My 36inch Full Spectrum LED Build - MakersLED Fixture

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chrishet

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Hi everyone...I am getting very excited about getting water into my new reef tank...its been a long journey! My new tank is a Reef Savvy 40x22x18Tall and it will be a mixed reef but SPS dominating.

For the lighting fixture I thought I would give LED's a try. It appears to me that the DIY'ers out there have a lot of great ideas and seem to be ahead of the curve, so here I go! I'm bringing all the parts together now and thought I would dedicate a threat to my LED build. Here is what I have so far....

36 Inch MakersLED Fixture - Anodized Black
http://makersled.com/">http://makersled.com/</a>

Mean Well SP-320-48 Power Supply
[IMG]http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-sp-320-48-power-supply.html">http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-sp-320-48-power-supply.html</a>

Mean Well LDD-H Drivers
[IMG]http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-ldd-1000h-dc-dc-converter.html">http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-ldd-1000h-dc-dc-converter.html</a>

Custom PCB's for the LDD-H drivers - I worked with some folks over on RC to get these made...while they aren't necessary they do clean up the build nicely...

For my planned layout I am looking at the following...I haven't made up my mind here completely yet but I'll be ordering the parts next week. This is a total 75 LED's - might be a bit high but better too many than too few!

Cree 3Up - Royal Blue x 2, Neutral White - 15
Exotic OCW - Red. Turquoise, Blue - 6
True Hyper Violet (425nm) - 12

I also haven't decided completely on a controller for this setup however I am leaning towards using my Apex controller with a VDM module and a harness controller from Steve's. Its a little more $ but I want to control my system as much as possible from my PC and this will give me some control...on the flip side I could save some $, and perhaps do more things, with a Arduino controller but I'm not to experienced with programming so that would be a factor.

Here are some pics so far and I would appreciate any feedback on my design so far...

[IMG]http://hetlage.com/images/new_tank/LED%20Layout.jpg alt="" />

LDDBoards_blog.jpg
alt="" />

MakersLEDFix_blog.jpg
alt="" />

tank-fix_blog.jpg
alt="" />
 
Nice! Looking forward to seeing this come together. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thx all...I ordered an Arduino kit today that will run the Jarduino tank controller code. I will be using it just for LED control at this time but I may use it as a backup for some of my Apex automation later...Here is some info on the Jarduino project.

a>
 
although I"m not a HUGE fan of LEDs I am a fan of the potential of this build :) very cool man... It should look slick
 
For all the LED'rs out there....I am struggling with optics....there isn't a good optic solution for the 3Ups and OCW stars...I could go with separates and use something like 80deg optics, or just stick with the plan and go with no optics...thoughts?
 
The only real way to determine what if any optics you need is to actually draw out your tanks profile, with the fixture at the right height and see what the angles look like. 80° sounds like a lot to me, but no optics being 120° in most cases isnt good unless youre fixture is right above the water.
 
Thx. My tank dimensions are in my op. My plan is to have the fixture 8-10 above the water. My options for the 3Up and OCW's are the big issue, The 3Ups are only available in 120deg and 40deg...40deg being too narrow IMO. With individual stars at least I have the option of optics, but I am concerned over the disco effect, or color banding...do optics, such as the 80's or 60's diffuse the light at all?

My other concern, after looking at things a bit, is my tank stand height and where it is situated in my office. I like the look of the tall stand but now I am concerned about having this light fixture blast light into my eyes all day long while I am at my desk....I'm hoping to avoid a hood. So having 120deg optics may be a bad idea after thinking about it...
 
I ordered my LED's today but held off on the optics...I'm going to think about these for a bit...my gut is telling me 60 deg's given my concern over too much spread into my office...I might buy a few of each and do some testing once the fixture is up....Time to start building! Water test next week!
 
BTW, here is my LED order. I opted to go solderless and individual stars so I can have a better choice of optics.

<span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial">http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-cree-xt-e-royal-blue/">30 - Solderless CREE XT-E Royal Blue</a>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial">[IMG]http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-cree-xt-e-white/">15 - Solderless CREE XT-E White</a>
</span> [IMG]http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-hyper-violet-led-430nm/">12 - Solderless Hyper Violet LED - 430nm</a>
[IMG]http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-deep-red-660nm/">6 - Solderless Deep Red - 660nm</a>
</span>[/B]<span style="font-family: Arial">[B][IMG]http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-turquoise-495nm/">6 - Solderless Turquoise - 495nm </a>
[IMG]http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/solderless-cool-blue-475nm/">6 - Solderless Cool Blue - 475nm </a>

[/B]</span>
 
tagging along... I'd like to do something like this someday. Maybe set up a test on a nano tank... hmm.... now how to talk the wife into not giving me a hard time about a second fish tank...

Off to brainstorm! ;)
 
Nice to see someone else using the LDD drivers!

How long did it take you to get them from PowerGate?

Mine are still on backorder...
 
Ah, cool.

I'm going to be using 15 x LDD-1000H's with an Arduino Due board and a 7" touch screen...

Some parts may be based on Jarduino, but most will be rewritten. The Due is a much faster board...

I also had a bunch of 5x LDD holder PCB's made.
 
I'm moving along, slowly but surely...I've received most of my parts and am starting the build process now. I ended up going with all solderless LED's, figured it would save me some headaches later if I changed things up...Here is my first take at a cluster layout, there will be 3 of these clusters on my 36 inch fix. Also, I labeled each star with a dot code to keep track of colors...I sure am glad I did that! The outer areas are mainly RB's and NW's with some HV's mixed in, the inner areas are mainly OCW's...with some RB's/NW's mixed in...Lots of work still...

led_layout_1.jpg
alt="" />
 
I've updated my layout above (1 of 3 clusters)...I ended up clustering together 5 sets of 2xRB and 1xNW stars (3 Up like), and 2 sets of the Red/B/Tq stars (OCW like)...I like it!
 
Wiring Weekend! Question...I haven't purchased optics yet...will I have any issues mounting the optics with the stars this closely aligned? Thx!

led_layout_3_med.jpg
alt="" />
 
chrishet;850430 wrote: Wiring Weekend! Question...I haven't purchased optics yet...will I have any issues mounting the optics with the stars this closely aligned? Thx!
Click to expand...

Not sure. I'm not using optics. From what I've read, at the distance mine will be from the water I don't need them.
 
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