Malefactor
Membership Expired
So, working on my first LED build after months and months of research. Surprisingly, it's original purpose is not for the aquarium. It will be used for my tank at first for a few weeks at least, but ultimately it'll actually be the lighting for my living room. For now though, i have the heatsinks, LED and fans attached. Power Supply / Driver will be here tomorrow and the potentiometer and optics by the end of the week.
Build as follows is:
Cree XM-L2 Bin T6 Solderless Cool White 6500-8500K color temp X6 ($36)
Individual CPU heatsink + fans ($9 on a bulk deal)
The fans are controllable for noise reduction when dimmed as well ($30)
Meanwell HLG-60H-20B Driver ($36)
This driver will run all 6 XM-L2 at max power and fully dimmable by potentiometer ($4)
Optics will be 60 degree attachable optics until i need put them up for the living room and then they'll be removed all together for full light dispersion ($8)
Including shipping and all it was roughly $150
Still debating on mounting and how i want to go about that... If i want to do an acrylic or glass rail to mount the CPU heatsinks on to rest on the glass cover of my tank. Otherwise, the other option is to make a metal or plastic brace and raiser. The final option is to use a piece of wood or particle board and mount them to that as a full piece that can be hung from the ceiling... Not entirely sure yet...
I connected the LED's to the heatsinks via the Arctic Silver that was provided on them and just the tiniest dot of epoxy on the two outer edges at the connectors.
The fans are controlled via 3 prong connectors. From power supply to controller then the controller goes to a split connection and 1 of those split connections are divided into another split connection so that each power supply runs 3 fans. The power supply can run 4 fans at a time, but when i use them in the living room they'll be separated and the power cable spliced for a longer connection. So, i used 1 less fan for each supply for power loss over length of cable. As well, the LED's themselves will have the same thing occur and be run at less than full power at that point so that they will last longer as well.
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Build as follows is:
Cree XM-L2 Bin T6 Solderless Cool White 6500-8500K color temp X6 ($36)
Individual CPU heatsink + fans ($9 on a bulk deal)
The fans are controllable for noise reduction when dimmed as well ($30)
Meanwell HLG-60H-20B Driver ($36)
This driver will run all 6 XM-L2 at max power and fully dimmable by potentiometer ($4)
Optics will be 60 degree attachable optics until i need put them up for the living room and then they'll be removed all together for full light dispersion ($8)
Including shipping and all it was roughly $150
Still debating on mounting and how i want to go about that... If i want to do an acrylic or glass rail to mount the CPU heatsinks on to rest on the glass cover of my tank. Otherwise, the other option is to make a metal or plastic brace and raiser. The final option is to use a piece of wood or particle board and mount them to that as a full piece that can be hung from the ceiling... Not entirely sure yet...
I connected the LED's to the heatsinks via the Arctic Silver that was provided on them and just the tiniest dot of epoxy on the two outer edges at the connectors.
The fans are controlled via 3 prong connectors. From power supply to controller then the controller goes to a split connection and 1 of those split connections are divided into another split connection so that each power supply runs 3 fans. The power supply can run 4 fans at a time, but when i use them in the living room they'll be separated and the power cable spliced for a longer connection. So, i used 1 less fan for each supply for power loss over length of cable. As well, the LED's themselves will have the same thing occur and be run at less than full power at that point so that they will last longer as well.
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