72" DIY LED build...A Solaris rising from the ashes.
 

Ok so I have been talking and talking about redoing the Solaris LED boards.

Well after replacing too many PS units, problems with the controller, and an over sense that I owe my tank better, I decided to replace the entire inner workings of fixture. I have started the process of replacing some of the boards, drivers, and PS.

I am going to replace the existing driver boards with DIY drivers thanks to der_wille_zur_macht.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1759758

So basically, I am going to make my own fixture using only the Solaris shell.

First let me say that I would not have been able to even start a project like this without thanking the following RC members: Soundwave, der_wille_zur_macht, kcress, Spacedcowboy and a host of other people too many to mention. Their posts in various threads and answering noobie questions were very helpful. And of course Reef Central for providing a place that all of these ideas and workings can come together to create some truly great projects:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587273
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1678127
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1662682
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1751598

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1672708
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1783536
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1672428

Yes, these are some of the same sites listed in DER’s thread. We apparently read the same threads. No plagiarism here. :)

Ok, enough with the sappy stuff.

First since the fixture is currently in working condition with two banks out, I decided to work on the LED array for the ones that are out before taking the entire unit apart. This is going to be a full redo of the fixture including the controller features. When done the only stock parts will be the frame and heat sinks.

So here is the materials I using for the first 2 arrays:

Aluminum material from HD
12 Blue and 12 White 3w Cree LEDS
2 LPC-35-700 Meanwell drivers. (Temporary until my driver boards arrive)

This is per array.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray1.jpg

Since this is the first of 6 arrays that I have to build I am sure that things will change as I go along.

Here is the heatsink from the Solaris. I prefer this design as it allows air to flow across the top and bottom of the array.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray4.jpg

For some reason the white LEDS were all packaged separately in cute little baggies.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray5.jpg

The blues were not:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray6.jpg
Although I picked up a new drill press from Harbor Freight for $50.00, I choose to try a non-drill method for attaching the LEDS, at least for this first batch.

I purchased thermal adhesive:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray7.jpg

But I also had some of these from when I started this project some time ago.
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray17.jpg

My initial impression was not all that good using the double sided pads. But after attaching them and running the array to get good adhesion, they hold very well. Time will tell if I stick with these or not. Either way the arrays will be covered by a LENS cover so I won’t have to worry about them falling into the water. :(

I will try the paste on one of the other arrays.

Because the stock aluminum is thin, I chose this very fancy cutter to make my cuts :) :
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray8.jpg

Close up of the blues still mounted on the trees:
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray11.jpg

After cutting the aluminum strips to size (More or less) I dry mounted the LEDS for placement. I am using fewer LEDS than the original Solaris unit as I believe that they are 1w LEDS instead of these 3w replacements. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Here you can see one of the original Solaris LED boards, minus one of the LED lenses.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray18.jpg

Here they are mounted with the double sided adhesive. You can barely make out the tape:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray20.jpg

The LEDS are staggered in this pattern starting from the top:

BWBW
WBWB
BWBW

Here they are soldered and waiting to be placed on the heatsink.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray21.jpg

Here they are on heat sink in the WRONG order!! The yellowish stars are the blues.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray22.jpg

Here they are in the proper order connected to the Meanwell Driver. Notice the black and red leads on the right side of the array. This is only with the whites connected. The whites and blues will be on separate drivers to allow for dimming through an Arduino, but later on that part later. This Meanwell driver is not dimmable.

Here they are with some of the optics mounted although I am not sure if I will be using optics or not.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray26.jpg

Here it is fired up without optics:
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray24.jpg

With optics:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray25.jpg

Don’t read much into the shots with optics, I shot this while in a rush to get to work and at a pretty funky angle. I will post better shots once I get back to this project.

I learned the hard way on some LEDS I had lying around that you don’t connect a live driver to the LEDS. They will get fried.

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/sarray15.jpg

Thoughts:

Be sure to tin all wires and LEDS beforehand.
Put a spot of solder on the starboards.
Make sure the Soldering iron is set at the right temperature. I used 350 degrees based on what I found online for the size solder I was using. Correct me if this is too high or not high enough.
Create connectors to connect each of the boards so that if I have to remove a board or repair an LED, I can do so without having to cut the wires that connect the boards. I am thinking about using Deans connectors since I have few lying around from my RC gas helicopter days.

I am also going to put connectors going from the boards to the drivers that I am making if the frigging boards ever here from China.

I left the other mounting spots open on the heat sink in case I need to add another row or two of LEDS.

Inventory at work and weird working hours coupled with a 18 hour power outage has stalled the project that took me only about 2 hours from start to where I left off.

Please post comments if you have them.

Looks good! (except for the obscenely large gauge wire) :)

That does look heavy duty. Which adheasive tape is that? Looking to get my project started next week.

AFAIK Cree LEDs are not "3 watt" , and are only 3 watts when you run them outside of specs (between 700 & 1000mA IIRC). When you run them at spec, 350mA, they really are much closer to 1 watt than 3.

Having said that, even at 1 watt, the Q5 bins put out more light per watt than the solaris fixtures, so you really can't use the wattage as an indicator of how much light will be put out.

Looks good so far though!

Thanks.

I have a ton of this guage wire left over from old computer power supplies.

What gauge would you recommend?

