$100 DIY Cree LED XR-E - Actinic Supplement 48" Light Strip

I hear ya, some of the higher output luman cree leds run around $20+ each.. but even at $6 a piece for the 3w XR-E ones, it isnt so bad unless your trying to do a LED only setup on a bigger tank.

Thanks steve, I cant wait to see it done too. I should have the remaining items today.. stay tuned

The bulbs are 2x175w hamilton 10k. The bulbs look blue in that picture, because either the camera had some weird settings on or they were just warming up. they are white with yellowish hue. I'll post a before and after picture here so you can see what im talking about.

no reason for running in series, I just noticed most people choose to do it that why with these mean well drivers.

yeah no problem. I will have a before, during, and after shot. the good thing about DIY is you can always modifiy the setup in the future easily. (since you built it yourself.)

 

Lookin real good! But do you think that aluminum will dissipate the heat fast enough? These little guys do put a lot of heat out onto the back of the diode!

 

thats what i was thinking :-/
i hope the fans are enough, i will follow along though

 

I hope so. I do have 2 fans inside canopy right now to help out. I was going to use some white aluminum scrap I had laying around, but decided on buying a mill finish "silver" piece for better heat transfer. If needed, I may install 1 small cpu fan aiming down the length of the heatsink. if no fan is needed and the 8 leds run good without high temps, then I would say someone probly could get away with 12 leds total on this size aluminum bar w/o real heatsink fins. only thing I wish home depot had was a 2"x48" aluminum strip.. 1.5"x48" was the widest I could find there. so we'll see ;D

 

Hmm... If you run them for a while and then feel the aluminum and it's hot then heat transfer won't be enough. If it's cold then it's plenty enough. Either way, a fan across it will help a lot with the transfer from the aluminum to the atmosphere

 

Nice.
I wouldn't mind getting that template...
I want to do this for my tank I even have a lot of the stuff needed, extra wiring , aluminum bar, soldering stuff. Basically I just need the LED's, optics, driver and means of attachment.

Can't wait to see it on your tank. Need Pics with and witout them on.

 

might is well make a whole light fixture using led and sell the halides for a reasonable price

 

Wow cant wait till there lit up to see how bright they are, cool build

 

Well everyone they are done and installed!

with just the 8 LEDs on, it looks amazing.. great shimmer, bold blue/purplish color.

no spot lighting effect due to height of LEDs and wide 60 degree lens.

with all my lights on (mh 10k+leds) it looks like a 12-14k now.

as for heat sink issue.. I did only have my fans come on with mh lighting cycle (3-9pm). so I changed that so the fans come on when the LEDs actinic come on (noon-midnight) and the metal is barely even warm to the touch (when the mh are on) when its just the LEDs on the metal is cool to the touch. so I shouldn't have any issue, but I'll keep a good eye on it.

as for mounting the driver unit. I was going to mount it at first inside the hood, but decided to mount it to the rear/outside panel so it wouldn't be any heat issues and wouldn't be visible.

overall I am very happy well worth the $100 and about 5-6hrs of labor.

I will be posting some pictures here later.. waiting for less daylight coming through the window.

These cree LEDs blow away my uvl 454nm actinic pc bulbs on my other tank.. very intense.

 

It'll be interesting to see them on. When I get to placing my crees I am just going to thermal bond them down lol. I really don't feel up to drilling/tapping 48 holes.
Any particular reason you went with the Meanwell drivers? And that looks like a kit If so would you mind sharing where you purchased it?
I hope that strip will dissipate enough heat.