MR 16 Concept

[ReeferRob]

Hey Evil,

This latest concept LED lighting system is exactly the thing I've been looking for. I was considering building my own. I understand it is in Mid Stage Development, is there any information you can share about this new idea for us here at Captive Reefs?

[evilc66]

You like that huh? :)

I would have posted sooner if we had our sponsor section all straightened out. I need to poke Chris (my boss) about getting that done. The account is set up, but he hasn't sent in the banner.

Anyway, these are an MR16 sized lamp running on 12v DC. Production versions will be running at about 1W per LED to keep heat in check. Heat management is tough on these little lamps, but the same heatsink design as the PAR38s really helps.

These are running all Cree XP series LEDs. XP-Gs for the whites, and XP-Es for the royals. They will be in 12K (2 white, 1 blue), 20K (2 blue, 1 white) and all blue setups. The triple optics are 40 degrees and are slightly frosted to give good color blending. I know 40 degrees sounds tight to some of you in the know, but considering that these are intended to reproduce the effect and flexibility that the PAR38s have but on a smaller scale, it works out quite nicely.

Here are some pictures I took at Reefstock over the weekend, which was our first showing of these little guys.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii45/evilc66/DSC_06470032.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii45/evilc66/DSC_06550024.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii45/evilc66/DSC_06560023.jpg

They probably didn't get as much attention as they deserved, as some of our other stuff was mounted over tanks and was a lot brighter overall. With these being so small, they got lost in the sea of LED goodies we had :)

We are still doing minor adjustments on these in terms of current, so we don't have good PAR numbers yet, I also don't have spread numbers yet either. I was literally building these 5 lamps a few hours before getting on the plane Friday :) I have been working on the concept for a while now, but only on a single lamp. We needed a few more than that to show off to the public though.

[Argent]

Saw these over on NR.com Evil - along with the rest of the new goodies...

Still trying to come up with a viable and affordable LED setup to put over my 24G AquaPod

would something like this be overkill for a tank that size? or do you have another suggestion?

[evilc66]

I think the tank would be overkill for the lamps in this instance. These are really designed for small tanks. They could be used as a nice discrete supplimental spotlight, but not as primary lighting for larger tanks. The coverage and PAR isn't suited for that size. I guess it's the height more than anything. I'll need to run more tests to see at what point they don't become effective.

[ReeferRob]

Any update on these bad boys Clive. You know I've been dying to add something to my current T5 set up to supplement and spot light certain choice pieces.

[evilc66]

Things have been pushed back a little after the recent issues we have had with our supplier selling our products to competitors. As a result, I have been looking for another source for a decent lamp. I think I have found a good candidate, and I have samples on the way. May be a few more months though.