LEDs

[StirCrazy]

Well I ordered 4 different types of LEDs today .. should be ariving in 4 to 7 days and then I can play around and get some hard numbers to determen there usefullness.

the ones I got are
5 of the "blue" with a wave length peek of 430nm
5 of the "blue" with a wave length peek of 470nm
1 of the "white" high intensity
and 1 of the "blue" with a wave length peek of 470nm high intensity

so now I just need to work on a powersupply and resisters to give me the proper current and voltage for them.

Steve

[Delphinus]

Neat stuff. Whatcha going to light with them?

[Aquattro]

Neat stuff. Whatcha going to light with them?

Tony, asking Steve questions only encourages him.....

[StirCrazy]

Neat stuff. Whatcha going to light with them?

not sure.. I basicly want to do some PAR readings on them and then see what kinda coverage I can get with smaller clusters.. if nothing else I will be selling some night lights that will last for 34 years buring 8 hours a day :shock: to recover some of my money :wink:


I am realy interested to see how much floressence that the 03 actinic LEDs will actualy bring out.
so I will also be setting them up on my tank and taking pics.. who knows if they are powerfull enuf I might light my bottom tank or the refuge with them to do some actualy preformance tests.. at pennies a day for a few LED's it might be a cheep way of lighting sumps and such if the PAR is strong enuf. Or even to use as spot lights in a larger tank to enhance show piece corals.

Steve

[Canadian Man]

One note for you steve is that an Led may work well but the reflector you use determines alot.
So what if anything are you going to use for a reflector?

[StirCrazy]

One note for you steve is that an Led may work well but the reflector you use determines alot.
So what if anything are you going to use for a reflector?

reflectors actualy don't do as much in a LED as they do in a normal bulb.. but there are exceptions.. the LEDs I have ordered are 16 degree and 20 degree beams so they are already pretty much focused and a conventional reflector will have a very small effect. you can get 120 degree LEDs and a reflector on this type woudl have a greater effect but sence a LED is mostly a focused beem already you don;t need to thing of reflectors in the same way as you would a conventional system.. of course I could cut a few scraps just to test but I am pretty sure the numbers will show the same thing as I have stated above.

Steve

[robby123]

you might want to look at omrons site. they have a new dr led that comes with a reflector. it supposed to be very bright. blue is 470nm
http://www.omron.com/news/n_241202.html
i was very interested in this idea. looks interesting. they also have a pdf file on the specs wavelengh,intensity,etc

[StirCrazy]

I coudent find this PDF with the intensity of them on it but if you have it bookmarked could you post the link.. the two high intensity ones I have ordered are about 5 time brighter than a standard LED so I doubt that the ones you are talking about are as brigth as them but who knows..

there is another types that in new that is way above evenything else I have seen in power but they are 15.00 each so it will be a month befor I get one or two of those to test.

Steve

[Canadian Man]

Cool Steve,
I was just throwing out my observations with the bike flasher that I have at my store as a refrence. I didnt know they came in diffrent deg. beams.
very cool!

[clintyiu]

Check this out: http://www.led.net/datasheets/25mm_medbase_index/25mm_med_index.htm

Anyone got the $ to give these a try? Would be neat if we made a canopy choked with LEDs to cover our tanks. Heck you can even do dawn/dusk and cloud similulations with some ingenius controls.

[EmilyB]

Sounds like Steve's the only guy with that kind of dough.... :shock: :P :lol:

This thread was really interesting, I don't know if LED's have changed much since then.

thread (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=8jboba%24t8q%241%40slb2.atl.mindspring.net&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3DLED%2Blights%26btnG%3DGoogle% 2BSearch%26meta%3Dgroup%253Drec.aquaria.marine.*)

[StirCrazy]

well my LEDs arived today and I sent them back just as fast.. 8 buck US for LEDs and the 16.00US shipping was ok.. but the sent it UPS and they wanted another 20 bucks so I refused shipment.. anyone know a good Canadian supplier that does online order and can give me a deicent selection?

Sigh... not my day today...

Steve

[CHEAPREEF]

Steve, have you tried Litemor? They have a Vancouver office, i was there yesterday and saw a few LED lights on display. Not sure if they would have what you want but it's worth a try.

Clinton

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Depending on the types of stuff you want, you can try DigiKey (www.digikey.ca). They are US based, but they ship using Purolator and they only charge $8 flat fee for shipping (as long as you order more than $32.50 I think). Basically, everything is in Canadian dollars and the only surcharge you have to pay is GST and $8 for shipping. Brokerage, PST and other crazy charges are paid by DigiKey.

I have order lots of stuff from them and I haven't had any problems with them. I usually order most of my electronics stuff from them. It usually takes 24 hours from the time you press okay on the web site to the Puropator truck at your door.
- Victor.

