# My "Awesome to Me" DIY LED setup



## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Nice. What type if lighting are you utilizing?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Do I need to hold my breath waiting for the rest of the post?:hihi: That's hard to do.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Waiting!


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

Sorry about that guys


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Niiiiiice.... You LED power supply has readout?

I tried making a fade-able LED setup as well but it randomly would go crazy once in awhile like turned on in the middle of the night. My guess was a power surge would disrupt the PWM cycle. Let me know if you have the same issue or if you know why that happens.


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

amazing setup if that is the light with only two bulbs that thing will be insane bright with all 8.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

mistergreen said:


> Niiiiiice.... You LED power supply has readout?
> 
> I tried making a fade-able LED setup as well but it randomly would go crazy once in awhile like turned on in the middle of the night. My guess was a power surge would disrupt the PWM cycle. Let me know if you have the same issue or if you know why that happens.


Yeah, thats my testing power supply. I tied the +12V and -12V rails together with an LM317 to give a variable 1.25 - 22V output. I threw in a digital voltmeter on the output so I can keep my good voltmeter free for other things.

I have worked out most of the bugs in my software but I know some still exist. I did have some weirdness with the LEDs at first but it seems to have settled down.


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## Cuchulainn (Nov 2, 2010)

K, so when will U be putting these into production? I want one!:hihi:


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## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

Total build cost? Really awesome....


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

Cuchulainn said:


> K, so when will U be putting these into production? I want one!:hihi:


Funny you should mention that. If I can make a decent build out of this and a few people are interested, I will make a production run of timers.

There are some things I want to add like a 3v coin cell battery backup for brown/black out protection. I am thinking about adding another PWM channel or two for supplementing blue and/or red LEDs too. 



GitMoe said:


> Total build cost? Really awesome....


So far, not including things I already have like the PS and the ATMega16, with all 8 LEDs it will be around $100.


U/L-Channel Aluminum - $8.00 x3 = $24.00
LCD = $3.00
LED $7.00 x8 = $56.00
MOSFET = $1.00
Rotary Encoder = $2.00
resistor $1.75 x8 = $14.00
banana jack/plug $0.50 x6 = $3.00

total $103.00

Some parts could be had for cheaper, like the resistors, but were out of stock when I placed my order. 

The 8 LEDs may be over kill as well but I can always just dim them to fit my needs. I thinks its better to have to much light and dial it back as needed then trying to work with to little light. After all, light is what drives the whole cycle and this setup will give me fine gran light control.


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## CptanPanic (Jan 13, 2004)

Borrow a PAR meter and get some readings.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

CptanPanic said:


> Borrow a PAR meter and get some readings.


I would love to get some PAR reading. Anyone in the Plano/Allen, TX area wanna help?


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## JCoxRocks (Mar 22, 2005)

This is pretty crazy... way more than the casual hobbyist would need, but still REALLY cool nonetheless.

Integrating the readout/controls into the exterior side of the stand would be pretty cool. Even better yet would be to go REALLY baller and use some sort of touch-screen interface (ie... iPod touch) to change settings, control, etc.

Way over my head, but I'm in to see this little project!!

J


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## tzen (Dec 31, 2008)

I love the timer, and might be interested in one!

I understand part of the electrical stuff: resistors in series with bulbs in parallel I get; MOSFET, not so much, but you don't have to tutor me here...
By using the computer power supply that is rated at 12A on the 12v rail, you could power up to 12 of your bulbs? So why is everyone messing around with $20 buckpucks that will only power 4 LEDs and non-computer power supplies? If I could salvage my old computer parts and buy some resistors, it seems a lot cheaper.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

tzen said:


> I love the timer, and might be interested in one!
> 
> I understand part of the electrical stuff: resistors in series with bulbs in parallel I get; MOSFET, not so much, but you don't have to tutor me here...
> By using the computer power supply that is rated at 12A on the 12v rail, you could power up to 12 of your bulbs? So why is everyone messing around with $20 buckpucks that will only power 4 LEDs and non-computer power supplies? If I could salvage my old computer parts and buy some resistors, it seems a lot cheaper.


yeah, the PC power supply is awesome. You can find a 300W PS from newegg.com for around $14 too. It may be a little bulky but its not bad. The only real trick you have to do is short the "on" wire to ground to turn the power supply on.

