# DIY LED with MakersLED Heat Sink



## fplata (May 20, 2012)

where did you get all of the parts, this looks awesome


----------



## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Very cool, how much did all that cost you?


----------



## sunyang730 (Jan 30, 2012)

You got a scary cat over there with nice LED eyes. LOL


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

fplata said:


> where did you get all of the parts, this looks awesome


Thank, im pretty happy with it! I got pretty much everything from LED Group Buy. They are a sponsor here on the forum. It's pretty much one-stop shopping  The aluminum spacers, extruded u-channel, and random nuts and bolts I got at Home Depot. 

Off topic, if you don't have a multimeter, get one - it's very helpful when trouble shooting 



xenxes said:


> Very cool, how much did all that cost you?


Well, I got free shipping for ordering on the 4th of July, but total around $500 including the controller. If I had built my own drivers, it would have been considerably cheaper. I also could have gone with cheaper LEDs, but the XT-E's are only about $4 apiece with comparable performance to an XP-G. I expect a huge difference in my electric bill. Soon enough, this fixture will pay for itself!



sunyang730 said:


> You got a scary cat over there with nice LED eyes. LOL


Wow, I hadn't noticed that! Ha! She looks like a Cylon to me....

I just finished hanging this a minute ago. The difference is astounding! The shadows are sharper enhancing the texture of my rocks, the shimmer is pretty but not overwhelming, and there is only a small sliver of the tank that is in the dimmer portion of the beam. This is lower light than I had with the T5HO's (or at least it appears to be so) so I will see some slower growth, but that's what I was aiming for. Still, I'm seeing pearling almost immediately.

I will have to report back on the DIM4 controller, however. I have a suspicion that it will not dim as effectively as I want. We'll see!


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

According to Hoppy's LED Calculator I have approximately 52 PAR at my substrate and 75 PAR at mid-tank. At upgrade time, I'll likely go with a 1100 mA driver and raise the fixture to get more even coverage and have more flexibility if I want higher light later. For now, this will do very nicely


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Installed My only complaint is that the hanging bar is pretty high. I may shorten the wires and lower the bar so that the fixture is closer to the bar and it doesn't look as funny. I did reinstall the hanging bars so that the bars are on the sides of the aquarium. This way they are not visible when viewing the aquascape:










Pardon the crummy iPhone pics


----------



## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

usually im not a fan of most DIY LED lighting systems (girlfriend dislikes ugly things ) , but this one looks as well as it performs! good show!


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Algae Beater said:


> usually im not a fan of most DIY LED lighting systems (girlfriend dislikes ugly things ) , but this one looks as well as it performs! good show!


Thanks! My wife was a little concerned at first, but she loves it almost as much as I do. Admittedly, she is mostly impressed that I put it together without burning the house down, haha...

I got my new ac adapter yesterday, so I'll be installing that and the fan housing tomorrow.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Update time! I reinstalled the hanging wires at a shorter distance, and raised the fixture a few inches. I also reduced the current a bit. It seems I was getting much more light from this than I originally calculated. It has warmed up quite nicely. Even at the greater height, there is very little glare with the optics installed. It makes it very pleasant to view my aquarium. Absolutely loving this, and so are my plants. No trouble getting color from my Rotala, and everything looks super healthy! 

Btw, six bridgelux blues are too much for moonlights. I have to keep them cranked WAY down. Almost no use at this level. Might replace them with some warm whites to bring out the reds and oranges a bit.


----------



## wastedtime (Oct 27, 2011)

Looking good, How are you hanging the lights ? I checked and didnt see any hanging kits for the Makers LED Heatsink.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks! I installed several eyebolts across the aluminum u-channel - 4 for each fixture. There is a 3/8" (approx) bolt channel at the top of the heat sink you can use as well. I attached stainless steel braided wire (picture hanging wire rated for 50lbs) with ferrules across each pair of eyebolts. Instead of using the stops, I just crimped the ferrules. It's just slung over the hanging pipe at about 4". Looks super clean, even with the power cables. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.


----------



## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

Your thread inspired me to try out this kit on my next tank. Very excited for it all to come in!


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Excellent! You won't be disappointed. I think it's very well thought out and it looks great. The ability to change things if I don't like them and upgrade in the future is priceless, in my opinion  have fun!


