Hi guys!
Sorry I haven't been around much, life got a little crazy.
Anyway, in the time since I last visited, I set up a 10" cube Pico on my kitchen counter.
I worked out a trade with an NR member named cptbjorn where I sent him some corals and he built me this SMOKIN LED fixture.
I thought you might be interested in hearing about it.
While I am not a "Techie" at all and cannot evaluate the fixture from that standpoint, I have to say that I am EXTREMELY impressed with every aspect of it.
I don't think I could possibly overstress how pleased I am with this light.
I should also explain that cptbjorn sent the light to me without an outward housing because I requested it that way since I want to build that part of it myself.
This is why in the pics you will just see the light with a Plexi faceplate attached to it with screws.
Anyway, on to the good stuff....
This pic show's the LED's, the Control Box and the fans that are wired into it
There are 3 Royal Blue LED's, 3 White LED's, and 1 UV LED
The Blues and 1 UV LED are wired to come on together, and the Whites are wired to come on by themselves.
The fans keep the heatsink very cool and are wired to come on when the LED's come on.
While I haven't had to use it yet, there is a place where I can adjust the fan speed with a screwdriver.
Here's a pic with the LED's on. The UV LED is in the middle, and the Whites and Blues are alternating.
This pic shows the face of the Control Box
The light is set up so that I have the option of controlling it manually via 2 separate knobs for the Whites & the Blues/UV, or I can choose to run it with what cptbjorn programmed into an Arduino for me.
The Arduino is set up with a Sunrise/Sunset simulation and with a 6.5 hr. main photoperiod with the Blues/UV set at 75% and the Whites set at 50%.
The Sunrise starts out with the Blues/UV coming and taking 45 mins to reach full power (75%) and then the Whites come on and take an additional 45 mins to reach full power (50%).
The Sunset is the reverse, of course.
The Sunrise/Sunset is absolutely amazing.
It happens so gradually that you can't see it happening while looking at it, but if you look away and look back for a few mins, you can tell the difference.
It's just so cool to watch!!
When the Arduino is running the lights, it's also set to have the Blues/UV on at night on the lowest possible setting for moonlights.
There is a Real Time Clock on the board with the time set but the arduino doesn't know what time it is yet because he didn't program it to read or interpret the clock signal.
It was a last minute addition, and I'm sure we'll be doing more work with it down the road since it will allow me to have cool stuff like Lunar Cycles programmed in.
Here's a pic of the back of the Control Box just to show how stuff is wired together
Here's another pic of the Control Box looking at it from the rear
Blue is for the Blue/UV LEDs, white is for the Whites of course, and you can see the Real Time Clock on the bottom level on the left.
As many others have found, it is difficult to take pics under LED's and have them show a true color representation.
This is something that I am still continuing to work on, but below you can see the best results I've been able to get so far.
In real life, it looks a little whiter and more natural.
It reminds me a great deal of how my previous tanks have looked under Phoenix 14k Metal Halide.
For comparison purposes, here's a FTS shot of the same tank taken under PC lighting
It's still to early for me to comment on how corals color up or respond to this light, but I will try to continue to update and comment on this thread.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
Sorry I haven't been around much, life got a little crazy.
Anyway, in the time since I last visited, I set up a 10" cube Pico on my kitchen counter.
I worked out a trade with an NR member named cptbjorn where I sent him some corals and he built me this SMOKIN LED fixture.
I thought you might be interested in hearing about it.
While I am not a "Techie" at all and cannot evaluate the fixture from that standpoint, I have to say that I am EXTREMELY impressed with every aspect of it.
I don't think I could possibly overstress how pleased I am with this light.
I should also explain that cptbjorn sent the light to me without an outward housing because I requested it that way since I want to build that part of it myself.
This is why in the pics you will just see the light with a Plexi faceplate attached to it with screws.
Anyway, on to the good stuff....
This pic show's the LED's, the Control Box and the fans that are wired into it
There are 3 Royal Blue LED's, 3 White LED's, and 1 UV LED
The Blues and 1 UV LED are wired to come on together, and the Whites are wired to come on by themselves.
The fans keep the heatsink very cool and are wired to come on when the LED's come on.
While I haven't had to use it yet, there is a place where I can adjust the fan speed with a screwdriver.
Here's a pic with the LED's on. The UV LED is in the middle, and the Whites and Blues are alternating.
This pic shows the face of the Control Box
The light is set up so that I have the option of controlling it manually via 2 separate knobs for the Whites & the Blues/UV, or I can choose to run it with what cptbjorn programmed into an Arduino for me.
The Arduino is set up with a Sunrise/Sunset simulation and with a 6.5 hr. main photoperiod with the Blues/UV set at 75% and the Whites set at 50%.
The Sunrise starts out with the Blues/UV coming and taking 45 mins to reach full power (75%) and then the Whites come on and take an additional 45 mins to reach full power (50%).
The Sunset is the reverse, of course.
The Sunrise/Sunset is absolutely amazing.
It happens so gradually that you can't see it happening while looking at it, but if you look away and look back for a few mins, you can tell the difference.
It's just so cool to watch!!
When the Arduino is running the lights, it's also set to have the Blues/UV on at night on the lowest possible setting for moonlights.
There is a Real Time Clock on the board with the time set but the arduino doesn't know what time it is yet because he didn't program it to read or interpret the clock signal.
It was a last minute addition, and I'm sure we'll be doing more work with it down the road since it will allow me to have cool stuff like Lunar Cycles programmed in.
Here's a pic of the back of the Control Box just to show how stuff is wired together
Here's another pic of the Control Box looking at it from the rear
Blue is for the Blue/UV LEDs, white is for the Whites of course, and you can see the Real Time Clock on the bottom level on the left.
As many others have found, it is difficult to take pics under LED's and have them show a true color representation.
This is something that I am still continuing to work on, but below you can see the best results I've been able to get so far.
In real life, it looks a little whiter and more natural.
It reminds me a great deal of how my previous tanks have looked under Phoenix 14k Metal Halide.
For comparison purposes, here's a FTS shot of the same tank taken under PC lighting
It's still to early for me to comment on how corals color up or respond to this light, but I will try to continue to update and comment on this thread.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