Another great power supply are laptop chargers. Most output around [email protected] They are compact too.


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## jeremyblevins (Aug 14, 2010)

Buckpucks prevent thermal runaway. But can build one yourself cheaply


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## Wicket_lfe (Aug 21, 2008)

WOW $103!!!!, I totally want to make one now! Thanks for this post.


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## paronaram (Jun 29, 2009)

Hey madhatter4,

Looks good!!! Keep Up with good work!
I have a question about dimmer part of your setup.
How did you engage logic with LED?

I ordered very nice LED DC to DC controllers from company name SURE Electronics. They have controllers with PWM terminal. (When applied with +5v or suspended, full amount of current will be output and when connected with ground, output current will be 0) Basically dimmer 

Power source for this type of projects can be used IBM/Lenovo power packs from old laptops. As it was mentioned in this post.
16v 4.5A or 20v 4.5A (most popular power packs) can handle 3 of this setups by 8 LED in each  (well 3 maybe working on limits and it may get HOT. But if running 8 x 3W LED's will do the job just fine.

Thanks.


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## jeremyblevins (Aug 14, 2010)

hey madhatter4 are you using an arduino for the microcontroller? if so would you mind uploading the code for me to incorporate into my setup i'm pretty new to microcontrollers so it's taken me a long time to figure stuff out.


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## VaultBoy (Nov 11, 2010)

This setup looks great... wanna send one to aus when you have it sorted?

keep up the good work


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.42906 is another way to power LEDs that I couldn't find when I made my light. I would use these if I were to make another one.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

A long over due update.


I was not real happy with my first fixture so I redesigned it and added more LEDs for better coverage and intensity. The first fixture was two pieces that sat on each side of the tank. I was planing on 4 LEDs per side totaling 8 LEDs. The new fixture is one piece that spans the whole tank with 6 LEDs per row, 12 total. Currently I am running them at about 900mA each giving a total of about 130 Watts. At 1 Amp each, that are rated for 600 Lumens apiece, totaling 7200 Lumens . A two bulb T5NO fixture would produce about 5200 Lumens, so I should be in the low-medium light range. By contrast a two bulb T5HO would produce about 10800 Lumens and be in the high light range. I am thinking about adding 4 more LEDs in a third row down the middle of the tank to bump me up to about 9600 Lumens.

I know Lumnes is not a good way to judge the amount of light but I dont have a par meter and this is the only thing I have to compare with. Man I wish I had a par meter.































To supply enough power to the LEDs I had to get a new power supply. I found a 20 Amp 12 Volt PS on Ebay for $32 shipped that is working great. Im still using the controller that I build at the beginning of the post for now but I plan on building a new controller with heaps more features and a WiFi module for programing/controlling from a web page or my phone. When I get around to it I will post up the code and schematic for the controller and I will start a new build thread when I start work on the new controller.


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## Rockhoe14er (Jan 19, 2011)

wow that is such an awesome set up. I wish i could make the dimmable driver you made. If you ever decide to maybe sell one i might be interested.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

Once I get this controller finished I'm going to post the code and schematic so any who likes it can build one, it will be surface mount though. I wouldn't mind building a few for those who cant do it themselves. I think the cost would be around $20 in parts. 

I'm basically done, just have to comment the code well and design the PCB.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

My Aquarium Controller has made some good progress and is now on its own PCB. I have made quite a few modifications from the bread board design. The original design was only for a 12V input using a linear 5V regulator for the AVR mcu. My new design utilizes a switching 5V power supply for the AVR mcu. This will allow my to use a laptop power supply which has an output voltage of 19V, 4A. I did this to easily allow me to move the controller to my 12 gallon Nano-Cube at a later date. The 5V linear regulator would have required a large heat sink for this and I wanted to try my hand at switching power supplies anyways. The 12V side of the controller has a provision for a 12V linear regulator for when I move to the laptop power supply. This will keep the fans and relays operating within their voltage range.

