Neopimp's Reef Tank DIY LED Build - 96 LED

[Neopimp]

Well I have been talking about getting new lights for the tank,  well it finally happened. 

I am the kind of person that enjoys electronics, soldering, and generally DIY stuff. That means that LEDs were the only way to go.

Besides the enjoyment of applying long lost school concepts and building something, there are numerous advantages to LEDs.

1. No bulb changes... ever.  In fact the LEDs still have 70% of their light output 11 years down the line.  Good enough for me.
2. Lower power draw... ROUGHLY half the Watts for equivalent MH output.. Please dont split hairs here and argue
3. Infinite Combinations and tailored to what you want.. .. Besides the abiity to choose how many of each color you add you can also dim each channel seperately allowing you to change the color to whatever you want.  with an RGB set up you could technically get any color under the sun.

Now there are some disadvantages to watch for.

1.Some argue coral growth and such lacks due to lack of certain colors in teh spectrum of most LED fixtures.  I cant argue that since I have no experience with that yet.  Will keep you posted.
2. The neverending discoteque that can happen when colors are not blending well.
3.  The spotlighting that can occur with improper optics and height combinations.

All in all, the pros beat the cons.  At least for me

Anyways.  The tank I am lighting is a 5' x 18"x24" 120gal glass tank.  Nothign terribly special The plan was to use 2 fixtures, one for each half of the tank.  I decided to not use optics at all and just mount the fixture lower to the water surface.  I did not want to have the fixture 12" above the tank and that they fit into the hood.  Plus I am cheap, so it was an easy enough place to cut a corner.  That being said, I have the room and the ability to add optics in thte future and to raise the fixture up to 10".

Heres my parts list

Part List:

2 x 24" x 8.5" heatsinks from HeatsinkUsa
32 x CREE XP-G Cool White
8 x CREE XP-E Blue 
3 x Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive 5g
50 x CREE XP-E Royal Blue
2 x CREE XP-E Red
1 x 12V 500mA Power supply for fan
1 x Fan speed controller 4 pin molex to two 3 pin fan
2 x Fan 120mm
2 x 120mm Fan Silencer
3 x Inventronics 75w driver - 700mA

Random Supplies:

100/140W Soldering Iron (not really needed but my 50W was taking too long)
Terminal Blocks
Terminal Block Jumpers
Various 22AWG Wire
Female MOLEX pins
Male MOLEX Pins
Female MOLEX Plug
Male MOLEX Plug
Spiral Wrap Stuff
Aluminum Angle
Aluminum 3/4" Square Tube
18"x 24" - 1/4" Lexan Sheet
Aluminum Rivets
And some other stuff I am sure I forgot.

The led stuff came from LEDGroupBuy.com (Thanks Milad)
The random electronic stuff was ordered from Newark and the random build supplies was from Home Depot.

Here are the prototype sketches made:

The general concept is illustrated below.  The square tube sits on two aluminum angle iron rails mounted to the hood structure.  This allows me to slide the fixtures towards the back of the tank when I need to get into it.

Here is the LED Layout I used in the build.  I had a couple Trrue Violets ordered for each fixture but they turned ot to be a scam so I just replaced them with Moon Lighting Leds.

Anyways after waiting a month for my stuff to come into the Depot in Port Huron,  I finally got an email saying my stuff had arrived.  So I paid the bridge tolls and the depot.  I basically saved 150 or more bucks by having it shipped to the states.

Unpacks to this.  I was actually quite surprised how small the stuff was.  I am not sure why but I figured everythign would be 1.5x larger   Joker card there to illustrate the size.

That is as far as I got on Day one because I was workgin nights and had to go to work.

Stay Tuned.

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

The biggest problem alot of people have is sizing the correct driver for their project.  I initally had this project designed ot use a single driver to run the RBs in 4 parallel strings of 12 LEDS.  Unfortunately that 120 W driver was special order peice.  For those who want to know how to size a driver for any of you setups, pay attention.

A driver has 3 main properties that will determine its use.  Power, Max Voltage, and Current

The power rating is the total Power it is capable of producing.  Max Voltage is the maximum potential or force the driver can generate to push Current through the string. And Current is the flow of electricity that the driver will generate as long as the Voltage ratingis not exceeded.

Step 1 is to determine what you want to drive the LED string at in terms of mA, so determine the max current you want.  The more current you psuh the brighter the light.  The RB XP typically take 1A and the CW XP can handle 1.5A MAX.  So it is wise to not mix different kind of leds, expeically for dimming purposes.  At this point you need to determie if you want parallel strings or series strings cause it will affect what current rating you will want in your driver.

Step2 is the Voltage Rating.  The max voltage is the max potential that the driver will develop in order to reach the current it is rated for.  Each LED approximately will require 3.0 to 3.5 V to light up.  So each LED you add you will need to have at least 3.5 V available from the driver. So If I want to light up 10 LEDS that require 3.0V then I will need a driver capable of 30VDC.  These drivers are not constant voltage sources liek many adaptors are.  These drivers will keep uping the voltage until they reach the required potential to move it rated current.  Therefore, too many leds means that the driver will never generate enough voltage to push its rated current.  That is they are Constant Current. with the voltage changing as needed.  Again this is aspect is applied differently between series and parallel setups.

