LED light build
 

Since I have a new tank cycling and will need more light for it i decided to attempt a LED build. I will attempt to document it here as thoroughly as possible.

First everyone should know that my level of expertise here is that of a rank amateur. I have been reading up on LED's and what to expect but this will be my first shot at working with them.

After looking at the various suppliers I decided to go with reefledlights.com. The biggest reason is that they were very good at getting back to me with answers to my question prior to making any purchases from them. It didn't hurt that price wise they are as goosd as I could find.

Ok so this light will be about 1 third of the total LED's that I anticipate needing for my tank (72*24*24). According to what I can figure out it will provide roughly the same light as a 250-400watt metal halide

Here is what the kit included
48 Cree XRE LEDs w Optics
Choose Your Driver Option
2 X Ultra Quiet 23 dB Fan w Powersupply
1 X 24″ x 8.46″ Heat Sink
2 X Thermal Adhesive and End Caps
4 X Leviton Polarized 15A Plug
24 Cree XRE Q5 cool white and 24 royal blue LED's with 70 degree optics
4 Mean well ELN 60-48D drivers

I chose these drivers because they are dimable and can be controlled by a Neptune Apex controller which is also in this tanks near future :biggrin:

The pieces have all arrived and Its time to give some first impressions and a few pics.
Arrived nicely packaged
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/002.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/003.jpg

Everything looks good so far
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...uild/007-1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/006.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/005.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/004.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...0build/003.jpg

Delivery was fairly quick even over the Christmas season.
The heat sink arrived a couple days before the rest of the parts and was shipped direct from Heat sink USA.
The 2 project boxes are oredered off ebay for about 10 bucks and arrived at the same time as the lights.
my initial impression is that the parts are very good quality and exactly waht I had expected.


Now for the fun to begin as I start to lay out the build and put things together

Looking forward to this little build. I will be doing a large LED build myself and just received the 180 or so LED's today. I'm like you and am an amateur at all things electrical but with the help of some of the RC threads I think I've got a pretty good handle on this stuff. I've also completed a quick little build already just as a test.

Some thoughts for you right away so that you can plan for the future...if this is only part of the LED's you need for the whole build (and I agree) you should seriously re-think the use of multiple Meanwells. They are the best option as drivers in my opinion but the specific ELN 60-48's are not Power Factor Corrected and as such have a very large in-rush of current when they start. If you end up doing more LED's and get more meanwells, they can put some serious strain on your house electrical...even to the risk of starting fires. Serial builds (12 LED's per meanwell) are the easiest way to go but you may find a need for changes in the future to give you what you want.

There is a huge thread on RC about DIY LED builds and there is lots of info about the potential Meanwell issue there.

Hope that helps rather than hinders.

Im with mseepman,
dont to a ton of 60-48Ds, you will start a fire, and its more expensive. get an HLG version

48 XR-E are closer to the 250w MH
For your other builds I would suggest getting the XP-G CW and XP-E RB
And if you want to get really fancy get XM-L CW instead

and for heatsinks, for a big build, I would also suggest aluminium u-channel. It works fine and its cheap at your local hardware store. you just have to put fans on it to. What you will find is that your 72in fixture because a huge big piece of heatsink that you will have trouble hanging over your tank.

for connecting to your APEX I would wire a rj-45 jack to your project box in a way that you can just plug in a cat-5 patch cable and control both colors. makes it easy.

Milad, do you have a detailed explanation of how this would be done. I think I read a little about it elsewhere but the discussion had little detail. I love the idea of "quick connect".

I havent done it yet but its straight forward

first you need RJ-45 jack, you can get it from home depot
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...rjppinmc2Da5Ag


next you get a standard cat-5 cable. home depot too, or computer store
MAKE SURE ITS NOT A CROSSOVER CABLE. The wiring should be exactly the same on both sides of the connector.

here is the difference: http://www.callicrate.com/Howto/MakeCat5.html

At home depot they also carry faceplates like an AC outlet but for the RJ-45jack. might want to get that or you can find a smooth way to put it on your box.

so anyways once you got your rj-45 jack on your project box you just connect the dimming cables correctly

Pin - Usage
1 0-10vdc V1 and V3
2 Ground
3
4
5 0-10vdc V2 and V4
6 Ground
7
8

So the + of the dimming cable for one set of lights goes to pin 1 on the RJ-45 jack. The ground goes to Pin2. Other set of lights + goes to pin5, ground to pin6.

Very nice build, following your thread and perhaps going to attempt something like this myself in the near future. May I ask where you purchased all your parts from? Any sources I can take a look at and maybe perhaps price out how much I'd be looking to spend? Thanks and great thread so far!

I think he said he got it all at www.reefledlights.com

You're not doing a very good job following.
read first post, first line, 3rd paragraph.