2Quills, 120G Re-build thread.

acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I really like the look of the heat sinks....I just wished they could get them in longer lengths, but I still have the contact to get them anodized and milled for the fans.....The lip on the bottom section is very sweet and would eliminated added work for a splash shield.....
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
I haven't gotten any blues Shawn. XTE only comes in royal blue. These scrubber lights just have red and white. I'm trying to think of a way where I can kind of mill them myself to counter sink some fans in them. I could easily do it if I want to throw the sinks on the table saw and simply slice off some of the fins but I would have to do that the whole length of the heat sink. Still thinking about it. Did you ask Rapid if they could order them in longer lengths? Could always just run smaller ones next to one another to get the length you're looking for.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Yeah when I talked to Mike over at Rapid I asked specifically if he could get them in any lengths and the answer was no.....They were suppose to put their bigger units on the site. Haven't checked back since then. Do you know anyone who has a mill machine down your way......My old man has one in the shop, but since I'd have to get them anodized anyways I figure just let it all be done in 1 place.....I would assume that they would mill the heat sinks for the fans before they anodized them......I have to shoot them an email and see if it would be an issue for me to drill and tap them before hand or wait.....
Worse case after I get them back I'd have to run the tap back through the screw holes to clean everything up.......
 
1snapple

1snapple

Active Member
I was checking out heatsinks to do a little pendant and I found these guys.
http://www.ledcoolers.com/round-pin-fin-led-heatsinks/
You can get an 80mm for $25, anodized. So if anyone wants to do pendants this would be a great option.
As far as milling is concerned, can you mill out an space in the heastink to place the leds in?
Like mill out a star, and just use thermal adhesive and make them sit inside the heatsink.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Snapple http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448506
I was checking out heatsinks to do a little pendant and I found these guys.
http://www.ledcoolers.com/round-pin-fin-led-heatsinks/
You can get an 80mm for $25, anodized. So if anyone wants to do pendants this would be a great option.
As far as milling is concerned, can you mill out an space in the heastink to place the leds in?
Like mill out a star, and just use thermal adhesive and make them sit inside the heatsink.
I guess you could have the heat sink milled anyway you desire as long as you have a good detailed drawing with what you want. I don't know if there would be any real advantage to doing it that way, and possibly you'd be taking away some of the heat sinks ability do pull heat away......
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448448
Yeah when I talked to Mike over at Rapid I asked specifically if he could get them in any lengths and the answer was no.....They were suppose to put their bigger units on the site. Haven't checked back since then. Do you know anyone who has a mill machine down your way......My old man has one in the shop, but since I'd have to get them anodized anyways I figure just let it all be done in 1 place.....I would assume that they would mill the heat sinks for the fans before they anodized them......I have to shoot them an email and see if it would be an issue for me to drill and tap them before hand or wait.....
Worse case after I get them back I'd have to run the tap back through the screw holes to clean everything up.......
Unfortunately I don't know any body locally with a cnc. I'm sure there has to be a shop somewhere that would do it. But for the extra cost involved if I can't do it myself than it's probably not worth it. I'll figure out a way or I'll work around that.
I don't think it matters too much whether you drill and tap the heatsink before or after the anodizing process. It would be nice to get it done before hand but in the end once the screws are in there then there is no difference, you can't tell.
Technically these anodized heatsinks are less efficient than their raw material counter parts. Specifically because of the anodizing finish that's been applied. I don't think the difference is large enough to not want to use them though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Snapple http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448506
I was checking out heatsinks to do a little pendant and I found these guys.
http://www.ledcoolers.com/round-pin-fin-led-heatsinks/
You can get an 80mm for $25, anodized. So if anyone wants to do pendants this would be a great option.
As far as milling is concerned, can you mill out an space in the heastink to place the leds in?
Like mill out a star, and just use thermal adhesive and make them sit inside the heatsink.
That sounds like it would make it a pain to replace the stars if you counter sunk them in the epoxy???
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Got the remaining heasink...
Drilled

and Tapped


You can see the raw aluminum under the anodized finish on the ends that I cut off..

 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
If you remember the thread we looked at where the guy used the thin line fans, but they were 120mm fans....I did find a link for them and pretty sure they make a slim line in the 60mm size as well. Will have to see if I can find the link again......
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448789
If you remember the thread we looked at where the guy used the thin line fans, but they were 120mm fans....I did find a link for them and pretty sure they make a slim line in the 60mm size as well. Will have to see if I can find the link again......
Something like these?....
Found these earlier at the computer store. 70mm x 70mmx 10mm. 21 CFM.

