Quote:
Originally Posted by mike31154
My DIY fixture consists of 3 rows of 10 watt multichip LEDs of various colours. I chose to keep it fairly simple using several 12 volt power supplies & manual dimmers. Auto control would be nice, but things get complex fast. There are some Arduino solutions out there if you wish to go that route. Changing from a Halide/T5HO combo with little in the way of control, I figured my livestock wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference if the new LED lighting just came on & off like the old fixture. After running the LEDs for at least a couple of years now, I suspect I was correct. Auto dimming, lightning storms etc. are cool, but does the livestock really care that much?
A link to my build is at the below my name down there.... not too many pages, so not a whole ton of reading, but there's a good bit of info in there, including some of the changes I've made during the build. I wanted to keep the fixture fairly light, so no massive heatsinks. Originally I started with small heatsinks with built in fans, but the fans were beginning to fail after a while & although I had spares, it became tedious. So I switched to larger heatsinks & built a cover that has 4 fans built into it to move some air. The larger heatsinks are supposedly enough to cool the 10 watt LED without a fan, but I think I made the right call with the fans in the cover. More info in my build thread. Have fun.
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Yeah had a great read through your build thread, was actually thinking of using the same heat sinks you did. For now the fixture will likely remain open since it is all mounted behind a wall. Adding fans to the rig is something i would plan for in case they are needed.
The programming and control is from me being lazy, and accustomed to sunrise/set cycling with my current fixtures (current USA) No real reason I couldn't use manual dimmers to adjust the look and intensity of the tank and go back to timers. Part of the awesome of the DIY would be the ability to change it down the road. I would agree too that the natural lighting cycle is likely more for us visually than for the livestock.
was just doing some looking at Mean Well LED drivers, can dim them with some controllers but taking that route may defeat the financial side of the DIY, unless I can justify the controller as something I should have anyway for dosing and monitoring the tank
Muwahaha???