The controller now runs on an AVR ATMega32 and has one PWM output for LED control, two relays for switching 110V accessories, and two 12V PC fan outputs. Originally, the only function the controller could do was adjust the LED brightness. Now I can control the LED brightness as well as turn on/off the relays and fans from the LCD main menu. All peripherals can be programed to run at specific times as well. I also replaced the rotary encoder with three buttons that do the same functions. The rotary encoder was a bit annoying, it took about 8 full turns to go from full bright to off. I have added code that increases the speed of dimming when a button has been pressed for over half a second. Hardware has been added for a buzzer and a temperature sensor too but I have not written the supporting code yet. I put the LCD screen and buttons on a separate PCB connected to the main controller via ribbon cable. The PC power supply has been replace with a dedicated 12V, 20A power supply. 

I am working on code that will allow me to map the relays and fans to the LEDs or to a temperature sensor. I want to be able to set a threshold that will turn the relays/fans on or off at a specified LED brightness or sensor value. The buzzer will be used for sounding an alarm based on a sensor threshold or as a reminder to say, dose fertilizer or clean the filters.

Here are some pics of the PBC I etched, more will come later.



















Edit: Total cost for this controller was about $40 in parts. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it in other posts, but all programs are stored in EEPROM. After a power outage the only thing that needs to be reset is the time


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## redfishsc (Aug 29, 2010)

Along with some PAR readings, if you can get an infrared thermometer and check the temp of your heatsink's surface directly where an LED is mounted........ with the LEDs at 100%......after running for a good hour or so. 

My initial guess (based on how hot my own 10w LEDs can get) is that the heatsink you have is pushing the envelope, but you may be fine if you use lower drive currents. 


I love this build, and those can be some pretty good LEDs, I have a 10w "pure white" that looks nice.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

redfishsc said:


> Along with some PAR readings, if you can get an infrared thermometer and check the temp of your heatsink's surface directly where an LED is mounted........ with the LEDs at 100%......after running for a good hour or so.


Since I first started playing with LEDs I have been reading about people wanting to run their light for an hour, 2 hours, 8 hours, and monitor the temperature while doing so. I'm very sure that it isn't necessary to do that. An LED is tiny, the junction which generates the heat is much smaller than that. Even a simple aluminum bar is virtually infinite in comparison. So, I am sure the temperature after perhaps 5 minutes is the equilibrium temperature. The only exception to that would be if the heatsink is truly just a heatsink and not also a heat transfer device. In other words, if the heatsink in fully enclosed in an insulated box, so very little heat is lost from the heatsink, then the temperature will rise relatively slowly for a long time.

But, any reasonable sized finned heatsink, or "C" channel heatsink will transfer heat to the air by convection and to the surroundings by radiation at such a rate that the system will reach equilibrium quickly. Remember it is the LED junction temperature that is the critical temperature, and that junction should reach very near its equilibrium temperature within seconds or even faster, because it has such a tiny mass. In an hour or so the heatsink should be only a few degrees warmer than it started out at, but that will have virtually no effect on the LED junction temperature.

By reasonable sized heatsink I mean something approximating the size of an aquarium light, not a 2 inch diameter heatsink made for a single electronic component.

I'm not looking for an argument on this at all, just "downloading" my thoughts on the subject.:icon_mrgr


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## redfishsc (Aug 29, 2010)

Hoppy said:


> An LED is tiny, the junction which generates the heat is much smaller than that. Even a simple aluminum bar is virtually infinite in comparison. So, I am sure the temperature after perhaps 5 minutes is the equilibrium temperature. ..........................................
> 
> I'm not looking for an argument on this at all, just "downloading" my thoughts on the subject.:icon_mrgr



Lol I'm not about to argue with an engineer lol. 

I could see a 5 minute time period being enough to reach the junction temp, but the main reason I suggested the hour was because that's how long it seems for most of my heat sinks to reach their max overall temp. I assumed (for better or worse) that the junction temp wouldn't really stabilize until the rest of the heat sink had also stabilized. 


