RSM 130D LED Retrofit

[tlhood]

As my first real DIY project, I decided to get rid of the two T5 bulbs that come with the stock RSM 130D... however I wanted to keep the hood, and get something that is virtually dummy proof. As I am pretty non-electrical savvy, I opted to get the RapidLED Solderless Dimmable LED retrofit kit.

Ordered on May 22, and received it on May 28.

It came with the following:

•4.25" x 16" Heatsink drilled/tapped for 27 LEDs and 4 installation holes
•1 Red, 1 Green, 4 UV, 7 Cool White, 14 Royal Blue CREE XP-G2 LEDs
• 1 Mean Well LDD-700HW + 1 Mean Well LDD-1000HW drivers + SE-350-48 power supply
•2 Driver Jumpers
•2 Terminal Plug
•25 pieces of 3" LED to LED wire
•1 Tube of Thermal Grease
•4 water repellent wire nuts (plus 12 non-water repellent wire nuts)
•22 feet of bulk wire

I also opted to get the Storm Controller and a Multimeter.

With exchange rates, GST, and customs fees, it ran me $442.25 CAD.

I probably won't start messing around with installing it until the weekend. Blurry iPhone pic inc.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/tabkatz/LEDs.jpg (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/tabkatz/media/LEDs.jpg.html)

[Maverick00]

cool man keep the pics coming!

[Craigdillman]

tagging along

[davej]

Did the same kit on mine. Dead simple with their instructions.

[tlhood]

I am looking forward to setting it up.

I read the instructions that they have online, and although they are for the solder kit, it seems pretty straight forward. I foresee my biggest struggle with setting up the Storm controller. And I am a little hazy on the drivers.

I do have a friend coming over to help me though, so it shouldn't take too long to figure out.

I am having some difficulty figuring out where I want to place each colour. Part of the problem is compounded by the fact that I don't exactly understand how everything will be connected and controlled, and which ones need to be on which driver.

[tlhood]

This is the plan, done fantastically in MS Paint.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/tabkatz/LOITS.png (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/tabkatz/media/LOITS.png.html)

I am thinking this will give a pretty nice even spread.

The red and UV have a max of 700mA, so I have to put them on the 700HW driver, and figured I would run blues with them. On the other driver I have all my whites, and the rest of my blues.

[Craigdillman]

i have 3 heat sinks of rapid led above my 125 i run them all at 650ish and its more than enough light

And yea you wan a run your whites separate from blues and red/green so u can dim and control the colour ratio

[tlhood]

I can't completely split my blues from my whites unfortunately, because I only have the two LDD drivers that were provided. If I wanted a seperate one for white, blue, then R G UV etc, wouldn't I need 3 drivers?

I am not too concerned right now though, I am thinking having the 7 whites and 6 blues on the one driver will be more than enough balance on that one, and I can balance whether I want more blue or not with the Storm controller for the second driver.

If that makes sense... it does in my mind.

If I decide it doesn't work for me, I can always just order some more drivers.

[Craigdillman]

I would put your green and red on the left and right side of the fixture kinda in the middle for the best spread, check out my epic keyboard drawing


[ - - ]

[Craigdillman]

I can't completely split my blues from my whites unfortunately, because I only have the two LDD drivers that were provided. If I wanted a seperate one for white, blue, then R G UV etc, wouldn't I need 3 drivers?

I am not too concerned right now though, I am thinking having the 7 whites and 6 blues on the one driver will be more than enough balance on that one, and I can balance whether I want more blue or not with the Storm controller for the second driver.

If that makes sense... it does in my mind.

If I decide it doesn't work for me, I can always just order some more drivers.

O yea thats right cause you have 27 LEDs on that heat sink

[tlhood]

Hm. I get what you're saying.... I would have to rearrange my UVs, whites and blues so they aren't all clumpy.

I'll make a sketch on paint.

[tlhood]

and paint failed me.

[davej]

I would run all the blues on one driver. And run the rest on the other. I have close to the same mix without the red and green. I keep my whites at 50% so having the driver dialed down won't be an issue.

[Craigdillman]

Acutally now that I look closer it's pretty good don't mess with ut

[TheMikey]

I would run all the blues on one driver. And run the rest on the other. I have close to the same mix without the red and green. I keep my whites at 50% so having the driver dialed down won't be an issue.

Definitely agree. Best way to fine tune colour for your reef this way. Also lets you dim the blues to act as moonlights, if that's your thing.

[davej]

Here is the layout I did.
12906

Ended up changing out the warm and neutral whites for cool white.
Warms were just too yellow for my taste.
You have the best control on the look of your tank if you keep the blues separate from the white.

[tlhood]

Dave do you have your UV tied into your blue?

[davej]

No I ended up running it with the whites.
They are almost out of the spectrum you can see.
They look really dim when powered up. You can see if you use the little battery pack they supply and touch it to the contacts. They need to be run at 700mA max so I put them with my whites which don't need to be run at full blast ever in my opinion. They are bright!
If you run the blues and white separate you can have the blues slowly ramp up in the morning then ramp on the whites a few hours later. And at night you can do the same for a nice sunset feature.

[tlhood]

Ok so based on suggestions, I moved my blues to one driver, and put everything else on the other. How does this look?

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/tabkatz/LOITS2-1.png (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/tabkatz/media/LOITS2-1.png.html)

[davej]

Looks great!

[tlhood]

How frustrating.. after getting the LEDs all set up and connecting them with the 3 inch solderless wires, they only gave me 23 instead of 25, so I am two short.

[davej]

Run one less led on each string until they send you the replacement ones. You won't be able to tell the difference.

[tlhood]

Here are a couple pictures of the progress so far. I put the terminal plug two LEDs short on the white string, as the wires were missing from the kit. I have contacted rapidLED to see if they will send me the missing pieces.

I tested with the terminal plug on the blue string to make sure I could easily remove it. Thankfully with some needlenose pliers and a little wiggle it comes out quite easily.

I have to run to home depot now to grab some zip ties to mount the heatsink to the reflector thinggy.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/tabkatz/LWD.jpg (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/tabkatz/media/LWD.jpg.html)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/tabkatz/LED.jpg (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/tabkatz/media/LED.jpg.html)

[tlhood]

After 9 hours, the hood is put back together and the lights/controller appear to be working well.

Some critiques about the kit:

1)Missing parts
2)No instructions regarding the assembly of ALL the LDD drivers, fans, new power supply and storm controller. The ones provided are for the larger drivers using the timer and rsm power supply, or just connecting the controller to the power supply and drivers. Fans were all willy nilly.
3) the new power supply doesn't fit in the hood
4)heatsink holes were too small for the zip ties
5) there were 4 plastic sticky out things in the hood that interfered with closing after the zip ties were used to attach the heatsink to the reflector thingy. The 4 sticky out things were where the screws used to be in order to attach the reflector to the hood.


Solutions:
1) left the last two LEDs (1 UV and 1 White) unhooked until Rapid LED gets me the missing wires.
2) Relied on my grade 5 understanding of circuits to wire everything together. I ended up ripping out the timer and the driver, drilled a hole through the bottom of the timer compartment, and threaded the jumpers and fan wires down. I had to extend the fan wires with the bulk wires. All wires now come out where the main plug for the RSM comes out. Drivers are wired into the new power supply and the controller. Fans are wired directly into the power supply.
3)Power supply is external. As the wires were too short, it is on a stand beside the DT.
4)Drilled bigger holes.
5) drilled into the sticky out thingies to make them thin enough to snap off with pliers.