DIY Lights
- Thread starter Mick
- Start date
That's pretty excellent. There's someone on R2R who has an open source LED controller and app they've built, think that could be easily integrated here?
What you've done seems to be about equivalent to an Orphek OR3/4, which I've been eyeballing to supplement my current lights.
What do you figure total cost as-built here is?
What you've done seems to be about equivalent to an Orphek OR3/4, which I've been eyeballing to supplement my current lights.
What do you figure total cost as-built here is?
that’s what I was going for and I looked for similar dual chip LED’s like they have. When you look at them dimmed with reef glasses on they do look like Orpheks. Will work out the price in a bit ..but they weren’t expensive - maybe $40 each and I have 3x — so far
What I paid
$15 for the light (which I gutted)
$3 for the diode PCB’s
$6 for diodes, resistors and 12v female cable
$3 for lenses
$3 for dimmer
$7 for power supply
——————
$37 AND the dimmer and power supply can be shared across multiple lights
These would be advertised as ‘90 watt’ lights (each diode is advertised as 5w) if advertised on Amazon but the reality is that they’re closer to 45w when you calculate power consumption off the data sheet.
This was all from AliExpress and Temu prior to the de minimis loop hole being closed which ‘saved’ me 30% or $100 depending on how the shipper decided to charge me for that. So take that into consideration before embarking on the journey.
The ‘pop’ is considerably more than I get with my Red Sea 90’s and the app that comes with the dimmer is day and night better than ReefBeat,
$15 for the light (which I gutted)
$3 for the diode PCB’s
$6 for diodes, resistors and 12v female cable
$3 for lenses
$3 for dimmer
$7 for power supply
——————
$37 AND the dimmer and power supply can be shared across multiple lights
These would be advertised as ‘90 watt’ lights (each diode is advertised as 5w) if advertised on Amazon but the reality is that they’re closer to 45w when you calculate power consumption off the data sheet.
This was all from AliExpress and Temu prior to the de minimis loop hole being closed which ‘saved’ me 30% or $100 depending on how the shipper decided to charge me for that. So take that into consideration before embarking on the journey.
The ‘pop’ is considerably more than I get with my Red Sea 90’s and the app that comes with the dimmer is day and night better than ReefBeat,
ah, so tariffs, etc. + shipping is likely to bring that up substantially, and you were fortunate to have found the housings to strip, without which something would have to be purchased or custom-made. Could possibly 3D print something, but without the finned aluminum acting as a heat sink and radiator, active cooling might be required.
If you can find items stocked locally (shipped prior to tariffs I'm guessing) you can still find some components reasonably priced. I found what looks to be the exact same housing on Amazon here: light bar on Amazon for $20. $5 more than I paid. I wouldn't try make these, although they look simple enough they have the extruded housing that's already painted, the end caps and the plastic cover over the lenses plus the weather stripping, the mounts and all the screws. You need all of those things and I can't image you could make anything close to that without spending 4x the price which is why I went in that direction.
Other components though are more expensive and in cases much more expensive on Amazon and don't 'look' as good: Closest I could find on Amazon to the LED Chips are these LED Chips 50 for $30 - twice what I paid. These are the PCB Boards on Amazon PCB Boards $9 each plus $4 shipping -- at least these look v. similar. I paid $2.81 for 10 pieces shipped
The alternative is that you still buy those things on Aliexpress and pay the tariff on them. From what I read its either $100 per package or 30% of the price of the goods. And it's the US shippers choice of which to charge you. 30% might not be bad on the cheaper items like 10x PCB boards for $2.81 -- adds less than a $1 to the price. But if they decide to charge you $100 then that would be bad. You might just be leaving the package behind - claim the contents are not what you ordered and lose $2.81.
It might just be a crap shoot...
Hunna -- I'm going to have to see what I have left over, its been a journey!!
Other components though are more expensive and in cases much more expensive on Amazon and don't 'look' as good: Closest I could find on Amazon to the LED Chips are these LED Chips 50 for $30 - twice what I paid. These are the PCB Boards on Amazon PCB Boards $9 each plus $4 shipping -- at least these look v. similar. I paid $2.81 for 10 pieces shipped
The alternative is that you still buy those things on Aliexpress and pay the tariff on them. From what I read its either $100 per package or 30% of the price of the goods. And it's the US shippers choice of which to charge you. 30% might not be bad on the cheaper items like 10x PCB boards for $2.81 -- adds less than a $1 to the price. But if they decide to charge you $100 then that would be bad. You might just be leaving the package behind - claim the contents are not what you ordered and lose $2.81.
It might just be a crap shoot...
Hunna -- I'm going to have to see what I have left over, its been a journey!!
