Does my LED list sound good?

Dasani

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Ok, so I am building an LED fixture for my new 40B. Below is a list of everything I am going to get. Does it sound good?

Rapidled.com:
18x Cree Q5 Cool White 3W LED's
18x Cree Royal Blue 3W LED's
3x Mean Well ELN-60-48D Drivers

reefledlights.com:
1x 30"L x 8.5"W Heatsink
2x Cool Tron Fan
2x 500mA Fan Power Supply

Radioshack.com
1x 40W Pencil Soldering Iron
1x Standard Rosin Core Solder 60/40 (1.5 Oz.)
1x Precision Coaxial Cable Cutter
1x 75f UL-Reconized Hook Up Wire 22AWG (3 colors, 25 ft of each)

Nanotuners.com
36x Evil's Thermal Adheasive Pads

And my wiring diagram:
wirediagram.jpg


Tell me what you think :bigsmile:
 
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wfournier

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Any optics? I'd suggest going with at least 80's. I know some people have said they don't make that much of a difference because the XR-E's are supposed to be 90, but IME it does.

Oh yeah and I'm a little confused by the "wiring diagram," I'm assuming you haven't finished that yet?

What's the coax cutter for?

Do you have a voltage source for dimming the drivers?
 
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johnanddawn

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i agree def need optics - on my current build i'm doing a combination of 60* and 80* optics. the builds and fixtures i have seen without optics have way too much light spill for my taste - the whole idea with LED's is getting ALL of the light in the tank
height of pendent, desired spread, and PAR are all considerations with your optics choice.
 
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Dasani

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The coax cutter is for cutting the wires to size. I do not want optics. They reduce the spread of the LED's. And the heatsink is only 30" long and 8.5" wide. And it will be on 40B wich is 36" long and 18" front 2 back. So I will definatly need the spread. Plus I have heard from Evilc66 that XR-E's with no optics are like 150W mh's. And I think that that will be fine for a mixed reef. Don't you? And the wire diagram is screwed up. I did some research and I am going to re-do it.
 

wfournier

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The coax cutter is for cutting the wires to size. I do not want optics. They reduce the spread of the LED's. And the heatsink is only 30" long and 8.5" wide. And it will be on 40B wich is 36" long and 18" front 2 back. So I will definatly need the spread. Plus I have heard from Evilc66 that XR-E's with no optics are like 150W mh's. And I think that that will be fine for a mixed reef. Don't you? And the wire diagram is screwed up. I did some research and I am going to re-do it.


How high do you plan to hang you light? Only way I can see you needing the spread from no optics would be if you have the light sitting on top of the tank. I'd say if you go to 80 degree optics you could probably get away with 24 leds and have higher par. You might need to hang the light 10-12" above the tank, but I personally like that better. Evil66 has done a lot in the development of LEDs for reef use, but I personally don't always agree with him. If you do skip the optics I'd recommend some sort of lip around the fixture that the LEDs sit above, otherwise you'll have the LEDs shining in your eyes every time you look at the tank.

I'd recommend something like this over the coax cutter: RadioShack® Gauged Wire Stripper/Cutter - RadioShack.com

the 50/50 mix might be a littler warm depending on your taste.
 

evilc66

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I recommended that no optics be used more as a cost savings method. There are cheaper ways to block stray light, as you mentioned wfournier. If you wanted to use optics, nothing tighter than 80 degrees, unless you want really high light levels.
 
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Dasani

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Woah I didn't lnow you were on here Evil. Anywho I don't know how high I will hang it. I may add like 12 optics or something like that. Maybe for the row in the middle.
 

cparka23

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As wfournier suggested, nix the coax cutter. It's used for coaxial cable, which isn't what you're using. Get a wire stripper like the one that was linked (out of stock, but found pretty much anywhere tools are sold). It will also cut wires, but almost any needlenose pliers will do that too. The main thing you need is the wire stripping tool to expose the wire ends. It's a lot of little wire ends that needs to be exposed, so it's a must.

Also, get flux. It can be hellish/impossible to solder without it.
 

wld1783

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I recommended that no optics be used more as a cost savings method. There are cheaper ways to block stray light, as you mentioned wfournier. If you wanted to use optics, nothing tighter than 80 degrees, unless you want really high light levels.

+1

If in doubt the 80 degree optics rock. They are included in all our kits.

Wire strippers are cheap at home depot.

