# 120 LED Lighting



## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Your heat sinks are going to get pretty toasty in my opinion with the 2100ma driver. I have the 1750ma driver running eight XM-L T6 on that same heat sink 3 1/2 inches apart. Turned all the way up I can't hold my finger on the heat sink more than three seconds.

On the 100 gallon below I have the 40 watt driver which runs at 700ma with 15 XM-L T6 on cheap u-channel and that barely get's warm to the touch at all. I leave that one cranked all the way up on my 100 gallon and it does fine for my low to medium light plants. The face of the 40 degree optics are 29" from the substrate. Here are a few current pictures of that tank. This probably will not give the light you want but probably a good reference point.

Ask Milad how many XM-L's you can put on the 50 watt 1100ma http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-50w-driver-1100ma/ and report back by the way because I think this is more in line with what Hoppy is recommending and I've been dying to ask. :biggrin:


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Don't forget the dimmer/potentiometer
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/10k-ohm-1-2-watt-linear-taper-potentiometer-easy-solder/

You can get one at Radio Shack of the same value but it will be about the same price anyway. For the plug I used a standard two prong extension cord and cut the female end off, that gives you wires and the plug for cheap at any discount store.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

What dimming does exactly? Does is lower the mapm driver sends out, So 2100ma would be just it's max setting and I could dim it to something like 1000ma? Again don't really know what dimmer part does exactly


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Honestly, I don't know what it does to amps at each LED. I know your watts will drop a lot and the light gets dimmer, lol. I have one of those Kill-A-Watt meters. It will measure watts and total current being pulled at the plug. I've wired two and would be happy to help with wiring the thing up however, so you can PM me if you have any questions on that. I did use the single core hook up wire to run the LED's so you could pick that up if you want. I've seen a lot of people using heavier gauge but the stuff Milad sells is really easy to work with. From the end of the circuit to the driver I did go heavier because it was a longer run to the driver mounted remotely.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I am very interested in this set up


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The dimmer just reduces the current through the series string of LEDs. Ideally you get LED driver that provides the maximum current you will want to use, then the dimmer lets you reduce that current easily for lower light levels.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

But this one http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-120w-driver-2100ma/ should be fine, and allow me to dim it down so LEDs run at 1ish amp instead of 2.1.

I just rather have the ability to turn them up higher if I ever need, than getting a driver that can do 1amp as its max like this one http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-50w-driver-1100ma/

Though I guess if either can run all 12 LEDs, it would save a bit of cash


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

From reading this

You can tell quickly by the graph as the amperage goes up, the XR-E uses much more voltage than the XP-G and XM-L. At 1 amp, the XR-E uses 3.7v which is 10% more than the XP-G and a whopping 23% more than the XM-L. That means if you have a 48V driver running at 1mp you can only put 12 XR-E CW or 14 XP-G CW or 16 XM-L CW. That means for the same cost of powering 12 XR-E CW which give you 2824.8 lumen you could be powering 16 XM-L CW which would give you 6208 lumens. See how quickly this adds up? Less power, more light, that is what LEDs are all about. This is why efficiency is so important. Every minute you have a non efficient LED wired up, it is costing you money.

I guess http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-50w-driver-1100ma/ could run up to 16 XM-Ls?


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Where do you get those cheaper aluminum channels? Lowes or somehing?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You can get aluminum channel extrusions from Ebay. Just search Ebay for aluminum channel. I have a local surplus metals dealer where I buy mine, and where they are much cheaper than Home Depot or hardware stores, and cheaper than Ebay.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Anyone able to chime in on this driver http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-50w-driver-1100ma/

Should be able to run 16 Cree XM-L Cool White U2 at 1100mA if I understand it correctly?
At 1100mA xml takes about 3v and we have 48v total on that driver, so 48/3 = 16


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You can only run it at 50 watts. 50 watts/1.1 amps = 45 volts, 45 volts/3 volts = 15. So, the most LEDs you can run at 1.1 amps is 15. Personally, I would prefer to stay at about 45 watts maximum, which would reduce the number of LEDs to 13.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Ok thanks. Just making sure it can run the 12 xmls that you told me I should get for my tank


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

raidendex said:


> Where do you get those cheaper aluminum channels? Lowes or somehing?


I got my aluminum channel at Orchard Hardware Supply which I think is a California chain. Lowes and Home Depot didn't have the one I found when I was looking. The face is 7/8" wide and the channels are 1/2" high. I think it might be 1" X 1/2, just narrower than the spec.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Aluminum Channel 2" x .170" x 1-1/4" - that sounds good?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

raidendex said:


> Aluminum Channel 2" x .170" x 1-1/4" - that sounds good?


