# DIY LED lights with 4 Fans.



## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

Hey guys,
I'm planning to set up 20G tank 24x12x18 (standard 20G tank) during summer time to set up for a god damn shrimp tank! WOOT!
anyways,
i was searching for LED lights and stuff, my original plan costs me approx 250$. A little too much for gr 12 student..lol.
Anyways, Here's my basic drawing of my LED lights that im planning on.















Here's my list of what i was originally trying to purchase.

1-Arctic Silver Premium Thermal Adhesive 13.99$
2-12xCREE XP-G R5 Cool White 3W LED with 40 degree White Lens 7$ each
3-3xRed Leds 3W
4-3x Royal Blue LEDS 3W
5-4xFans 12Cm computer fan. 4.05$ each
6-Fan Speed Controller
7-LCD Temperature display
8-Thermometer (gets water temp but displays on the LED hood)
9-Mean Well LPC-35-700W constant current driver 18$
10-Mean Well LPC-60-1050 constant current driver 26$

I think that's the basic ones that i was planning to get, AT RAPIDLEDS, but they are f#*$ing expensive (imo).

First of all, I DO NOT KNOW ANY ELECTRICAL STUFF. I know,,, why would i even start making this without knowing anything? Well, This is where u guys come in ! lol.

So here's my question
1)ANY recommendations on PLANNING?
2)ANY Cheaper sources?
3)Is it possible to make everything in 1 Power cord? ( i personally would love to have everything coming out as 1 Power cord.)
4) How would I place the fans? I was planning to have it placed 2 on the top and 1 Each side (4 fans total)
5) what would my outter box be? I was planning for aluminium. Scared of Wood burning 
6) So other suggestions?

I had alot of questions. I'm sure others whom are looking forward to make DIY LED lights will benefit from this as well!
thanks guys
Daniel

p.s- I'm currently in a stage where i'm planning and getting ready to buy. So When i get some stuff, ill post some pics and so on.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

I dabble in high power LED's as I'm a MTB trail rider and DIY'er on that.

Some things to help you save money. AAA is frigging EXPENSIVE!!!! You get like 5mL for $13. Unless you plan on doing a lot of LED's you can save money by buying AAA off someone that used it before for a build and the rest is just sitting around. Ask around. You can get a good deal and that stuff is stable as long as it's not mixed.

www.dealextreme.com is your friend but make sure you read the reviews on the items you're getting. I can only speak on thier LED's and they are good, bright, cheap, and best paypal + free S/H. The trade off for the low prices and free S/H is 2-3week shipping via 'sea turtle' AKA land shipping. If you're not in a rush they are good for parts and often a lot of MTB DIY'ers get parts off DX. CPF has a lot of bike light builds and comments abuot DX as a source.

I only have experience with aluminum and only have experience building high power LED bike lights. IIRC the rule was (this for bike light so it may be transferable) was 2" of aluminum per 3W LED. This was for single die LED's (ie. not Cree MC-E or SSC P7's) like the Cree XRE Q5 or SSC P4's and the like. The reasoning is for the heat dissapation. LED's are rearward heat emitting vs halogen/cfl/HID are forward heat emitting.

You can get the lens as well from DX and mod them to fit (or if designed for your LED type/brand) They have as wide as IIRC 80 degrees.

Tip: Seoul SemiConductors (SSC) LED's in the P4 series (not sure of other lines) are Luxeon III clones. This means anything that fits the Luxeons you can swap with the SSC's.

You might wanna try for a small setup first. Say a 2.5gal (if Betta4u (Anna?) has anymore for sale) and make a small setup to test. The DX 3.6v-9v @ 800mA is a very wide voltage regulator which is good for small projects or clustered for larger ones. You can run that off 6xAA NIMH batteries (8.4v hot, 7.2v under load) for small setups for testing.

I actually use those drivers for my lighting. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-6v-9...rcuit-board-for-cree-and-ssc-leds-4-pack-3256 great reg's and they come pre-wired so you can wire those wires to the LED or unsolder them and put new better wires on them.

Another tip. If you're new to this I recommend using the LED emitter mounted on a star base. The reasoning is that it is easier to work with and the LED has a bit of a heatsink on it already and it is easier to see the +/- on a star. The downside is a star is about 3 times the size of the emitter so if you're in a tight spacing situation or want to pack it tight (signalling to mars )then the stars will take up space. In an aquarium setup you've got a lot of space so no worries. Cost of emitter only vs star is a couple dollars IIRC ($1-2) and the emitter being cheaper. I've always used on star based LED's.

If you hunt around the neighbourhood you can find heatsinks for free to cluster up for heat finnage. VCR/DVD/computers can be gutted to take the sinks out. Thermopaste is like $3-4 for gah... the size of a 3-4 travel pack of toothpaste rubberbanded together (~100mL??) and will give you plenty of excess for rubbing the white stuff around for heat transfer.

