Led build help. Calling all led experts.

Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
Got them all wired up last night. Blue wire for the blues, Red wire for the colors, white wire for the whites. Tested all of them with my meter. Tested to see if they work and if there were any grounds to the heatsink. Got to fix one of my whites, and all three uv's do not work. Ordered 3 cree UV LEDs from rapid last night.
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Mike Hayes
 
Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
Got it almost done. Here is my driver board.
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Colors and whites on.
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Dimmer control box.
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I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I set the internal pots, and the blues and whites will only go up to 570 on the blues and 650 on the whites. The colors will go all the way up to 1.8, I set them at 600. Anyone know why this is?


Mike Hayes
 
Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
I am running parallel strings on one driver for the blues. Those are fast blow fuses and resistors for each string. The resistors are for easily measuring each string without breaking the string to measure. Yes, I'm measuring the milliamps to adjust the internal svr2 pot on the driver. Turned all the way down it measures 250 mah. But will only go up to 570 on the blues and 640 on the whites.


Mike Hayes
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
I'm no electronics expert but that driver wasn't intended to run more than 14 3-watt LED's. I would run 14 LED's per string (not a parallel run) at no more than 650ma and remove the fuse and resistor from the circuit. You can still control the 2 separate drivers for the blues using the same pot.
 
Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
They can only do up to 14 because of volts. Each time you wire one in series it ups the volts, but the current stays the same. They are constant current drivers. So you could then run them in parallel strings while keeping the volts the same, they just wouldn't be as bright.


Mike Hayes
 
Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
Put this over the tank for a test run. WOW, I'm impressed. My rainbow monti that has looked brown since I brought it home really came to life with these on. I've never seen my zoas glow like that either. Only thing I need to do is some more blues. I'm having to turn the whites down quite a bit because they over power, and I'm running 2-1. So I ordered 6 more rb's and 2 nw Crees and 2 cw Crees. I'm going to swap out some of my existing whites for the Crees hoping for a better white color. With just the whites on, it looks very similar to my 400w 10000k mh. Pretty much looks like someone peed in my water. I like a more crisp white look. Once I add those, I think I'll be thrilled.


Mike Hayes
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
I still don't really understand how the blue strings are not being underdriven. Anyway they're wired the driver is only capable of putting out 1.3amps and 48 volts max giving you no more than 62.5 watts/28 LED's meaning they can't be getting more than 2.2 watts each. Adding more LED's to the same driver is going to underdrive them further right?

Regardless, you have enough blue LED's that you could add 80 degree optics to them without having to be concerned about 'spotlighting. The LED's have about 120degree spread without optics so adding 80 degree optics should be good for about a 40% increase by focusing thing light in a tighter beam (allowing a good size fudge factor for the efficiency of the optics). That's the way I would go anyway, I've accidentally knocked an optic off here and there doing tank maintenance and the difference was very noticable.


Mhayes462 said:
Put this over the tank for a test run. WOW, I'm impressed. My rainbow monti that has looked brown since I brought it home really came to life with these on. I've never seen my zoas glow like that either. Only thing I need to do is some more blues. I'm having to turn the whites down quite a bit because they over power, and I'm running 2-1. So I ordered 6 more rb's and 2 nw Crees and 2 cw Crees. I'm going to swap out some of my existing whites for the Crees hoping for a better white color. With just the whites on, it looks very similar to my 400w 10000k mh. Pretty much looks like someone peed in my water. I like a more crisp white look. Once I add those, I think I'll be thrilled.


Mike Hayes
Click to expand...
 
B

biss

New Member
i have to respectfully dissagree about the glass top. i have mine covered and i never had problems, as a matter of fact, i have raised tropical fish for 20 years bred numerous different types, with no problems, i have better control of my temps in the water, dust and other possible airborn objectsstay out, in breed ing fish those tops saved me alot of money, not having to pick up a pair of breeders of the floor. the only draw back for me especially in salt tanks is to take off and clean up, the very little light you may loose is better than finding dead fish on the floor, and there are certain fish that are well known jumpers and tight lids are a must, but this is just from my experience only.i have a homemade led light setup over my tank and hung from ceiling, about 8 to 10 inches over tank. my corals and fish are thriving. equall amounts of blue and white lights, probably saved me 4 to 5 hundred dollars making my own, for a 200 gallon tank,
 
Mhayes462

Mhayes462

Member
Reefer, yes you are correct. These are Bridgelux LEDs so they cannot be driven at the current crees can. I am driving them at 650 on each string making a total of 1.3 A. That way each string is only getting 650. I am adding 4 blues to the colored driver making a total of 14 on that driver, then I am replacing 2 whites with blues on the white driver so that will be 14. In all I will have 2 strings of 14 on one driver, 12 whites and two blues on another driver, and 10 colors and 4 blues on the third driver.


Mike Hayes
 
D

dewi

New Member
my LED's do not seem to get hot ? got them on 3mm thick Aluminium sheet and they dont even get warm
 
StirCrayzy

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
dewi said:
my LED's do not seem to get hot ? got them on 3mm thick Aluminium sheet and they dont even get warm
Click to expand...

Curious what bulb type, how many, and how much current.? Got pics?
LEDs that dont get hot are not common unless they are low wattage.
 
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