CREE DIY LEDs v2.0: My Rebuild and Apex Integration

Nearly 2 years ago, I did a DIY LED build for my tank. You may recall this thread http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/diy-dimmable-rapidled-kit-converting-mhs-96138.html in which I detailed the inception of the idea through the execution to the finished product.

While I've thoroughly been enjoying the fruits of my labor since then, I've kept a close eye on the discussions which have evolved on LED spectrum as LEDs have grown in popularity and people began to experiment some more. Well, after sitting on the sidelines and getting convinced myself, I decided to finally jump in. It's not that I was unhappy with what I had, but it did always lack a little something I felt like.

So to recap, my old build consisted of 5 dimmable drivers, running the following:
2 strings of 12 XR-E Royal Blues (now old diode technology; aren't advancements fun? )
2 strings of 12 XP-G Cool Whites
and
1 string of 8 XR-E Warm Whites and 4 XR-E Royal Blues
60 deg optics on all

All of which was divided equally across 2 heatsinks (each 6"x24"), arranged like this (Navy=RB, Yellow=CW, Orange=WW):


This brings in a good amount of the deep blue spectrum, and a slight bump of the red-orange/red spectrum. However, what this lacks in spectrum (with regards to the tried-and-true MH bulbs) are some peaks in the spectrum below that deep blue (violet), above it (blue), and even some peaks nearing towards the green spectrum (cyan). And with diodes in these spectra now more readily available, this is exactly what I elected to add. Some will point out here that blues are nothing new, and something I could have included 2 years ago. True, however I am not a big advocate of an extensive use of blue, as it will quickly wash out a tank and make it appear windex-ey Not a look I'm a fan of, so I tried to do it without any at that time.

Here's what I added:
12 Violet diodes on a constant current driver (750mA)
8 XP-E blues & 6 Luxeon Rebel Cyans on a dimmable driver
80 deg optics on all (minus the Cyan, for which I ended up sourcing some optics via a Canadian supplier; they appear to be ~100 deg)

As my existing arrays/heatsinks were already hung over my tank, integrating some new strings presented a bit of a challenge, but nothing overly difficult. I soldered up the strings by themselves, then went and lowered down my heatsinks one day before the lights were scheduled to come on, and attached the strings to the heat sinks using thermal pads.

Before I went to soldering, I planned out where I wanted to place the diodes, in order to make all the wire lengths appropriate.

Here's what I came up with (violets, blues, cyans added):


Oh here we go again...


But first...

Something else I've thought about doing for a long time was a tank controller, but I couldn't justify it until more recently. So this seemed like a perfect time to acquire an Apex and get it integrated not only with my tank, but also with all of my dimmable drivers (there was some method to my madness 2 years ago when I intentionally bought Meanwell ELN-60-48D drivers). Inbound a full Apex, as the base unit with the full Apex has 4 variable speeds outlets. 4 outlets happen to be perfect for me, as this allows me to put the cool whites, the warm whites, the royal blues, and the blue/cyans on their own schedules.The variable speed outlets on the base unit are female RJ-45 sockets. Neptune apparently sells a cable to use with these outlets, but being the DIY type and seeing this is just a standard Cat5/6 type cable, I elected to be resourceful. The Apex comes with a Cat5 cable, but seeing that one wasn't quite long enough for where I chose to mount the base unit, the black Cat5 included in the box looked good enough to me. In half it went. At which point, I realized the interior of a Cat5 cable has 4 pairs of wires. Now I initially presumed these pairs are present in the connector in a linear sequence, but one I made all my connections, I found out the hard way that isn't the case. Then I did a bit more research, and realized my error.



Note the green pair is NOT in sequence. This is kinda important. Thankfully, I didn't harm anything.

Using the "Unofficial User's Guide" for the Apex (best piece of documentation out there, BTW), this table appears on page 71:


Note there are actually only two physical outlets on the Apex, but each of those contains two channels (V1/V2, and V3/V4). Before I did any actually connections, I made sure to take out my DMM and verify the voltage on everything. This included taking the cover off my old project box and probing the POTs which I was using on the old setup, to determine at what level of power I was actually running my LEDs at. I had no intention of suddenly photo-shocking my tank once the Apex was integrated. Interestingly, the outlets on the Apex all seem to run about 10.2V at max power, but considering all my drivers are set to max current with a 9V input, I consider ~9V on the Apex to equal 100% for my drivers.

So after a small amount of connection trial and error (plus a lot of physical Apex/new LED string install pains), I had a tank with a better LED spectrum, as well as an extremely powerful toy (Apex). I'm an engineer, and therefore I like toys, ESPECIALLY those that require user input and endless possibilities. But I digress.

