Help with diy led fixture!

Mpkid911

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Okay so i am plannind a diy led fixture for a 55 gallon tank. Im basing thenlights off of the radion pro and these are the leds i plan on buying.
42 LEDs

  • White: 8 Cree XT-E Cool White (5w each)
  • Red: 4 bridgelux, 660nm (3w each)
  • Yellow: 2 bridgelux Yellow, 590nm (3w each)
  • Green: 4 Cree XP-E Green, 520nm (3w each)
  • Blue: 8 Cree XP-E Blue, 468nm (3w each)
  • Royal Blue: 8 Cree XT-E Royal Blue, 442nm (5w each)
  • Indigo: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 415nm (2.5w each)
  • Ultraviolet: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 405nm (2.5w each)
Now if i were to use these leds with the eln 60 48d drivers how many drivers would i need? I was thinking 3 if i wanted more control? Ive also been searching for a list of other parts i would need to complete and havent had much luck. I know i would need a heatsink, a couple of fans and bulk wire but i feel like im missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
 

Brew12

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Okay so i am plannind a diy led fixture for a 55 gallon tank. Im basing thenlights off of the radion pro and these are the leds i plan on buying.
42 LEDs

  • White: 8 Cree XT-E Cool White (5w each)
  • Red: 4 bridgelux, 660nm (3w each)
  • Yellow: 2 bridgelux Yellow, 590nm (3w each)
  • Green: 4 Cree XP-E Green, 520nm (3w each)
  • Blue: 8 Cree XP-E Blue, 468nm (3w each)
  • Royal Blue: 8 Cree XT-E Royal Blue, 442nm (5w each)
  • Indigo: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 415nm (2.5w each)
  • Ultraviolet: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 405nm (2.5w each)
Now if i were to use these leds with the eln 60 48d drivers how many drivers would i need? I was thinking 3 if i wanted more control? Ive also been searching for a list of other parts i would need to complete and havent had much luck. I know i would need a heatsink, a couple of fans and bulk wire but i feel like im missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Depending on how you mount them you may also need thermal glue.

I was too lazy to design and build my own LED's. What I would recommend though is to decide how many channels you want to control and which LED's go in which channels. Once you know how many LED's you have in each channel, and their operating range, that will determine which drivers you need. For instance, if decide you want a channel to adjust your reds separately and only have (4) 3W LED's on the channel, you would need a different driver than the one with all your whites.
 
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Mpkid911

Mpkid911

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You mean a different driver completely? Other than the eln 60 48d? Makes sense.
Im thinking the uv, indigo and red on one channel, both blues on another, white yellow and green on another? If that makes sense. If not im open to ideas
 

Brew12

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You mean a different driver completely? Other than the eln 60 48d? Makes sense.
Im thinking the uv, indigo and red on one channel, both blues on another, white yellow and green on another? If that makes sense. If not im open to ideas
Yes, other than the eln 60 48d. The 60 in the part number is 60 watts. The 48 is a max output voltage of 48VDC. The D means it is 0-10V.

You need to size the driver to be appropriate for the ratings of all of the LED's connected to it. Otherwise you would risk damaging the LED's or not getting them to dim properly.
 
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Mpkid911

Mpkid911

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Okay will do, thisbis more complicated than anticipated but completely worth it.
 

Brew12

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Okay will do, thisbis more complicated than anticipated but completely worth it.
It's not hard, but it does take some math. Skill with Excel would make it easier, too. I'm not sure if there is an online calculator to help do the math for you.
 

Biokabe

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LED Group Buy and RapidLED are your friends - they'll have literally everything you need for it.

In terms of parts needed (not counting tools), you'll need:

LEDs (of course!)
1 or 2 heat sinks
Cooling fans
Bulk wire
Water-resistant wire nuts or quick-disconnect plugs
Drivers
Power supply/power cord for the driver (may or may not be necessary, depending on your drivers)
Dimming solution (controller or potentiometers, depending on how you want to control them)
Mounting solution
Thermal grease or thermal adhesive
Screws (if using a screw-on solution to affix the LEDs to the heatsink

There are quite a few driver options available these days, some of which (in my opinion) are much nicer than the old standby ELN-60-48D. There's nothing wrong with those drivers, of course - there's a reason that they've been used in DIY LED systems for years. The new Meanwell LDD drivers, though, have quite a bit in their favor, the main downside being that they need a separate power supply. They're inexpensive, though, which means you don't have to try to minimize the number of drivers that you use. The power supply does add to the price, of course, so overall you end up at about the same price as using your original driver, but with greater individual control of your LED channels.

