48" LED Array - Up and Running...Mostly

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by donlite

Hi, I own a company Sensa-Light Ltd. We do custom lighting. The LED set up you have looks good, but it looks like you have good heat dissipation from the heat sinks. If you can hook up a "K" probe ( most cheap ohm meters will have or use one) and test the heat you may be able to forget the noisy fans.

I am using 1 watt lumileds in blue and white combination to get about 14,000k
I think I have about 30 LEDS on a 55 gallon tank. The home made unit does not need any fans. Good luck, if I can help let me know, Don

Thanks. The heatsinks are probably overkill but that's good. I will probably still run fans as they will be in an enclosed housing and I also want to put the drivers in the housing so it is all self contained. So extra cooling will be good. I plan to run the array for up to a few hours after it's all wired up and see how hot the heatsink gets.

Originally Posted by superduperwesman

NICE! Want to build me a 6' one?? ahah

Well, if you aren't in a hurry stay tuned as I have something brewing

Originally Posted by rstar

Tagging along! Keep up the good work, lookin good!

Thanks. I can't wait to see how it turns out myself

[hillegom]

Ron, computer power supplys put out 5V and 12

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by hillegom

Ron, computer power supplys put out 5V and 12

It's a good idea but it's to big and overkill for the need. I will just need a small 12v wall wart and then the voltage rectifiers. That way it will fit in the housing. I wouldn't be able to squeeze a computer PS into it. I can actually probably run my fans off it too as the Arduino and PWM circuitry won't draw alot of current.

[hillegom]

How many amps at 12V do you need?

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by zoaelite

ron that's pretty impressive! Watch out you might get sued for copy right infringement considering what happened to solaris .

I can't want to see it on an actual fish tank with with some par values!
Levi

t

[Dyspnea]

Tagging along!

Very interesting thread

[Ron99]

For some added LED info, I just did some PAR readings in the iReef pico. it has 6 Cree XR-E LEDs being underdriven by a 350mA dimming buckpuck that I actually have turned down a little from full power. No optics are used, just bare emitters. PAR readings were about 170 near the top of my rock which is about 4 inches below the surface of the water and about 5 inches below the LEDs. Par drops to about 80 near the bottom of the tank about 10 inches below the water line.

just wait till you can crank it up and let it go it should be nice and bright under there.

Bill

[Ron99]

A bit slow as I need to redo a few of the molex connectors and pick up a few little bits for assembly. But I did a quick test in air again with optics. At 18" with 60 degree optics the PAR jumps to about 375 vs 250 without optics.

[Ron99]

Thanks guys. I'm happy to have it running as the T5s were overdue for replacement but I didn't want to spend over $250 on new bulbs when I was working in this.

Steve, I used 60 degree optics. Actually, a few emitters at the front of the array have 80s and the rest of the front row do not have any optics yet. I was short a number of 60 degree ones which I have on order but haven't received yet.