That sounds perfect! The .170 thick aluminum makes it a good heatsink. And the 1 1/4" legs make for good shielding of the LEDs from the viewers eyes.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Cool, ordered 2 of those 36" long each. Should be able to make a decent fixture with them I hope.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

So I've been looking at drivers for the 12 XM-Ls

How do these two compare?
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-50w-driver-1100ma/
vs
http://www.rapidled.com/mean-well-eln-60-48d-dimmable-driver/

Mean well is cheaper obviously, but is there much reason to pay more for Inventronics one? stats wise they seem similar for my purposes at least.

Thanks!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The Meanwell driver also needs a 10 volt D.C. power source to make it a dimmable driver, while the Inventronics one doesn't need that. Either one will work, but I think the Inventronics one is the better one.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Ok Inventronics driver it is then!

So back to the initial question about the drivers.
I could use this http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-120w-driver-2100ma/ and dim it down to run XM-Ls at about 1100mA and remain fairly cool, correct?


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Got heat sinks in the mail today, quite a bit thicker than I imagined heh. Rest is on the order from ledgroupbuy, hopefully won't be too long.


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## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

Subscribed !
Would love to see the final result.
I too am planning to make one just like this.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

those heat sinks look amazing!
let me know when you'll start building them, i want to come over and see the welding action!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You don't need to weld the two channels together. Just get two lengths of 1 1/4" aluminum angle and pop rivet then across the ends to hold the heatsinks together at the spacing you want. Pop riveting is very easy to do and only requires one extra tool - fairly cheap.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Yeah I'm not welding anything together, was just going to build wood frame out of 6x1 planks around it, maybe even just a U shaped and set the heatsinks on top of two 1x1 beams holding the frame together.

Anyways, have a question about LED spacing.

You said, 6" between rows and 4" between LEDs, is that between their centers or from side of one star to the side of another lol? :iamwithst


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The spacing is between the centers of the LEDs.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Cool, thank you. Thought so, but wanted to make sure 

Hopefully the U2s will ship soon, can't wait to put this thing together!


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Well got them the LED stuff yesterday, and built the fixture today.

Overall was expecting a much brighter light in general, but it seem to work. Some plants started to send out a stream of gas within few minutes. The main problem is that with 40 degree optics 12 leds in 2 rows of 6 really cannot cover the whole tank well at all.

If the fixture is centered at 33" above the substrate about 6-8" of each side are pretty much dark.

I dropped it for now to about 26" above substrate, coverage doesn't seem to change much with that. Attached the picture of it.

Will probably add another 4 leds a bit later to cover the tank better. I think with 16, 8 per row, coverage would be much better.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Here it is 33" above the substrate. No banding on top this way, but still I feel like the spread is not enough on the sides. So i'll be ordering 4 more xmls and adding them on the sides. I think that would make it pretty much perfect.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

It does look like the ends of the tank are too dim. You could try replacing the optics on the outer LEDs to 60 degree, which would spread the light more, while also dropping the intensity over that area too. If you add more LEDs be sure to stay within both the power anad output voltage limits for the driver. With Meanwell drivers you can jack up the output voltage if you are just a little over the limit, but that reduces the maximum current you can use without going over the power limit.

You could also raise the light a bit more to help cover the ends better. If you went to 40 inches, that would increase the coverage about 2-3 inches each end, but with the PAR down by about 18%.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

I'm using this driver - http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/inventronics-120w-driver-2100ma/

So it should do 16 just fine, Looks like about 17.8 XM-L at 2.1a.

Optics I guess I should get the 60 degree ones for the extra 4 that I will add on the side. Because i just shifted the light so that 4 LEDs are on one side of the brace and the other 2 on the other to basically simulate what would one side look like with 8 per row instead of 6 and it still looks dim.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

at least you got some pearling!


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Yeah quite a few leaves are letting out a stream of bubbles now. Really should take pictures or something each day to see how things are growing.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

post the new pictures! update this!


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## Milad LEDGroupBuy.com (Jan 29, 2011)

monkeyruler90 said:


> post the new pictures! Update this!


+1


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

eventually ! just trimmed giant leaves off of red tiger lotus that sprung up after leds were installed, maybe in a week or so when new ones come back out


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

How did you like using the thermal pads, I would be afraid of the lights coming loose but they are very small and light.

Did you take any photos of the light after you finished the construction, I would like to see your layout?


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Well here are two phone pics I took the day I finished the fixture with extra 4 LEDs, originally was just 12, now I have 16 all with 40 degree optics. Adhesive pads seem fine.


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## raidendex (Mar 13, 2012)

Here's the link to the video of the tank with new lights. Plants seem to be happy, now trying to make discus happy again >< They do not care much for these bright lights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRPvjgFCATM


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