Cali Kid Corals

LED team build

$6.48 for XR-E @ 52 pieces from Cutter. (on boards)

(for comparison purposes :p)


While I won't be building right now, If Im available, I'll see about making the trek over to help at the meeting :)
 
Thanks Tony for the price reference at cutters. Last time I bought the royal blues top bin (D315) mounted on premium ETG starboard for $5.45 each on nano-reef group buy. So for 52 LEDs, it will be $53 difference, almost enough for 10 extra LEDs. Don't mean to be cheap, but I am cheap :), and love to save a few dollars here and there. This morning I just took the dive and bought the Royal-Exclusiv Alpha 200 Cone Skimmer, and am really feeling the sour of it now, and especially feel like saving a few bugs :D .
 
Great Phong. I will work on the group PM this evening.

I also like the idea of doing it as cheap as possible, while keeping great quality, to have a thing of pride to look at while it is on. One thing is for sure, I am not proud of my DIY overflow. So I am all for doing it best. The overflow has to be shut off for movies it is so loud. I usually hand feed during the movie so it all works out. Otherwise its as if there is a meditative water fountain in the room. That redo is coming at some point.
 
i own a sign shop in Union city where all of my machines and tools are and have a descent size area where we can work at. i should have just about everything we should need here. its by James Logan High in Union city where seems to be in the middle of everybodys locations.
 
What would be ideal is if we had this done as "units". Say..a 10" long heatsink which we can CNC tap a predetermined LED array. You can probably get a 4x6 array onto each heatsink. Then the user can wire up any star mounted LED they want :)
 
Sorry I sent a PM to everyone and not all of you are member, yet. Didn't intend to leave anyone behind. The best $20 I have spent in this hobby was the members fee for BAR.

You all can reach me at richard@yardartist.biz. Heyistomid, you are one of the ones I have sent PM. Sorry my contact did not get to you yet.

Still trying to set up a first meet up. If the host is up to a larger group, then the meeting will be put up here so others could choose to come.
 
Hey guys,
You can count me in. I can make pretty easy to Dirtydrew's shop.
I still have not tested my LED driver yet... Still waiting on the LED to come from China. :(
If my driver works, it is still gonna need a DC power supply.... :( The only bad thing....
Richard, just to let you know, last I checked on lead time for Meanwell, it was 12 weeks or so.... It'll be a looooong project... lol
Tonggao, so you got in that 1st Evil's LED group by, huh? There was a second one just recently when I was about to come back from vacation. Same price though.
I'll ask him where he bought those last time.... I've read somewhere but forgot now... We might need a source to buy our royal blues too. I have a strong feeling that with a good heat dissipation, even the cheap chinese Q5 cool white WG bin is good enough... Problem is that they don't carry the blues. The only difference between chinese and made in USA is the star for dissipation, in my opinion.
Keep me informed Richard.
roberto@imlogo.com

Thanks
 
I bought 12 cool white and 12 royal blue on the second group buy. I bought the Meanwells directly from Powergate in Santa Clara (got to take advantage of the location :)). I just bought and picked up 4 more PLC-35-700 drivers from them today (two days waiting time, and no shipping charge). They runs at 700ma, not dimmable, and much cheaper than ELN-60-48D driver, which in my opinion is the perfect choice for the actinic light (1A with ELN-60-48D is too much for Royal blue anyway, and I think dimming is just a fun but unnecessary gadget for the actinic light). As for the LED, I called Anna Lopez at ETG yesterday, and she is shipped me 52 Royal Blue LEDs today. Price is pretty good, $5.85 each plus $7 shipping. ETG has a $100 minimum purchase limit though. If you buy more than 100 LED, price drop a little (9c each), which makes it not worth it to do a group buy. I think the volumn purchace price schedule is the same as the group buy.

I will try to go to Dirtydraw's LED session if possible, but might not be able to find the time for the long trip. You guys are more than welcome to drop by to check out the projects that I am working on.
 
We have a date. The host opened up the invitation to anyone reading this thread. Next Thursday the 3rd, at Sign A Rama, 33424 Alvarado-Niles Rd., Union City CA, 7:30pm.

Those of you who have said you might make it do not need to post again.

If you have not posted interest before now, please post here if you think you might come to check out what others have already been working on, and help plan designs and buying lists.

Thanks everyone for pulling this together.
 
Hello Guys,

I wanted to inform that I have made a mistake on my calculations on the LED driver I showed you guys on the meeting.
My driver and LEDs were actually not heating up because it was running at only 0.75A.
So, if you want to use that big heatsink from heatsinkusa.com, it will do just fine and you may even need forced air using fans to cool it down if you choose to run the driver at 1A. If you choose to run at 1A, you'll get even more light output than what we have seen in the meeting.
If you have any additional questions, let me know.

Roberto.
 
Hey Richard,

I think this LED project is worth commenting on:

Is it worth a team build at a later date (what do you think)?

This would be something for folks that have way too much time on their hands.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=17075685001. (only 2 1/2 minutes long)

Be sure to watch it through to the end.

Feel free to pass the link along to other Die Hard LEDers and electrical type folks if you want.

Enjoy,
Joel
 
GreshamH said:
Do you know the in's and out's of the LED world?
Click to expand...
IN response to a PM I got...
Yardartist... I was asking if you were educated in how they work, what was best to use, formulas, etc... AKA the "in's and out's" of how it works inside and out.

the in's and out's
knowledge and experience, knowing the ropes He knows the in's and out's of the car business. He's experienced.
Click to expand...
 
Gresham, I was searching for others here because in all the reading of threads I still could not get my head around the wiring and what role watts, amps, and the buck pucks and drivers played in the scheme. This thread has helped. My formal training is horticulture, a long jump from electrical.

You are way more connected with certain parts of the aquarium business which brought up the question of do you know something I would not have access to. Thanks for clarifying.
 
Tony knows way more then me on all things :) What I have picked up can all be found in the various threads for the most part.
 
I've been in contact a bit with Richard on this. It also looks like he is working with a handful of people, some of which have what seems to be a good understanding of the situation.
 
Hi everyone,
So thanks to xcaret, I now have a 29gallon tank! And thanks to the new acquisition we can now begin the GROUP BUY!!!!!
Yardartist and I will be organizing the Group buy in the group buy section. Please refer to that coming thread for the group buy. We're looking at LEDs, heat sinks, buck pucks, and power supplies.
 
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