# DIY LED strip light for nano use



## rebel (10 May 2016)

Hi everyone,

DIY is not my strong point but since I've been aquariumised (again) since 2013 after long break, I have been dabbling a little. So this project is slightly more advanced than my previous attempts.

Goal was to make a nice looking low light for my low-tech shrimp tank.

Material Used
1. Heat sink - Bunnings fluted aluminium 3mm - I bought only 1metre
2. LED strip - left over 4500K 'waterproof' strip - similar to this 
3. Connectors - simple male to female connectors 
4. Power supply - 84W because I had one
5. Clear acrylic 6mm thickness 

The simplicity of the build comes from the fact that the drivers are all built in to the led strips and you can cut them along the lines without any issues.

Learning points
1. Ebay ip67 strips are not water 'proof'; They rust and seem to discolour the silicon lining and lose their brightness and color eventually. My previous build fell into the water and completely rusted (my fault also).
2. The fluted aluminium is a good heat conductor but may not be enough for 4 strips that I have fixed - I can put my finger on it for 3 seconds before the heat is too much. - Time will tell whether there will be premature LED failure (possible)
3. Corded drills are infinitely better :O - After my cordless ran out of battery (OZito from Bunnings but apparently they don't have the same batteries anymore!), I got a corded drill and I am a convert.
4. Soldering skills have a steel learning curve (See pictures below and laugh)


I will let the pictures do the talking.







































Now, your challenge, if you wish to accept it, is to try and better this design, both/either aesthetically and/or functionally, and post your results and instructions here.


----------



## chrismiller12341 (10 May 2016)

Looks good. 
Just a few questions/comments.

1. Are you using thermal paste to transfer the heat from the led to the heat sink. If not it would prevent hot spots on sections not making the best contact.

2.the fins on the heat sink look like they could be on the small side to move the amount of heat the leds produce. The deeper the sink the more surface area the air has to cool. You might need some sort of active cooling. pc fans would work fine. A rule of thumb that I live by for cooling is it should never be to hot to touch. Not saying it won't work the way it is.  the cooler anything is the longer it will last (in most situations). I read that you had an issue with the brightness dropping off and yellowing. That may be due to the heat. Well I'm almost positive it's due to heat.

I think adding at least one fan you would bring down the overheating. And may solve you issues with the leds deterioration. 

This is all just based on your pictures. I'm sure someone will get all into the specs of the leds and the power supply and voltage and current being a possible issue. I'm to tired for all that  . But I think a better heat sink or way to cool it would be all you need. 

All that being said I'm not bashing your design at all. just trying to help. I happend to have delt alot with heat sinks and heat issues and leds just thought I might toss out my two cents. Hope it helps.


----------



## rebel (10 May 2016)

chrismiller12341 said:


> Looks good.
> Just a few questions/comments.
> 
> 1. Are you using thermal paste to transfer the heat from the led to the heat sink. If not it would prevent hot spots on sections not making the best contact.
> ...



I didn't use thermal paste (Still waiting on delivery) but super glue. :O Hopefully this is not a blunder.

I am also concerned about the heat issue. It's surprisingly hot but this may be due to the 5630 LEDs. Perhaps I should use 5050. It's a nano tank after all. I can't get hold of a cheaper heat sink at the moment but will keep trying. I am also trying to keep it sleek rather than terrible looking.

I think you are right about the LEDs yellowing. These strips get hotter than you might imagine!

Thanks for all your feed back.


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

rebel said:


> Now, your challenge, if you wish to accept it, is to try and better this design, both/either aesthetically and/or functionally, and post your results and instructions here.



First complements on your build..  No matter what your skillset is, this is always someting to be proud of.. Nice job!!

Giving instructions step by step is a bit to extensive  but if you're a bit of a DIY you catch the drift.. But first do a proper research what's available in the led industry, (there is much more these days then those clumsy old fashion flexstrips.. Next brainstorm what constructive alternatives you have to make some out of it.. Here comes the design part related to what tools are available to you.. Not that you need so much, but proper tools are half the work, increase and benefit the design options.

