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Hey All,
Many of us these days are using DIY led panels for different uses of aquariums, be it marine, planted or general use.
So I am illustrating how easy it is to make and where to find the Raw materials...
The below information is completely based on what I know, which may/May not be standard according to best practices but works for me
Aluminium Panels can be found of differnt shapes and thickness and has to be purchased atleast 12'. Price starts from 110-120 for a 12'
panel of 1" thickness.
The one I used in this project is as below-
At shop, they will ask you for what length would u like to get the panels cut. for 3' I got them cut as 3' *4 (=12') and for 2' tanks 4' *3
(=12') or you can get thm cut at your desired length from the shop.
Moving onto the steps to make the whole setup-
Step 1- I had 4' panels, so I cut them according to my requirement. Them use a marker or anything to roughly finalize the points where
you would like to put the leds. Note: led connections will be three leds in series when using 12V power supply.
Step 2-
Place the Starbase at the locations and chk if the distanced btwn the leds r looking fine to you.
Put Araldite mix and fevi-kwik on the alternating arms...Here fevi kwik is used for quick fixing and araldite for long term bonding
Flip the Starbase again and hold it down by putting in some pressure for the thermal paste to spread out evenly. Within 10seconds the
fevikwik will secure the bond and keep the starbase stick to the panel. Araldite will take some time to get cured
Do the same for all the star bases. Try to keep the +ve marks or -ve marks to any one side like shown in the below picture (+ve on the right
and -ve on the left)-
Full Picture-
Step 5-
We need to put the Series-es(sets) in parallel. that is a SET(series) OF THREE LEDs will be in parallel to Another set of THREE LEDs.
Fig Below-
Same connection in different way of representation-
Step 6- Circuit Design-
Notes-
1) No of LEDs per set/series depends on the LEDs' forward Voltage and the Adapter Output Voltage
2) The total no of LEDs that can be run using the given adapter is calculated using Adapter Output Voltage and Adapter Ampere rating.
For Example-
1)
Mathematically -
We here have 12V adapter and leds are suppose 2.5V to 3.5V. So If we want to make a series with 2.5V, then we can put (12V/2.5V) = 4.8
Leds or 5 Leds.
Practically, If you put three Leds of 2.5V = they will be kind of overclocked u can say coz then they will be operating on 4V which is 1.5V
extra. This works and I have checked that. Only thing is the leds gets quite v hot which lessens its life span while providing great
luminosity. We can also mix and match the Leds of different Voltage in the set/series and it will work as long as the Required Voltage to
run the Leds dont fall too short.
2)
After Voltage, Ampere rating of the Adapter used, has to be kept in mind. A circuit must not have more power requirement than the
Adapter can supply.
For Example -
Power supply Capacity of the Adapter = 12V x 1amp = 12watts, This means, we can run 12x1watt LEDs for a Adapter with 12V 1amp
o/p.
In case the power requirement is more than the adapter can supply, the adapter may burn out.
What it is generally done is- makeing holes on the panel to do the wiring in the back ground. so make holes at required areas for the wires
to pass through to the opposite side like this-
All the connections are functionally done as per the Circuit diagram above-
Connecting all Negatives (Black wires)
Connecting All Positives(red wire)
Connecting Male connector to the Adapter output wires- Note the white marking on the connector wire...same/similar color marking on
the Female connector too, so that the wires are connected in sync...
The Male connector(left) and the female connector (right)
Add some thermal Paste at the center of the bases like shown in the below pic
After that solder the leds to the bases. +ve end of the leds should be soldered to the '+' marked areas and negatives to the '-' marked ones.
How to chk led terminals- get two 1.5v batteries and get a battery case for 5-6bucks for the selected battery model, connect the case's
terminals to the led's terminals and chk which is what terminal. you will know when the led lits up... and it doesnt evn aftr trying the
two possible combinations, dat led is dead....keep it aside and move with the next one.
After connecting and making the connections work, i put on top of one of my tanks and it looked like this...However, plz dont judge the
brightness with a camera pic......so try it out urself and chk how this work out
Thanks a lot to @xarg0n and @souvikray for the initial push to get me started along with their practical experiences on building these and
finding raw materials... Thanks dadas
Please feel free to ask any questions in case of any doubts and also correct me in case if u find some issues in my understanding. I will be
greatly thankful.
Last edited by SanamMarik on Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sanam Marik
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Are these all White LEDs ? how could one know the color Temp and Lumens of these LEDs?
vikramdutta
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super easy to understand...but would have been helpful if you could show the power source connection step too. Just as you did in step 8.
Regards,
Subhadeep
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GRT..
Thanks
BAPPA....
Math. The only place where people buy 60 watermelons and no one wonders why....:)
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vikramdutta wrote:Are these all White LEDs ? how could one know the color Temp and Lumens of these LEDs?
yes all white ones...no specs with Chinese cheap products...its trail nd error method to follow for best results in planted tanks...
Sanam Marik
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SanamMarik wrote:
vikramdutta wrote:Are these all White LEDs ? how could one know the color Temp and Lumens of these LEDs?
yes all white ones...no specs with Chinese cheap products...its trail nd error method to follow for best results in planted tanks...
vikramdutta
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el batty wrote:super easy to understand...but would have been helpful if you could show the power source connection step too.
Just as you did in step 8.
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rahul wrote:It should not be like today planted ,tomorrow cichlid,day after tomorrow blackwater, next community, then
marine ,then business and end up dying useless. Whatever you do do it well
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