Also I would invest in a better soldering iron. It would make things easier...Been there done that. JMHO

Bill
 
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Dasani

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I guess I will do optics on the middle row. and not on the outside rows for more spread. What do I need Flux for? Also the solder, I am only going to be using it this one time, does it really matter?
 
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Dasani

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I am going to solder lol. I am still not completly sure on optics. What if I put optics on the 4 LED's in the middle of each row? I still think I will need spread. I want it to mainly be SPS dominate.
 

wfournier

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I am going to solder lol. I am still not completly sure on optics. What if I put optics on the 4 LED's in the middle of each row? I still think I will need spread. I want it to mainly be SPS dominate.


Optics are $1 ea, so with 36 LEDs that's $36. IMHO just get them. You don't have to use them, maybe the vendor will let you return them but I think you will want them especially with an SPS tank. They will cover better than you think. I saw my PAR go up more than 50% adding 80 degree optics to XR-E's.
 
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Dasani

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OK I will go with optics then. Are they hard to put on? I would get them already on, but on rapidled, I can't find the option to choose which degree you want. Also will I need 3x 3 prong power cords for the drivers?
3-Prong Power Cord
 
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wfournier

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You might have to tell them what you want with their kits, I'm not sure if they have aplace to select that or not. The XR-E optics just push on, I have had some that were a little looks and I used some double sided tape to hold them on (probably not the best option). You may not need anything to hold em on.
 
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Dasani

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You might have to tell them what you want with their kits, I'm not sure if they have aplace to select that or not. The XR-E optics just push on, I have had some that were a little looks and I used some double sided tape to hold them on (probably not the best option). You may not need anything to hold em on.
I will try to contact them and ask.
 

cparka23

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The drivers do not have a cord on them, so you will need to connect one. You won't use the ground, so it doesn't necessarily have to be 3 prong.

As for optics, I just put the combination I wanted in the text box that you get with PayPal. They did a good job and got it exactly right. IME, the black optics are a little looser than the white ones, but both of them just slide around the rectangular emitter and are held there without any fasteners. No tools necessary.

One more thing you should add to your shopping list is heatshrink tubing and/or wire nuts.
 
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Dasani

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What do I need the heatshrink tube and wire nuts for lol? Sorry I have only been studying LED's for about 2 weeks and haven't got the whole build process down yet. OOO I forgot to mention. My dad is an electrician and he said he know how to solder, so he will do that for me lol. Well he said, "lay it all out it front of me and I'll put it together for you" but I wanna do something lol. Any thoughts on my wire diagram? Also for the drivers; Can all 3 of them hook up to 1 power cord or will I need 3 cords?
 

cparka23

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When you make a wire-to-wire connection such as adding the plug to the driver, there's a little gap of exposed metal that you'll need to cover up for safety's sake. You definitely don't want to have bare metal exposed if there's electricity running through it. You can use either some heatshrink tubing or a wire nut to cover up any metal, and both ways are pretty easy once you've seen it done once. I'm sure the electrician in the family has both of them lying around in his tool chest.

Heatshrink tubing is insulation that you put on the wire to cover up the metal that you'll expose. Then apply heat (i.e. from a kitchen lighter) and watch it shrink wrap around the metal. It's pretty fun to watch if you're easily amused like me, and you'll get all the tubing you'll need for $2-3 or so. :)

The alternative is a wire nut, which looks like the cap for a marker. There's a picture of them on Reefledlights.com on their How-To-DIY page. The third picture from the bottom shows it in use if you look at the upper right corner. You've probably seen them and just didn't know what they were called. To use those, you hold the two wire ends side-by-side || with a little bit of metal exposed on the ends. Simply put the nut on top and twist until snug. It may help to twist the ends together once or twice to get it started before putting the nut on it. The metal ends will wrap around each other and the plastic over the nut will keep any metal out of reach.

As for your plug question, you'll need three cords. One for each driver.

OH.. you need to get some supplies to attach the LEDs to the heatsink! You can use thermal adhesive like Arctic Silver (available at computer stores) for <$10. You can also use thermal pads, which act like stickers (PM Evilc66 if you want to get some). Those are the easiest ways since they don't involve drilling the aluminum heatsink.
 
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Dasani

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Can I just use electrical tape instead of tubing? Also I have found Evil's thermal pads online. I am going to get them, I for got to update that on the list, I will do so now :)
 

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