Some other things to think about:

Where are the drivers going to live? That will help dictate how much wire you'll need.

How many drivers will you need? This is actually pretty simple to figure out. Each driver will have a maximum and a minimum voltage rating. The individual LEDs each have a stat called Forward Voltage. To figure out how many drivers you need, just add up the forward voltage on each LED in a string. As long as you're within the voltage range for the driver, you can fit that string onto one driver. If you're below the voltage rating, you'll either need to add LEDs to get above that level or move those LEDs to a string with some spare voltage. If you're above the voltage, either add another driver or reduce the number of LEDs on that string. Having too few or too many LEDs on a string can damage them, so this is definitely something where you want to double-check your work before you finalize your design.

How are the LEDs going to be affixed to the heat sink? That could affect your choice of heat sink, and will determine whether you need to buy thermal grease or thermal adhesive.

How are you going to mount the fan onto the heatsink? A fan is not optional; LEDs put out a lot of heat, and if you don't have an active cooling solution, they will fail early. And by fail, I mean melt.

How are the LEDs going to be arranged? Your arrangement can help eliminate the "disco" effect, and it can also influence your PAR.

Are you going to solder or use solderless LEDs? Soldering is cheaper and more flexible, but more time-consuming and you have to actually solder. Solderless are usually $0.25-$0.50 more per LED, but they're much faster to assemble. On the other hand, though, solderless LEDs are bulkier, which can restrict your ability to cluster the LEDs.

Can you physically wire up the LEDs with your preferred arrangement? Don't neglect the physical realities of wires and LEDs. Wires, especially solid core wires (you should be using braided wire, but just in case you have solid core) can only bend so much, and insulation can melt while you solder, especially if the wire is really short. Make sure that you can get your wires where they need to go without blocking the actual lamp.

Do you have a splashguard to protect your fixture? Even if your tank has a top, you still need a splashguard. Even a little bit of salt spray on an LED can lead to reduced performance or early failure.

Will you be using lenses? Not every situation needs lenses; if your tank is shallow or you have an overpowering number of strong LEDs, you might have enough penetration without lenses.

Do you have enough clearance on your heatsink to mount the lenses underneath the splashguard? Most of the nicer heatsinks will include a channel to slide a splashguard through. Make sure that there's enough space to fit a lens underneath it.

How will you be dimming your LEDs? Technically you don't have to dim, but the benefits of dimming are so great that I don't consider that an optional feature. There are plenty of dimming solutions available, from simple potentiometer controls to elaborate controllers with sunrise/sunset controls and weather emulation settings. Any of them can work, just a matter of what you want to do.

Where will the dimming controls be located? They don't necessarily have to be easy to get to - once you get things dialed in, you shouldn't be fiddling with your dimming settings frequently. But it also doesn't hurt to make it easy to reach.

Building your own LED is definitely a lot of work, and compared to the early days, I'm honestly not sure how much money you actually save by going this route. But I've personally found it very rewarding - the ability to make it exactly the way you want it is, in my opinion, the best reward for building your own.
 
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Brew12

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LED Group Buy and RapidLED are your friends - they'll have literally everything you need for it.

In terms of parts needed (not counting tools), you'll need:

LEDs (of course!)
1 or 2 heat sinks
Cooling fans
Bulk wire
Water-resistant wire nuts or quick-disconnect plugs
Drivers
Power supply/power cord for the driver (may or may not be necessary, depending on your drivers)
Dimming solution (controller or potentiometers, depending on how you want to control them)
Mounting solution
Thermal grease or thermal adhesive
Screws (if using a screw-on solution to affix the LEDs to the heatsink

There are quite a few driver options available these days, some of which (in my opinion) are much nicer than the old standby ELN-60-48D. There's nothing wrong with those drivers, of course - there's a reason that they've been used in DIY LED systems for years. The new Meanwell LDD drivers, though, have quite a bit in their favor, the main downside being that they need a separate power supply. They're inexpensive, though, which means you don't have to try to minimize the number of drivers that you use. The power supply does add to the price, of course, so overall you end up at about the same price as using your original driver, but with greater individual control of your LED channels.

