Almost done with our DIY LEDs!

[whitneyd88]

So we upgraded to a 29g this past weekend and while we're waiting for it to cycle we're finishing up our LEDs. We ordered everything from rapidleds.com and couldn't be happier! We're using 24 Cree xp-e & Cree xp-g half cool white half royal blue on a 5.9"x16" heatsink that we drilled and tapped with two Mean Well ELN-60-48P drivers & the DDC-01 PWM controller. It's taken us two full weekends so far mostly because James was working on it so late one night he wasn't paying attention and hooked the driver up backwards lol burning it out. But we got the new driver in last night and powered her up!! I'll post more pictures soon. We still have to mount it in a housing, get the optics on, and build a stand to hang it from!

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[rskillz]

Awesome Tiana! I might need your help, I have 180 LEDS on the way from reefledlights.com. I'm pretty pumped. Tons of work ahead though.

Your setup looks great

 

[lilrobb]

I have 500 LEDs sitting in a box on my kitchen counter - waiting for myself to decide on drivers and heatsinks... LOL

 

[rskillz]

LilRobb;639662 wrote: I have 500 LEDs sitting in a box on my kitchen counter - waiting for myself to decide on drivers and heatsinks... LOL

500!? What size tank is that amount going over?

seems to me the overwhelming opinion is that meanwell makes the best drivers and Heatsink USA the best sinks.

 

[totalchaos13]

the OCEAN!

 

[lilrobb]

It's a 280gal deep (72x36) - and I doubt I will use them all, leftovers will convert fuge and frag system...

 

[rskillz]

LilRobb;639662 wrote: I have 500 LEDs sitting in a box on my kitchen counter - waiting for myself to decide on drivers and heatsinks... LOL

That's awesome. Speaking of gear, you got any calc reactors laying around to get rid of >_>

Sorry to get off topic, haha!

 

[jbadd99]

Rob, I read the other day that one of the major LED makers is now using a Meanwell 24v - 220 to power their units... One driver for the whole unit- dimming option included.

 

[lilrobb]

Sorry,

No CA reactor.

And one driver sounds great on paper - but you would lose the ability to idependently control colors.

So I boiled my build down to:

198x BLUE
90x WHITE
36x RED
9x GREEN
6x YELLOW

Now I still need a way to use as few drivers as possible while still maintaining independent color control.

 

[jbadd99]

Actually Rob, these units STILL control independent channels. My unit has one power cord. On power supply and I can adjust the white/blue ratio.

That being said, I have no idea how they do it.

 

[roundman]

for that many leds I would think you would use HLG drivers instead of the ELN drivers. They are a higher voltage and current so can handle more leds per driver.

 

[whitneyd88]

Just glued the optics on!

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[acroholic]

All I can do is watch on a thread like this. I know how to buy LED lights, but not make them! Great work!:up:

 

[whitneyd88]

Thank you!!
Here they are on

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[pwest]

Whitneyd88:
Can you give us some temp readings? Are you planning to run with or w/out fans?

-Phil

 

[whitneyd88]

I'll post some pictures of the fan and how we have it set up in the housing when I get home. We have one fan centered on the heatsink pulling air out of the housing. Havent gotten any temp readings yet

 

[whitneyd88]

Ok so James already had the light mounted in the box so I didnt get a picture of the fan but we are using one Antec TriCool 120mm fan. It has 3 speeds and we have it on the max speed. It also has 3 little blue LEDs that make it look pretty cool through the holes on the housing. We got it all finished yesterday! And we welded the 1/2" steel into our stand for the light. Dont mind the rock in the tank, I kind of just threw it in there and need to get more. And I took the picture before he trimmed the hanging wires. Yay! No spotlighting!

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[dvara78]

Do you mind me asking how much you have invested in this fixture?

 

[acroholic]

Is that an AI hanging kit you used?

 

[whitneyd88]

No it's the Y Shaped hanging kit from rapidled.com