Looking good...quite the setup there.

Layout makes a lot of sense to me. I look forward to seeing what the output actually looks like.

If you wanted to move the boards around and swap some now... how hard would that be?

Once I get the center row of XPG'S fired up & the few scattered red & green the layout will really make sence.

I think if I needed to move boards around it might take a scalpel to cut the Arctic Silver carefully under the board but I think this will work well.

Thats hot

Wicked build Greg!

Nice work! :drum:

This one is turning out great! Awesome job on the heatsinks!

Wow, your heat sink/LED build is so intense. This is going over your 165g shallow 8'er?

Yes, it will be going on the 165 gal until I get the 300 gal 8'er built.

hey there Grizz
looks awesome.
realistically, with all your time and effort, materials is it worth it?
or would it have better to actually buy a already built LED light system?
I hear lots of people talking about building LED lights and I dunno,
it seems like you have to be a bit savy to build them and know your stuff.
and from the costs of the DIY kits, it doesn't really seem to save that much money.
I think in your case, it is probably more about you wanna see what you can do and also tailor the lights to your specific demands.
which from this thread, you can do alot and I am sure it will be an incredible light system.
but realistically, most of us don't have your building skills or tech savy when it comes to LED.
would you recommend the average guy/gal to do this?
or leave it to the professionals?
and costs, even without the countless hours you are spending on this, is the cost savings that significant?
thanks for the time you spend on the thread.
I appreciate it and I am sure many others do as well.
once again,
awesome job
Neal

The average person would need to buy heatsinks... from what I've read that is a significant portion of the total cost.

Well I would say that building my own light system has saved me any where from $1000 - $4000 depending on what manufactured fixture you look at.

I wasn't going to build my own heat sinks at first, I was going to use Martins 6" x 12" heat sinks, join 2 together to make 4 - 12" x 12" heat sinks.

If I was doing a smaller tank I might have just bought something but I do like to build stuff. I would say the average guy or gal could easily build there own LED's with Modular LED & Martins help.

Insane! Looks awesome. Will be out a little later today with the connectors.

Sound good Martin, need 2 start / stop & 4 of those silicone filled wire connectors.

Hey there grizz I love this light.. But I have Been looking at the pics of the the heat sync that you built... Now I have been thinking of doing this myself... I may not know my metals... But I have been around a computer for a few years... Fryed a lot of chips over overclocking CPUs due to overheating.. Now I'm looking your heat sync and there is only 8 spot welds on them.. That's really the only place that is bonded... And may cause hot spots and kill LEDs in certain places... Just my thoughts..I was just taught that the reasons heat syncs are one solid piece is to eliminate hot spots.. Now can aluminum absorb and disburse the heat as fast as them nice hot LEDs can produce it?? How hot dose it run??

WOW!!
I can't wait to see pictures of this over your tank.

RyanJ - That issues was addressed a few pages back. I will be adding a Loctite Fixmaster Aluminum Apoxy into each slot to bond everything into one piece. If you try to weld more on each 1/8" x 1" flat bar you will end up with a real warped mess.

reef_rookie - Me too :biggrin:

So tonight Martin dropped by to help trouble shoot why I could not get my XPG's to fire up & if it wasn't for my blurred vision from my head cold I would have seen it right off. One of the connector wires was not completely seated in its clip & took Martin less then 5 min to find & solve, Thanks Martin.

Here's a few more pics.

Red's / Green's @ 1%

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/3286ab63.jpg

Everything but second set of XPG's ( forgot we needed 2 drivers for these )

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/80877d7d.jpg

One heat sink totally lit.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/2ecd47ef.jpg

Temporary mounting of the drivers & EVG boards on the end of the cover. On the new tank they will be up in the top cupboard hidden from sight. The wife will probably make me build something to cover them with but for now this is the way it's going to be.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/382a9692.jpg


Just need to put the optics on the Whites/Blues & slide in the acrylic shields then it can go on to the 165 gal.

