Dewey's BC14 LED DIY retro [Archive]

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dewey

03-05-2011, 10:59 PM

Well.. I am relatively a new reefer (around 7 months) with a small simple 14 gallon biocube. Just like every other reefer, I too wanted to get into LED to get better color, lower power consumption, long life and better control. This is the summary of my LED build.

Plan....

3 Cool White Cree XP-G
2 Natural White Cree XP-G
5 Royal Blue XP-E
1000mA dimmable buckpucks with PWM input.
5.75"x9" Heat sink with longitudinal fins
Cooled by Stock fans
Dawn to dusk light control with Arduino
Entire system turned on with a simple wall timer
Use power supplies hanging around. Laptop charger for LED, small 9v power supplies to arduino, and 12v power supply to fans.

Basic logic is that timer will turn on arduino and fans simultaneously. Arduino will start internal clock and take control of the lights until until dusk followed by system shut off by the timer. Future plan to replace the timer with RTC module.

Schematic...
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/LEDProject.jpg

Got my LEDs from ledgroupbuy real cheap. Around $5 for whites and $4 for RB. Arduino from eBay. Buckpucks from rapidLED. Thermal paste also from ledgroupbuy. Screws and nylon washers from Ace hardware.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000294.jpg

Drilled and tapped the heat sink for #4-40 screws. I wanted to keep the white and blue as pairs to reduce color shadowing. Drilling and tapping is real easy and you dont really need a bench drill. My handheld drill did the job without breaking a single drill bit.
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000289.jpg

Soldered the LEDs into two circuits. Bought a aluminum strip from LOWES to make two simple brackets to attach the heatsink to the hood. Here is the finished product mounted in the BC14 hood. What you see below the heat sink is a little plastic baffle to force air through the fins instead of taking a short cut.
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000317.jpg

Sorry couldnt snap photos in between. Next is to program the arduino. I had little trouble getting the driver installed. Everything else is super easy if you have little background in C programming.

Hooked up everything to test the setup.
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000295.jpg

Worked like a charm.. I can ramp up and down blues and whites independently. Blue light made my clowns go blonkers and finally settled with both white and blue ramp up and down together. Will fine tune later. This is my current schedule.

30 mins lights ramp up to 2%. This happens around 1 pm
Next 2 hrs lights ramp up to 50%
Continue 50% intensity for 6.5 hrs (day time)
Ramp down to 2% over 2 hrs
Ramp down to 0% over last 30 mins

And this is the final product..
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000298.jpg

Now I am ready for SPS. :)
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac19/lohitha/DIY%20LED/P1000297.jpg

Total cost around $150 which include Arduino controller and shipping. Of course I didnt have to buy power supplies.

Future plan is to add an LCD display to show the reef clock, light intensity and perhaps tank temperature.

Comments and questions welcome.

jolson10450

03-06-2011, 01:30 AM

lookin good!

BK's Reef

03-06-2011, 01:50 AM

Great Crisp look!

Mr. Microscope

03-06-2011, 02:51 PM

dewey

03-06-2011, 07:48 PM

The FTS looks clean, but I'm wondering. Are you getting spotlighting and color shadowing from the LEDs being spaced so far apart? Also, what do you think of the overall color? What percentages do you have your LEDs dimmed at when they're all on in the middle of the light cycle?

If you notice, I placed blue and white leds together as pairs. I do not get huge color shadows. But, I can still see thin blue shadows through the thin cracks of the rockwork and little bit on the shimmer on the floor. (BTW, I love the shimmer with LEDs). I did not use any optics. Perhaps adding optics should solve it. I think you will get thicker bands of color shadow if you use whites and blues far apart.

I am okay with the overall color. I would have preferred more pop on reds. I started 35% (mid-day) for first few days and now I am upto 50%. I think color is getting better. I plan to increase it further.

Mr. Microscope

03-06-2011, 08:33 PM

Right?! The shimmer from LEDs is amazing! Especially if you have some wave action going in there. I've seen LEDs in combo with an MP10 and the tank really looked like it was under the ocean.

You'll get better show from your reds and other warmer colors if you swap out your cool whites for neutral white. But you need to compensate with extra blues. About 2:1 Royal Blue:Neutral White is the gosple I'm spreading. Using one cool blue at a very low drive current will also help with the reds.

However, that's just me. I prefer more of a 20,000K look.

Corvette Reefer

05-28-2011, 09:22 AM

SaltyDog

10-08-2011, 12:00 AM

looks really nice! cant wait to get moe bulbs for my led light to get it working, from what i saw my running with 2 warm whites 4 cool whites and 6 blues, it was amazing color and it would probably really show off the reds alot more. so try maybe adding a warm white the the center and see. Im curious about this "arduino" what is that? and what does it do? iv never heard of that.

The arduino is a micro-controller that uses C++ as it's programming language which once understood is fairly simple.It provides a 0-5v PWM output for being able to dim a buckpuck or CAT4101 LED driver.For Meanwells you would have to add a spare 10v 500mA wallwart and 2n222 transistor to the 0-5vPWM signal off the arduino.The pic I have attached is a controller that uses an I2C lcd/keypad backpack attached to a 20x4 LCD.At current time this setup allows for user input to set time of the RTC as well as selecting a feed mode and water-change mode which suspends the pumps within the tank for a predetermined amount of time...5min for feeding and 20min for water-change.

larryandlaura

10-08-2011, 07:59 AM

Sweet setup