# SNEAK PEAK- O2Surplus' 300 watt LED lighting retrofit



## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

wow this is nuts! How strong are those LEDs?


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## evilc66 (Feb 28, 2008)

C4500's? That's some serious LED action.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> wow this is nuts! How strong are those LEDs?


They're gonna be run at 25 volts with 2 amps of current,so about 50 watts each. This particular LED is rated to deliver 5000 lux at that power level.:hihi:


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

wow so crazy! Why so high? Why not use crees? just curious. This should be an awesome fixture.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> wow so crazy! Why so high? Why not use crees? just curious. This should be an awesome fixture.


The system that I have on my tank right now consists of 90 Cree XRE-Q5's, running at 270 watts. The tank is a 225 gallon, so it requires quite a bit of power to keep my plants going strong. I've had it up and running for the last year and am really happy with it so far. 

This new fixture may replace the old one on my tank, but I haven't decided yet. I am building the new one just for fun, just to see if it will work. It may prove to be complete "overkill" as I normally subscribe to the "some's good- more must be better" approach to doing things,but I won't know for sure until I try.
Here's a recent photo of my tank and a pile of drivers that I built for a LFS.The photo shows 20, and I built a total of 30. 30 drivers will drive 360- 3 watt leds.:hihi:


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## redfishsc (Aug 29, 2010)

Definitely one of the coolest LED setups I've seen yet. 

Will you use any reflectors or just use the 120 degree beam angle they come with?




IWANNAGOFAST said:


> wow so crazy! Why so high? Why not use crees? just curious. This should be an awesome fixture.


A few reasons, even though the Cree's are usually more efficient than the Bridgelux. 


For simplicity sake, using 6 LEDs makes life much easier on the setup. 

Also, he chose some NICE LED's--- those big Bridgelux will probably have superior color rendering to the Cree's. 

I know the 10-watt Bridgelux 402's gave some very nice, balanced spectral curves on the radiometer this weekend. We're compiling the data now on what all we tested.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

redfishsc said:


> Definitely one of the coolest LED setups I've seen yet.
> 
> Will you use any reflectors or just use the 120 degree beam angle they come with?




Thanks for the compliments and nope, I won't be using any optics on the LEDs. The 120 degree angle should spread the light on my 6' tank nice and even.


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## jcardona1 (Jun 27, 2008)

Very nice Aaron, I was looking forward to seeing this beast. Can't wait to see the finished product!


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

jcardona1 said:


> Very nice Aaron, I was looking forward to seeing this beast. Can't wait to see the finished product!


Hey Jose- thanks for the encouragement. This things gonna be a PAR "monster" that's for sure HaHa! I've got to give you credit though- because of you, I'm gonna throw in a couple "warm white" emitters. Just to bring up the CRI a bit. 

By the way- How are those "sunrise and sunsets" looking for ya?:hihi:


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

Any idea what kinda commercial driver can run these LEDs? I have a buddy that wants to light up his 200 gallon tank, I think using 3w cree's on that big of a tank would be way too expensive.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I'm really looking forward to your build thread roud:

Subscribed


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> Any idea what kinda commercial driver can run these LEDs? I have a buddy that wants to light up his 200 gallon tank, I think using 3w cree's on that big of a tank would be way too expensive.


I suppose one of the higher capacity MeanWell's could drive'm, but this particular led's specs would cause a trade off to need to be made. They're listed with an "average" Vf of 25.6 and a maximum current of 3 amps, but the ones I have are happy to light up at voltages as low as 22vdc and 1 amp of current. I suppose you may be able to drive one with a meanwell- with the current maxed out, but 2 may exceed that driver's voltage limits.


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## evilc66 (Feb 28, 2008)

O2surplus said:


> They're gonna be run at 25 volts with 2 amps of current,so about 50 watts each. This particular LED is rated to deliver 5000 *lux* at that power level.:hihi:


You mean lumens, right 

Those are CAT4101 drivers right? I'm assuming you are paralleling them on the pcb to get 2A?


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

evilc66 said:


> You mean lumens, right
> 
> Those are CAT4101 drivers right? I'm assuming you are paralleling them on the pcb to get 2A?



Yep, your right it's *lumens *not *lux*, and yes the cat4101's will be run in parallel to reach 2 amps.roud:


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## evilc66 (Feb 28, 2008)

Cool. I'm assuming you are keeping your LED vf and source voltage pretty close to keep driver temperatures down? Linear drivers like those generate a lot of heat as the voltage delta increases.