After day 1 of running on the Apex, I had another realization: my drivers were turning on late and turning off early. And then I did some quick math and realized they were turning on/off when the Apex signal was 1 volt. Checking the spec on the Meanwell and... Yup; 1-10V DC dimming capability. Alright, let's tweak that code...

So after a few days, I was happy with my lighting schedule:


I'm sure you'd all appreciate some picture of what all this work resulted in. So let's get to that. I'll focus on the blue portions first; think of it as the actinic portion if you're not an LED soul yet.

I've done as best as I can with the following series of shots; it's very hard to get accurate coloration in photographs of lighting as most of you know. I've done minor color-correction where needed to better represent what things really look like. However, try as I might, it's just not possible to really capture how the violets display.

Here's what I started with, prior to adding anything. This is just the Royal Blues:


Here are the Violets only (and as I said, this doesn't look quite right. It's much more purplely-magenta looking than this shot reflects):


Here is the Blue/Cyan string by itself:


Blue/Cyan plus the Violets:


And now all three put together; Royal Blue, Violet, Blue/Cyan:


But what you're really interested in is how it looks during the daytime. Here's everything powered up to their peak in the lighting schedule:


Much, much closer to that MH look, I must say. And so far, I'm seeing some positive improvement in coral coloration. Mind you, it's only been a little over 2 weeks right now, so I'm far from what I'll end up with. Time and effort well spent at this point. Also, the sunrise/sunset affect the Apex has provided is pretty darn cool; kinda sorry I've missed out on that for almost two years. And it also allowed me to put my basic R2 moonlights on a schedule that tracks the natural rise/set cycle of the moon. Too cool.


Appendix

I'm putting more details here about the Apex programming for those of you who care, which won't be many; hence the appendix.

For each outlet, I have separate profiles defined for sunrise, sunset, and daytime conditions. The daytime profile isn't necessarily required, but Russ (reeftronics) pointed out to me a separate daytime profile will prevent the drivers from ramping up again once power is restored if there happens to be a power outage. That's something only an experienced soul would recognize, so I quickly noted that advice.

So these are the profiles I first defined:
[ RB_RampU ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 90
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 85
[ RB_RampD ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 90
Start Intensity: 85
End Intensity: 10
[ BC_RampU ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 60
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 65
[ BC_RampD ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 60
Start Intensity: 65
End Intensity: 10
[ CW_RampU ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 60
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 40
[ CW_RampD ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 60
Start Intensity: 40
End Intensity: 10
[ WW_RampU ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 30
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 20
[ WW_RampD ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 30
Start Intensity: 20
End Intensity: 10
[ RB_Day ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 85
End Intensity: 85
[ BC_Day ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 65
End Intensity: 65
[ CW_Day ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 40
End Intensity: 40
[ WW_Day ]
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 20
End Intensity: 20

It's probably self-explanatory, but RB = Royal Blue, BC = Blue/Cyan, CW = Cool White, and WW = Warm White.

Then I went and programmed the outlets accordingly:
[ RB-Dim_I1 ] ( base_Var1 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light A
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then RB_RampU
If Time 12:00 to 20:59 Then RB_Day
If Time 21:00 to 22:30 Then RB_RampD

[ BluCynDim_I2 ] ( base_Var2 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light A
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 11:00 to 11:59 Then BC_RampU
If Time 12:00 to 20:59 Then BC_Day
If Time 21:00 to 22:00 Then BC_RampD

[ CW-Dim_I3 ] ( base_Var3 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light B
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 14:30 to 15:29 Then CW_RampU
If Time 15:30 to 20:29 Then CW_Day
If Time 20:30 to 21:30 Then CW_RampD

[ WW-Dim_I4 ] ( base_Var4 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light B
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 15:00 to 15:29 Then WW_RampU
If Time 15:30 to 20:29 Then WW_Day
If Time 20:30 to 21:00 Then WW_RampD

 

Nice write-up, Evolved! Congrats on the new controller integration to your lights.

 

I have a 240 that im running 5 ai super blues and I wanted to add some red, green and uv leds. Any recomendations on how many off each I should put. I also wanted to put them on a controller so they dim with my ai's. How many drivers and power supplys would I need?

 

Thanks Sean.

You should speak to Rapid LED.

 

Looks very nice!!!

 

Very nice write up Hunter.

 

Sweet! Looks like your system really "evolved" lol

 

Looks awesome! Btw I like your evolved pun lol

 

Ive been waiting for this thread! (but of course you went way beyond my expectation, Hunter!!) Great right up!

 

I had a realization this evening; I forgot to give credit where it was undoubtably due.

Thank you very much Shin (exactlyobp) for your help.

Thanks Chris.

Thank you John.

Thanks

Thanks Trent. It wasn't an intensional word choice, but I grinned once I realized I used it. Glad you noticed.