Kessil

Cheap LED?

fbret

fbret

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Folks, this is my first post after a 7 year hiatus... so bear with me!
I now have a 12G nano and things have changed since my 90G was sold!

Amazon has a video light that seems ripe for hacking @ $20...
http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-Digital-Camcorder-Panasonic-Samsung/dp/B009HU6RI8/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349196844&sr=1-7&keywords=CN-160

Even if the color temperature is a little low, I could see myself swap 25-50% of the leds in there for royal blue. Worth it?

Thanks

-Fred
 
Talks about battery life. Make sure you can plug it in at least. I'd not want to try it myself. Build your own if you wanna go cheap. Check out a kessil a150 if you wanna plug and play
 
LEDs have come a LONG way in 7 years. If you are good, DIY may still be worth it, but there are lots of inexpensive finished products out there that rival conventional lighting (in terms of pricing). I'd recommend you post up a realistic total budget and see where that puts you.
 
I've been eyeing this one myself, in cool white I think it's more reef appropriate than the one you linked.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-spot-flood/16-watt-par20-bulb-e27-base-38-degree/417/

It's basically half a kessel at way less than half the price.

The reef stuff is way overpriced, IMO.
 
anathema said:
I've been eyeing this one myself, in cool white I think it's more reef appropriate than the one you linked.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-spot-flood/16-watt-par20-bulb-e27-base-38-degree/417/

It's basically half a kessel at way less than half the price.

The reef stuff is way overpriced, IMO.
Click to expand...
and 5700k for the "blue" one
 
anathema said:
I've been eyeing this one myself, in cool white I think it's more reef appropriate than the one you linked.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-spot-flood/16-watt-par20-bulb-e27-base-38-degree/417/

It's basically half a kessel at way less than half the price.

The reef stuff is way overpriced, IMO.
Click to expand...

You need to look at the details first.

That is 16 Watts and $40 for 550 lumens.
That 550 lumens can be done with 2 x Cree XP-Gs, running 700mA = 4 Watts, at $9

Plus, I think the chip is really built by YJM - of questionable quality. But not at all sure about that.
And who knows what the spectrum looks like.
 
fbret said:
Folks, this is my first post after a 7 year hiatus... so bear with me!
I now have a 12G nano and things have changed since my 90G was sold!

Amazon has a video light that seems ripe for hacking @ $20...
http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-Digital-Camcorder-Panasonic-Samsung/dp/B009HU6RI8/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349196844&sr=1-7&keywords=CN-160

Even if the color temperature is a little low, I could see myself swap 25-50% of the leds in there for royal blue. Worth it?

Thanks

-Fred
Click to expand...

Welcome back, Fred! Some folks just can't resist the taste of salt. ;)

Like Coral reefer pointed out, the Amazon video light looks to be a portable light, so you'd probably want to add a transformer and AC line. My other concerns:
1. With 160 LEDs total, you'd be doing a lot of soldering to swap out 25-50% of the LEDs.
2. As a portable light, it may not be equipped with adequate cooling for prolonged operation over a typical photoperiod

It sound like you're pretty handy, so as Gomer pointed out, you may be better off going the DIY route. Let us know what you decide, and we need to see photos of your 12G tank! :D
 
5700k is a non issue, I've run daylight bulbs for years and still run one now.

Kessil isn't listing the lumens or beam angle on their site for comparison, and I'm not gonna dig for it.

Comparing bare Cree led cost to plug and play doesn't work either. You still need to factor in a heat sink, power supply, solder, and the fact that my DIY soldering projects look like bombs and would probably get me arrested if I put one in a duffle and went to the airport.
 
For DIY, modifying modern small electronic parts is HARD. Almost everything is surface mount these days.

Note that rapidled has SOLDERLESS kits.
The biocube=8 one might be a good fit.
About $100, but you probably need several of those 16W bulbs.

Warning: In general, a lot of cheap import LED bulbs fail pretty quick.
It is not the LED as much as the cheap inefficient power supplies used.
All that jammed in a small form factor get too hot. Plus, they are
not expected to be on 12 hours a day, every day.
(Not a specific statement on the items linked though - just general)
 
Ok, I followed the board's advice and got a retrofit from RapidLed. :)

I now have an arduino controlling both led dimmers, temperature, hood fan and ATO. I'm in heaven!

Thanks guys!

-Fred
 
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