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So, I've been wanting upgrade to a LED fixture on my coral tank for a while now. As I looked online at all the fixtures I found they were either too much moolah or not bright enough imo. So I decided to pull the trigger and try to build my own. After digging around online and figuring out a game plan this is what I decided to go with:
12 - 3w cree XP-G (white)
12 - 3w cree XP-E (royal blue)
1 - meanwell 35-700 driver
1 - meanwell 60-1050 driver
60 degree lenses
10in X 10in heatsink
Custom Hood
After the excruciating wait for the parts I drilled holes into the corner of the heatsink and hood to mount the heatsink I also marked where I wanted the LEDs with a black permanent marker.
Next I used thermal adhesive to glue the LEDs onto the heatsink. You can also drill and tap your heatsink or buy one already drilled and tapped so you screw the LEDs into place but as a newb I thought this would be easier and it was pretty easy. Then using zip ties I mounted the drivers into the hood.
After waiting a day or so for the adhesive to dry I started to solder the LEDs together. pretty simple just go from positive to neg, positive to neg, wash rinse repeat.
just finishing the blues
all wired up
after all the soldering I used a small amount of super glue gell to attach the lenses and hung the light.
I had some problems after plugging in the fixture where 1 blue and 1 white had blown for some unknown reason and I had to bypass them. All I can say is a multimeter is neccesary to check the connections on these LEDs since the output voltage is so low and it really helped me get it all working correctly.
Came out pretty good though I think
blues
whites and blues
Let me know what yall think.
12 - 3w cree XP-G (white)
12 - 3w cree XP-E (royal blue)
1 - meanwell 35-700 driver
1 - meanwell 60-1050 driver
60 degree lenses
10in X 10in heatsink
Custom Hood
After the excruciating wait for the parts I drilled holes into the corner of the heatsink and hood to mount the heatsink I also marked where I wanted the LEDs with a black permanent marker.
Next I used thermal adhesive to glue the LEDs onto the heatsink. You can also drill and tap your heatsink or buy one already drilled and tapped so you screw the LEDs into place but as a newb I thought this would be easier and it was pretty easy. Then using zip ties I mounted the drivers into the hood.
After waiting a day or so for the adhesive to dry I started to solder the LEDs together. pretty simple just go from positive to neg, positive to neg, wash rinse repeat.
just finishing the blues
all wired up
after all the soldering I used a small amount of super glue gell to attach the lenses and hung the light.
I had some problems after plugging in the fixture where 1 blue and 1 white had blown for some unknown reason and I had to bypass them. All I can say is a multimeter is neccesary to check the connections on these LEDs since the output voltage is so low and it really helped me get it all working correctly.
Came out pretty good though I think
blues
whites and blues
Let me know what yall think.
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