# DIY LED Lighting guide



## rolexbene (7 Feb 2013)

The other day I was asked to create a thread on how I made my DIY LED lighting unit, I have got together a few photos
that will hopeful help demonstrate how it is done, I also have a few LED's for sale over on this thread, so if anyone is
interested get in touch.






Here are the LED's used in this build, they are 3W, 3.6V LED's and have a rating of 200lm and are 6000-6500 kelvins
giving them a cool but not to cold white light.






Here you can see the LED's soldered on to the boards, the great thing about these boards is that they remove the need for
untidy wiring and they are made out of aluminium so they work as a rudimentary heat sink. Apply a small amount of thermal
paste on the back of each LED to ensure a good heat transfer between LED and board, a total of 2 of these boards will be used
in this project for a total of 12 LED's or 2400lm.






The next stage is working out how you would like to mount them, I bought a load of aluminium bar, with the aim of bending it
in to a lighting unit, but for this build I decided that I would like to upgrade a recent purchase of an UP Pro L 36cm lighting
unit, that just wan't cutting it in terms of light output. You can see that in the photo I have made a temporary fix to secure
the led in place using small pieces of a chopped up loyalty card.






Next I connected the driver, this is a simple step and just requires that you buy the correct driver for the amount of LED's you
wish to run. This is a dimmable driver I found a while back from a guy on ebay for about £5. It uses a simple potentiometer
to dim the brighness of the light, wich is handy if you do not wish to run them at full output/heat. This driver is designed to run
7-12 LED's in series at 24-51v 680ma. One side of the driver plugs in to a UK plug, and the other side in to the led boards, simple






And here is the finished result, the light output has doubled from the original UP LED's that were in the unit. This is a 60l optiwhite
tank that I have just planted 2 days ago, and the light sufficiently covers the whole tank with good light. The colour rendition of the
light is not as white as I expected, but I actually like this as I find it more comfortable in my living space.




The purpose of this video is to try and demonstrate the brightness of the LED's and also to show you how the
lights catches the water to cast shadow and shimmer in the tank and it surrounding environment.
Watch in 720p for best viewing.


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## zanguli-ya-zamba (8 Feb 2013)

Nice work !!! thanks for the explanation.
Hope that you will do a journal of that tank, because it will allow us to see the effectiveness of these LEDs.

cheers


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## rolexbene (8 Feb 2013)

zanguli-ya-zamba said:


> Nice work !!! thanks for the explanation.
> Hope that you will do a journal of that tank, because it will allow us to see the effectiveness of these LEDs.
> cheers


 
Yes I will try and get a journal up soon to document the growth progress of the plants


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## webworm (8 Feb 2013)

rolexbene said:


> Here you can see the LED's soldered on to the boards, the great thing about these boards is that they remove the need for untidy wiring and they are made out of aluminium so they work as a rudimentary heat sink. 2 of these boards will be used in this project for a total of 12 LED's or 2400lm.


 
Did you get the PCB's custom made ?


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## flygja (8 Feb 2013)

Hi, don't forget that you need to solder the base of the LED to the big round pad on the LED PCB strip in order to dissipate heat. Hard to solder without reflowing so it might be easier just to spread thermal paste instead.


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## rolexbene (8 Feb 2013)

webworm said:


> Did you get the PCB's custom made ?


No they were ordered in from Hong Kong, thanks.


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## rolexbene (8 Feb 2013)

flygja said:


> Hi, don't forget that you need to solder the base of the LED to the big round pad on the LED PCB strip in order to dissipate heat. Hard to solder without reflowing so it might be easier just to spread thermal paste instead.


 
Yes that is a good point, the heat transfer seems to be quite good as they are pressed tight against the PCB, although I am sure a spot of thermal glue/compound would be a good idea. I will let you know how mine go that I have made without.


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## ian_m (8 Feb 2013)

webworm said:


> Did you get the PCB's custom made ?


 Ebay has quote a few aluminium back PCB's suitable to mount LED's on.


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## ian_m (8 Feb 2013)

rolexbene said:


> Yes that is a good point, the heat transfer seems to be quite good as they are pressed tight against the PCB, although I am sure a spot of thermal glue/compound would be a good idea. I will let you know how mine go that I have made without.


You will have reduced lifetime of the LED's. By how much, you will have to wait and see. At least you have some heatsinking, unlike some of the other aquatic LED designs I have seen that don't last very long at all as LED's get too hot. As a rule of thumb LED's roughly may have say 30,000hour at 75°C die temp, possibly halving in life time for each 5-10°C rise above that. So worst case at 125°C (generally the maximum before damage is done) could be 30,0000/(2^10) = 1000hours !!!. Obviously some LED's are in 50-100,000 hours (till 70%) and some derate at 10°C, but you get the idea that heat is the killer for LED's.


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## rolexbene (8 Feb 2013)

ian_m said:


> You will have reduced lifetime of the LED's. By how much, you will have to wait and see. At least you have some heatsinking, unlike some of the other aquatic LED designs I have seen that don't last very long at all as LED's get too hot. As a rule of thumb LED's roughly may have say 30,000hour at 75°C die temp, possibly halving in life time for each 5-10°C rise above that. So worst case at 125°C (generally the maximum before damage is done) could be 30,0000/(2^10) = 1000hours !!!. Obviously some LED's are in 50-100,000 hours (till 70%) and some derate at 10°C, but you get the idea that heat is the killer for LED's.


Yes I know all about this, I would say the LED's running at full brighness were hot but are at about 70c still ok to touch. Turning them down to 70% would make the last for their full lifetime IMO. I do however recommend that people do use these with an additional heatsink if possible, even little 5mm chip heatsinks would work ok and only cost around £1.


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## kirk (8 Feb 2013)

Nice one  thanks for taking the time, also will help save energy which I like.


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## wazuck (8 Feb 2013)

That is really good mate. Very impressed with it. I'm still waiting for my pcb board but may order some of the style that you have aswell for future projects. I think I'll be building these for all future tanks.


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## Palm Tree (12 Feb 2013)

Mine came today  
Do you know anywhere I can get a dimmable driver for less than £25 ?


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## rolexbene (12 Feb 2013)

Palm Tree said:


> Mine came today
> Do you know anywhere I can get a dimmable driver for less than £25 ?


I have tracked down the model I bought of ebay secondhand to this website for $18, not sure about how much shipping would be.
Also two of these and a cheap household dimmer could work suggested by another member, but haven't tried it.
Also this one you http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=121064777023suggest is cheap
Will let you know if I find any more, cheers

EDITED by Dan Crawford: Sadly I've had to remove one of the links at the request of the website owner.


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## Alastair (12 Feb 2013)

missed this thread they look smart


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## ale36 (13 Feb 2013)

Great guide i looked in to doin something similar but in the end i ended up buying on of the UP led light similar to the one above but i didnt like the fact that it only had white and blue LED so i replaced 6 whites with red ones and very pleased with the output.

Could you tell me where you sourced the board from?


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## Matnez (20 Feb 2013)

Hey, I was just wondering if there is an update on how your plants are getting on with these lights?


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