Some other things to think about:

Where are the drivers going to live? That will help dictate how much wire you'll need.

How many drivers will you need? This is actually pretty simple to figure out. Each driver will have a maximum and a minimum voltage rating. The individual LEDs each have a stat called Forward Voltage. To figure out how many drivers you need, just add up the forward voltage on each LED in a string. As long as you're within the voltage range for the driver, you can fit that string onto one driver. If you're below the voltage rating, you'll either need to add LEDs to get above that level or move those LEDs to a string with some spare voltage. If you're above the voltage, either add another driver or reduce the number of LEDs on that string. Having too few or too many LEDs on a string can damage them, so this is definitely something where you want to double-check your work before you finalize your design.

How are the LEDs going to be affixed to the heat sink? That could affect your choice of heat sink, and will determine whether you need to buy thermal grease or thermal adhesive.

How are you going to mount the fan onto the heatsink? A fan is not optional; LEDs put out a lot of heat, and if you don't have an active cooling solution, they will fail early. And by fail, I mean melt.

How are the LEDs going to be arranged? Your arrangement can help eliminate the "disco" effect, and it can also influence your PAR.

Are you going to solder or use solderless LEDs? Soldering is cheaper and more flexible, but more time-consuming and you have to actually solder. Solderless are usually $0.25-$0.50 more per LED, but they're much faster to assemble. On the other hand, though, solderless LEDs are bulkier, which can restrict your ability to cluster the LEDs.

Can you physically wire up the LEDs with your preferred arrangement? Don't neglect the physical realities of wires and LEDs. Wires, especially solid core wires (you should be using braided wire, but just in case you have solid core) can only bend so much, and insulation can melt while you solder, especially if the wire is really short. Make sure that you can get your wires where they need to go without blocking the actual lamp.

Do you have a splashguard to protect your fixture? Even if your tank has a top, you still need a splashguard. Even a little bit of salt spray on an LED can lead to reduced performance or early failure.

Will you be using lenses? Not every situation needs lenses; if your tank is shallow or you have an overpowering number of strong LEDs, you might have enough penetration without lenses.

Do you have enough clearance on your heatsink to mount the lenses underneath the splashguard? Most of the nicer heatsinks will include a channel to slide a splashguard through. Make sure that there's enough space to fit a lens underneath it.

How will you be dimming your LEDs? Technically you don't have to dim, but the benefits of dimming are so great that I don't consider that an optional feature. There are plenty of dimming solutions available, from simple potentiometer controls to elaborate controllers with sunrise/sunset controls and weather emulation settings. Any of them can work, just a matter of what you want to do.

Where will the dimming controls be located? They don't necessarily have to be easy to get to - once you get things dialed in, you shouldn't be fiddling with your dimming settings frequently. But it also doesn't hurt to make it easy to reach.

Building your own LED is definitely a lot of work, and compared to the early days, I'm honestly not sure how much money you actually save by going this route. But I've personally found it very rewarding - the ability to make it exactly the way you want it is, in my opinion, the best reward for building your own.
I'm glad you had time for this! Fantastic advice!
 

tj w

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LED Group Buy and RapidLED are your friends - they'll have literally everything you need for it.

In terms of parts needed (not counting tools), you'll need:

LEDs (of course!)
1 or 2 heat sinks
Cooling fans
Bulk wire
Water-resistant wire nuts or quick-disconnect plugs
Drivers
Power supply/power cord for the driver (may or may not be necessary, depending on your drivers)
Dimming solution (controller or potentiometers, depending on how you want to control them)
Mounting solution
Thermal grease or thermal adhesive
Screws (if using a screw-on solution to affix the LEDs to the heatsink

There are quite a few driver options available these days, some of which (in my opinion) are much nicer than the old standby ELN-60-48D. There's nothing wrong with those drivers, of course - there's a reason that they've been used in DIY LED systems for years. The new Meanwell LDD drivers, though, have quite a bit in their favor, the main downside being that they need a separate power supply. They're inexpensive, though, which means you don't have to try to minimize the number of drivers that you use. The power supply does add to the price, of course, so overall you end up at about the same price as using your original driver, but with greater individual control of your LED channels.