Step 3 is  to make sure that the driver has enough total power to drive all the LEDs.  This is the total power needed.  Series or parallel makes no difference in this calculation.  For each LED you take the voltage (assume 3.0V) and multiply it by the Amps through it to get the power consumption.  Add them all together and make sure it is less that the Wattage rating on the driver.

Example:  Lets say I want to drive my 48 Royal Blue LEDs  (1A max) at .7A or 700 mA.  Assume 3.0V (actually closer to 3.4 i think)
               
          Series String:  This is easy because you will want a 700mA driver.  In series there is only one path for the electricity to flow so it
                                will take everything the driver puts out. What this means is that the driver is going to need a very high voltage
                                rating to power them all. 
                                          -  48 LEDs @ 3.0V means the driver needs at least 48*3 =144V DC ..... Stick your tongue on that
                                  The power rating on the driver will need to be
                                          - 48(3.0V x .7A) = 100.8 W
                                  So you are looking for a 100W or larger,  700mA,  driver that has a Max Voltage at least 144VDC .... It would
                                  drive all the LEDs in Series in one string.

        Parallel Strings: This is a little more difficult.  In a parallel circuit the drivers current is split between as many branches you have.
                                    So taking the above example we can go with 4 strings of 12, 2 strings of 24..... Each set up will require a
                                  different driver.  We want to drive our LEDs at .7A.  We have 4 strings at 700mA which means that the amperage
                                  rating we need from our driver is 4 * 700mA = 2800mA or 2.8A.  The trade off for the higher current is a lower
                                  required voltage.  If all strings are equal in resistance and such, then the voltage the driver needs to supply is
                                  the voltage required to light one string only.
                                          -  Since we have 12 LEDS in a string the driver needs to be rated for 12 * 3 or 36VDC.
                                    Power is still calculated the same way.
                                          - 48(3.0V x .7A) = 100.8 W

                                    So for 4 strings of 12 :  100W or larger, 2800mA , 36+VDC

What you need to remember is that because in a parallel setup, if one string opens for wahtever reason the driver is still putting out the 2.8A and it needs to go somewhere. Since there are only 3 paths left, each string will see 2800/3 = 933mA.  That is awefully close to the Max current the LEDS are rated for.  In this case we are still safe unless we blow out two strings, other cases you will not be.  If we had 2 strings running @ 700mA (1400mA driver) and we loose one string then the remainling string is going to see the FULL 1400mA.  When the LEDs are rated at 1A max .. they are not going to last long.  This risk can be reduced through design(as in the 4 string example) and/or with quick blow fuses.   

Parallel Strings also need to be as balanced as possible to each string sees the same amount of current.  If not and its bad enough you may actually see a difference in brightness between strings. Or if you are runnign close to the Max Amperage you may over power the LEDS.

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

Well when I got back from work and then woke up, the pile of stuff was still waiting for me.  So I cleared an are to begin working and started into the grid on the heatsink.

I figured 4 rows of 12 leds.  I had 185mm between the rails.  So 185 /4 = distance between led rows.  Divide that by 2 to get the distance from the edge for the first row.  Same concept to evenly space the columns. Here is the grid I ended up with.

To make my life easier and avoid misplacements with the epoxy, I grabbed 4 different sharpy markes.  I put a small dot on each LED to signify its color, I also marked the heatsink with the same color to try and finimize screw ups.. It actually worked very well

So began the glueing.  Its a two part 5 minute epoxy , so jsut mix what you can use in 5 min.  You also dont need alot at all.  I bought three tubes of it but i only ended up using 1 for EVERYTHING.  Also it helps to draw out the way you want to wire them on the layout.  You never want to have like signed terminals of the LEDS together or they will not work.  - +- + - + - + - + - +  Keep that in mind when you lay the LED to glue and double check the orientation.

Heres what you get after the epoxy has set.  And it does set hard

I coudl have went with a smaller grid or heatsink but whats doen is done and besides, I now have room for any extra leds I may need in the future, and the aluminum to ensure they all stay cool.

That was the easy part Now comes the tedious part, Soldering all of them together

The stars all came untinned, meaning they were clean and did not have any solder on the terminals.  I started doing one joint at a time and the wire from it.  It is faster to tin all the terminals you are going to use and them go back and attach the wires.  You want to heat the pad on the star up so that all you need to do is touch the rosin cored solder to the star (not the iron) and it shoudl melt/flow and cover the whole pad nicely. 

Keeping your iron constantly tinned and clean makes a world of difference, even when I was using a 140W iron.  Pre tinning the wires may help but with the iron had had it was not needed. Anyways after 6 hours of soldering and stuff I was finished with this.

I used that spiral wrap to keep things neat an it does work very well. I also used a couple of Molex Plugs to make the fixture easily come apart.  The plugs also help out since I have to run the white circuit between the two fixtures since my one driver does them all... this also means that the plugs are not interchangeable.

With that all finished I started working on the panel that would hold the drivers and other control electronics.  These driver do not come with receptacle plugs so you need to add them... White wire is neutral and goes on the wide spade on the plug. I think

And you can see what the Voltage these driver can run at is.

