home made LED light

[Intranick]

I wonder how hard this would be to do. I got my Mouser catalog today and was looking at some of the LED's.. 3.8 watt@ 6500 degrees k wavelength.. about $6 bucks each.

there are other ones that are 460nm blue that may or may not pass as actinic, im not sure.

Would it be possible to simulate a solaris style light in this way?

 

[lcstorc]

People have tried. I am sure it is physically possible not sure about those exact LEDs. It would be really hard though to get all of the features the Solaris has. With enough of the right bulbs I would think you could do the lighting part.

 

[Intranick]

for my personal use, I could probably program a PIC micro controller to take care of it -- wouldn't be able to sell it, solaris has some patents on that stuff, but that would be a big learning curve but fun -- I'm just wondering how those LEDs would work for it --with further looking I found them anywhere from 3 watts to 10 watts -- would be a fun experiment.. I wonder how I could measure the light output without risking harming animals to test something like that out. would be a fun project for this winter..

I was hoping for some patent numbers on their website so I can see just what they have patented .. but I couldnt find any *evil grin*

 

[BigJay]

thread around here somewhere where a guy attempted his DIY LED system. After I read it I went looking all around the net for components which can be bought reasonbly cheap. But building the final assembly, light spacing, exact combination of wavelengths to produce desired final color I am not sure on.

 

[Intranick]

well... I found the patent, I have to print it off before I can "understand" it.. and see just what aspect they patented..

ok truth be told, odds are I'd need somebody who knows more to look at it and tell me .. heh

here is at least one of their patents LED aquarium light - Google Patents

What is claimed is:

1. A aquarium lighting system comprising an LED array comprising:

    multiple white light LEDs;

    multiple blue light LEDs; and

    a control system for separately controlling a) the intensity of white light output by the white LEDs, and b) the intensity of blue light output by the blue LEDs.

2. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, wherein the control system further comprises:

    presets for 90% blue and 10% white, 80% blue and 20% white, and 60% blue and 40% white.

3. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, wherein the multiple blue light LEDs further comprise:

    a subset of blue light LEDs within the multiple blue LEDs, the subset separately controllable from the multiple blue LEDs for moonlight simulation.

4. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, wherein the control system further comprises:

    a timer for automatically varying the relative output power of white and blue light from the array according to a time of day, and-or day of the week, month, and-or year.

5. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, further comprising:

    the blue light and white light LEDs alternately intermixed in the array.

6. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, further comprising:

    the LED array is one of rectangular, square, circular, or oval.

7. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, further comprising:

    multiple cyan light LEDs.

8. The aquarium lighting system of claim 1, further comprising:

    a heat sink system mounted to the LED array.

9. The aquarium lighting system of claim 8, wherein the heat sink system mounted to the LED array further comprises:

    a primary heat sink comprising rows of conductive material aligned with the backing of LEDs of the array, and a secondary heat sink comprising a housing of the LED array.

Seems to cover all the bases :/ unfortunatly I dont think I could make anything to sell, I could only make one for home use..

 

[DAHansen]

Intranick,

I started looking at this a while back myself to make a Solaris type system, and I got bogged down in picking out high-power LED's. I couldn't figure out what kind of dome it should have and I didn't have the cash to lay down to experiment.

I think a PIC, some timing chips and relays is definitely the way to go.

I'll be looking to see what you come up with.

 

[Intranick]

Intranick,

I started looking at this a while back myself to make a Solaris type system, and I got bogged down in picking out high-power LED's. I couldn't figure out what kind of dome it should have and I didn't have the cash to lay down to experiment.

I think a PIC, some timing chips and relays is definitely the way to go.

I'll be looking to see what you come up with.

im not great with electronics, i have a kit i play with from time to time. Always fun. LOTS. But to truly learn, I need a project. So it might be to make an array that can light a 10 gallon system or something along those lines.

If a PIC isn't strong enough, perhaps I could use a gumstix - dream, design, deliver

According to the patent I would not be able to add a feature to control the white and blue seperatly but at the same time -- at least thats what I gather out of it. maybe that isn't as necessary if i find the right combo and still add an internal timer. iduno.

