# DIY ADA Aquasky style LED luminaire



## TimT (3 Nov 2013)

Here you'll find some pictures and info on a LED luminaire I have put together for my new 120x60x50 tank. I wanted to avoid hanging the light in the ceiling and I was looking for a more visually toned down solution than the one with the bars on each side of the cabinet (clothes rack-like solution). I like the design of the ADA Aquasky so I was trying to make something similar.

Before I go into the details on how to put it together here is a couple of pictures of the luminaire (sorry for the mess and the bad mobile pictures):











It is build from Plexiglas, some curtain rails and some basic aluminium rails. It can accommodate various LED DIY builds so I wont go into detail with that unless I get requests - but just let me know and I will make a thread on it.

Here is the basic schematic of the build:






It is *remarkably* rigid. Before starting I was afraid that it would be too flimsy. But now I'm more worried about the tank taken damage than the luminaire breaking which of course would be preferable if it gets a hit inadvertently. When looking at the picture above that side is of course more prone to tilting to the right due to the Plexiglas not going down so deep on that side. But for it to swing right it needs to move the far side of the luminaire to the right. But that is build with the long side to the other side (the curtain rack is precisely the same length as the distance between the outer Plexiglas frames). So it feel rock solid when giving it a nudge.

Here are some more pictures of the luminaire itself:














I sanded the Plexiglas with 3 different grades of sandpaper on the sides facing out to make them look good compared to the raw Plexiglas. You could go for an even more polished finish but that would make the bolts stand out even more.

Here are some details on the curtain rack that acts as a cooling rail and fixture for the LEDs:

The curtain rack I used is this one:
KVARTAL Triple track rail - IKEA

I found the two other aluminium rails in store that sells tools and construction materials (sorry, don't know the English name). I think they are used when putting a carpet on stairs.














Things to be aware of and/or improve:

I would warn against gluing the Plexiglas together. I was unable to slide it down over the tank side without loosening the bolts. If I had glued them I would have to discard the build even though the middle Plexiglas is the same thickness as the aquarium glass.
The middle Plexiglas could be substituted for several strips of Plexiglas instead of just one big slate. That would decrease the weight (although not a problem) and even allow for the wire to be run between the inner and outer Plexiglas.
Perhaps white hard plastic bolts would be more visually pleasing than the metal ones? I wasn't able to find any in time but overall the bots are the least visually pleasing element of the build.
Make sure your LED solution is dimmable unless you modify the build to allow the lights to be raised and lowered to adjust the lightning level.
I hope it will come in handy for some of you guys - if nothing else then for inspiration for improvement for an even better build.

Cheers,
/Tim


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## Andy D (3 Nov 2013)

Great post!


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## sa80mark (3 Nov 2013)

Very nice tim, great build, im looking into a diy led set up so any info on what drivers, leds etc you used would be very welcome


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## TimT (3 Nov 2013)

Thanks guys!

@sa80mark: Sure! I'm flying on a business trip tomorrow so I'l update when I get back Tuesday


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## iancxx (3 Nov 2013)

That sure look's like a good build.when the light and driver info comes along,i can see me having a go,time to take the wife for walk around ikea methink's,
Though I am sure ikea also sells the led lamp's aswell,
Thank's for putting this idea up for everyone to see (copy).
				 Ian


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## TimT (5 Nov 2013)

Sorry for the delay! Here are some details on the LED part of the build. As mentioned early the luminaire can accommodate most DIY LED solutions so this is simply what I have chosen. I'll list the reason for my choices but there a certainly endless other possibilities.

As I see it a LED DIY build consists of choices for the following: Driver, LED, lenses, cooling and wiring. My choice were:


24x CREE XP-G warm white LED
24x CREE XP-G cool white LED
48x 60 degree lenses
48x thermal star-shapped pads
3x Mean Well ELN-60-48D drivers
1x 10V DC power supply (9V will just as fine - that just means you can't turn the LED all they way up to max but only close)
1x 10k Ohm potentiometer
Normal 220 volt electric wire for wiring between the LED
 
And here is the looooong version for those interested: 

LED
When choosing LED you need to be aware of your requirements for how much light they will output and that they can produce light in the color you want. And by color you want I mean if the light looks natural and not too warm or cold according to your preferences. Traditional learning states which exact wavelengths of blue and red light the plants need for their photosynthesis to work. But Ceg mentioned in a post somewhere that the plants will adapt and that this is not that important. I have been long enough on Ukaps to trust that blindly  But I made my choice of LED for my small tank before I knew that and chose LED that delivers in those wave lengths. I have chosen the same LED for the big tank because I know and trust these LED. The mix of LED I chosen turned out to have an influence on the appearance of white to me as a human that is in fact more important than the exact wave lengths as seen by the plants.