These 2 design bellow are also just simple on the fly kitchen table prototype builds.. Using a vice, a dril, tap and dy set, dremmel tool with routing table, a saw, file, sandpaper and a flame torch. next to an alen key, a screwdriver, some pliers and soldering iron that's about it.

This one i did build last year from acrylic, and used rigid alloy smd strip, with rectangle alluminium ledstrip profile (heatsink). In this case i used little stainless steel profile clamps to click the profile to the acrylic. 12 volt SMD led doesn't get very hot, so it doesn't realy require a massive heatsink, those profile are sufficient. Since it's 12 volts and an open top tank and we're not planning to drop it in, it also doesn't need to be IP67 nor higher.

I'm not using this one anymore at the time, so it's dismantled and put a side, 60cm long x 10 cm wide, 50cm led strip..




The acrylic is 10mm thick, the vertical stand panels left and right i did route a 2mm deep and 5mm wide slot, so it stands secure on the tanks edge. 10cm wide is enough for a bundle of 5 strips.




This is how it stands on the tank. 




As you see i got some bushes growing emersed, so actualy this build didn't realy suite this setup anymore. So i decided to build a new one hanging. Using the excact same materials and tools.

Only this time didn't use the clamps, i drilled the alu profile and screwed them to the acrylic.




Here i routed a slot to hide the cables internaly.









Leds used are rigid aloy SMD 8520 dual chip. (but they come in different sizes whatever suits your needs). As said no need to spend extra money on IP68.. Those strips with profile are not realy that expensive they come about €3.50 a piece complete strip, profile, cover and endcaps (last 2 i didn't use).




Just to give you an idea..


----------



## rebel (10 May 2016)

Superb build Marcel! That is certainly a few levels above mine. The aesthetics and your skills are superb!

I like how you used braided cable and different channels! How has been the longevity of your light?

A few questions.

1.  Since acrylic is an insulator, did you have problems with strips overheating? Your strips appear to the abutting the acrylic?
2. Any tips for drilling acrylic cleanly?
3. Do you think the 8520 chips heat up more than 5630 for example? also do they produce more light? I can't find this info on the net
4. I was of the idea that one could use any 12V power supply for these (for example 200W for LEDS only using 50 W for example and the drivers would regulate the current accordingly yes? )
5. My idea was to use one warm white strip and the rest in cool white. What sort of colour combos did you use?


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

Thank you Rebel..  It already burns for over a year now and still good to go.. Would need measuring devices to realy give an estimate if there is any loss. But visualy, looking at the plants all is ok.. and regarding the price €3.50 each strip, darn i don't give a flying figure to replace them every 2 years if needed, which i doubt, but just so to speak.

As said SMD doesn't get realy that hot, i measured it for a while and never realy exceded over 45°C on the profile.. I kept a small air vent gap with 1mm washer between acrylic and profile. Cooling is e.g. with a fan certainly can't do harm and probably benefit the lifetime i guess. Every bit helps ofcourse in our case we are keener on the light that the regular user who doesn't cool them for illumiating the kitchen etc. But the so called professional builds of these with SMD also have no cooling. So it's not realy an issue not having it. Side note: Those alu profiles are hollow, so there is room for a small tube to fit inside, i played with the idea to make it water cooling with tank water running through. It's possible, would be fun to build, but yet only thought about it. Might one day, dunno..

Drilling acrylic by hand taking 2 angles in account and depth of the hole is rather tricky and not every hole will be perfectly straight. It very soft material. I drilled it al by hand but a drill standard is highly recomendable..

SMD 8520 stands for chip size, the chip is 8.5 x 2mm, SMD5630 is 5,6 x 3mm chip size, there are many different chip sizes.. So it doesn't realy means one is stronger then the other it only represents the size of the chip used. So you always have to contact the seller to ask for performance specs if not given.. The 8520 is as far as i know, but it goes realy fast, the only one with a dual chip, that's 2 leds in 1 so 36 chips per 50 cm makes it actualy 72 light sources instead. But as said they come in different powers from 15 lumen per chip to 65 lumen per chip.. Size says nothing bout performance...  Some sellers give luminous specs, other give candela, there are charts to find on the net how they relate to eachother..