And heres a Video of the initial lighting of the fixture.    If something went wrong I wanted to get it on video lol

http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg143/davidolb/LED%20Build/?action=view&current=MVI_3021.mp4



I will post some pics of them on my tank soon.
These are with absolutly no adjustment to the dimmers.. do not hav that ability yet.. so this is the color with both channel wide open..  not going to need to omuch tweakage

 

[Zakk]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

4

 

[Zakk]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

I will say that dimmable drivers are almost a must wit these things.  Corals can bleach really really easy with LED's.  In my setup, the corals seem to tolerate the white/blue mix, but thrive under the blue-actinic only.  I had to scale back the output on the LED's quite a bit and move a lot of corals low in the tank, but it's nice that you can change it up as you go.  Right now on my desk is 2 more 'actinic' strips I plan to add today for a bit more evening blue.  I have 1-12" strip in my 125 now, but will have 2 more today.  the tank goes blue only from 6pm-10pm

 

[lewis844]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

how much have you spent so far ??

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

684 from Ledgroupbuy
125 from heatsink
and call it 100 bucks in other things that I could have done with out or done differently

 

[crazybizzle]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

great job very clean , looks awesome still pretty pricey thou.....just remember from when i talked to u earlier if u ever need heat sinks i can get them with some time and i do have a pretty damn good driver for leds , the one i have woulda powered the whole setup and then some awesome job again now i know who to call when i need one built.lol ttyl

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

ya the price is more than what you pay for othe lighting... but I am done with it ... forever... no bulbs... half the power... and cost me maybe twice as much as a MH retrofit ... Still worth it 

 

[Siderjan]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

Very Nice Neopimp!!  Looks really good.  Nice and neat.  Great Job!!

 

[lewis844]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

will the two drivers that are piggy backed on your dimming terminal work if you hooked them up to a controller ( I assume you are going to one day) I have read that with a DA reefkeeper Lite controller that will not work for the drivers. Just wondering if you had looked into it.

I am really considering Leds for my tank and i just may copy what you have done ( one of the best diy led lights i have seen)

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

I actual;yl just got my new APEX hooked up to the drivers.  They dim beautifully except for one thing i did not know about.

I can't dim these drivers to off.... meaning I need to either run a time clock for them or get another EB* or outlet box for the Apex to turn these things right off at night.

SOme drivers do this some do not... something to keep in mind.

So No,  There are no issues with these two drivers piggybacked together on one dimming circuit.  At least on the APex

 

[lewis844]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

great you will have to send another video of the lights hooked up to the controller

does the controller have a storm mode?? would be cool if you could get lightening

 

[pulpfiction1]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

they sure do look great,gotta admit the lightning programing Al has is something else to watch but i envy the looks of these lights as well.A video would be great to see

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

The limitationwith the storm mode is that the Apex only has the porgramming ability to go to one second on/off cycles. At leas tthat is the case using the programming wizard.  I am betting the advanced program thing is limited in the same way. 

So I can have my tank blink its white lights for one second on the one second off.. thats as good as it gets for that....

The leds do respond instantly and so it would be possible to mickey mouse somethign together to cause random spikes to the dimmer control.... is it worth it....

I highly doubt it...  besides the right way to do this is to install a disco ball and a commercial grade strobe light into the hood.

 

[Zakk]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

The limitationwith the storm mode is that the Apex only has the porgramming ability to go to one second on/off cycles. At leas tthat is the case using the programming wizard.  I am betting the advanced program thing is limited in the same way. 

So I can have my tank blink its white lights for one second on the one second off.. thats as good as it gets for that....

The leds do respond instantly and so it would be possible to mickey mouse somethign together to cause random spikes to the dimmer control.... is it worth it....

I highly doubt it...  besides the right way to do this is to install a disco ball and a commercial grade strobe light into the hood.

If you program some outlets, and plug the drivers in....when the led's are off, power the driver then kill it, and it should discharge an instant 'snap' of light.  At least mine do. 

Unfortunately my pet hermit is afraid of lighting. 

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

YaI do not have controllable outlets upstairs at the display tank.... my EB8 is in the basement.... I may have top get another controllable power bar for upstairs.

The dimming controls are limited to the one sec one and off cycle.

 

[phi delt reefer]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

on a more important note... storm simulations do absolutely nothing for the livestock in the reef tank except spook fish into jumping out.

some say its promotes "breeding/spawing behaviour"

...doubt ORA and other high volume breeders are simulating storms in their facilities...

If anything i would be worried with what effect rapid cycling of the drivers has on their longevity

 

[Neopimp]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

yup... exactly why I am not terribly concerned about flashing the lights

but will still need another outlet to turn them off comepletely... or run timers.

I think a strobe light woudl be really trippy in a tank the fish may sieze but it woudl be pyschodelic

 

[phi delt reefer]

Re: 48 LED DIY REEF LIGHT x 2

i think some of those chemical barrels you have been moving have pin hole leaks...sounds like your getting vapour poisining!

yo - find us a supplier for pure calcium chloride already... mr. chemical valley...