Some other things to think about:

Where are the drivers going to live? That will help dictate how much wire you'll need.

How many drivers will you need? This is actually pretty simple to figure out. Each driver will have a maximum and a minimum voltage rating. The individual LEDs each have a stat called Forward Voltage. To figure out how many drivers you need, just add up the forward voltage on each LED in a string. As long as you're within the voltage range for the driver, you can fit that string onto one driver. If you're below the voltage rating, you'll either need to add LEDs to get above that level or move those LEDs to a string with some spare voltage. If you're above the voltage, either add another driver or reduce the number of LEDs on that string. Having too few or too many LEDs on a string can damage them, so this is definitely something where you want to double-check your work before you finalize your design.

How are the LEDs going to be affixed to the heat sink? That could affect your choice of heat sink, and will determine whether you need to buy thermal grease or thermal adhesive.

How are you going to mount the fan onto the heatsink? A fan is not optional; LEDs put out a lot of heat, and if you don't have an active cooling solution, they will fail early. And by fail, I mean melt.

How are the LEDs going to be arranged? Your arrangement can help eliminate the "disco" effect, and it can also influence your PAR.

Are you going to solder or use solderless LEDs? Soldering is cheaper and more flexible, but more time-consuming and you have to actually solder. Solderless are usually $0.25-$0.50 more per LED, but they're much faster to assemble. On the other hand, though, solderless LEDs are bulkier, which can restrict your ability to cluster the LEDs.

Can you physically wire up the LEDs with your preferred arrangement? Don't neglect the physical realities of wires and LEDs. Wires, especially solid core wires (you should be using braided wire, but just in case you have solid core) can only bend so much, and insulation can melt while you solder, especially if the wire is really short. Make sure that you can get your wires where they need to go without blocking the actual lamp.

Do you have a splashguard to protect your fixture? Even if your tank has a top, you still need a splashguard. Even a little bit of salt spray on an LED can lead to reduced performance or early failure.

Will you be using lenses? Not every situation needs lenses; if your tank is shallow or you have an overpowering number of strong LEDs, you might have enough penetration without lenses.

Do you have enough clearance on your heatsink to mount the lenses underneath the splashguard? Most of the nicer heatsinks will include a channel to slide a splashguard through. Make sure that there's enough space to fit a lens underneath it.

How will you be dimming your LEDs? Technically you don't have to dim, but the benefits of dimming are so great that I don't consider that an optional feature. There are plenty of dimming solutions available, from simple potentiometer controls to elaborate controllers with sunrise/sunset controls and weather emulation settings. Any of them can work, just a matter of what you want to do.

Where will the dimming controls be located? They don't necessarily have to be easy to get to - once you get things dialed in, you shouldn't be fiddling with your dimming settings frequently. But it also doesn't hurt to make it easy to reach.

Building your own LED is definitely a lot of work, and compared to the early days, I'm honestly not sure how much money you actually save by going this route. But I've personally found it very rewarding - the ability to make it exactly the way you want it is, in my opinion, the best reward for building your own.

Such great information indeed. Thanks for taking the time to share it. I think this should be a sticky in the diy forum.
 

TRPlacek

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Just a thought but maybe pick a spectrum you want to run on the tank and base your leds to drivers off that. For example if you are basing all this off the radion then you may choose to copy the coral ab+ program which seems to work great for many including myself. In this case you would want the uv and blues on one channel running at 100% and white, red and green on another channel running at 24%. It may make things a bit easier for ya.
 
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Mpkid911

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Wow this helps alot. Definately have nore research to do. Thanks for the information.
 

mcarroll

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If you had shorter term goals for lighting a tank, here's another DIY that can get you going a lot faster...I've built several and use one currently.

The thread is getting long in the tooth, evidenced by all the missing photobucket images, but there's still lots of good info and several example builds that do still have pics. The diagrams in the first post are also still great starting references:
GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

Cost for my 30 gallon tank – about $50. Built in a night from 1 piece of wood, wire, wirenuts, sockets and bulbs. :)

For your 55 gallon is would be about $70-$80, depending on what supplies/tools you already have.


Here's the Tube from the link that shows the original dude's in-wall 55 gallon tank build...very similar to my current one:
 

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