----------



## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

the warm whites are quite good at bring out reds! i have XP-G warm whites in one of my lighting systems and they really make the red plants pop! and have the bonus of having the highest CRI of any LED


----------



## Mike in MD (Aug 21, 2012)

Very nice build roud:
I built mine in the Living Room also, that's where working nights comes in handy with the better half :biggrin:

Mike


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks! Yeah, it's a good thing the end product met with her approval, haha...









Totally forgot to add this  here is the hanging hardware I used. All from the same aisle in Home Despot.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

There is a lot of green fuzzy stuff on my rocks! Reducing light duration from 10 to 8 hours, increasing ferts and CO2.

It's kind of pretty as it waves in the current, but it is smothering my plants. Grr... Trimmed everything down. Rotala is unstoppable. Looking at this, I think it would look better if the hydro were on the upper level and the grass on the lower front and up the center. I may do this if I get time. Sadly, my schedule goes bonkers this week, so I'll be an infrequent visitor for a while. I'll try to post progress when I have time!


----------



## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

I got my kit in, it's very very nice. I wish I didn't use thermal adhesive and just stuck to using thermal paste, because I need to add a few more LEDs and now they're stuck to the heatsink so I can't add more screws.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Oh no! Well, there must be some way of removing it...


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If you used an aluminum oxide based adhesive I found I could easily pop the stars off with a knife blade at the joint - just a bit of prying and they came loose.


----------



## toffee (Apr 2, 2007)

Mike in MD said:


> Very nice build roud:
> I built mine in the Living Room also, that's where working nights comes in handy with the better half :biggrin:
> 
> Mike


+1, really nice. Love it. Got a few questions ~ what is the size of the tank? What's the rated power consumption or Watts?

Thanks.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

toffee said:


> +1, really nice. Love it. Got a few questions ~ what is the size of the tank? What's the rated power consumption or Watts?
> 
> Thanks.


Thanks! I don't recall what current I'm running right now, but at full power, it'd be burning 84 watts or so (I'd have to double check my specs). Under half that of my T5HO's. I don't run it at full power, however. Turns out it's a lot more light than I anticipated! I need to get my hands on a par meter to know exactly what it's putting out.

The tank is an ADA 120-P, which is 65 gallons (48x18x18). At the current height and with 60 degree optics, it has pretty much perfect coverage, with the most concentrated beam covering the full footprint at substrate level (plus a few inches).


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Hoppy said:


> If you used an aluminum oxide based adhesive I found I could easily pop the stars off with a knife blade at the joint - just a bit of prying and they came loose.


That's good to know, Hoppy  thanks for the tip! I think I'll drop that in the FAQ...


----------



## kingdave (Feb 20, 2010)

What is your ratio of cool white to neutral white LED's?


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

I have changed this recently. I was running 50/50 (14cw 14nw), but this was lacking in the red part of the spectrum. I have added 8 warm whites to make up the difference, and it has balanced it out pretty well.


----------



## Rudger (Oct 30, 2012)

I just put together a similar fixture. The combination of cool and warm white on seperate channels gives me excelent control. I did not include any blue LEDs, but if you have fish that have iradecent highlights it is worth adding in a few blues.

Since this thread was started, Ledgroupbuy has started selling a hanging kit. It is very nice and easy to adjust.

What are you using for a power supply? I bought one on their site, but I am not a fan of the exposed line voltage terminals.


----------



## Gamezawy (Apr 3, 2012)

very nice build theblondskeleton i love it , i am on my way to make my lights for the same tank as you , well i have some questions you are running 28 CREE XTE leds but at what current ? and is by that you are getting enough light for a high tech system ? and about your NW leds how much its kelvin ?

and after your experiment what do you recommend for the ratio between CW and NW


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Rudger said:


> I just put together a similar fixture. The combination of cool and warm white on seperate channels gives me excelent control. I did not include any blue LEDs, but if you have fish that have iradecent highlights it is worth adding in a few blues.
> 
> Since this thread was started, Ledgroupbuy has started selling a hanging kit. It is very nice and easy to adjust.
> 
> What are you using for a power supply? I bought one on their site, but I am not a fan of the exposed line voltage terminals.


