LED Fixture - cheap

[Milad]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

[b] If you look at people running cree LEDs most are setting them up at 700 mA which is 70% to start with then using dimming circuts to run them at 70% so they are realy running there fixtures at about 50% which surprises me, very few are actualy running 100% so what does this say.. cree is actualy way more power than we need on a normal tank.

Steve

incorrect sir

They run them at 70% to keep heat down and extend the life, that is the general consensus of output with extended longevity using standard hobby cooling.



I don't know what else to say other than try posting that light on any reputable board that has people who know about LEDs and you will get your answer very quickly. 1w LEDs just do not cut it. That is what im trying to get across, most of the cheap LEDs fixtures that come from china use sub par 1w LEDs (not all of them but MOST of them).

Also, if anyone has that fixture, we can put it up against 1/3 or 1/4 number of CREE LEDs and see the difference with a par meter and just your eyes.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Milad

incorrect sir

They run them at 70% to keep heat down and extend the life, that is the general consensus of output with extended longevity using standard hobby cooling.

actualy your not corect at all, I am sorry that you are pushing them for you group led buy, but they are running them at 70% because they don't need to run them at 100% so yes they are also reducing the requirment of the heat sink a bit also.

I do agree watt to watt cree is the most powerfull out there, but don't let that fool you into thinking that they are built better than the other major brands. all the major brands are that for a reason.. they are good.

with the emergent of briglux and there 5, 10, 50 watt LEDs the 3 watt Cree is starting to go the way of T5's where they are being used for actining surounding more powerfull high quality LEDs. you should start selling briglux and edison also to give people more of a choice.

better yet, you should try out a 120 watt LED like the one I was playing with a few days ago.. I am still seeing spots

Steve

[Milad]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

actualy your not corect at all, I am sorry that you are pushing them for you group led buy, but they are running them at 70% because they don't need to run them at 100% so yes they are also reducing the requirment of the heat sink a bit also.

I do agree watt to watt cree is the most powerfull out there, but don't let that fool you into thinking that they are built better than the other major brands. all the major brands are that for a reason.. they are good.

with the emergent of briglux and there 5, 10, 50 watt LEDs the 3 watt Cree is starting to go the way of T5's where they are being used for actining surounding more powerfull high quality LEDs. you should start selling briglux and edison also to give people more of a choice.

better yet, you should try out a 120 watt LED like the one I was playing with a few days ago.. I am still seeing spots

Steve

If you have very good cooling and very good heat transfer you run them at 100%. Everyone everywhere will tell you to run them at 70% because of the hobby cooling/heat transfer.

Im not trying to sell anyone anything, haven't even mentioned our website. Im just trying to make sure canreefers don't get stuck buying something that is going to cost thousands because their corals die or just dont grow.

120w, 50w, 50000w LED doesnt matter when it uses more power than equivalent 3watters. The point behind LEDs is efficiency not wattage. Go pick up a industry LED magazine, you will see the XM-L from CREE showcased all over the mag, its because its ridiculously efficient. You are buying LEDs to save money on power and replacement bulbs so why take that number 1 reason away just so you can have a 50w LED that you will have a hard time cooling that uses more power than equivalent XM-L LEDs?

Ill give you an example. Lets for instance have CREE XR-E vs CREE XM-L at 1A

XR-E 250lm
XM-L 415lm

thats 66% more light but you need 3.7v to run each XR-E at 1A. Not a big deal? wrong.
So if you have your basic 48v driver, you can do 12 XR-E or 16 XM-Ls for the same power.

That is 3000lm vs 6640lm. Big difference as you start adding more LEDs. So for the same power you are getting more than twice the light. So the end result, you use LESS leds and less power which equals more $$$ in your pocket.

This is why everyone is using CREEs for their aquariums (AS OF THIS POST)

Now lets check out your favorite 50w bridgelux.

I believe its 36v @ 1500mA producing 4000lm

So for the same power you can do 11 XM-Ls. That would be 590lm per for a total of 6490lm. thats 1.61x more lumens for same amount of power. Which is huge if you are doing a big setup. But thats not the kicker, cooling a 50w LED is no where as near as easy as cooling an array of 3w LEDs spread out.

So the 50w is most likely not going to last anywhere close to a standard 3w array.

And hopefully you have some crazy optic or reflector for that bad boy because you are going to loose half of the light onto your living room floor if you dont put optics on those LEDs because most of them are 100-125 degrees.

Right now, Im liking the XM-Ls from CREE. If another company comes along, has the right color that is more efficient than the XM-Ls, im all for giving them a try.

The real question is, why are you posting on canreef when a Canucks playoff game is going on?

[Milad]

You know what, my last post seems a little pushy but im just frustrated from this Canucks loss and i like CREE LEDs. Sorry if I offended anyone.

<3 StirCrazy

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Milad

You know what, my last post seems a little pushy but im just frustrated from this Canucks loss and i like CREE LEDs. Sorry if I offended anyone.

<3 StirCrazy

haha.. not pushy but 50 watt briglux isn't my favorite, never even played with one. the 120 watt one I was playing with was retrofitting a 400 watt MH fixture for an arena so we could get a base line for coverage to see how many more we would need, and make the lighting even everywhere on the ice.

I did already conceed that the Cree is leading the way in efficiency and have never said anything to them not being one of the mose efficient LEDs out there,
what this thread is about is pour quality , not efficiency.. so about premature failures and output of the fixture which you do get from generic knock offs of the big brands. as far as efficiency is concerned realy who cares if your fixture costs 15 bucks a month to run instead of 12.50 well I am sure some one will care but when you were spending 35 to 40/ month for the MH its a mute point as long as you are getting the output you want.

this started off from some one saying that it is a garbage fixture because it is made in China, what we have tried to show while it is made in china it is using bridge lux LED, which are not bad LEDs, in fact they are very good LEDs maybe slightly less efficient that Cree but still a high quality LED. "made in China" doesn't mean junk but rather made to spec.. why do we make stuff in China because it is cheeper. factorys in china have come a long way.. most workers make a deicent living now days but compared to what we concider a diecent living yes it junk, but I am going by my buddies company and what he tells me when we got togeather last month while he was back in Canada for our friends funeral. He pays his employes 50% higher than the "average wage" for the area so he is far from a sweat shop. but because there is no unions and typical "lazy north american attitudes" more pieces get build for less money. he can even buy the parts cheeper because of the region he is in, I almost choked on the price he quoted me for Cree LEDs in my design, no way we could do it that cheep.

then Dez mentions there was no heat sink, and I pointed out you don't need a bulky aluminum one always as you can get thermal marterial PCB bonded to copper, aluminum, or other metal as an internal heatsink, then with fans your good.

if we had the resorses to do reflow soldering we could get rid of the stars the Crees are reflowed to, make our own board, and reflow the LEDs directly to it giving us way way cleaner looking fixtures, dropping the price quite a bit.

this is the way all the new onjes on the market are making them, vertex, ect... there is a company out here in Vernon or Kelona or around there that I have been talking to the guy. they already make lights like what we need but for plants so they have a real redish look to them, but they have been selling them for about 3 years now and it would be very easy to rebrand there light for fish tank. just got to change the colors of the LEDs ie.. get rid of the reds but theres are not dimmable ect.. just on / off but man were they ever lighting up the plants at the home show.

Steve