CREE have a good reputation on the market and the XP-G and the newer XP-G2 seems to give a lot of light per watt you run through them. So I chose those them - also due to the good reviews on the net. But there are cheaper alternatives that also perform well. Before I knew that the exact wave length of the light was not important I chose 2 LED of the XP-G that would cover both the blue and red part of the spectrum really well in the areas that the textbooks say they need. The warm white are weak in blue spectrum, and the cool white are weak in red. So I chose 50/50 for the build in my little tank and I have copied this for my new tank. I also found that a 50/50 split between white- and warm white gives an overall 'color' of white pleasing to me. But that is very subjective! But there is room to adjust for that - see the section with driver. Regarding the number of LED I used the formula found here: LED University. But that site runs their LED close the maximum current allowed. The XP-G can run up to 1.500mA. But the lifespan and operating temperature is much better if you run them at half or lower. According to their formula I should run 31 LED for my tank at 1.200-1.300mA. I want to run mine at ~750mA or lower so I opted for 48 LED, 24 of warm white, and 24 cool white. All mounted on star shaped PCB to allow easy soldering. I had the possibility to have a colleague bring me some back from the US so I didn't have to pay tax or import duties. But you can Google several sellers in the EU.

Driver
I wanted a driver that is dimmable. The Mean Well ELN-60-48D is a driver that will provide a steady ampere (=how much light the LED emits) no matter how many LED you put on it in the range from 8 to 16 LED. That means you don't have to do calculations and know a lot about electronics. It simply makes sure that the amps are steady and right for these LED at the settings you have set with the dimmer as long as you don't connect a number of LED outside the 8 to 16 range (if you use another LED than XP-G the number of LED you can connect may be different). It is resilient to misuse and will shut down if you abuse it by mistake. Again, cheaper alternatives exists. So for my 48 LED I needed 3 drivers. One for each rail. But my recommendation would be that you only connect either warm- or cool white LED to each of the drivers. That way you can turn them up and down individually and thus adjust the exact tone of 'white' to your liking. The Ikea curtain rack will be able to handle the extra wires so you can still mix the two kind of LED on the individual curtain racks to blend the tones of white over each area of the tank. Se later section for wiring. The drivers requires a small external power supply connected to the dimmer input on the driver that can deliver 0 to 10 Volts. That will adjust the power of the LED. If this power supply feeds the dimmer on the drivers with 0 volts it will output ~0 amps and then as you turn it up to 10 volts it will turn up the amps to max and the LED will light up to full power. The potentiometer adjusts the output of the power supply from 0 to 10 volts. A potentiometer has 3 'legs'. The '+' leg is connected to '+' on the 10V power supply. The middle leg is connected to '+' on all the dimmer controls on the drivers. The '-' leg on the potentiometer is connected to the '-' on all the dimmer controls on the drivers and to '-' on the 10V power supply. When you now turn the knob on the potentiometer you turn the volt up and down from 0 to 10V, hense the LED up and down. If you want to be able to adjust the light individually of each 'color' of white you need to buy a 10V DC and potentiometer for each of the colors.

Lenses
I didn't use lenses on my small tank so this is a first for me. I simply used the recommendations from Rapidled in the link above and chose 60 degree lenses. I used a hot glue gun to attach them to the LED and PCB.

Cooling
When running the LED at the lower amps they don't burn so hot that cooling is big issue. In my small tank I can hold my hand on the small aluminium rack they are placed on and not burn my hands. The Ikea curtain rack is actually totally overkill but visually one of the better solutions I have seen so I chose that one. And there are room for the wires in the grove on the side where you mount the LED. Running the LED at low amps compared to the recommendation on Rapidled is also that you can do without active cooling. The aluminium rails will suffice and you don't need a fan. To me that is both visually and sound wise a very good thing.

Wiring
Again I would use the instructions on rapidled.com. You simply wire them in series. If you chose to split the LED colors to each driver you would have 2 separate series going out on each rail. It sounds complicated but it makes sense once you have checked out rapidled.com. The wires I used was simply just normal 220 volts wire where I removed the outer plastic coat and then used the two individual wires inside. I guess you could buy some special wiring but make sure that it can handle the high amps running through the setup. That is why I chose normal 220V wiring. I knew they could handle the load. I soldered the wire to the star shaped PCB and glued the PCB to the curtain rack with thermal pads.

Feel free to ask for extra info if needed.

Cheers!


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## sa80mark (5 Nov 2013)

absolutely brilliant tim, thank you for taking the time to reply, im looking at similar to what you have used just on a smaller scale, around 16 - 18 leds divided between 2 drivers both dimmable,  I think im going to use  Inventronics 25w driver 700mA, ive not decided on how im going to house them yet but im seriously thinking about coping you idea and going for the aquasky look


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## James D (6 Nov 2013)

Looks excellent mate.



> I would warn against gluing the Plexiglas together. I was unable to slide it down over the tank side without loosening the bolts. If I had glued them I would have to discard the build even though the middle Plexiglas is the same thickness as the aquarium glass.


 
I work for an acrylic fabricator and I can tell you the tolerances on thicker sheets are awful, one end of a 10mm sheet can be 11mm while the other end is 9mm.

BTW If you'd ordered cut-to-size panels from a certain acrylic fabricators it would have been laser cut which gives it glass-like smooth shiny edges.


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## TimT (7 Nov 2013)

@James: Great intel! Thanks!


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