DIY Luxeon LED lighting

[paenian]

Gee, I wonder if you could be Paul Chase who gave the review here:

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewItem~idP...1645~tab~4.html

 

Looks like we have a regular Sherlock Holmes I'm going to have to work on my stealth mode:

 

Luap

[jason the filter freak]

That is a very interesting tank..

[jamesbuf]

That is a very interesting tank..

 

 

I gotta agree with that one too. I can picture the flow going around and around and around. Definitely one of the more interesting concepts I've seen in a fish tank. Put two modded maxijets on there and watch the water swirl.........

[treesprite]

You're making me want LEDs for my nano.

[paenian]

PAR readings - lights (actual LED emitters) are 4-5 inches above the water. Readings were taken at highest point, which in this system is directly below the middle.

 

368 lumens at the surface

220 3" below the surface

125 6" below the surface

056 at the bottom, which is 14" below the surface.

 

So, by my estimation this is inline with the penetration of a 175 watt metal halide. I think our light is generally more focused, but this is difficult to measure; at any rate the bottom of our tank is bathed in brightness. Corals are doing excellent; I'll post a couple tank shots soon, and then plan to provide monthly updates. If you're wondering how well a particular coral would do under these lights, bring me a frag!

 

I think we've got a representative sample, though:

Zoas (five types, three from akbuuur)

Green mushrooms (From lletellier)

:::next two from fishcam:::

Kenya trees (now throwing off frags like crazy... not sure why)

Pulsating Xenia (only started pulsating when we added these lights)

:::Next two from From FishWife:::

Ricordia

Bird's Nest

(also some mushroom-esque things on the rock)

:::The final three are NEW since frag fest:::

Green cap (only partially under the LEDs, the part that's not isn't very green)

Red cap

Purple Thing that Kind of Looks Like a Digitata but I Think is Something Else

 

And that should do it! Let me know if you have any questions, I'll take pictures on the first of each month.

Paul

Edited July 30, 2008 by paenian

[bshriver]

That looks great.

 

So what was the final configuration?

 

3 home made 18 LED fixtures? What powersupply and heat sinks did you settle on? Where did you buy the LEDS?

[paenian]

That looks great.

 

So what was the final configuration?

 

3 home made 18 LED fixtures? What powersupply and heat sinks did you settle on? Where did you buy the LEDS?

 

I have two fixtures, each of which contains three sets of 18 LED emitters (not the stars, just the chip itself), each set being 12 white and 6 blue. In my tank they're at 90 degree angles, so light output is measured from one of them; the fixtures are 5x14" at the base of the reflector, so you could pack them in fairly tightly for more light.

 

For power, each set of 18 has a 24V BuckPuck 1000ma driver, split into three channels of 333ma each to power 6 LEDs; this means the LEDs are a bit under-powered (drive current is 350ma). To power the pucks, I have a large 120-24v transformer piped to a full wave rectifier & smoothing capacitor. It's not very clean power, but with the buckpucks one doesn't need to worry about that too much. I measured the power draw with a Killawatt meter; each light draws 44 watts from the wall - probably losing a watt or two in the power supplies, but can't be much. All electronics from the Future Electronics Component store (except the transformer was from Newegg).

 

Heatsink is a chunk of square aluminum tube that the LEDs are thermally taped to, with a fan at one end pulling air through & around the tube; the reflector acts as a heatsink as well, since it's just aluminum flashing. Plus all the screws holding it together are aluminum . All these materials bought at Home Depot.

 

Design wise, I'm not completely satisfied; I'd like to eliminate the transformer (perhaps by running 6 buckpucks in series off of a wall socket). Also, the fan is small to fit inside - it's not very noisy, but it's noise is rather high pitched - I'd like to redesign with a larger fan, probably mounted in the center.

 

Furthermore, CREE has just come out with some LEDs that are almost twice as efficient! (power-efficient, that is; cost is another story!) Right now I'm looking for a supplier; once I find one, I'd like to hit up willing beta testers - I'll charge cost of parts, possibly willing to trade reef things (fancy skimmer?). These models cost about $350 each, including the power supply - I'll try to lower that and buying in bulk will help, but expect the beta buy-in to be around there. Maybe I'll design a low-cost spotlight as well as a maximum-efficiency set; I figure if I can get something under $100 a lot more people would be willing to test it. Let me know what you want! I'm thinking a 30-inch fixture capable of lighting a 36x18" tank all by its lonesome, as an epitome of power and cost efficiency; a bit over 100 watts.

 

Paul

Edited July 30, 2008 by paenian

[GaryL]

group build anyone?