Yes powersupply should alway address the power consumption of the leds.. if the smd uses 50W the power supply should at least be 50w or higher. With SMD it just stays 12 volt no mater how much strips you connect in serie or paralel, it only increases the wattage per strip. The controller should also address the power consumption of the strips.. They usualy go in amps for example 20 amp controller. So that would be 12 volt x 20 amp  240 watt max on the controller.

At the time i use 1 strip 10000k, 1 strip 4500k, 2 strips 8000k and 1 strip full spectrum (red/blue 3/1).. Color temp also varies a lot per manufacturer, in led industry this is by far not standarized. 10000k still can be in a rather wide range of color from redish to blueish, mine is more red (purple) them blue. So it's no way to say what you will get, depending on the materials used colors can be slightly different. But plants use a range of spectrum, as long as the human eye can see the light a plant can grow under it no matter wath K value it has. It even doesn'tmatter what the source of the light is, i grew plants under every bulb available, halogene, tungsten, led, tubelight name it.. How it will grow under that specific light is a matter of experience you have to make yourself. Without spectrometer there is no way to tell. As without other measuring tools there is no way to tell how much usable light reaches the plant. The plant will be your cheapest measuring device telling you over time..


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

Here is an other design idea you might like, this is a clip on nano on a little 25 liter tank. And very easy to make.. 




Materials used same as above, acrylic and same strips, this time with cover and end cap. to make the clip on to the tank i used and old bathroom glass panel clamp (this one i want to replace with an acrylic one i didn't make yet). Then i took a small piece of 8mm aluminium tube, fit's in the clamp. And then i took apart such a cheap €5 mini tripod took of the legs and only used it's knee joint and screwed it to the acrylic. The thread size which you normaly screw the camera on is 6mm which fits snugly and deep enough into the 6mm inner tube diameter. It can turn side ways and if you loosen the bold also up and down or even around it's axel.




There is so many alternative stuff around us we can make use of..  You only have to see it..


----------



## chrismiller12341 (10 May 2016)

rebel said:


> I didn't use thermal paste (Still waiting on delivery) but super glue. :O Hopefully this is not a blunder.
> 
> 
> Thanks for all your feed back.



Thermal paste will be your best friend. I had an opps moment on one of my pc builds and didn't have the proper paste on my cpu and it was the difference from running at at cool 22c to running at insane 120c in a matter of seconds befor shutdown.


----------



## rebel (10 May 2016)

chrismiller12341 said:


> Thermal paste will be your best friend. I had an opps moment on one of my pc builds and didn't have the proper paste on my cpu and it was the difference from running at at cool 22c to running at insane 120c in a matter of seconds befor shutdown.


bear in mind that the heat is being transferred to the aluminium plate. I am getting about 51C using my kitchen/BBQ thermometer.

My thermal glue (is there a difference with thermal paste?) is on it's way via fleabay.

I've had a catastrophic CPU meltdown due to thermal paste as well! Mine went to 90 degrees within minutes and lucky I was measuring it.


----------



## rebel (10 May 2016)

zozo said:


> Here is an other design idea you might like, this is a clip on nano on a little 25 liter tank. And very easy to make..
> View attachment 85433
> 
> Materials used same as above, acrylic and same strips, this time with cover and end cap. to make the clip on to the tank i used and old bathroom glass panel clamp (this one i want to replace with an acrylic one i didn't make yet). Then i took a small piece of 8mm aluminium tube, fit's in the clamp. And then i took apart such a cheap €5 mini tripod took of the legs and only used it's knee joint and screwed it to the acrylic. The thread size which you normaly screw the camera on is 6mm which fits snugly and deep enough into the 6mm inner tube diameter. It can turn side ways and if you loosen the bold also up and down or even around it's axel.
> ...




Superb Marcel. Once I master acrylic cutting a little more, I think I will definitely do some more projects.

What do you use to glue acrylic?


----------



## chrismiller12341 (10 May 2016)

rebel said:


> bear in mind that the heat is being transferred to the aluminium plate. I am getting about 51C using my kitchen/BBQ thermometer.
> 
> My thermal glue (is there a difference with thermal paste?)



