LED lights build thread

all the parts i used so far i got from radio shack and my local electronic parts store but you could get all of these parts at radio shack if you are lucky. The radio shack near me is always out of stock or very low on stock with the parts i need. For the RGB controller w/ high power leds you will have to order online.

 

as far as color spectrum...there is no such thing as true 10k LED's you can get 6500K but color and intensity will vary depending on how you design the circuit. For example, the more you drive a cool white LED.. the brighter and more cool white it will get and vica versa. This along with the what i was just saying about different color LED's having different ratings is why i decided to go with a 3 channel RGB controlled system. Then i plan to use a seperate circuit for the daylights. So in a sense i will be using the daylight LED's as the supplemental lighting.

 

So what brand LEDs (SSC, Cree,.. ?) are you using there?
What's the lumen ouput rating on them?

 

remember........... red grows green LOL

 

The ones here are just cheap radio shack LED's rated at 2850mcd for the pinks and 7000 on the whites.

 

Here's some leds in the actinic spectrum: Blue : Luxeon Star LEDs, High Power LED Products & Accessories

Seems like to get LEds with enough lumens for a reef they would get pretty expensive. And I can only find some that go up to 6500k.:
Endor Rebel - Cool White, Tri-Emitter, 540 Lumens @ 700mA [7007-PWC-10-3]
Let us know if you find some comparable LEDs to Metal Halide... at a reasonable cost.
Cool build.

 

yeah iu will be uising the luxeons for the high power fixture. I found a place to get them at $3 for the 1 watters and $5-$8 for the 3 watters!

 

Nice work so far let me know if you need help with anything. Anyone ever use visio for creating schematics. I need help on figuring out how many leds are need to cover 125 long.

 

I know this is not as high tech as what you're doing but I had a LED brainstorm while oddly enough looking at MY future in-laws tree. I bought a set of thirty of those "stubby flat top" LED christmas lights. I bought them in blue, I drilled 30 holes in a peice of hobbie styrene I had laying around and made myself moon lights, total cost Approx $6, and I removed my "proffesionally" built ones becuase mine just over powered them.

anyone else working with LED, i've been hearing good things from people in Europe.

 

I use spice for all my schematics...never used visio sorry.

When you say how many LEDs to cover a 125L it will depend greatly on which LEDs you use because different LEDs have different beam angles... how high they are suspended from the water surface will also play a big part but keep in mind the higher you suspend the LEDs the less intensity you get towards the bottom of the tank but a more even spread of light. So doing some quick math.. not really sure if this is how it would work but here goes nothing...

I think a 125 long is like 18.5 inches deep?? so that is like 47cm so...
First figure distance from light source to the water surface. lets say 7 cm = (D1) then figure distance from the light source to the bottom of the tank... 47cm in your case = (D2)
Now find the diameter of lit area of one LED at D1 and D2 (i picked an arbitrary beam angle so you will have to change that for the specific LED's you plan to use)
D1 = 0.07m * tan(20 degrees) = 0.07m * 0.364 = 0.025m (surface) -> pi * (0.0125m)2 = 0,00049m2
D2 = 0.47m * tan(20 degrees) = 0.47m * 0.364 = 0.171m (bottom) -> pi * (0.0855m)2 = 0,02295m2

Now here is where it gets tricky cause different wave lengths will lose intensity much faster than others at different depths so assuming a lot of light will be lost id guess you would just wanna double the ammount of lux you really want. So figuring 2000 lux is a good number lets use 4000lux to be safe. nothing wrong with more light

so going with banks of 25 LEDs assuming the LEDs have the attribute of the equations above i come up with...
Number of LEDs per point:
2000 / 261 = 7.66 LEDs
4000 / 261 = 15.32 LEDs

mind you that I could be so way off with those calculations... so dont take that as anything more than me and my madness.