DIY LED's for cheap!

[BallAquatics]

I kinda played hooky today and thought it would be nice to play around with my LED's.

I bought my LED's on E-Bay for something around $20 for 300 LED's in a 15 foot strip.  They come on a reel like this.....

The ones I bought are the superbright 5050 SMD white LED, high intensity and reliability.  They are 'cool white' in the 6500K range and should be great for growing plants.

I made up a few panels to fit 5.5 gallon tanks just to experiment with.  The one in the following photos has 3 light strips with 12 LED's per strip.  They are 'water proof' and have a rubbery coating that must be removed at each connection.

Soldering on these strips is just like working with any PCB board.  The copper colored dots are where we want to make our solder connections.  You must be sure to connect these + to + and - to - or they will not work.

These are very low voltage so I used some stranded wire that I removed from a piece of CAT 5e computer network wire to connect the strips.  The main feed wire is a piece of 22 gauge copper speaker wire.

I currently have four of these units running off of an old AT style computer power supply.  They are very bright and hurt your eyes to look at directly.  It will be interesting to see how these pan-out when it comes to growing aquatic plants.

Dennis

[Mugwump]

Neato....I like that...what other type of power supply would work?...

[P4Angels]

I would like to see a DIY video of write up of this so that I can give it try my self, but this looks pretty straight forward to construct .  Do they come in blue for moon lights at night?    I don't know If I would want an a computer At power supply near water, but there might be a better alternative for it.   

[BallAquatics]

...what other type of power supply would work?...

They are 12 volt DC.  You could run them off of a multitude of power supplies, even one of those 12 volt wall worts would work.  I used a switching power supply because as you add more units the current required increases beyond what a small power supply will put out.  At some point, I'd like to run my fish room with solar power...  12 volt lighting is a perfect fit!

I have a very nice model train transformer that I use to power my microscope, that would work really well too!

Dennis

[Mugwump]

...what other type of power supply would work?...

I have a very nice model train transformer that I use to power my microscope, that would work really well too!

Dennis

That's what I was thinking too....it'd act as a dimmer too....

[P4Angels]

Power supply:
http://www.amazon.com/Ledwholesalers-Power-Suppply-Driver-Transformer/dp/B0034GUEY4/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_y


Dimmer:http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-Dimming-Controller-LED-Lights/dp/B003L4KKF2/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_z


16.4 foot 300 LED strip:
http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-LED-Flexible-Waterproof-Sleeve/dp/B003G9408K


Get all 3 for 45.75 Not bad I must say!!! 

[Mugwump]

I wonder how many LED's or strips one of those transformers could run???....

[BallAquatics]

Do they come in blue for moon lights at night?

They come in all different colors, red, blue, green, violet, etc.

Dennis

[BallAquatics]

I wonder how many LED's or strips one of those transformers could run???....

It would depend on the type of LED's you had.  There are several different types and they have different power requirements.  The ones I purchased have the 5050 LED's.  These are bigger and brighter than many of the others.

You have to really be careful as there are many different types of strips with different type LED's and total number of LED's.  Not all have the correct color spectrum for growing plants.

Dennis

[Mugwump]

Thanks guys..good info....

[LizStreithorst]

I sure would like to try these, but I'm ignorant of too much.  I've never even soldered!  I'll have to show this to Bud Boozer.  He doesn't do electrical, but this is so basic.  I know that I'd be able to do it myself if I were shown how, hands on, just once.  Great lights for cheap.  What could be better than that?

[Jo]

This is really cool Dennis! Very interested in trying this. I have 2 10 gallon tanks that have led lighting but it isn't enough light for the plants, they survive but don't grow really well.

[BallAquatics]

I have 2 10 gallon tanks that have led lighting but it isn't enough light for the plants, they survive but don't grow really well.

How many LED's do your lights have Jo?  I guess that's the magic number I'm looking for here.  If indeed these are the correct spectrum (6500K) like they say, it should just be a matter of supplying enough LED's to provide the require amount of light for the plants.

Dennis

[Jo]

Dennis I got info from website.
Size # and    Color of LEDs     Watts per LED Total Watts per Fixture Total Lux Total Lumen @ 12"
20" x 10"     22 White/2 Blue   0.11                2.42                             460             165

[BallAquatics]

Thanks for the info Jo!

Dennis