18" Cube Journal

[Morri]

Hehe it is easy Seffie I bought the buck puck without a Pot and have since noticed they sell a buck puck with a pot already attached so all you need to solder is the power to the LEDs and a Power connector,

there is a PDF on how to connect these up + writing on the buck puck I have made mine a little more complicated by using indvidual heat sinks as I dont fancy a huge heatsink hanging over the tank.

I have made the hood a little nicer as when I switch (12 months down the line) my TL550 for a bigger tank I intend to keep this one.

I do have an HND in electronics but been a long while since I used it (Too long to mention )

soldering the test rig up took me about 30 mins as i was running clamp test etc. to see what current was being drawn for my own curroisty to do a full 24 light rig I would suspect no more than 4 hours work with mounting everything up

 

[SkiFletch]

Makes sense on the pot morri. I like simple . Do you find it gets really hot, or is the current nice and low on the control?

 

[Morri]

Still waiting on the Whites to arrive from HK so not sure on heat but with a full string of blues and a clamp meter it pulls about 400ma once the whites arrive i can fine tune the colour to what I Like then will re clamp test it.

 

[Morri]

A few bits more done, working out final LED mounting options

modeled up lid with 2 x 120mm fans unable to get anything bigger,

once I my brain is fresh I will do the maths and buy a variable pot for the fans so the speed can be adjusted but looking to run them in parrellel of a 24V supply.



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[Morri]

What colour do most people run there tanks at this LED rig will have 12 x 10k White lights supplemted with 6 (maybe 12 depends on how the 6 work out) royal Blues?

Is there a way to measure PAR and colour without thousands of pounds worth of test equipment?

 

[Morri]

Still not recieved LEDs from dealextreme so tried to cancel and they are messing me around if you are going to order LEDs avoid dealextreme I will try and source them from someone more reliable

 

[seffieuk]

How annoying, don't they realise we are ALL waiting

Seffie x

 

[Morri]

Hehe ordered new ones from RS on next day delivery

 

[VictorMeldrew]

do not know how I missed this thread, but it is very interesting

 

[Morri]

Good new LEDs arrived from RS yesterday!!

I decided to go for the ones unmounted will pop a photo up later this means they are more difficult to solder, but only cost me £2 each

I decided against going for the ultra high power XR-E and went for Cool White XRE, this is based on I would rather run them at full power to get the 10k Light as my tank will only have 15" of water I did nt want to turn down the more powerful LEDs and effect the colour.

I also think I have solved my mounting issue with some threaded 3mm Rod this will be come clear as I do another photo shoot over the weekend.

Hopefully will have a quiet Saturday to complete most of the work, I am missing 1 puckbuck but have enough for a string of whites and a string of blues, I purposly ordered 1 less puck buck as I am unsure on there Pots, the shaft on them is very short and I dont think it will go through the 5mm Acrylic will try it first if not will do a few tests and get a more suited one.

I have a few LEDs spare on Stars I am very tempted to use these as lighting for the refegium.

Alsdo need to work out if i want switches on the lids for each light or if I will just use a couple of timers on the mains plugs might need an addtional power supply to run just the blues so I can do a moonlight effect using the royal blues.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh if only I knew what a puckbuck was............................sounds kinda interesting though

Seffie x

 

[Morri]

Oh if only I knew what a puckbuck was............................sounds kinda interesting though

Seffie x

Hehe a puckbuck in simple terms is the LED equiviliant of a Tube Ballast but much much much smaller its the little plastic cube with six cables coming out in the first photo of the test bed build.

 

[Morri]

So wish this job was running and cycled because i would so buy 2 x Helfrichi/Lavender firefish pair at the LFS

no updates as of yet as I am waiting on the last couple of parts

I have been reading up and someone had installed all electronics in a "project Box" job looks very tidy so have ordered one of these.

Hoping to het Lid completed this weekend but with family events time will be tight

 

[Anguilla82]

i see you're in Glos. that LFS wouldn't be SWM by any chance would it? (i know they've got a pair in at the moment)

how difficult would you say it is to rig up an LED array. (electrics is not really my thing!)
am keen to set one up to go over my sump for algae growth rather than using the 36w power compact i'm currently using.

 

[seffieuk]

They are lovely aren't they - but so expensive

Seffie x