has anyone played with the chineese made high output leds??

[boxhead1990]

just a question at this stage

has anyone played with the 10w 20w or 50w emiters???

there plenty on ebay and they are fairly cheap same with the drivers and are rated at ip66 which is always handy

im planning on using a few 10's or 20's over my 120 discus tank which i am slowly planting out but shortly i should be setting up a high tech cube(not for discus) using them aswell if they do well over my 120

so anyone on here played around with them as there alot of good reports about them on another forum



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[Discusgeo2]

I am putting together my own LED system but I am not using cheap Chinease lights I am using the CREE'S

My DIY LED system is starting to come in. I will post photos when the rest of the parts come in and then when I put it together and explain the software my neighbor and I did together to make them work.

I will be using 12 Whites and 12 Blues

OK I have started putting it together an realized that I need another 8 CREE Blue Lights for a total of 12 because what I started with was not enough. What the problem is by running 4 Blues I have on a separate power source the output wattage from my power supplies at a minimum is more than the amount of Blue LEDS I have and I will smoke them if I were to turn them on. What I am saying when the lights come on the power will be at it's lowest point but is more watts that I have lights and they will burn out. When we wrote the software program we designed it to brighten the lights every few minutes based on what the user sets on the control panel. So when my lights come on in the morning they will be at the lowest setting and say every 10 minutes they get a little brighter and a little brighter until I decide if my plants are getting enough light to grow. Well the same thing happens at night but in reverse getting dimmer by the minute. So when the whites are turning off the Blues come on at their lowest setting for a set amount of time and continue to get brighter every few minutes like the whites and then in reverse when then they go off until the following morning do repeat the cycle again.

Here are my parts as they came in and after putting it together.

Just the lights and Heat Sink I paid $145.00

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/IMG_0002.jpg


http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/IMG_0004.jpg
Mean Well ELN-60-48P dimmable driver around $34.00 each

This is the Arduino Duemilanove Circuit Board I am going to use but not the open software. My neighbor and I wrote some new code for my lights as I wanted my lights to come on at their lowest point and gradually brighten up every few minutes. I can control how bright they get and how long it takes for them to be fully lit. The same for when the evening comes along they will start to go dim until off and then as the whites dim the blue come on.

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/ArduinoDuemilanove.jpg

The LCD for it.
http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/LCD.jpg




This is the heat sink but does not contain all the blue lights needed. I will show that when they arrive an are mounted

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/HeatSink.jpg

The control unit. Our new software will be where the user can plug the unit in his/her computer and set it.

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/ControlBox.jpg

Inside the control unit.

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/ControlBoxInside.jpg

The wiring connected to the switches and LCD Screen

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/ControlBoxSwitches.jpg

[boxhead1990]

cheers for the reply but theres no way im gunna play with a audrino set up thats just too complicated for me and you should have thrown 2 ir 3 reds un with the blue plants will love it and still look okay from what i gather

if i could get crees from a actual face to face shop or on ebay i would but i would need more the chineese ones are suposed to still last as long as crees ect and work well so thats how im going to go about it




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[gills]

The cree chips are very stable. There are other companies that have good product also. Do your research. Some of the cheaper stuff have unstable chips and have over heating problems.

[Discusgeo2]

They always say you get what you pay for. Good luck with the Chinese LEDs but you have to be buying a light system already put together not a DIY thing I take it. Nothing hard about my setup up just something that a little bit of schooling would teach you.

[boxhead1990]

the simpler the better and it will be a diy light buying diodes and drivers seperately if i could get my head around a audruino i would set one up would be cool to have sunrise and sunset and all but thats just way over my head.......

its taken months of looking around for me to get the whole idea of setting up leds and what not


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[boxhead1990]

The cree chips are very stable. There are other companies that have good product also. Do your research. Some of the cheaper stuff have unstable chips and have over heating problems.

from my understanding if you can keep the cheap chineese ones cool( heatsink and fans) they actually work pretty well and last a while if i could get crees for cheap enough id use them but to be honest the more minimal the unit the better


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[Discusgeo2]

How much are you planning on spending on you LED system and what is the cost of your LED each. I did not think the CREE's were expensive. It may be out of your budget to me to put one together for you but the software my partner and I are writing now will be where you can plug in your controlled to your computer and make all the adjustments for the lights there. My unit also has a built in temperature sensor I did not show. In fact there is two of them thinking if you had a sump you could put one in the tank and the other in the sump to monitor both spots. We did this thinking there may be a place for this in the saltwater community.

[cjr8420]

like the russian guys says in Armageddon "american components russian components all made in taiwan" lol

[nikond70s]

nope, havent toy with the "chineese" or "chinease" leds before. most likely get what you pay for.

[JamesHe]

I use this module:
cool white version, you can find the warm white version too. personally I like the cool white.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/30w-2400lm-led-emitter-metal-plate-white-16v-18v-39959

plus LED driver, you can modify it to dim:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2000ma-30w-power-constant-current-source-led-driver-85-265v-42746

shipping takes little bit time from oversea, typical few weeks.
It works great for each 24" length.

[boxhead1990]

il probably spend less then $50 on the lights for both my tanks depending on shipping cost's and im thinking about using 2 20w emiters on my planted tank and 3 30w on the 120


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[Discusgeo2]

I got all my CREE LED Whites and Blues mounted and wired and put power to them..

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/LEDsMounted5-1.jpg

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/WiredLEDoff-1.jpg

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s323/13SouthwestDiscus/LED%20System/WiredLEDon-1.jpg

[spiffyfish]

Looks really good George.