Cool setup no matter what. I'm interested in seeing it over the tank in action. I've been playing with Bridgelux LEDs for a while now (neutrals, not cools) on reef setups, and they are great LEDs. They have a very slight difference in their spectral curve compared to your typical white LEDs that makes them look a lot better. I won't say higher CRI, as that's a poor color rendering measurement for LEDs in all honesty. 

I'm trying to find an excuse to build something with their new 8800lm LED :icon_twis.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

Yes, I set the power supply voltage level to within .5 volt of the led's Vf and the Cats stay stone cold. The only real heat on the pcb comes from the 12 volt reg, but with all the vias under the chips and the heatsink, it's no problem.


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## nhung (Oct 6, 2009)

How do you control the supply voltage level? Do you put resistor in series with the LED?


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

nhung said:


> How do you control the supply voltage level? Do you put resistor in series with the LED?



Nope, no resistors are used. I use MeanWell power supplies that have a voltage adjustment potentiometer. I can adjust the voltage on a 24 volt model from 16 to 29 volts. This allows me to "dial-in" just the right amount of voltage for my driver's needs.


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## jcgd (Feb 18, 2004)

Would you mind sharing how much a complete driver costs? So you could run around 10 Cree XML off one driver?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just curious what a setup like this costs complete? I've got a 150g that is 30" tall and have thought about LEDs but the depth has some concerns for penetration. For now the tank is jsut running some MH over it.

Craig


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

justincgdick said:


> Would you mind sharing how much a complete driver costs? So you could run around 10 Cree XML off one driver?



The parts and supplies needed to build one costs me around $55.00 plus a few bucks for a 24 volt power supply. That may seem a bit pricey, but the drivers can handle 24 - 28 3 watt leds @ 1000ma. It specs out @ 25 watts per channel or 100 watts per board.

I'm not sure what the Vf is for a typical Cree XML right now. If it's anywhere close to the XPG then I assume you could power 7 XM-L's in series @ 3000 ma utilizing 3 channels on this driver board and save the fourth chip for some moonlights.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

Craigthor said:


> Just curious what a setup like this costs complete? I've got a 150g that is 30" tall and have thought about LEDs but the depth has some concerns for penetration. For now the tank is jsut running some MH over it.
> 
> Craig


I'll be putting together a build thread for this project with a bill of materials and associated costs, just as soon as I have some time. I've had to "back-burner" this project for a while now, I've been too busy building drivers and controllers for lighting tank racks at a LFS.


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

Well I got a chance to work on the light over the weekend. I wired it up, and switched it on-"full blast" for the first time. I'm still seeing "little blue spots", all six of them to be exact..... sorta like- when you look at an arc welder in operation. The word "bright" has been replaced by "intense" when it comes to describing the quantity of light emitted by this unholy contraption.
Just for fun- I threw this thing under my tanks hood to see what an extra 300 watts of LED would look like. I already had 270 watts worth of Cree XR-E's and adding this thing would push that number to 570. The result was photosynthesis on a scale I'd never witnessed before. Prior to switching on the additional lighting, the tank water had already exceeded it's maximum oxygen holding capacity. All the plants in the tank were actively pearling.Within 2 minutes of turning the new light on, the tank water went to what looked like- "boiling". I have never seen anything like it. My ph controller went crazy and I had to up the Co2 flow rate just to keep up with the extra demand. I let the new light run for another 3 hours for a nice "burn-in test" and it did well. I plan to run it for at least 8 hours non stop this weekend and take some temperature measurements to make sure they're within spec, before I call it done. Here's a couple of photos of this thing in action. My camera can't do it justice though.


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## jcgd (Feb 18, 2004)

Tanning bed?


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

That's nuts!!! I love it.


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## reybie (Jun 7, 2007)

A video of a "boiling" tank would have been cool


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## jcardona1 (Jun 27, 2008)

Holy crap Aaron that thing is awesome!!!


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## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

jcardona1 said:


> Holy crap Aaron that thing is awesome!!!


Thanks Jose, I'm glad you like it. I still have to finish wiring the controller into it and finish the write up. I'd post a video but the "Evil I.T. Overlords" at my company won't allow me to upload any "large" files.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

Spectacular!


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## giga (Dec 7, 2007)

I have two of those same leds would you be willing to send or make me a driver to power them?


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