I have a way to go to complete this and now is the time to address things just as this.

Really?

What I have read over the past few months led me to believe that they are 3 watts running 700ma but that they can take up to 1000ma. I would not run them that high but the data sheet supports it:

http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLamp7090XR-E.pdf

22AWG max.

I've seen other builds go with 18 gauge.

I'm running 20 AWG between lights and 16 from driver to light.

You can easily find the wattage - just multiply the voltage drop times the current. At 700mA, the XR-E drops 3.5v, so 3.5 * .7 = 2.45. At 1000mA (which, you're right, is perfectly safe) it's 3.7v, so 3.7w. At 350mA, 3.3v, so 1.155w.

Naming these LEDs by wattage is perhaps a vestige of Luxeon's old naming scheme (I/III/V) but clearly it's inaccurate, since any given LED can operate totally safely over a wide range of power. There will be a tiny color shift which is probably within the range we'd not care about, and a loss of efficiency as the power goes up.

At any rate I agree with the intent of what sfsuphysics said, you're gonna have a lot more light and be operating more efficiently than before!

awesome i want to see this project done

Yes, other builds also go with too-big wire. It's harder to solder, it stresses the solder pads, and it adds weight.

I didn't mean to imply they couldn't be run at 3 watts, they absolutely would in that 700-1000mA range (a little less than 3W @700mA a little more at 1000mA) Just that Cree specs out their LEDs to run at peak efficiency/longevity at 350mA (they are LEDs after all, which is all about the efficiency :)), that would put them at a bit more than 1 watt a piece. Hell if you look at different bins of the same color of Cree you'll get different light outputs with the same power usage. Just basically wanted to state they're not produced to be 3watt bulbs, they simply can be pushed to 3 watts quite easily.

They are put out by Luxeon

http://www.luxeonstar.com/precut-the...s-12-p-457.php

Yeah, that is what I am hoping for.
I agree and misunderstood your response I read until after I read it again.

As do I. :)

I agree. Soldering this guage wire was not very rewarding. I picked up some 22AWG wire from the rat chack because it is literally right around the corner from me. Will remove the larger wire and start to wire up to the thinner more manageable wire tomorrow or Wednesday on my day off.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for the info on the adheasive tape, nanotuners carrys the tape too. Everything for my project should be here this week.

DER driver boards arrived yesterday! Yeah! :)

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LB1.jpg

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LB2.jpg

Ok so after rewiring down to 22AWG wire here are the two arrays:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/Array1.jpg

Here they are with just whites:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/Array3.jpg

Just blues:
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/Array2.jpg

Both:
http://www.shackscs.com/reef/Array4.jpg

Test driving the arrays before making the drivers. All is well so the next step is to build the drivers and mount into the Solaris shell.

That's looking very nice.

Looks great.

Ok, so after a stumbling block with the driver board (I really need to take an electronics course) I decided to plunk
along with the Meanwells as I need to get a third of my tank lit again. I will get back to soldering the nw LED boards in a day or so.

It has been at least 3 weeks since the PS went down and I have
not had time to work on making yet another, hence the reason for redoing the entire fixture in the first place.

Here are the two banks in question that are out:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD001.jpg

Here is a shot of the fixture running with the two banks that are out. As you can see there are several other LEDs that
are currently out.


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD002.jpg


So know after removing the splash shield, we see the arrays in question that are going to be replaced.
Keep in mind that they are all going to be replaced but for right now our project is centered around these two banks so
that my corals can breath again at this end of the tank.


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD003.jpg

I need to remove the outer two LED banks to get to the screws that hold the array assembly in place:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD004.jpg

Here we see the screws that hold the array to the Solaris shell:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD005.jpg

We also need to remove the ribbon cable that connects the LED array to the Solaris computer:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD006.jpg

After removing that, we turn the array over and then remove these two dusty screws to release the driver assembly from the
heatsink holding the LEDS:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD007.jpg

After thinking about the work to get them off, we cut the wires instead. Maintaining a working LED array for tinkering
with later.



http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD008.jpg

Here is the removed array:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD009.jpg

After we do the same for the other array here is a shot of the area that will accept our new and improved arrays:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD10.jpg

Dry fit of the new arrays:

http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD11.jpg

A better fit with the Meanwells in place:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD12.jpg


With the splash cover in place:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD13.jpg

Fired up:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD14.jpg

Compared to the Solaris LEDs:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD15.jpg


Here is the tank with the fixture back on but the new lights still out:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD29.jpg

FTS with the new arrays and the existing Solaris arrays. Please note
that the total number of LEDS for the new arrays was 12 each and the number
of LEDS for the Solaris is 25 per array:


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD26.jpg

A picture of the tank with both sets of LEDS running and the picture adjusted
(F stops changed) to reduce the over expsure.


http://www.shackscs.com/reef/LD30.jpg

Next we have to finish soldering up the new driver boards. Hopefully this will
take place tomorrow.

After that we are going to replace the rest of the LEDS.

Considering that I am using left that half the number or original LEDS and
getting pretty much the same light, if not more, this was a very worth hile project.

Now to order more LEDs. :) :)

I should note that I am using thermal paste on the LED boards between the boards and the heatsink.

If you don't mind me asking how much would one expect to spend for a 72" DIY similar to yours?

Nice job there!