Lookin real good Greg

Looking very nice Greg.now you need to test on your tank without the optics and then with them on :biggrin:

Thanks Mike & Eli, I was thinking of trying it without optic's first but man its really bright & I can only trust my Profilux controller as to what % it is at. With the optics they seem a little dimmer but you know me I will end up trying it without the optics .:biggrin:

Hey Greg hope you are feeling better.
By the way if you still need that doser send me your adress and phone number for me to ship it tomorrow.
Oh sorry didn't mean to hijack :biggrin:

Address on the way :biggrin:

well get it up there Greg and get it going man. that light looks amazing man. well done

Hope to have it up on the tank by the weekend & hopefully I feel better to because I have to do something with the load pump that will probably involve some replumbing.

Grizz, the built is amazing. looking forward to see it on the tank. That's gonna be a lot of light for the 165, what kind of corals are you planning to keep?

Very nice indeed. Patiently waiting for the test drive.:boink:

It will be a lot of light for the 165 gal so that means I must get my arse in gear & get the 300 gal built. :biggrin:

Just waiting for 1 driver for the 2nd set of XPG's, should be here by Friday I hope.

I think your going to very pleased, everything that I didn't like about my build you have resolved. Looking forward to see this thing in action!

What did you not like about your build Wayne?

LED layout -- When the light hits the water just right you can see lines of white and blue on the sand bed :( The shimmer is over powering.

Color Spektrum -- I dont think I have the right spektrum or my rock is too bright, only time will tell. Right now everything seems washed. I've added Zeovit, but I dont think its the corals.

JBJ connectors vs Plug and play -- It's way cleaner to go with the modular led setup. I picked up a used kit for my nano, it's a VERY slick product.

I just went by the seat of my pant as to layout of the boards but kind of sorta went with what I thought would work good. Hope the shimmer is not going to be crazy & I think with my controller I should be able to hit 10k - 20k & everything in between with some fine tuning.

I really liked how easy it is to work with Modular LED product & Martin himself. I will deffinately be building units for some of my smaller tanks as well down the road.

Cant wait to see them over your tank Greg!

Should be on for sure when your in the hood :biggrin:

Nice! I'm hopingto be there next weekend provided my AI comes in, if not perhaps I'll come still

So I just came across this thread while searching for something else. Excellent read and nice work! Any updates?

The timing is perfect as I am trying to decide between buying an LED fixture or making my own. I am leaning toward building my own because I have to be able to control it with my Profilux and I already have a number of heatsinks.

Now I am just starting to learn how DIY LED fixtures are built, so I may be confused as to how they are controlled with the Profilux. I see you are running 8 different types of LED boards and only 2 EVG boards which will only control 4 channels in total. I know you can run up to 3 drivers per channel, but which leds are you allocating to the different channels? Or am I confused as to what is controlled on a single channel?

Sorry for the late reply Planeguy, it's been a really tough day.

Anyways, I received my last driver on Friday from Martin but had to work all weekend & still need to hook it up. Just about have all the optics on as well.

As for the controlling question, I have my CW & NW HEW on one channel, my RB & B on the second channel, CW - XPG'S on the third channel & my Red / Green on the fourth channel. I can add another EVG board if I decide not to use my dimmable power bar to totally shut down the power on the EVG boards. Each channel is running 2 drivers each.

Led lights
 

I have been following this thread for some time. I would like to come out and see it. Been thinking about switching to Led myself.

Hope to have it on the tank this week end, if you want to stop by and have a look Rzadun shoot me a pm and I will send you directions. The weekend would work the best for me.

Final assembly is now complete. All optics are on everything except the red & green, acrylic covers are cut & in ( hard to see ) & everything is all wired up as neat as possible for the temporary hood. Going to tackle the task of getting it on the tank this weekend & then the fun begins trying to get the Profilux programming figured out.


http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/0e1e285f.jpg

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/33edce4e.jpg

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/ea5a174a.jpg

Christmas all over again!