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der_wille_zur_macht · 12/05/2017, 10:35 AM

It also depends on what you mean when you say you want to make something "like" a commercial unit. People have very very wide interpretations of what constitutes something being "like" something else.

If you are willing to throw away your time, and you're good with DIY, and you invest time in learning, and you have reasonable requirements, and you're willing to potentially compromise on things like fit and finish, etc then you definitely can DIY an LED fixture cheaper than a high end brand name commercial fixture. You can likely get similar output and functionality but it likely won't be a direct equivalent.

That said, I do not feel that cost is a good justification for DIY. You will be way in the hole if you account for your time spent, or the tools and knowledge required. And you will definitely be in the hole if you attribute any value to customer support. When your Hydra dies, you have someone to be mad at, someone to hold accountable. When your DIY rig dies, it's all up to you.

You should DIY because you want something you can't buy off the shelf. You should DIY because you have odd requirements or you have ideas for improvements that aren't in commercial units. You should DIY because you want to easily experiment with different colors of LED or different optics or you want some other flexibility without having to void a warranty. You should DIY because it's fun and it's a way to have a sense of pride in your system. You should not DIY to save money.

12/05/2017, 10:35 AM	#3
der_wille_zur_macht Team RC Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NY Posts: 17,749	It also depends on what you mean when you say you want to make something "like" a commercial unit. People have very very wide interpretations of what constitutes something being "like" something else. If you are willing to throw away your time, and you're good with DIY, and you invest time in learning, and you have reasonable requirements, and you're willing to potentially compromise on things like fit and finish, etc then you definitely can DIY an LED fixture cheaper than a high end brand name commercial fixture. You can likely get similar output and functionality but it likely won't be a direct equivalent. That said, I do not feel that cost is a good justification for DIY. You will be way in the hole if you account for your time spent, or the tools and knowledge required. And you will definitely be in the hole if you attribute any value to customer support. When your Hydra dies, you have someone to be mad at, someone to hold accountable. When your DIY rig dies, it's all up to you. You should DIY because you want something you can't buy off the shelf. You should DIY because you have odd requirements or you have ideas for improvements that aren't in commercial units. You should DIY because you want to easily experiment with different colors of LED or different optics or you want some other flexibility without having to void a warranty. You should DIY because it's fun and it's a way to have a sense of pride in your system. You should not DIY to save money. __________________ Inconveniencing marine life since 1992 "It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)