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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 9:59:42 GMT -5
Well here it goes! This will be a loooooong post, with many pictures! As you all know I’m somewhat of a diy person. However this is going to be electrical work and I’m not very confident with my skills. This idea came about after we visited Bobby G’s fish room, and I saw the lights he just switched to. He was gracious enough to show us how he built them. Which we really appreciate, I would not know of this method if wasn’t for him. So the credit for this build definitely goes to him! He did have a problem with voltage drop the more lights he added. I theorized that this was because of the linear connection of the lights. I solved this problem by creating a terminal box for parallel connections. First I had to make one with jumpers so I can attach several lights to the same box. The jumpers; The box with the jumpers attached. The boxes for the positive and neutral connections This way I have seven pair of terminals to connect the lights to. Each pair can house more than one connections. This looks like a big mess! What have I started....
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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 10:04:34 GMT -5
A quick test setup to see if everything is working well.... Power supply... Dimmer... LED lights... Full power... Minimum power... Seems to bee working!
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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 10:11:41 GMT -5
A little more on the LED light strips! 12v 9w 0.8A 6000k Aluminum backing Double sided tape attachment I bought the aluminum channels to put the lights in for extra cooling!
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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 12:13:52 GMT -5
So far so good. Time to test it on a tank. Two strips of lights One strip of light... I decided to go ahead and use one strip of LED light for my tanks, this way I do not need to dim them. I can always add mire if I feel like going high light on a tank or two! Time to connect more lights... The two in the middle is with a single LED strip on each tank! So far so good! Let’s add more lights.... Oh crap! A severe voltage drop! What is going on? Time to brainstorm! Two lights work great! Three lights work just as well! Four lights, very dim!!! Damn! Let’s see where I went wrong!!!! 12v, 2A power supply, no mention of watts! Ok let’s use Ohms Law... 12 x 2 = 24, which means the power supply is 24w, using a 30% safety scale, I can only use it safely for two of my lights. Damn Ohm why you had to make electricity work this way!?!?!? Lol So anyway I need a larger power supply! Back to the drawing board... My lights are 9w each, I want to light 16 tanks so 9w x16 = 144w that means I need at least a 200w power supply, that gives me a lot of wiggle room for adding a light or two plus 30% for safety.
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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 12:32:59 GMT -5
Well I wired everything up for the 8 tanks in the rack! One light each, approximately 5” above the tank. Here is the whole rack with the new lighting system. Notice the tank on the left side, second from the bottom, not as bright as the rest. Not sure what is the cause of this, I have to investigate. Could be bad strip of lights, or bad connection somewhere. Here are the lights I replaced with the LED light strips! Also I put all the lights on Kesa Smart plug mini, so I can control them from my phone! Makes life a lot easier! No more timers not coming on, or having to adjust the time when there is power outage. Also they all come on at the exact same time, not staggered by a few minutes!!!!
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Post by Crazygar on May 31, 2020 13:53:57 GMT -5
Very nice Gabe, as always your DIY skills are awesome. Maybe you should have the rank of "King of DIY"?
As for LED lights, I've done the Perf board versions before, nice but dang do they get hot. That is a slick setup.
Gary
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Post by gabor129 on May 31, 2020 18:59:34 GMT -5
Thank you Gary! I found a faulty connection at the LED strip that was not giving enough light. This is way better!!!
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Post by christopher on May 31, 2020 20:10:36 GMT -5
Looks super duper
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Post by freshwater on Jun 1, 2020 11:16:18 GMT -5
Great looking lights. Nice and bright and so much less hydro usage
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Post by gabor129 on Jun 1, 2020 15:35:18 GMT -5
Great looking lights. Nice and bright and so much less hydro usage Not sure about the hydro yet, as I just changed them over! I’m hoping the plants will do ok under these lights. Did not have a major melt as of yet! Time will tell! Today will be a “lazy” day as I got injured at work and I can not grip properly at the moment. Only three stitches this time! 😂
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Post by Crazygar on Jun 2, 2020 5:48:53 GMT -5
Just had enough of work? Felt like you wanted to just quit? LOL
Ouch ouch and oh yeah, ouch. Glad my professional does not involve sharp items or adhesives.
Gary
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Post by jred on Jun 2, 2020 13:52:29 GMT -5
Very impressive Gabe, I really like how that wall looks and the lights appear pretty bright! I would be interested to see how the plants do under the lights. Sorry to hear about your arm - fortunately I’m like Gary and my only danger is a paper cut however last year I tripped over an aquarium and had to get 6 stitches in my leg... Was not a fun conversation with my wife haha
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Post by gabor129 on Jun 2, 2020 18:26:30 GMT -5
Lol, guys I work with sheet metal. Cuts under 6 stitches are not even fun to talk about! Even my wife is judging the injuries by the number of stitches I get. I still hold the high count at work with 55 stitches! Lol!
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Post by Crazygar on Jun 2, 2020 18:48:00 GMT -5
And Coral poisoning... which you hold the Title for the City.
Gary
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Post by gabor129 on Jun 2, 2020 19:22:57 GMT -5
And Coral poisoning... which you hold the Title for the City. Gary Lol, yup you are right!
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