New Jarduino build gets started

[ScubaSteve]

Dom! It's to finish these lights bud! I'm doing a a PhD and running a business and I finished back in February

Just kidding....

My LED tank is running great. I have zero filtration in the biocube and I'm growing SPS and a clam like a champ. Helps having a F- ton of light! The 3-ups are the way to go despite the fact they limit your output. I have zero colour separation which is nice. I wish I had the ability to control the red on the OCW stars separately but the turquoise and green really beef up the colours. My only complaint is the fans. I don't have the options you do to control the fans and have been foiled at other attempts to piggyback them off the existing circuitry. I'll probably have to hack the Typhon and repurpose a pin for the fans. Oh, and I managed to break a couple of fins off one fan so it sounds like a 747 taking off in my living room... Haven't had the time to replace it yet though.

[Chatouille]

Mine's up and going.... still running ver. 1.1 though. I saw Jamie post that 1.2 final is in the works, so will update when that comes out. Really enjoy the dusk/dawn effect, and the ability to dial in the color. The PWM controlled fan works great... heatsink has never raised above 90 F. (I drilled partially through the heatsink and used thermal adhesive to secure in the DS18B20 sensor) I can’t believe how much cooler these run vs. MH or T5’s.


Overall, I'm pleased with it, but still some tweaking to do. I need to order another ribbon cable to try out, I get random artifacts on my LCD display on occasion. (don't get them if directly plugged into the shield) Everything looks good, but my red's don't *pop* quite as much as I'm used to. (under MH, with T5 supplementation) I used all Luxeon Rebels, (RB, B, NW, WW, 420 nm violets) but just ordered some Cree's from Milad to play with to see if it helps. If I can get the red to really *pop* like everything else, I'll be happy.

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by byee

Who/where did you buy your heatsink and end caps from for the LED's?

I'm considering the heatsink from LED group buy but can't justify paying $4 per inch. I'm hoping the one you're using is significantly cheaper.

Thanks!

Sorry to break it to ya, but ya, these are the LED group buy heatsinks from makersled. Keep in mind that with that price you get all the mounting screws, heatsink, splash guard and cooling fan. It's still on the pricey side, but it's clean and no tapping needed. The top of the heatsink is channeled for a 5/16" nut so hanging is clean and easy. I originally went this way so I could fool around with 1 - 18" fixture, try several things out, and still just loosen off the screws and move the LED's around, change spectrum etc. Then when I had all the bugs worked out duplicate it on 2 more for my 6' tank.

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Dom! It's to finish these lights bud! I'm doing a a PhD and running a business and I finished back in February

LOL, I know, eh? I run my own business too, and it's been totally crazy. Never fails, feast or famine.
Good to hear you're happy with your rig. I'm running my 3-up's on 2 channels (RB's and NW's) but my OCW's on just one. I'm happy with it so far.

Originally Posted by Chatouille

Everything looks good, but my red's don't *pop* quite as much as I'm used to. (under MH, with T5 supplementation) I used all Luxeon Rebels, (RB, B, NW, WW, 420 nm violets) but just ordered some Cree's from Milad to play with to see if it helps. If I can get the red to really *pop* like everything else, I'll be happy.

On my 20 gal cube I've got the 425nm TV's as well and I'm pretty happy with them. Can't say they make the red's pop though. On my new lights I got 3 TV per heatsink that go into the 405nm. Not sure that'll make any difference, but I thought I'd try them out.
There's a guy on UKreefs that had issues with his screen doing weird things too with a cable on his screen. I read he had it figured out and was running a 24" cable (I think), but I can't remember how he fixed it. Something to do with his connections not giving a good enough contact or something.

I had a little bit of time tonight and got the LED's of 1 heatsink screwed down and ready for wiring. I might get the other screwed up tomorrow.

[byee]

Thanks for the info.

I've been looking for alternatives but they do have the best one yet!

I'm in the process of setting up a new 60g cube - 24x24x24. Considering a single 18" fixture. May consider maybe 20" depending on LED options.

Still exploring LED options. Short listed to Steve's or aquastyle. Still lots of decisions to make - colors, ratios, wattage and drivers. At one point, I was thinking of the 10w LEDs but decided against it because of driver costs. Now I'm back to the 3w LEDs to get better coverage.

I have a Jarduino ready to go running the v1.2 beta 2 sketch. Now just waiting for the relay board and temperature sensors.

I've decided on the Meanwell drivers since they're waterproof IP67. Safer around water especially salt water. Model number will depend on my LED selections.

Any advice?

[daplatapus]

What's your plan for the top of your cube? If you're going with a hood that's going to cover everything anyway, I might give consideration to stock aluminum as a heat sink. However that would entail either drilling and tapping or gluing the LED's directly to it. In my mind (and my tendency to never leave well enough alone) these methods are less than desirable. I like the fact that I'll never have to purchase another heatsink again. I'll just continue to re-purpose these and change the LED's as technology and knowledge of these light fixtures develops.
If your plan is an open top with the fixture visible, these heatsinks are totally finished. It does take a bit of planning and imagination to make the wires going in and out clean, but certainly doable. I ended up drilling the heatsink and putting grommets and following the hangar I built.
My plan for my final fixture will be inside a hood mounted on moveable rails built from pocket door tack and rollers.

All my LED's have come from Milad. On my last order I was less than impressed with the packaging and shipping, but the product was good and the customer service was there to deal with my complaints.
If you're even thinking of multi chip, talk to Mike (mike31154). Nice guy and he knows tons of stuff about them. I was leaning that way after talking with him but I ended up chickening out, favouring what I knew.
My first fixture I used Inventronics drivers with the dim4 board and it was just ok. I didn't realize I wouldn't get dimming to zero and that sucked. All my lights go on 10% then ramp from there. It's amazing how bright 10% is. Might as well not even have dimming for the most part.
For my new build, I've got a wack of LDD 1000 and 700 Meanwwell drivers for the RB's, OCW's, TV's and a couple HLG's for my NW's. The OCW's and TV's are Exotic LED's and the rest are all 3W Cree's.
Ratio mix is much the eye of the beholder. I went with overkill and plan on adjusting by dimmer rather than try and get the correct mix by number of LED's. I live nowhere near anyone who runs a LED fixture so I can't really see anything in person to know what I'd call the mix I like. So, I have to figure it out on my own

Hope that helps somewhat. If you get to building something, start a build thread right away and keep us all posted.

[Chatouille]

I have 8 of the TV's, and like I said... overall I'm happy. The red's are just a bit deeper/darker when compared to my old MH/T5 combo, but it's pretty much a wash though, 'cuz other colors are better. (it'll be curious to see what the Cree’s will add to the mix)

Yeah, I saw that post on UK a while back about the cable.... funny thing is that my cable is only ~5" long. I might order the LCD shield from Itead, and try that if the new cable doesn't fix my problems.

I'm in the same boat as you Dom... no one around with LED's, and even the closest LFS is a bit over 3 hours from me. I also agree that it's easier to go overboard a bit, and just control the individual output lvl's, rather than to try to get the exact LED ratio

[daplatapus]

And then there were two...