[bshriver]

group build anyone?

I am in, if I can find the time. I can dust off that CMU EE/CE degree that doesn't get use much anymore in the software system program director day job

 

I have a 20G QT tank that might be a good test bed as well as a portion of a frag tank.

 

What is the new lumen/watt rating of the new LEDs?

 

I take it your current design has no way to vary to current to the LEDs?

 

BTW, the results look great in the pics so far!

[NRehman]

Great work! Count me in for a group build... :-)

[paenian]

I am in, if I can find the time. I can dust off that CMU EE/CE degree that doesn't get use much anymore in the software system program director day job

 

I have a 20G QT tank that might be a good test bed as well as a portion of a frag tank.

 

What is the new lumen/watt rating of the new LEDs?

 

I take it your current design has no way to vary to current to the LEDs?

 

BTW, the results look great in the pics so far!

 

Right now the design uses a BuckPuck 1000ma constant current output, since they're higher efficiency than anything I could build easily (95%) and because they have a 5v output as well (PIC microcontroller!) and can dim through that. However, my microcontroller skills are nonexistant, so if you'd like to volunteer that'd be awesome. Right now I'm debating putting a big RC loop on there to slowly fade the lights in :-P I've been debating trying to design my own driver circuit, but the cost is prohibitive - I can't afford to melt a bunch of these LEDs.

 

The newer CREEs are running 100lm at 350ma, 220 at 1a; my plan was to replace three luxeons @ 333ma with one CREE @ 1A for less soldering with more output.

 

Paul

[FishWife]

Great work! Count me in for a group build... :-)

 

We'd be interested to learn to build these kinds of lights, initially for our new 12g nano and to upgrade our new RSM 34g. I think LEDs are the way to go into the future, and the sooner we DIYers figure it out, the better.

 

Mind my asking how much is the cost per lamp in materials?

 

And, if I'm reading this right, you're saying that the TWO fixtures together give a PAR that approximates a 175 w halide? With what spectrum, I wonder? My frag would be a clam: my ultimate dream critter for any tank I own.

[bshriver]

Right now the design uses a BuckPuck 1000ma constant current output, since they're higher efficiency than anything I could build easily (95%) and because they have a 5v output as well (PIC microcontroller!) and can dim through that. However, my microcontroller skills are nonexistant, so if you'd like to volunteer that'd be awesome. Right now I'm debating putting a big RC loop on there to slowly fade the lights in :-P I've been debating trying to design my own driver circuit, but the cost is prohibitive - I can't afford to melt a bunch of these LEDs.

 

The newer CREEs are running 100lm at 350ma, 220 at 1a; my plan was to replace three luxeons @ 333ma with one CREE @ 1A for less soldering with more output.

 

Paul

I'll look up the BUckPuck and see what I can figure out about the spec for the microcontroller. I have built controllers in the past and programmed plenty, but it has been years and years

[paenian]

Materials cost was about $350 per lamp, for 54 LEDs. You can get discounts by buying in bulk; buying one lamp at a time would have cost $400 each.

 

The PAR readings are from one of them; I measured right below the middle of the right lamp (basically above the frogspawn, looking at the pics above). The reason 44 watts of light can match 175 is partially because the LEDs are more efficient (around 10%), partially because they are more focused (MH puts out light 360 degrees, these only 110), and partly that my lights are much closer to the water. I think that a MH would be the same brightness (going from the PAR readings chart) but be able to cover a wider area, although the LEDs are uniform over the area I could measure, MH definitely have just the one peak, with everything to the sides getting less and less.

[JMsAquarium]

We'd be interested to learn to build these kinds of lights, initially for our new 12g nano and to upgrade our new RSM 34g. I think LEDs are the way to go into the future, and the sooner we DIYers figure it out, the better.

 

Mind my asking how much is the cost per lamp in materials?

 

And, if I'm reading this right, you're saying that the TWO fixtures together give a PAR that approximates a 175 w halide? With what spectrum, I wonder? My frag would be a clam: my ultimate dream critter for any tank I own.

 

 

Marcia,

 

When Paul came to borrow the PAR meter, we tested it under my 175W MH. The specs are:

 

Bulb: single ended MH

Brand: Hamilton

Color spectrum: 14K

Ballast Magnatek magnetic ballast M57

Reflector: spider reflector in an enclosure.

 

Bulb is two months old. The bulb sits at 24" from the bottom of the tank and above 12" from the water surface:

 

Par readings are:

at 1" from the bulb 1125

 

at water surface 250

at 6" under the surface 165

at the bottom of the tank +/- 50

 

JM