New Aquastyle Solarlux led controller kit/build

[MrHermit85]

Hello all,

Yes this is another Led build thread woohoo!!!

So I recently embarked on my crazy journey to build a Solarlux led controller kit from Aquastyle online. I put together 2 fixtures with 28 leds on each. I decided not to go too crazy as considering this is my first fishtank of any kind I am going to stick with an all softy tank with maybe some of the easier low light sps/lps at a later date...

Overall I have to say that the experience, allthough long winded, has been quite enjoyable and the end result was satisfactory!!! My experience with AquastyleOnline has been awesome as old Ray answered all of my questions and even advised me on a few aspects such as colour combos.

I decided to record this build as there does not seem to be much out there in way of reviews for their new controllers and I also refined my build a little compared to the norm. I am sorry to say though that I am still in the process of building my tank and will only be able to account for coral growth after my tank has cycled in June. I thought that this wouldn't really matter as there is loads of stuff on the forums showing the capabilities of Bridgelux leds so I dont feel that I need to ramble on about any of that. My main focus is the controller. I am also not going to include soldering and led mounting as that has also become quite a mundane topic on the forums!!!  oop:

SO this is what they supply in the kit:

•56 x Bridgelux LEDs (optional)
•56 x Optical lenses
•1 x SolarLux Controller
•8 x Driving boards ( channel 1(x2), 2(x2), 3(x2) and 4(x2) )
•1 x Ethernet cable 568B
•1 x DC5V adaptor
•1 x DC24V Power supply MeanWell 350Watt
•3 x LED adhesive plaster
•1 x power cord
•2 meter wire

I added a few things like a couple pieces of acrylic, a few cans of Krylon Infusion(bonds to plastic), solder, grommets and some extra wire.

I then bought the heatsinks, moonlights and extra wire from Rapidled. I went with the 6"X20" black with slotted sides and splashguards.

I also used general tools that I already had such as a drill, dremmel and soldering iron.

 

[MrHermit85]

The first part was mounting the leds and of course the soldering this was fairly simple only timeconsuming. The key was pretinning!!!

The kit requires that you simply wire 7 led to a driver/circuit board. This although sounding simple was really crazy as I was left with wires coming out from all directions. Nothing that I couldn't simplify with some hi tech ZIPTIES!!!

After this I pulled out my dremmel with a grinding bit to cut a hole in the side of the slotted wing of the heatsink and inserted a grommet to feed the wires through.

 

[MrHermit85]

This is where the problem came. As you can see in the previous pictures I was left with a short length of wire coming out of each fixture. This was no where near long enough to reach my trusty project box with Circuit boards. (Cookie tin). The problem was that AquastyleOnline supplies aluminum wire and I could not find any locally. This was annoying as I did not waste that much wire. Another problem is that you cant join aluminum and copper wire, some sort of reaction takes place (cant quite remember the term... :?) SO you have to use a special compound to prevent this from happening which of course I could not find locally either. I wound up ordering some from Rapidled with some moonlights. A month and a half later I was able to continue my build. SO WORD OF WARNING, IF YOU BUILD THESE KITS MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO MORE ALUMINUM WIRE OTHERWISE JUST USE THE NORMAL COPPER WIRE YOU CAN BUY AT THE SOURCE!!! .

While I was waiting for the wire I wired up the boards and wired them to the power supply. They needed to be wired in parallel and then they fit together with pins which was easy enough. I used solid wire to connect the boards which I found easier. I then mounted the boards to a piece of acrylic as I did not want them to be in contact with the metal tin which I then siliconed to the base of the tin.

To keep thing neat I also used my dremmel to cut holes into the sides of the tin for all of the wiring which I inserted grommets into.

Boards 1 to 4 are all dimable  whilst 5 is simply on and off which is used for the fans.

 

[MrHermit85]

The next part was creating a cover for all the wiring. I knew from other blog posts that the optics for the bridgelux leds will not fit under the Rapidled splashguard. I came up with the idea of cutting individual holes for each optic into the a piece of acrylic which will then slide into the heatsink and then the optics would fit into the holes. Just a side note, make the template before mounting the leds on the heatsink otherwise you will struggle to keep everything aligned. I simply placed the template on top of the heatsink and glued the leds inside each little hole leaving no room for error...  8) it would be really frustrating to do it the other way only to find that all of the holes are off.  :'(

I drilled the holes using Diamond drill bits (22mm) bought off of eBay for $10 with shipping.  I started my making a template.