I'm not 100% on the glue vs paste. 

It does seem that the heat is getting to the plate quite well. Now it's just getting it off the plate fast enough. 

I love leds but man can they be a pain sometimes.


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

rebel said:


> What do you use to glue acrylic?



I used Dichloromethane solvent which gives the strongest weld for acrylic.. Depending on your location this might be very hard to get.. In USA and UK a product called Weldon is readely available it contains dichloromethane.. If you live other countries it might be unavailable you could use acetone or paint thinner, but these bonds are very weak. You might find Dichloromethane in the acrylic nails beauty industry as brush cleaner, because there is no better acrylic solvent around. As brush cleaner it's ok to sell it in the beautyshop and as glue/welding compount it is regulated to controled industrial trade only and considered dangerous.. Strange laws with holes. With using a solvent to weld acrylic than you indeed need to work on the cutting any gaps will not be filled nor glued. 

On the thermal paste vs thermal adhesive see arcticsilver.com  Paste does stick, but not so good if it's not under pressure, as is with a heatsink on processor chip which is always clamped rather tight. So for a led strip it's not a glue and probably lets loos after a while. Thermal adhesive is usualy 2 component adhesive containing some metal oxide or something.. So any 2 component adhesive for metal repair can be used.. I'm not sure if this is a good idea for ledstrips, an adhesive like this is rather permanent and if a strip burns out for what ever reason you'll need quite some force to get it off again. Dunno how that's gonnna work out..


----------



## ian_m (10 May 2016)

The issues your are all experiencing is due quite a few reasons:
- 8520 LED's & 5630 LED's aren't really designed for "primary" lighting. This is what 3W & 10W etc single LED's (Cree, Osram etc) are designed for, as primary light sources.
- These chips aren't meant to be placed so close together, which is why you have the heat issues. Heat sinking obviously helps. Heat seriously reduces the lifetime of LED's.
- These LED's especially from Ebay & China are probably 50-75% less efficient than an reputable make like Cree. So for same Cree light output you get 75% less heat.
- These LED strips are usually 500-800 lumens/meter. Cree LED strips start at 1400lumens per meter with same LED package.
- They will probably only give 30-50 lumens per Watt light, compared to a T5 HO of 80 lumens per Watt and an expensive LED of over 100lumens per Watt.
- The yellowing of the LED & plastics is due to cheap no UV resistant plastics being used. UV resistant for LED's is expensive.

The greatest advantage is they are cheap and readily available, via likes of Ebay and produce enough light for plants.

Unfortunately Cree LED strips like you have cost about £20/metre (30$/yard).


----------



## chrismiller12341 (10 May 2016)

zozo said:


> I used Dichloromethane solvent which gives the strongest weld for acrylic.. Depending on your location this might be very hard to get.. In USA and UK a product called Weldon is readely available it contains dichloromethane.. If you live other countries it might be unavailable you could use acetone or paint thinner, but these bonds are very weak. You might find Dichloromethane in the acrylic nails beauty industry as brush cleaner, because there is no better acrylic solvent around. As brush cleaner it's ok to sell it in the beautyshop and as glue/welding compount it is regulated to controled industrial trade only and considered dangerous.. Strange laws with holes. With using a solvent to weld acrylic than you indeed need to work on the cutting any gaps will not be filled nor glued.
> 
> On the thermal paste vs thermal adhesive see arcticsilver.com  Paste does stick, but not so good if it's not under pressure, as is with a heatsink on processor chip which is always clamped rather tight. So for a led strip it's not a glue and probably lets loos after a while. Thermal adhesive is usualy 2 component adhesive containing some metal oxide or something.. So any 2 component adhesive for metal repair can be used.. I'm not sure if this is a good idea for ledstrips, an adhesive like this is rather permanent and if a strip burns out for what ever reason you'll need quite some force to get it off again. Dunno how that's gonnna work out..


You are correct. The paste does need pressure so I guess its not the best idea there are some that dry up and act like a glue but that is usually when they stop working.