 

[Intranick]

897lz400cw15

15watt lead. I already have it drawn on paper of what it //could// look like...

But.. I'm not sure how to control the color temp -- which appears to be variable. and the "luminous flux value" I assume is the brightness -- is at 700 for the white, but only 205 for the blue. Other question is, the blue's wavelength is 465nm -- could this work in place of actinics? I know true actinic is 420nm

 

[ab420]

I have read through countless different threads on different forums of people making DIY LED setups... and on just about every one, they wasted a lot of time and a lot of money, and didnt quite get the results they were looking for. However, most of them had fun doing it. So, if you like tinkering, and LED's are fun for you, have at it, but to build something like the Solaris would cost a LOT of money and take a LOT of time.

 

[Intranick]

I think that decent LEDs are getting to be easier to afford and get, so I think over time you will see more potential with them though.. is sorta what im getting at.

 

[dalilgriffith]

the fact that solaris has a patent over a "concept" is ridiculous. They should be able to patent how the device is controlled. You can tell i am not a big fan of patents.

 

[jnohs]

i made a night led set up. with a 4.5 volt dc 700ml amp converter.

it has

2 high-output white LEDs(large)
4 regular-output white LEDs (small)
4 regular-out put blue LEDs(small)

it was nice and easy if you run them all in a parallel series to the converter then the LEDs will only draw on amps. it think they draw some where around 20ml amp each. so i could put up to 35 LEDs on this one power supply. and since it is a 4.5 volt power supply it works out Nicely because the large and small LEDs run perfectly on 4.5 volts. so no resistors are necessary.

i will post a pic of it soon but i will have to wait for night to show its effect.

 

[jnohs]

it works perfect it fits between my lights. i put a switch on the white lights and one on the blue lights. it is made from a strip of pvc that is in the shape of "L" stock. i needed a 48"x1"X1" NOT WOOD OR METAL BOX TO house my LEDs. so i got a 96" piece and cut it in half. then put it on it self kind of like this "L7" see how that almost makes a square if the 7 was an L it would be a better representation. after i wired it and tested it i glued it together with pvc glue and it was a rap. this cost me about 50 bucks.

 

[jnohs]

oh yah radio shake had everything except the pvc

 

[Railrider1920]

i made a night led set up. with a 4.5 volt dc 700ml amp converter.
it has
2 high-output white LEDs(large)
4 regular-output white LEDs (small)
4 regular-out put blue LEDs(small)

oh yah radio shake had everything except the pvc

Do you happen to have the part numbers for those lights from radio shack?


Intranick,
Am I reading that right, $35.65 for one LED or is it for one package of 5 or 10 LED's? (from the page that you put up the link for)

Just following along on this and had a couple of questions.
Thanks,
Rob

 

[jnohs]

sorry no but they are at all the radio shacks

 

[Amnestia]

I think that's the price for one single LED, I did some research and the LED he linked to is 600lmat 16.8w.

LED's used by Solaris only run 3.__ watts and only shoot out about 180 or so lumens per I believe. So hence the $35 price tag for that one ^

 

[SneakyOwner]

The type of LED to use is simple you can find that out just by looking at a solaris unit. What you need to figure out is what they use to control brightness, spectrum, ect. To get the right color you just need to setup your unit like the solaris.

 

[Rye_84]

I am attempting to do this project again. I have decided to go with luxeon rebel because of there cost. They are much cheaper per led than any of the other ones. If you can surface mount I think its the best way to go, but its not for everyone. I am using one royal blue led to every two 6500k white leds. I was planning on making 2 1.5 foot sections to go on each side of the tank and I think it ended up being 600$ for supplies and tools without a casing to protect the leds or lenses to focus the light. Just my 2 cents as to what I have planned so far.

 

[jnohs]

well giving a led a variable brightness by lowering the voltage is possiable. It will extreamly lower the life of the bulb. If a bulb was 3.5 watts I would run it at 4 and use a potientometer to throttle it down to no lower than 3.25 volts. But also I would just add an additional switch that would shut down half of them. and there you go between the potientometer and the switch you have a great amount of variable in intensity,. And again spectrum is just a matter of switches.