I've not done any AC wiring for LEDs as all my stuff is DC/battery powered and I am no electronics or electrical guru. I stuck with DC for a couple reasons. 1. I wanted portable power 2. MTB trail riding. 3. I was not comfortable with working with AC and the mains. I felt more comfortable with batteries just cause less probelms but that's just me then getting zapped on the mains but I'm not dealing with high power stuff. Anyways. Hope that helps some.
CPF = Candle Power Forums

Do you really need R2D2's? Hehe.... I mean Cree R2's. If not Cree Q5's are ~$5.18ish IIRC and saving $2/LED. On the driver I listed on the back of the driver middle ring is +tive and outter ring is -tive


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## BaRoK (Sep 10, 2009)

I recently build mine about two weeks ago for my 50G planted tank. It was my test fixture in preparation for my 55G FOWLR setup.

Bought my heatsink from Metal Supermarkets and LEDS from Steve's LEDS. So far, everything is running problem free.

You definitely need a lot of reading and probably testing your soldering skills as these LEDS do not come cheap. I burned 4 LEDS in the process of building mine.

Nonetheless, I'm quite pleased of the outcome.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

I'm still thinking between
Driver and Power Supply with BuckPuck.
I wanted to have fans with it without having multiple powercords,
i might have to stick with Power supply?


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

well i ordered it from RapidLED.
im waiting for few more LED lights and Drivers. I almost finished my LED light outer case and fans, but yeah. i need Drivers to turn them on ! xD


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

choii317 said:


> well i ordered it from RapidLED.
> im waiting for few more LED lights and Drivers. I almost finished my LED light outer case and fans, but yeah. i need Drivers to turn them on ! xD


How's shipping and taxes? It looks like RapidLED is very good resource for DIY LED fixture builders, and I'm definitely interested as well.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, I ordered approx 100$ worth .
It was 12$ shipping . It took me a little over 10 days.
And, there was no extra tax, they shipped to me via USPS.
I bought another 4x1W red lights. but i dnunno if i can use it with one driver with other RB and Cool Whites.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

my little LED array turned out well. heads up though. the dome on the LED's can be knocked off. If so, the bulb is basically pooched. Get a couple spares. 

I bought wire that matched the colour of the wires on my buckpuks so I can make sense of things and it worked in the end.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

Anyone familar with resistors?
HELP? thanks ill post pics soon!


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

choii317 said:


> Anyone familar with resistors?
> HELP? thanks ill post pics soon!


You will need resistor that has current rating higher than the current this circuit will use.

I'm not familiar with LED drivers in this circuit. Did anyone tell you to use a resistor to allow 1W red LED can be used in series along with those 3W LEDs?

My advice is to either forget about the red LEDs and use blue/white 3W LEDs, or put the RED on separate circuit.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

I am not so sure if i really need an resistor, but i was guessing that i have to lower the voltage between the RB and the RED ones so that i can have appropiate voltage on the Red ones.

gonna be using this driver.
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-3/driver-700ma-48v-drivers/Detail


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

im getting the red ones to have good variaty of the PAR so that i can have alot of useable wavelength for the plants to absorb the energy


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

choii317 said:


> I am not so sure if i really need an resistor, but i was guessing that i have to lower the voltage between the RB and the RED ones so that i can have appropiate voltage on the Red ones.
> 
> gonna be using this driver.
> http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-3/driver-700ma-48v-drivers/Detail


How do you lower the voltage between RB and RED? You can do that if the LEDs are resistors, but they are not.

The driver acts like current source, as far as I know, and must have sufficient voltage output to allow current to flow (ie. driver output >= all LED's voltage drop).

You don't need the resistor. You just need to ensure the current flowing this circuit never exceeds maximum allowed by any LEDs in the circuit, and the driver should have matching output voltage level.

You will also be limited in controllability, and not able to use maximum potential of all LEDs unless max current of all LEDs is identical.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

RB and white ones have 1.0, and 1.5A but i just wanna have it all run through 0.7A to match RED ones. 
Anyways, I don't need any resistors in a series circuit?
thanks!


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

choii317 said:


> RB and white ones have 1.0, and 1.5A but i just wanna have it all run through 0.7A to match RED ones.
> Anyways, I don't need any resistors in a series circuit?
> thanks!


Yes, you can run all through 0.7A. However, this will limit optimum use of those LEDs, not a good idea.

If I were you, I'd get another driver and run them separately.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

conix67 said:


> Yes, you can run all through 0.7A. However, this will limit optimum use of those LEDs, not a good idea.
> 
> If I were you, I'd get another driver and run them separately.


What do u mean by "optimum"
I personally think it'd be a waste of another 28$ to purchase the driver for 4 red LEDs.


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

If i just use a resistor to drop the voltage of between the 3.7V and 2.7V.
Shouldn't it work flawlessly?


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

choii317 said:


> If i just use a resistor to drop the voltage of between the 3.7V and 2.7V.
> Shouldn't it work flawlessly?


No, that doesn't help. At the point you have indicated the voltage would be much higher.

What you need to worry about is *current* and voltage level supplied to the whole chain of LEDs, not the voltage level in individual points.

The reason I say two drivers is because by limiting current to 0.7A, the light output from 3W LEDs are limited to 50-70% at most.

I think instead of the RED LEDs, add WHITE ones for optimum use of your design.

Or, just add another driver, and few more RED LEDs. Costs more, but substantially more light output is produced.


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