" space in middle. coverage it good. I do not have par meter but they are 10x brighter then my 250watt MH will ever be and thats only at 70% brightness.