36 DIY LED finally figured out whats wrong

Discussion in 'LED Aquarium Lighting' started by Anthos312, Jan 25, 2012.

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  1. Anthos312

    Anthos312 Millepora

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    So after so much trouble shooting... I mean DAYS of rewiring, to the point where I would have rather bought a professional LED system instead of doing my own now...... haha. Seriously though..., i finally figured out whats wrong. I have 8 LED's that are burnt out. How this happened I dont know. I wouldnt be too bother except for the fact that I dont even have enough whites on my one driver to run them. I have 16 working royal blues (2 are burnt out), and only 9 working whites (5 are burnt out), and my 2 UV bulbs are burnt out. Basically I have 2 options here i think...

    1) Re order more LED bulbs from aquastyle which will take a few weeks to arrive...which isnt a great option considering im so broke/unemployed again after college :(

    2) Remove 3 of the blues from the blue driver circuit and wire them up to the white driver strand of LED's. Im not sure if this is recommended though.

    If i cant wire a few of the blues up to get the minimum number of LEDS (which is 12 for the strand to light up), i guess i will have to wait till i get a job/some $$$ to order more :(
     
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  3. Anthos312

    Anthos312 Millepora

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    58 views and not one response?
     
  4. coylee_17

    coylee_17 Fire Goby

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    I guess if cash is strapped then I would just rewire and use what you have so that you have lights. More important though, is why are they burnt out? You must have something wrong and I would be trying to figure that out first before I went anywhere, at the risk of losing the rest of the LEDs.
     
  5. Anthos312

    Anthos312 Millepora

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    So basically you have to have a minimum of 12 LEDs per driver. When you only wire a few together (less than the minimum) they will blink every few seconds. Basically, what I think happened was a was testing the connections, and wired a few together and maybe there was too much current and it fried those few I wired together. This wont happen again because I have already figured out which ones that are blown. However, what I really need to know is whether I can have these BridgeLux Royal blues and Whites wired together on the same driver? If so, I will take 3 of my 16 Royal Blues and wire them to my strand of 9 whites in order to have the minimum 12.

    If this is the case I can have both strands wired up on the dimmers and it would work great until i can order some replacement LED's for the blown ones.

    I just need to know if the royal blues and whites can be wired together on the same driver?
     
  6. coylee_17

    coylee_17 Fire Goby

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    As long as you aren't exceeding the max. input of either of the LEDs there is no reason you can mix the colours on a strand. Just remember that you won't have the same control over the colour temp of the lights if you mix them.
     
  7. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    yeah, i'm pretty sure you can mix, don't see why not! I think your mistake was in the testing! I think you're supposed to have a full set wired before plugging in or else they burn out! Why not order a few from rapidled or ocreef! should only take a few days for them to get ya refilled!
     
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  9. Anthos312

    Anthos312 Millepora

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    I got laid off work and have been unemployed for over a month. Literally have no money for things like this.. :(

    Im sure it was in the testing that fried a few of the LED's.
     
  10. Anthos312

    Anthos312 Millepora

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    I definately wont be exeeding the max number of LED's per strand, there will be a strand of 16 blues, and a strand of 9 whites with 3 blues wired in.

    What do you mean control over the colour temp of the lights if i mix in one strand? Im assuming u mean just i wont be able to dim the 3 blue lights seperately from the 9 white lights?

    Or do you mean the actual temperature of the led's?
     
  11. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    i'd rewire what you have left to keep both running with the right amount of led's! Then save a bit! i think individual led's are only $3 or so!
     
  12. cosmo

    cosmo Giant Squid

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    yu're fine, think she means the color temp, ie blue v white!