Another led light.

M

McReefer

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After 3 takes I finally got something that's just about perfect. Start with a price break down.

3x 10W led chips 10.00 off of eBay.
1x CPU heatsink and fan. 12.00
2x dimmers from amazon 8.00
1x PC psu (free from e-waste)

Result
[attachment=2]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1381462594.279362.jpg[/attachment]

The heatsink does a great job a cooling 30w of power. It could really handle more. It over cools them so I could run more amps then the chips are rated for but let's not catch on fire right?

The chips are from china. I've never had issues and like I said, third fixture I'm making. Never burnt a chip out on any of them.

The main concern with using a CPU psu is that it can over power your LEDs with to much amperage. But if you put in these fancy in-line dimmers and turn them down just a hair you don't have to worry anymore. It will cap out the amps.
[attachment=1]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1381462855.028827.jpg[/attachment]

This last one I built looks better then the others. My forth will continue to show improvement. So for 30.00 I have 30W of LEDs that I can tune in to any color balance I want. I don't have par ratings but this does GREAT on my 12G cube at 50% power. [attachment=0]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1381463014.171382.jpg[/attachment]
You can't really see it but my wire goes to the back side of the heatsink and come down to the chips through a hole I drilled.

I've already ordered some new chips to try a different combo. 20000k and royal blues.
 
I don't have PAR readings either but the one I got covers half of my 75 softie running only two of the chips. Coral look great and the shimmer is very halide like. The heatsink doesn't get hot at all and the color is great. I look forward to seeing your growth rates for SPS using these. Some close ups of the coral would be awesome.
 
@franklypre wrote:
I don't have PAR readings either but the one I got covers half of my 75 softie running only two of the chips. Coral look great and the shimmer is very halide like. The heatsink doesn't get hot at all and the color is great. I look forward to seeing your growth rates for SPS using these. Some close ups of the coral would be awesome. said:
When I get a good enough camera I will post them up. The iPhone won't play nice.
Click to expand...
 
I need to find a drill press to use on the next one so the chips are all lined up the same.

Also I had to break apart the PC PSU and find which lines run 12V. I clipped and taped all the rest.

The fan is also 12V so you could use any driver in place of the PSU as long as its 12V and enough amps. In my case 7 amps. But I tone it down to about 4.
 
Are the 10w leds multichip type?

If yes can you run a 10w on a mean well driver. Like a 60-48d?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
 
@texreefer wrote:
If I made one like yours said:
Depending on your rock work and coral placement a single heatsink with 3 chips would be fine. Softies on the outskirts of the tank.
Click to expand...
 
@kuyatwo wrote:
Are the 10w leds multichip type? If yes can you run a 10w on a mean well driver. Like a 60-48d? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - [url=http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1]now Free[/url] said:
They are multichip. And the driver needs to put out 12v and 2A for a single 10W led at max power. Does that help?
Click to expand...
 
I'm going to run a multiple tier setup. So let's call it 3 to 8 inches below the water surface. Would it be possible to use two of your setups on one dimmer?
 
Correction on the 10W chips. They pull 1 amp. 20W chips which work with this setup as well pull 2 amps.

The dimmer is rated for 8 amps. So yes it can handle 2 fixtures. But if you put 2 fixtures I would use 4 dimmers. 2 on each fixture. 1 for blues and 1 for whites.

My third chip is UV-A which I don't run. So the picture above is actually 20W turned down to 15ish.

Here's a link to the dimmers
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003L4KKF2
 
Got my new chips in and the same heatsink/fan setup. I'm going to do it perfect this time and get it on a drill press for drill and tap it so the chips will be evenly displaced.

My new chips are 20000k and the wavelengths matched 20K MH pretty close so I'll be excited to see a better white/yellow/red spectrum. And this time I'm going with 2 royal blues and skipping out on the UV I think.

Pics to follow.

Anyone have a par meter? I can bring it to you. But I want to get these things rated.
 
Started the new fixture today so I figure I'll make a good walk-through.

I use a very specific heatsink for these. Almost all CPU heatsinks are designed to cool the processor so the mounting area is extremely small. By chance I found this model at work.
http://mail.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=17&pPath=80&productID=80
As you'll see in my pictures below the mounting area is oddly large. Enough to fit 5 high power chips.

It's only 4 screws to strip it down to just the heatsink. Then I put the chips on how I want them and mark the holes.

Before I would use a hand drill and a hardset. Today I got to use a drill press.

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Each time I make this fixture I learn from mistakes. It's really a trial and error. This time I've learned that the drill press is the way to go. But I kinda forget I was working with aluminum so when I clamped it down I bent the sides in. O well. It's only a few bucks for a new one but I might make this one work.
 
Just did the next few steps. I fixed my mistake by putting screws into the top and bending the sides back out.
[attachment=2]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1382495501.879874.jpg[/attachment]
Not perfect but the fan lines up now.

The next few steps are pretty easy. Just make sure the + and - lined up. Made that mistake on my first one. No biggie but why not? It's not a CPU so the thermal paste doesn't have to be perfect.[attachment=1]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1382496051.080649.jpg[/attachment]
Also I used self tapping screws since I didn't tap the holes.[attachment=0]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1382496179.173797.jpg[/attachment]
 
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