Step by step full spectrum diy led build

Dowtish

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The braiding of the wires is fantastic!

I'm glad you kept the T5's as well. Just be sure to allow things to acclimate slowly, and you should have some good color and growth in the next few months.
 

nhago

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Awesome job!!

do you care to share how much this project cost you? I'm looking into making the switch also...


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greg0385

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Awesome job!!

do you care to share how much this project cost you? I'm looking into making the switch also...


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The kit with a extra driver was around $287 with shipping, then the material at Home Depot was around $64. So for a total of around $350

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greg0385

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There is over 125ft of wiring in this because of the way i routed the wires, but 100ft of wiring is like $5. To me it was well worth it.

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dwilliams87

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To do it this way, with the wiring routed like this, you do have to have more wire than given with the kit. Correct me if I'm wrong Greg, the kit only came with 50ft total?

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greg0385

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50ft of 20 gauge is what came with the kit and dwilliams had a 100ft roll of wire

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greg0385

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From the time i started building til i was finish, i had roughly 20 hours into this project.

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fragmatic

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Impressive... job, what glue did you use to fasten the crees to the rails? I was afraid to do that because most glues don't do heat well. Are the LED's hotter than the rails? Wondering if the heat transfer is effective. My interest is because I have spare LED's and I want to build a set with for my refugium. I'd love to glue them.
 
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gmoney243

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Impressive... job, what glue did you use to fasten the crees to the rails? I was afraid to do that because most glues don't do heat well. Are the LED's hotter than the rails? Wondering if the heat transfer is effective. My interest is because I have spare LED's and I want to build a set with for my refugium. I'd love to glue them.

They are bridgelux leds but the alluminum c channel keeps the leds super cool i dont need a fan and the.metal never even gets warm on my led diy.

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greg0385

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Impressive... job, what glue did you use to fasten the crees to the rails? I was afraid to do that because most glues don't do heat well. Are the LED's hotter than the rails? Wondering if the heat transfer is effective. My interest is because I have spare LED's and I want to build a set with for my refugium. I'd love to glue them.

The "glue" i use is just the heatsink plaster that the kit came with. So far since i have the leds dimmed way down to mimic the same par as i was getting so that i dont shock my acros too much at one time. I dont know how hot they will get. I do know the little time i had them at 100%, they were warm but not hot. The drivers are way warmer than the heatsink and leds. But the t5s and t5's ballast WAY hotter.

I will gradually ramp up the leds over the next few weeks and if i notice any unwanted heat i will let everyone know. Although i really dont think i will. The C-channel i use is 3/4" which actual dimensions are 7/8" where the leds are placed on the bottom and 1/2" tall sides. So total area is close to 2" of metal. So heat has lots of metal to transfer the heat from the led.

I hope this help

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