LED DIY LIGHT build

monsinour

Active Member
Right quick, how thick does the piece of aluminum need to be to be effectivly called a heat sink? The lasers will only go through 1/2 inch aluminum. I have thought about sticking 2 1/2 inch blocks together and using thermal grease between the blocks to transfer the heat. Thoughts?
 

1snapple

Active Member
Not sure, my bar is 1/8 so 1/2 should be more then enough, maybe to much, Thats alot of metal and will stay hot longer.
 

monsinour

Active Member
Are you sure 1/8th of an inch is thick enough? To me that sounds like the size of a fin and not the heat sink itself. Are you going to run fans on your LEDs to keep them cool?
 

monsinour

Active Member
a sample heatsink measurements are:
8.460 inch wide,1.00 inch fin height, .300 inch base
8 and a half wide, 1 inch high fins, and the solid 'heatsink' part is just over a quarter of an inch thick. Seems like the 1/2 inch will work. Gotta check on price differences in size thickness now. I am going to have to mock up something in paint here.
 

monsinour

Active Member
m$ paint. I gotta draw my idea first.
edit: here is a rough idea:

The chi is a 10x10 square. I have no idea how large the filterbox/lightbox is but that would still come through the middle. Thoughts?
 

monsinour

Active Member
whats recomended for a nice 18 to 20K look is the 8 blue and 4 white. Not sure if I will get other colors or not. Heck I dont even have the tank yet. I have to come up with an idea to make it look good and possibly hinge on the tank. If I do a Chi, i will need some kind of cheap ATO like a hampster bottle. I dont want to see that bottle so somehow incorperating a really long fin on the end and putting the bottle behind that. Its all ideas right now.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsinour http:///forum/thread/383238/led-diy-light-build/60#post_3354899
just got done reading the DIY part over at www.reefledlights.com and it sure seems simple enough. I havent heard back about the trumpf laser being able to cut aluminum properly for the heat sink. But really, wouldnt you want to drill holes into the heatsink to put all the wiring above the lights for a "cleaner" look to the fixture? Will the heatsink get so hot to melt the insulation on the wire? I would imagine that it would depend on the insulation itself and what kind of wire one uses. I make mention of this solely for the purpose of DIY a led setup for over the chi tank. I am thinking I can get a square heatsink made with a hole in the middle to fit around the filter/led box in the chi. I would have to figure out a way to suspend it over the tank, but these leds would be proper lighting to give to the zoas that would be in the tank. thoughts? (sorry for the mini hijack)
On quite a few builds they notch out the back side of the heat sink a bit, and hide and conceal the wiring on the back side. The thing is you have to make sure you leave a little slack when routing the wires through, so they don't rub, or not stressed and tight. The heat should not be an issue on the wire insulation one bit. I think you guys are thinking these should get hot. At best warm to the touch if done correctly.
Corey and I had talked about doing a false cover on the viewing side to possibly conceal the wiring if done on the front side. Would involve a bit of work marking out the sheet to drill holes for all the LEDs.....If you search over on RC you'll find a build that you see no wiring on the LED side.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Sounds like a pretty good start modeling after the AI units... If you do a search on Cree LEDs you'll find them online from some places.....I don't remember off the top of my head, but there are a few suppliers, that sell quite a few, and they know exactly what your after when you call, since they've been selling them to us fish people......
Monsinour if you check on RC Kcress states the exact size wiring needed to be used, and reasoning behind the choice as well, so wire sizing should be pretty straight forward. I don't recall the exact size off the top of my head or I would say, but I know it's listed over there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparty059 http:///forum/thread/383238/led-diy-light-build/60#post_3354837
I have a 150 gallon, 5' in length, 30" tall, 20" deep. I would assume 84 LED's similar to how AI Sol Super Blue's are built would be good enough for my tank. If I can get each 28 LED's of the Royal, 28 of the Whites, and 28 of the Blue's then it shouldn't be any problem building one for cheap. I just never thought of looking for LED's online before... I don't know why.
 

1snapple

Active Member
Yea, katchup does full wiring diagrams here.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1952442
Well, im starting to get impatient now, my green monti is turning brown and is irritated.
I need these LEDs.
I have a recommendation about the light to, i will post up tonight.
 

monsinour

Active Member
Before I go looking over there, the wiring suggested is 18 to 20 gauge wire. I was thinking to be safe, and create less heat, was to use 16 gauge wiring. I have done plenty of car audio installations and know plenty about wire and I will get as close to virgin copper as i can for the wire. Being 16 gauge, it wont be that expensive. Since I have all the time in the world with this project, I can take time to hide the wires. As far as heat goes, the heatsink should be warm, but you should be able to pick it up without a problem. I have seen wire insulation melt when in contact with a heatsink on a car audio amp before. I think it was due to poor wiring and way too small gauge to deliver power to the amp so it was running hot anyways. going to take a look at the wiring.
 

reefraff

Active Member
I used 18 on my LED's and it works fine. I am thinking 16 might be enough to help draw a little heat away from the LED's. That would be nice.
 

reefraff

Active Member
I like the LED's and that is coming from the guy who has probably sold more T5 lighting than anyone in the world

My fixture was built as a mule so I could experiment. Don't have a recent pic but it hasn't changed much. Closed in the spacing and added optics to the blue LED's, removed the splash shields and removed the black heat sinks I stuck on the back of the aluminum channel. I mounted the LED's inside the channel to act as a reflector as I wasn't planning on using optics. The back side of the channel will only reach about 115 without the fans running.


It's made with 2x1 1/8th aluminum channel. It uses 84 LED's, 6 rows of 14. It runs on 7 channels through a reefkeeper and is completely self contained, again for easy removal and replacement.
54 XRE Royal Blues with 60 degree optics
5 Nanotuners 420nm's
3 XRE Q5 cool white
4 XRE Neutral White
8 XRE Warm White
10 XPG Cool White
Color looks great. I need to work on getting some shots of the tank now that I have corals in it
 

sparty059

Active Member
Doesn't this blow your T5HO's or your MH's out of the water Wattage wise? Or is it usually around 1.5w per LED?
 
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