I'll have to check out the hanging kit - I have a decent setup for it right now, but I do enjoy tinkering.

I have the Meanwell power supply as well. I'd be more comfortable with it in a box, but it does all right.

I had blues for a bit, but I was getting crazy BBA with them, so I removed them. I have enough blue spectrum with the cool whites to keep the plants happy, so it didn't bother me too much.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Gamezawy said:


> very nice build theblondskeleton i love it , i am on my way to make my lights for the same tank as you , well i have some questions you are running 28 CREE XTE leds but at what current ? and is by that you are getting enough light for a high tech system ? and about your NW leds how much its kelvin ?
> 
> and after your experiment what do you recommend for the ratio between CW and NW


Thanks! I can't say how much I love the heat sink. It's a pretty well engineered package.

I'm running 36 emitters now (after adding the 8 warm whites). My driver is the SmartyCat designed by O2Surplus (see his thread about that). As I recall, it runs at about 1100 mA, but I have each channel manually dialed down quite a bit. I couldn't say exactly what the current is for each channel, except to say it provides plenty of PAR without algae issues.

As for the ratio of cw/nw, I'd say add the warm whites to the equation. Without them I was getting leggy growth that looked like I just didn't have enough light (which I didn't in the red part of the spectrum). My current ratio is (cw:nw:ww) 1:1:0.5, but my cw are running at about 75%, my nw are dialed down at least 50%, and the ww are running at nearly 100% (of the 1100mA max). They also have 80 degree optics instead of 60 degree optics like the cw/nw. 

In other words, a lot of variables going on there.

I'd almost say you don't need nw, except to render your greens. That would be a personal choice.

Those are just my observations based on my conditions, so things may be different for you. Hope that helps!


----------



## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

I'm so glad that I chose to use MakersLED heatsink. It was your build that inspired me 
I cant be more happy with this light. No plant is impossible with it.


----------



## O2surplus (Jan 31, 2010)

theblondskeleton said:


> My driver is the SmartyCat designed by O2Surplus (see his thread about that).


No Kidding? The SmartyCat is still up and running? :thumbsup: That's great news! For me this feels like, what the guys at JPL must feel like, when they get a faint signal from a long forgotten space probe - LoL.


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

O2surplus said:


> No Kidding? The SmartyCat is still up and running? :thumbsup: That's great news! For me this feels like, what the guys at JPL must feel like, when they get a faint signal from a long forgotten space probe - LoL.


Haha. No kidding  I managed to blow out channel 5 (totally my fault) but it works like a champ!


----------



## Gecko (Jun 2, 2013)

My first opinion is "woaahh so expensive" and second one is "So cool" 

Probably it can be made half price in Hong Kong  But really nice work. I love that hanging arm. 

Just the cables are luttle bit messy but no one look at under the fixture. And no one can see when lights are on even they look at that

Anyway eventually i like whole thing. Good job my friend!


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Gecko said:


> My first opinion is "woaahh so expensive" and second one is "So cool"
> 
> Probably it can be made half price in Hong Kong  But really nice work. I love that hanging arm.
> 
> ...


Haha, thanks, Gecko! Expensive, yeah! With O2Surplus' SmartyCat and sink's code it does exactly what I want and I have complete control over every aspect of its output, so I think it's worth the extra expense. It helps me to understand light better when I can fine tune it. That's something you can't get from Hong Kong 

I admit my wires are messy, haha! Thanks for checking it out!


----------



## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

sumer said:


> I'm so glad that I chose to use MakersLED heatsink. It was your build that inspired me
> I cant be more happy with this light. No plant is impossible with it.


Glad to hear it, sumer! I completely agree with you. I love this thing!


----------



## kevreh (Feb 4, 2014)

blondskeleton,

I have a smaller tank with a 14"x14" footprint. Already have some leds and a typhon controller. Need to spend another @$50 on meanwell ldd's and a power supply.

With that size tank I only need about 10 leds. Talking the 3w endorstar ones. Problem is, I'm concerned about spotlighting and the disco effect. (btw, very nice led tutorial you wrote :smile: ). I can buy a fugeray planted+ for about that amount. The fugeray and current lights use a lot of smaller leds to address what Im worried about.

What do you think?


----------