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

ian_m said:


> The issues your are all experiencing is due quite a few reasons:
> - 8520 LED's & 5630 LED's aren't really designed for "primary" lighting. This is what 3W & 10W etc single LED's (Cree, Osram etc) are designed for, as primary light sources.
> - These chips aren't meant to be placed so close together, which is why you have the heat issues. Heat sinking obviously helps. Heat seriously reduces the lifetime of LED's.
> - These LED's especially from Ebay & China are probably 50-75% less efficient than an reputable make like Cree. So for same Cree light output you get 75% less heat.
> ...



There are quite a few reputable aquarium light manufacturers using SMD leds in their fixtures.. Even some sell tubelight replacements with SMD strips inside. They must be very bad informed advertising with this..  With all respect i'm probably the only one not experiencing any issues, nor with the quality nor with any heat. Before i desided to go with the SMD setup i was planing to go with high power led setup, but it was the price of a complete controlable setup pushing me towards the SMD t give that a try first.. And till now still after a year i'm glad i did. No regrets till now..

For anybody intrested satisled is good supplier of high powered cree's or PCB strips for high power led setups.


----------



## ian_m (10 May 2016)

zozo said:


> No regrets till now..


What regrets are these ??

You LED lights are very well designed and look "the biz". Their main point over my LED lights is yours are actually exist are made and working.... Mine are currently  a "round tuit." as in one day I will get a round tuit


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

ian_m said:


> What regrets are these ??


Non.. And as you say, they are so cheap, i got €18 worth of functioning strips above my tank still doing their job after a year. So if the burn out shortly with €18 i'm up and running again for a year to come. But it's still OK, i'm still waiting for it to fail. 



ian_m said:


> You LED lights are very well designed and look "the biz". Their main point over my LED lights is yours are actually exist are made and working.... Mine are currently a "round tuit." as in one day I will get a round tuit


Thanks for the compliment... Well i would say get round tuit, those smd's aren't as bad/problematic aymore as they might have been a few years back. I do not know i wasn't into this a few years back.. And as far as i know the last review i did read about the ADA Aquasky, it uses SMD leds already since 2013.. It was also a 2013 review and not very positively set, but more towards overall build quality of the housing material, not about the leds. The light was far to much regarding it's reviewer. 

Here is the ukaps review of it.
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ada-aquasky-leds-hands-on-experience.24091/

Ofcourse there are cheap china sellers selling crap. It happened to me too. But not all of them, with a bit research good ones are to find.. Hence a lot of material from high reputation brands we use is made in china as well..


----------



## ian_m (10 May 2016)

zozo said:


> I do not know i wasn't into this a few years back


I was well aware of LED quality a few years back. I helped my mate make some LED strip tank lights to enhance his existing T8 tube, mainly finding a suitable power supply for him.

He ended up with all the problems, you encountered.
- Corroded copper PCB, despite being called "water proof"
- Yellowing LED's and yellowing rubber/plastic.
- LED's failing, so group of three just stop working.
- Extreme difficulty in getting the LED strips to stick to anything, especially in damp conditions.
- Actually not very bright, only 400lumen odd per meter.


----------



## zozo (10 May 2016)

The flex strip quality is still crap today and indeed the silicone coated ip68 are the worst.. They are ok for the bathroom to light the makeup mirror and that's about it.
Those rigid alloy strips are far better and easier to work with.. And why should it be ip68 if not in the water? Hence i've never seen a ip68 tube light setup in my life and when it comes to that it's far more dangerous with AC220 volts on it. But why should it a lid doesn't fall into the water. And if a 12 volt fixture does nothing much happens, the today powersupply instantly shuts down when in short circuit.

Those ridgid aloy strips and the name already says enough are aluminium, so the chip is already placed on an aluminium base pcb thus provided with a small heatsink, if placed in an extra aluminium U profile, you bearly feel it getting warm it's a double heatsink, the pcb is aluminium as is the U profile. Mount the U profile with screws and slide in the strip it fits snuggly and tight.. No need for glue nor paste or what so ever..