I wish there was a simpler way of measuring that junction temp lol.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

As far as a heatsink goes, my fixture is very ineffencent. I would say the whole fixture gets heat soaked in about 45 minutes at 100% power, about 900mA per LED, 10.8A total. At this power level the fixture gets HOT. I can only touch the L shaped aluminum for a couple seconds or I would risk getting burned. The "legs" of the fixture stay warm to the touch. I am running the LEDs at 75% power currently. Im afraid I will burn them out if I ran them at 100% for 14 hours a day.

When I get some free money, I want to get some proper heatsinks from here http://www.heatsinkusa.com/. I will keep the same fixture design but replace the L aluminum with a 48" x 4.230" heatsink. That should keeps the LEDs nice and cool.

To help with my low LED power level, I am running two T5NOs in the center of my fixture. They are connected to one of the relays on my controller and turn on when my LEDs are at 75% power.



















Ill take some temperature reading with my thermal couple this weekend. Im curious to know how hot the LEDs are.

I dont know anyone who has a PAR meter so Im thinking of making one for myself. I have found some good docs online that should help out. I get growth from my Belem hairgrass but it is slow.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

madhatter4 said:


> yeah, the PC power supply is awesome. You can find a 300W PS from newegg.com for around $14 too. It may be a little bulky but its not bad. The only real trick you have to do is short the "on" wire to ground to turn the power supply on.
> 
> Another great power supply are laptop chargers. Most output around [email protected] They are compact too.


Just note, if you buy a super cheap power supply, youre going to be getting a super cheap power supply. Idk if you've looked at hardware reviews for them, but the voltage variance on those can be quite high under load. You really need a nice quality psu if you want to know that you're getting the exact voltage its supposed to be outputting, it can vary up to 2 volts up or down on some of those cheap ones. plus i've seen them catch fire/shoot sparks, and even fry the outlet they're hooked to. With electronics, you really do get what you pay for. Just know that 

--

This build is awesome!


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## redfishsc (Aug 29, 2010)

I definitely do not use ANY power supply for LED use without checking it with a digital multimeter......... (whether as direct LED power, as power to the buck driver, or as reference voltage for the dimmer).


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

Here are some pics of how I am mounting the controller in my cabinet.

This was my first layout, mounted to the cabinet itself. It worked but looked messy. 



















I decided to mount it in a box that will close off this corner of the cabinet. This will make any maintenance a bit easier and keep a clean look. 



















I still need to make a few modifications to the box to allow for the LCD ribbon cable and the power cables and I need to install the rest of the power receptacles. Once that is done I am going to paint the box black so it will blend in nicely. I am also going to make a longer ribbon cable for the LCD so I can mount the LCD to the inside of the cabinet door.

I'm really happy with my progress so far.


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## madhatter4 (Dec 13, 2007)

Here is a pic of the finished controller enclosure.










Much cleaner then my prototyping setup 










Only thing I have left to do is get a longer cable for the LCD and figure out what temperature sensor I want to use.


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## Mcg177 (Apr 6, 2011)

I WANT ONE when its done


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## ShawnS (Dec 13, 2011)

Where did you guys learn how to do all this stuff? You, Hoppy, Sink, and quite a few others seem to know more than most about LEDs and how and why they work.


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## jcgd (Feb 18, 2004)

ShawnS said:


> Where did you guys learn how to do all this stuff? You, Hoppy, Sink, and quite a few others seem to know more than most about LEDs and how and why they work.


Spend more time reading/ learning than you do sleeping and working!:thumbsup:


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

jcgd said:


> Spend more time reading/ learning than you do sleeping and working!:thumbsup:


Right! I spent about 2 months of 2-4 hours a day studying what I could find on the internet, before I started seriously thinking about making a LED light. That meant reading and re-reading stuff until I really understood it. And, my knowledge is still mostly practical knowledge, not "why and how it works" knowledge. It isn't "rocket science", but it also isn't intuitive knowledge either.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Yeah I've spent hours doing research on arduinos and leds. Really want to get an automated tank that runs itself and can email me if there's ever an issue. There's plenty of knowledge on the internet its just a matter of reading and understanding. Also it helps to post pics of your mistakes so others can learn


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## minnu (Oct 10, 2011)

Any update on your tank? Its been more than couple of month's since you had the LED setup. Would love to see update of of your tank


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