I then placed the template on top of the splashguards and proceded to drill the holes.

The bit cut through the acrylic fairly easy. I did not use any form of cooling as I had 3 bits so just alternated between the three to avoid too much heat....

I then used my trusty dremel to smooth out the edges on each hole and also to make them a little wider as the optics are 22mm exactly and so were the bits. The key is to go slowly with little pressure at high rpms...

 

[MrHermit85]

Next step was to spray the splashguards as the entire point was to hide the wires. I used Krylon Infusion. it took several coats but it came out great and it didn't seem to chip at all when tapped with my screwdriver tip. It seems as though Krylon truly did come out with something awesome!!! Paint that bonds to plastic, who would have thought!!! 

I then popped each optic into their holes and sat back to admire my handy work...

So did Mr Orange from his obscenely small bowl  ;D

 

[MrHermit85]

Yay the wire arrived!!! Only took forever!!!

I have now wired everything up, tested everything to see whether there were any shorts and connected to the meanwell 350w power supply. There were no illustrations or instructions on how to hook it up but it was as simple as negative to negative and positive to positive (there is no ground). 

This is what the project box looked liked all wired up!

And it was judgement time...  :-\ Switched everything on and it worked like a charm!!!

Next was to mount the fans, I decided to mount them with plain old industrial strength Velcro as I will be upgrading them at some point depending on whether the fixtures start getting too hot. As before mentioned, the fans are hooked up to board 5 which is a simple on off board.

To my surprise the velcro also acts as a sound dampener, there is no rattling or vibration...

 

[MrHermit85]

Mounting the fixtures was also a breeze. Rapidleds heatsinks have two of the wings (not sure what they are called) with overlaps facing each other which allow for a 1/4" bolts head to slide into.

This is my DIY hood.

These are the bolts attached to the heatsinks...

I sat the fixtures on their sides to measure where the holes need to be on the canopy lid

And once mounted this is how they sat.

And switched on.

I built a little box to sit on the side of my aquarium to house most of the electronics. The power supply and controller both sit inside there along with a power bar.

My final impressions of the the build and controller are favorable. The controller is great and does exactly what it is supposed to.

Pros:

Affordable and easy to build. The controller allows for a soft start avoiding startling your tank inhabitants. You can also change the colour according to your taste in manual mode and set specific times for start and end times for each Board. I have mine set so that blues come on first, then reds and then whites giving the feeling of the soft blues before the sun comes up then the red of the sunrise and then of course full blown light  8). It is also handy not having to deal with loads of drivers all over the place and no potentiometers. The increments of the light intensity change for each button press is very settle too so it gives quite a nice natural feel. The power supply also comes with a built in fan which only turns on when the unit gets too warm which is nice as you don't have to worry about over heating or drivers getting too hot. It only switches on every couple of hours and is not too loud. The power supply also has a little dial to change the amperage running through to the boards so there is a second element of control but of course don't turn it too high otherwise you would probably fry your leds. I had the units running for about 6 hours straight and the heatsinks barely got warm to the touch.

Cons: Yes there always has to be a drawback, I would warrant these drawbacks to the low cost of the controllers... The control is very limited in the fact that you can only adjust the colour temp in manual mode and manual mode does not have a timer control for soft sort of any sort. Due to this, if you are not happy with your colour combo of leds you are left with no choice but either having to have a basic on off system or to run the colour temp of the leds at 100% as in Auto mode the leds can only be ramped up to 100% capacity. I however was lucky and my colour temp turned out exactly how I wanted with a nice white light with a slight luminescent glow. The wiring was a little crazy when trying to figure out what goes where but I feel like you would have the same problem if you had to run parallel strings from drivers.

So I would say that if anyone asks me whether they should go for it I would say only if you are sure of the how to get the colour temp you are looking for and if they are happy with the basic functionality of the unit. Total value for money coming in at under $400. I would say however to think twice about the crazy splashguards as although they came out great it took a lot of time.

I give the kits a Strong but realistic 7/10  ;D I am very happy

 

[dale]

wow.. good job man... you are thorough...

 

[adam robinson]

Wow that's amazing and u took some serious time to do it well done. 