My drivers came in!!! I'm super exited about trying these. I haven't seen anyone really using them yet and they are an excellent alternative to using ELN's. The LPF's are virtually the same driver as the HLG's but in a smaller package. With built in PFC, 3-1 dimming capabilities and more efficiency. On average I priced them out at roughly $10 more per driver than the ELN's depending on where you buy. It seemed like a fair trade to me but we'll see. I got one LPF 60D-48 and one LPF 60D-36. The 36 will drive my Reds and the 48 will drive my whites.

Here's a quick shot of the controler (timer/dimmer) I'll be using to control the lengths and intensities of the photo period through out the day.

 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
That's a tough question Greg, but for our purposes it's the same as the ELN's. Anywhere from about 8 leds - 14 3watt leds on average. But you could run upto like 48 leds or more if you wanted to run a bunch of parallel strings. Just depends on your voltage requirements and amperage needs.
 
1snapple

1snapple

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448909
That's a tough question Greg, but for our purposes it's the same as the ELN's. Anywhere from about 8 leds - 14 3watt leds on average. But you could run upto like 48 leds or more if you wanted to run a bunch of parallel strings. Just depends on your voltage requirements and amperage needs.
What controller is that? And how are you going to hook this up? And will you eb using the XT-Es and the new White LEDs cree has out
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Snapple http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448925
What controller is that? And how are you going to hook this up? And will you eb using the XT-Es and the new White LEDs cree has out
That's the Typhon Led Controller. It hooks up to my drivers via the dimming wires as apposed to hooking them up to a potentiometer for analog signal (knobs).
I have two panels. Each panel has 6 whites and 12 reds.
The LPF 60D-48 will drive all twelve of my whites in one single series string. Giving me 1.3 amps max at 100%.
The LPF 60D-36 will drive all twenty four of my reds in two parallel strings. The driver puts out 1.6 amps so 800mA per string max at 100%
I will be using XT-E's hopefully in the near future, yes. Although I'm not sure which "new"White" LED's you mean? If you're talking about the XML's then no, at the moment I don't have a need or desire to use them over XPG.
 
1snapple

1snapple

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448961
That's the Typhon Led Controller. It hooks up to my drivers via the dimming wires as apposed to hooking them up to a potentiometer for analog signal (knobs).
.
The LPF 60D-36 will drive all twenty four of my reds in two parallel strings. The driver puts out 1.6 amps so 800mA per string max at 100%
I will be using XT-E's hopefully in the near future, yes. Although I'm not sure which "new"White" LED's you mean? If you're talking about the XML's then no, at the moment I don't have a need or desire to use them over XPG.
Why not the XMLs? And i will have to check out that Typhoon, Does it run both of the drivers? and where did you purchase yours?
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Snapple http:///t/378912/2quills-120g-re-build-thread/620#post_3448999
Why not the XMLs? And i will have to check out that Typhoon, Does it run both of the drivers? and is on timers also?
It is a timer. It has 4 channels so I can control upto 4 channels independentaly. Set sunrise time and duration time for how long it takes for the drivers to ramp up current over a long or short course of time. Same with ramp down time. Set each channel what you want.
Why not XML's? Because I don't have a need for anything that heavy in cool white. Neutral and Warm you have to order from out of the country. A lot of places are advertising them as the most efficient, and they can be. But the only bin that they produce that is more efficient than XPG R5 the the XML U2'S. Places here are only selling XML T6's. And if you crunch the numbers those T6's are actually slightly less efficient than XPG R5. So with the extra cost of the XML's it becomes a wash. The only benefit I see to having them is if you have a very deep tank with some heavy lighting requirements at the sand bed, then you can drive them at much higher current and get more light out of em.
I won't have that need. XPG is cheaper to replace and more than enough light than I'll really ever need. The differences in efficiency when you compare the best is really rather small and hardly worth a mention. Either of these lights can fry some coral real quick.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Peak of one of the heatsinks cut out for fans.


The panels will have a removable acrylic skin that I think will attach to the heatsink using some of the same black screws that I utilized to mount the leds to the sink. Done in black. The blue slots are for vents. The green line is where I think I will cut a channel right down the middle of the heatsink. That should give the cool air a path to be able to vent through every channel on the back of the heatsink. Full air flow through the back of the whole thing. I think this could work?
 
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