I do not know how much lumen i realy have with my SMD strips. The specs are 65 lum per chip with 74 chips per meter.. That's far above 400 lumen..
I do not know if it works like 74 x 65 = 4850 lum?, i guess not i don't realy care it's enough. If it would be 50% of that it still would be about 2500 p/m and i got 2 meters of it above the tank, 148 SMD leds..

As said see the above aquasky review, Viktor compares it with a 4x54 watt T5 setup and it's brighter with only 60 SMD leds at 0.4 watt per led..


----------



## sciencefiction (11 May 2016)

Interesting read guys...I am so useless when it comes to DIY but very nice stuff.



ian_m said:


> What regrets are these ??
> 
> You LED lights are very well designed and look "the biz". Their main point over my LED lights is yours are actually exist are made and working.... Mine are currently  a "round tuit." as in one day I will get a round tuit



Hey Ian, I was actually wondering if you are still around. You helped me out a lot a few years back with info how to fix my DIY led unit. I never got around at purchasing all the stuff I need but I am in a mood to fix the lights in the next month or two. It's from this thread below. I'll fill in the remainder of the query in it. Would you please have a look if you get the chance. Thanks a bunch.
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/led-light-unit-failed.31633/


----------



## rebel (11 May 2016)

I have never tried the rigid strips but soon I will. I will order some 5050, 5630 and 8520 for some tests. They are not that expensive. I am very curious about heat output more than anything else. The issue is that they have different densities of led so might be similar in the end.

My fixture measured at least 51 degrees C with my kitchen thermometer consistently. I need to find an IR  gun thermometer to verify this. Will have a think about further heat sinking. 

I am playing with power LEDs as well but that's another discussion.

Btw this is mainly for fun rather than saving money etc. this costs vastly more than buying a light fixture. If you are a newbie, just buy a fixture support the industry that supports you.


----------



## zozo (11 May 2016)

rebel said:


> I have never tried the rigid strips but soon I will. I will order some 5050, 5630 and 8520 for some tests. They are not that expensive. I am very curious about heat output more than anything else. The issue is that they have different densities of led so might be similar in the end.
> 
> My fixture measured at least 51 degrees C with my kitchen thermometer consistently. I need to find an IR  gun thermometer to verify this. Will have a think about further heat sinking.
> 
> ...



Don't forget to ask for the specs in output, as said the numbers only apply to the chip size and they can range widely in output power. No idea where you plan to purchase, if you have China on your mind i can recomend "Shenzhen Hairui Lighting Co.,ltd" Till now they supplied me with very good quality high power SMD and are very keen on their customer service always answer swiftly and honestly on any question you have. What i bought from them functions already for almost a year now on 10 hours a day. The 8520 already from november last year till now without issues.. But still don't pinn me down on it, China is at own risk one you're willing to take or not. 

Funny note, last year november the 8520 launched the market, i could only find 1 european supplier of these units in France all local supplers never heard of them yet. It was an ebay seller.. What i found funny they advertised these units with same specs and the excact same picture as the china supplier did but only the France supplier was 4x more expensive.. I'm not surpiced if it was from same manufacturer, but once in France they have to bill you the import fee, taxes and profit + shipping. And then if you order you have to pay for the shipping to you... I can understand, we all need to live, but still..  China is already here..


----------



## rebel (11 May 2016)

zozo said:


> Don't forget to ask for the specs in output, as said the numbers only apply to the chip size and they can range widely in output power. No idea where you plan to purchase, if you have China on your mind i can recomend "Shenzhen Hairui Lighting Co.,ltd" Till now they supplied me with very good quality high power SMD and are very keen on their customer service always answer swiftly and honestly on any question you have. What i bought from them functions already for almost a year now on 10 hours a day. The 8520 already from november last year till now without issues.. But still don't pinn me down on it, China is at own risk one you're willing to take or not.
> 
> Funny note, last year november the 8520 launched the market, i could only find 1 european supplier of these units in France all local supplers never heard of them yet. It was an ebay seller.. What i found funny they advertised these units with same specs and the excact same picture as the china supplier did but only the France supplier was 4x more expensive.. I'm not surpiced if it was from same manufacturer, but once in France they have to bill you the import fee, taxes and profit + shipping. And then if you order you have to pay for the shipping to you... I can understand, we all need to live, but still..  China is already here..