 

[sunnykita]

You've done a fabulous job. I wish I had that type of knowledge. Very meticulous with the details and all nice and tidy, the tank is going to be fabulous when it's up and running ! Can't wait to see it

 

[MrHermit85]

Thanks guys!!! I did plenty of research and learned most of it from you guys and other forums . I can't wait to get going on the aquascape now. I love these DIY ventures, the only problem is that I haven't even setup my first tank and I already have plans for my second one lol!!!

I will be sure to start a thread on the setup of my tank at the end o the month.

 

[pulpfiction1]

looks real pro,makes the diy kit i have look shabby  lol

 

[MrHermit85]

looks real pro,makes the diy kit i have look shabby  lol

Lol, it took a lot of time though . I just added a moonlight strip, I will add pictures soon!

 

[pulpfiction1]

[quote author=pulpfiction1 link=topic=5246.msg49723#msg49723 date=1367359521]
looks real pro,makes the diy kit i have look shabby  lol

Lol, it took a lot of time though . I just added a moonlight strip, I will add pictures soon!
[/quote]
yes,it shows the effort involved,but in all honesty i didnt build the one i have,i actually got it from another member,but you sure have opened my eyes a little if i decide to keep them

 

[MrHermit85]

[quote author=MrHermit85 link=topic=5246.msg49740#msg49740 date=1367366916]
[quote author=pulpfiction1 link=topic=5246.msg49723#msg49723 date=1367359521]
looks real pro,makes the diy kit i have look shabby  lol

Lol, it took a lot of time though . I just added a moonlight strip, I will add pictures soon!
[/quote]
yes,it shows the effort involved,but in all honesty i didnt build the one i have,i actually got it from another member,but you sure have opened my eyes a little if i decide to keep them
[/quote]

Are your ones also bridgelux leds from Aquastyle? Why dont you want them anymore? What has your experience been with them? 

 

[MrHermit85]

Hooked up my moonlight leds a couple of days ago. They are the rapidled 4 led DIY kits. Fairly straight forward to install. I simply mounted them to Aluminum UChannel and then wired them up in series. I did drill holes into the U-channel to run the wires through the inside for a cleaner look. i went with only four as many complained that they are quite bright which was great as it was dirt cheap. They are really bright though even with just the four, but I am happy with them overall.

 

[pulpfiction1]

[quote author=pulpfiction1 link=topic=5246.msg49796#msg49796 date=1367441396]
[quote author=MrHermit85 link=topic=5246.msg49740#msg49740 date=1367366916]
[quote author=pulpfiction1 link=topic=5246.msg49723#msg49723 date=1367359521]
looks real pro,makes the diy kit i have look shabby  lol

Lol, it took a lot of time though . I just added a moonlight strip, I will add pictures soon!
[/quote]
yes,it shows the effort involved,but in all honesty i didnt build the one i have,i actually got it from another member,but you sure have opened my eyes a little if i decide to keep them
[/quote]

Are your ones also bridgelux leds from Aquastyle? Why dont you want them anymore? What has your experience been with them? 
[/quote]

i took them in on a deal,from rapid LED,havent a use for them at the present

 

[MrHermit85]

The Crees are way nicer though!!! A bit pricey but way brighter I hear l. I may add two t5ho if I am going to do SPS in the future though but I  am sure I will be good for softies and some moderate light corals.

 

[Salty Cracker]

The Crees are way nicer though!!! A bit pricey but way brighter I hear l. I may add two t5ho if I am going to do SPS in the future though but I  am sure I will be good for softies and some moderate light corals.

you should really come by and see my 100% CREE setup for sps.  Even Darryl was amazed at the colour I get.  No t5 needed

 

[MrHermit85]

That's a comforting thought. I will give more demanding corals a try one day but want to master the easy stuff first. I have to say though that after fragfest today I am really liking the idea of loads of zoa"s and ricordiA!!! I was so sad not to be able to take anything home lol... Hopefully it will be back next year!

[quote author=MrHermit85 link=topic=5246.msg52347#msg52347 date=1370146189]
The Crees are way nicer though!!! A bit pricey but way brighter I hear l. I may add two t5ho if I am going to do SPS in the future though but I  am sure I will be good for softies and some moderate light corals.

you should really come by and see my 100% CREE setup for sps.  Even Darryl was amazed at the colour I get.  No t5 needed
[/quote]

Perhaps when I am up and running and your selling some frags I can come take a look?