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  1. #11
    Larvae
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    .

    thats really cool, good work

  2. #12
    Just an Egg
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    I had a question for you on this build..What is the wattage of your LED's 3w? I have made a few led lights but used resitors rather than buying a controller. This is very limiting useing 3w LED's. I want to get it right before I shell out the cash on better LED's

  3. #13
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    Yep 3w epistar diode LEDs from China. The input on each led is 700ma vf varies from 3.8 for the whites down to 2.8 for the reds. From memory 5000k 3.8 vf 10000k 3.6 blue 3.6 red 2.8. With Cree XPG now under $10 on star boards using cheap chinease LEDs seems a bit of a waste of time.

  4. #14
    Moderator Mattzilla's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ILLUSN
    Yep 3w epistar diode LEDs from China. The input on each led is 700ma vf varies from 3.8 for the whites down to 2.8 for the reds. From memory 5000k 3.8 vf 10000k 3.6 blue 3.6 red 2.8. With Cree XPG now under $10 on star boards using cheap chinease LEDs seems a bit of a waste of time.
    I have no idea what you just said..... i'm so NOT a tech head

    hahahaha
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  5. #15
    Just an Egg
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    Those cheap LED's are not bad. Even thou I still got Creed ones for my main show tank as they are brighter and have a higher forward current allowance (1000ma) thou they have no blue ones in the range I was looking for but warm white will hit those spectrum's. Thank you for the reply I thought 3w but I have not done any electronics stuff in 20+ years Its amazing I remember anything..

  6. #16
    Blue Diamond Discus swampy1972's Avatar
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    I hope you don't mind ILLUSN, but I've just finished some DIY LEDs myself so I thought I'd show them here rather than start a new thread..

    They're 50W 6500K single emitters, meant to be a match for 150W MH - we'll see.. So far they have proven to BLOODY BRIGHT!! I guess the proof will be in the plant growth

    With the 80mm PC cooling fans the fittings are cool to touch. Even able to touch the base of the emitter! The hottest part of the system is actually the drivers.

    Thankfully the fans are very quiet. You can just make out a slight hum in the room when they're on.









  7. #17
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    VERY SLICK can you please post what driver your using?

    be interesting to see how the 50w die's hold up, still whith good aggresive heatsinks like that you might be onto something VERY GOOD indeed.

  8. #18
    Blue Diamond Discus swampy1972's Avatar
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    Thanks ILLUSN.

    I'm yet to prove these in terms of plant growth etc, but the simple 'appearance' of the light looks good - if you know what I mean.

    This is the driver I'm using http://www.ebay.ca/itm/FREE-SHIP-50W...item43abfa1aad

    Very easy to setup really as they're a dedicated unit, so just plug and play. The driver case itself gets pretty hot, so they're my biggest concern at the moment. I'm considering adding a separate heatsink to each driver case to aid in cooling.

    You can get a dimmer for these so they may be a later addition should the light prove too much. But I'll give it some time before deciding on these.

    Thanks to the fan and large heatsinks, the emitters themselves are stone cold while operating. I can actually put my finger on the base of the emitter and there's absolutely no heat. I would not have dared to do this when I first ran them without the fans - they were INCREDIBLY HOT!!

    I'll be interested to see the lifespan of the emitters myself really, and the best part is that if they're any good for the planted tank they're much less than the cost of a good MH bulb to replace and run..

  9. #19
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    You shouldn't need to replace them for a good 3 years, I think you might be replacing your driver before you replace your diodes, my LED's seem to EAT drivers even with a surge guard on the power point.

    did you use thermal epoxy to fix the diodes or just screws and TIM paste?

  10. #20
    Blue Diamond Discus swampy1972's Avatar
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    That's good news about the lifespan - bummer about the driver though. I'm pretty sure I'm going to add a small heatsink to their casing just to help reduce the heat a little and maybe help them last a bit longer.
    I've just used thermal paste and screws. There's 4x screws through the emitters' base plate into the piece of flat alum' you see on the heatsink to get good contact. Then another 2x from the plate into the heatsink. The plate was needed because I had no where to screw directly from the emitter into the heatsink unfortunately. There's enough screws in it to almost hang off!

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