Marcel I really appreciate your time to explain things for me.  I will hunt them down. I haven't had much luck with finding different colours though.

Yes I was thinking of china as I don't know of any Australian suppliers with a unique quality controlled product. 

You are right in that sometimes the exact same product (duplicate photograph) on ebay has wildly different prices!

The problem with asking a Chinese supplier is whether they will give you the true specs.


----------



## markk (11 May 2016)

rebel said:


> Now, your challenge, if you wish to accept it, is to try and better this design, both/either aesthetically and/or functionally, and post your results and instructions here.



This is very similar to a simple build I did back in January for my puffer tank, which is set up as a low tech with floaters, moss, crypts and java fern - though due to overfeeding the puffers, it grows blue/green cyanobacteria really well

I had a meter of led strip left over from my new kitchen. At the time I needed something bright and about the only place I could get any lumen/output information was on ledhut.co.uk. The actual product is https://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-strip-...h-power-led-chips-per-metre-5-metre-roll.html.

That runs at just over 1000 lumens per meter and about 75 lumens per watt - so not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

I cut and routed a spare piece of 10mm acrylic, including a large 'hole' in the middle and ordered a piece of 2mm aluminium sheet from fleabay. I cut the strip into 4 25cm sections and stuck it on with the existing adhesive backing. After soldering I resealed the exposed connections with some electrical silicone adhesive (which doesn't attack the copper pads). I then just put it on top of the acrylic condensation tray/cover If you look closely, you'll see I got lazy and just cellotaped the aluminium to the acrylic and never got round to doing it properly.

This is run from a home made controller with a Raspberry Pi zero (and web interface!).

To be honest, it runs a little warmer than I'd like - but the cats like it - keeps their feet warm while they drink from the outflow of the hob filter...


----------



## zozo (11 May 2016)

Many do not give specs at all, only say something like "bright" or "Super bright", these sellers you have to avoid, obviously they are just selling and know nothing about their product. The ones giving a full range of specs are usualy the sellers which are closer to the source and seriously about their product. As Martin(inChina) already once explained at this forum, is buying at chinese internet trade llike AliExpress it is very common and only usual that the customer communicates with the seller first about the product. So it's pretty normal for them if you start asking questions about specs and colors... Most serious sellers are very fond of getting good buyers feedback and reviews.. So if you are in doubt read those, if they have little reviews and feedback on their products obviously they do not sell much. And as you know how most people are, if all is OK they shut up, it is considered normal to be ok, positive feedback is usualy scarse, but if a seller lies about his product and sells crap his site will be full of complaines and bad feedback.

Anyway the seller i pointed out above is very honest in my experience and even didn't think a minute to refund me a lost package without billing me a cent. As they state at their site, no good?? Money back garantee. I didn't want my money back i said resend the package please? And they did..  

Haven't checked for a while, but the last time i did a few months back.. The SMD 8520 and 5630 had the best specs in a range from 45 to 65 lumen per chip.. But they also come in 15 lumen per chip and still advertised as super bright.. They do not sell them with planted tanks on their mind, they think of kitchens and display counters. 

And of course there are also croocked sellers around especialy with foreign orders..  for expample never buy from Chip Micro Pumps&Motors Technology Co,.Ltd
They rip you off and hide behind lies and let you down. Sell you a defect product and say it's you're own fault it's broken. 
Buying cheap involves risks, sometimes you win some, sometimes you loose some. but in the end you'll learn where to buy and it's still cheaper. As you said, they come pretty cheap and it's a fun project, if it doesn't work you didn't loose much and gained some knowledge.. Still can lit you bookshelf with it or your henhouse. 

Your welcome..


----------



## rebel (11 May 2016)

Quick update: i used a cheap analogue dimmer to dim the light to about 50%. Now the heat sink is barely warm. I have now ramped up to 75% or so to see. Miraculously my tank is coping well with all the variations of I light without major algae issues. Fingers crossed....

I will answer the above comments soonish.. Thanks for taking the time to write them.


----------

