Advice fo small diy led

[Milad]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Your point/argument about 10 years will be valid in 10 years. Not sure it will be worth arguing the point by then, we'll probably all be using plasma. I just received some of the cool white MR16 lamps and the quality appears very good, aluminum construction with very clear optics. The bezel can be unscrewed and optics removed. Solder joints & wiring look good. They may last a year, they may last 10, my point is, with MR16 or E27 base lamps, there's no requirement to solder anything. For the $74 dimmer that will dim all of 3 LEDs you linked to, I can buy a lot of cheap hardware and take my chances that it may not last.

Sorry I think you mis understood me. I was implying if he was going to get a Plug and play light such as the par 38s then he shouldn't waste his money on your links and spend an extra $15 on quality par 38s. No point in getting cheap 1w LEDs when he can spend a couple bucks more and get proven ones. It's only corals we are talking about, maybe it's worth the risk?

[mike31154]

No worries. I merely provided the links since the OP hadn't heard of dimmable PAR38s. Not saying he or she should buy what I linked to, merely showing that they do exist and there are alternatives.

[Bblinks]

I went with the neutral whites, hopefully I cought you on time.let me know how it goes.

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by medhatreefguy

I just checked out modularled.ca, pretty cool! They are in Red Deer.

Yes they are. Less soldering mean less human error which equates to longer service life. Now only if the can get larger printed boards...

[mike31154]

Some additional alternatives from a company called Orphek. They use emitters exclusively designed for marine aquarium applications (not Cree by the way). They now offer MR16 & PAR lamps suitable for Nano & Pico systems. Again, no soldering required. Use 1 or 2 watt emitters, lower power than the current 3 watt Cree crop. They also run them at slightly less than 100%, less heat, better longevity. More power does not always mean better.

http://orphek.com/wordpress/orphek-p...ico-aquariums/

http://orphek.com/wordpress/pr-25-pe...now-available/

[martinmcnally]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Yes they are. Less soldering mean less human error which equates to longer service life. Now only if the can get larger printed boards...

Hey, Bblinks, how big were you thinking? We actually have prototypes right now of up to 12 LEDs per board. I was leaning toward the next addition being a 4 LED board of 4 in a row. You could then lay those white, blue, white, blue etc.

Would love to hear some feedback on this.
Martin

[megs_clark]

I wanted to thank everyone for their advice. I am going to go with the
XM-L Neurtal white and the XPE royal blue. Because I want to do a light for my little 5g nano and my biocube I didnt buy the biocube kit. I think it will be cheaper this way, or more entertaining, lol. I kind of like the hunting for things @ good deals.
I Loved the idea of the modularled.ca but leaned away for two reasons. 1 beacuse I didnt see the XM-L leds which I read are much more powerfull (you dont need as many?) and their smaller and use less power also for similar pricing to the other types so I figured might as well pay the tiny bit more and a little more work for more light meaning more options on what I put in the aquarium down the road. My 2nd reason for not going with them was that I like that with the stars I can place they where ever, where as the boards with the two on them im limited to where Im spacing them since its two per board.

I was all ready to order from the ledgroupbuy site but found their shipping high. It must be a base rate because its $33 to ship one led by itself or 24 leds. Seemed high, but im cheap. So I called around and found a place ETGTECH that will do similar pricing and charge actual shipping, with no inflation even to canada. A bonus they will ship pritty fast. Im hoping to have the order placed by the end of the week. (Im tryin to decide if I should throw in a few violet leds) And have them by the end of next week. The only downside is you have to call or email for pricing but its not really a big deal.

Mike I really liked the par lamps. The reef par lights look slick and its not a bad price (I seen a similar light out here for close to $200 so the ones you pointed out seem like a good deal. It would have been nice for the smaller tank but I figured since I need to replace the lights and fans in the biocube I might as well replace them with leds and DIY allows for more options, and I think the expierince of the build will be neat....if it works out, and I dont kill my husband in the process lol. Who knows mabe ill do a led for my 90 gallon one day. :O) The not replacing bulbs for 10 year sounds great, heck id be thrilled with 5 years!

[martinmcnally]

Hi Megs, thanks for the feedback its always good to hear what people are thinking. Glad you are getting it figured out with your LED build.

XM-L was one of our considerations when we were designing the Modular LED stuff. You are right they are brighter by twice as much as the XP-Es however the downside is they consume just over three times the power. So they are three times as expensive to run.

Good luck with the build, let us know if there is anything you need, happy to help.

Martin

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

Hey, Bblinks, how big were you thinking? We actually have prototypes right now of up to 12 LEDs per board. I was leaning toward the next addition being a 4 LED board of 4 in a row. You could then lay those white, blue, white, blue etc.

Would love to hear some feedback on this.
Martin

I have a 6 ft tank with mostly sps. I was running 3 x 400W MH with extremely good results but since summer i had to take it down due to heat it produced in the living room, it's like a friken sauna. So down comes the 400 on goes the 250s for now. I dont really mind the 250s since it has 4x80 t5ho which allows me to play around with different colors of bulbs but What i would like to do is to retrofit the fixture with three panels of 36-48 led per panel in the place of the halides and keep the t5s. For me it would make more sense if they were 12 LEDs on a chip, with each individual 5.9 x 16 heatsinks to accommodate 3 to 4 chips. I like my mean well drivers but invertronics seem to be a much better choice in this case. Or I can make three casing for 4 mean well drivers each just so it's nice and clean, I hate having a mess of wires that look like some one just spilled their plate of spaghetti everywhere.

Anyways, bottom line is the modular idea is awesome. It not only make the whole diy job look professional, it will also eliminate human soldering errors. The only problem i see with larger chip is if a single led does burn out on a multi led chip it will render the whole chip useless.

I want to purchase a kit for my soon to be frag tank, and depend on how it turns out, the next project will be the 210.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by megs_clark

I was all ready to order from the ledgroupbuy site but found their shipping high. It must be a base rate because its $33 to ship one led by itself or 24 leds. Seemed high, but im cheap. So I called around and found a place ETGTECH that will do similar pricing and charge actual shipping, with no inflation even to canada. A bonus they will ship pritty fast. Im hoping to have the order placed by the end of the week. (Im tryin to decide if I should throw in a few violet leds) And have them by the end of next week. The only downside is you have to call or email for pricing but its not really a big deal.

FYI the cost of the shipping is going to be close even with ETGTech as we really dont add any mark up on the shipping (I believe its only a couple bucks to handle all the customs paperwork). I believe they ship via UPS so then you have to factor in the $50 or so for the brokerage fees for UPS.