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sunflashx 
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 Topic: 2 Fixture, 72 LED build
Posted: March 30 2012 at 8:38pm |
Cross posting this from my Tank build thread since I think the pictures can be helpful for aspiring LED DIYers.
 I'm rebuilding my LED fixtures with the new heatsinks Rapidled.com sells. You can see the guides for the splash shield in the picture, I really like that, along with the way the fins are formed on the top so you can mount things to it is great. Also, it has taller fins than the normal heatsinkusa.com stuff lots of people use, which should shed heat better, not that it's really an issue.
I struggle with finding a layout that maintains a 2 to 1 ratio of blue to white and maintains an even distribution. I settled on this:
I'm also redoing my driver installation, and moving it down to the basement. I picked up 10 euro style wiring blocks from eBay for $0.99 + shipping, they should make my mounting cleaner. Reefledlights wants $5 a shot for them, and they are $10 ea at the home depot.
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sunflashx
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Posted: March 30 2012 at 8:39pm |
Finished V2 fixture.
Fan is crooked because the slotted fins are lined up for a 90mm fan, and this is a 120mm. Power connectors are Anderson Powerpoles, with a hydrostatic anti corrosion product on the terminals, ordered from www.powerwerx.com.
Integrated splash shield is pulled back to the 2nd row of LEDs so you can see it's there.
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sunflashx
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Posted: March 30 2012 at 8:47pm |
Driver mounting board. This is going in my basement, and I'm fishing a wiring harness up through the wall. In total it's set up for 3 fixtures, with room for 4 if needed(anticipating a 180G upgrade). Calculated voltage loss for 15' of cable is only like .33% over 16ga cable, so I'm not anticipating there being any issues. I've got probably 9' of cable on my current V1 fixture and it runs just fine.
Dimmer controlls will be remote mounted under my tank.
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sunflashx
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Posted: April 04 2012 at 10:43pm |
Finished driver assembly (2 blue drivers on left, 1 white, 1 extra for fixture #2 on right side of board):
Under tank termination:
Light fixture mounting tray:
Edited by sunflashx - April 04 2012 at 10:50pm
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Laird
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Posted: April 04 2012 at 10:54pm |
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Looks great, I really love those heatsinks. 72 LEDs is also what I run on my 90 gallon.
My next build I'm for sure using those heatsinks.
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Indefinite hiatus from sw aquariums.
Once I have my glorious return I'll set back up the following.
50 Gallon rimless cube.
180 Gallons mixed reef paradise
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sunflashx
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Posted: April 11 2012 at 8:08pm |
As a note for future reference, rapidled doesn't get consistent orders of LEDs. I'm not sure what they're doing or if LEDs are like tile and block dye lots, two different batches never match.
I reused 24 lamps from my old assembly and I should have mixed them all up to keep the colors from standing out. I'll probably end up taking them down, pulling lamps off and mixing things up.
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Laird
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Posted: April 11 2012 at 8:26pm |
 sunflashx wrote:
As a note for future reference, rapidled doesn't get consistent orders of LEDs.  I'm not sure what they're doing or if LEDs are like tile and block dye lots, two different batches never match.
I reused 24 lamps from my old assembly and I should have mixed them all up to keep the colors from standing out.  I'll probably end up taking them down, pulling lamps off and mixing things up.
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Thats the case with all LED sellers. You have to specific that your LEDs come from the same bin so that they are consistent.
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Indefinite hiatus from sw aquariums.
Once I have my glorious return I'll set back up the following.
50 Gallon rimless cube.
180 Gallons mixed reef paradise
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sunflashx
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Posted: April 11 2012 at 9:56pm |
Lamps on the left are using the LED Link Lenses that www.ledreeflights.com used to sell. I originally bought those because they include a sticky tape type thing to hold them on without having to deal with glue.
The rest are RapidLed lenses, except the really bright looking ones, those have no lenses yet because I miscounted and messed a couple up.
All of them are 80deg lenses. The led link ones appear to be throwing a lot of light directions besides down.
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Soehl
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Posted: May 09 2012 at 11:32am |
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Looks AWESOME!!! What size is that heatsink? Also, is there a reason you took off the covers on your drivers? Was there a heat issue?
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Cory
180 Gallon Mixed Reef
Radion Pro LED
75 Gallon Elite Sump/Refugium
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ReefKeeper78
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Posted: September 12 2012 at 1:16am |
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I really like the power poles you are using and will defiantly be using them in my build!. Thanks for shareing!
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