[titus]

Hello Steve,

A few ideas for your brokerage case:
1) Have them shipped again as samples (they may even pay for the shipping costs and indicate $0.00 on the custom invoice)
2) Have them shipped UPS again but call UPS Canada as soon as you get the tracking number telling them that you'll go pick them up (or have someone to do that)

Titus

[StirCrazy]

Hello Steve,

A few ideas for your brokerage case:
1) Have them shipped again as samples (they may even pay for the shipping costs and indicate $0.00 on the custom invoice)
2) Have them shipped UPS again but call UPS Canada as soon as you get the tracking number telling them that you'll go pick them up (or have someone to do that)

Titus

hmm I think it is to late for that one.. as I already sent a e-mail requesting a full charge back to my card.. I don;t think it was the fees so much as the fact that they said they ship one way then the switch with out telling you... almost smells like a aranged scam with UPS but this is probably cuz I am mad still hehe

anyways I went around and found a 470 blue and a bright white.. well it is suposed otbe bright.. but it is dimmer than the blue so I think the guy grabed the wrong one.. the blue does look promising..

Victor, I was ar digikeys page and they look alright .. they just have a inposable catalog so I am going to have to e-mail them to see if they have what I am looking for.. there is also a distrubitor for a LED company in ritchmond I am going to have to e-mail them also to see if there is a min order number


Steve

[Quinn]

what about shipping them via ground? parcel post is also a cheap way to ship.

[StirCrazy]

the was by ground... UPS ground :roll: on the other hand after 3 hours of going through digikey mess of a online catalog I think I found a few things there also for not to bad of a price.. so I might be back in bussiness.


Steve

[PFisher]

Hey now, be careful about bashing Digi-Key. That is one of my favorite places to shop. I have found that if you know how to use it, it is one of the best sites out there. :lol: I guess that I am a bit biased, I use it almost daily for work.

If you still haven't found what you need do a search for 'SSL-LX5093' or 'LNG9', then click on the LEDs link. Choose your color and millicandela (mcd) rating.

For power, I would recomend a PC power supply. They are cheap, reasonably well regulated and can supply a decent ammount of current. Or, depending on how many of these you are planning on running, one of those wall adapters that you get with cordless phones and such should do the job even more cheaply. You just have to be careful when choosing your resistors with those as they are not as well regulated.

[StirCrazy]

hehe I was not bashing digikey, hehe I actuay found a couple but I am going to search your sugestion and see if I have been there or not.. (was on there from 10 pm to 1 am last night LOL.. I am using a 18V dv with a 300mA for a power supply.. upon measuring I found the actualy out put was 17.5V.. works nice.. (I think I have about 20 adaptors from walkmans and such around here :wink: )

I did find a bunch of stuff last night and will probably be ordering them tonight..

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Well some good news.. I got a phone call from the company in the US apolagizing for the mix up and they are shipping out a replacement order tomorrow by usps. plus I am still looking at ordering a couple things from Digikey.


Steve

[stephane]

I have wait 2 month for a parcel ground ship from USPS they dont charge for brokerage but they are realy slow with the custom paper!

[StirCrazy]

I have wait 2 month for a parcel ground ship from USPS they dont charge for brokerage but they are realy slow with the custom paper!

I have ordered 4 times this way Stephane and each time it was with in 10 days.. hopefully this will hold true..

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Well I did some inital testing last night and took some pics..

I am using three 470nm blue LEDs for now untill I get my order from the US.

set up on bread board
http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_led_setup.jpg

Pic from the side
http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_led_side.jpg


Pic looking down to show the brightness
http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_led_top.jpg

the next two pics didn;t realy turn out good, I will post them anyways but they look a lit darker than they realy are.. I will get better pics tonight to show what I mean

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_led_tank.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_led_tank1.jpg

it is hard to see in thoes two last pic but the 3 LEDs actualy did a good job of lighting up the tank and even made the corals flouress a fair amount.. so tonight I will set my white ballance and try to capture some pics that show the real look of the tank.

Steve

[canadawest]

very cool, I'm interested in the balanced photos.... Perhaps a row of a dozen or two so across the tank would all but replace actinics and cost almost nothing to run.

[Canadian Man]

Awsome!
Can't wait to see more pics. 8)

[StirCrazy]

Ok, so I got the pics done tonight that show the actual look of the tank.

I also got one of a red mushroom to show how it glows under the 470nm lights.. it is fuzy but it gives you a idea. in the first two pics you can see the green glowing on the mushroom, it actualy glows pretty hard but due to the movement the close up pics I got were just totaly horable.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_tank_proper.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_tank_proper1.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/diy/led/3_370nm_tank_redmush.jpg

[kris]

Steve its looking good. keep us posted


cheers!

[clintyiu]

Hey steve,

I picked up a Luxeon 1 watt LED at Active in Vancouver for $17.00. The thing is blinding. Their catalogs lists them for over $20. Thought you might be interested.

[StirCrazy]

Hey steve,

I picked up a Luxeon 1 watt LED at Active in Vancouver for $17.00. The thing is blinding. Their catalogs lists them for over $20. Thought you might be interested.

Hmm whare did you find it? I woulden't mind a couple.. is it a 470 blue or is it white?

Steve

[clintyiu]

They only had the red and blue stars left on the counter. The cashier said that they sold the white ones really quickly. I bought the blue # LXHL NB98 and the price is actually $17.99.

The company is Future Active Electronics. www.future-active.com, Tel: 1.800.663.1057 or 604.294.1166. They are located at 1st ave and Boundary road.

HTH