Gomer

LEDs DO put out a lot of heat. That is a big falicy. The thing with LEds is they tend to seem very bright but are fucused compared to bulbs which emmitt in all directions

Here is the first step...12xK2's thermal-epoxied to some extra heatsink. I'll solder them up and hopefully wire up the powersupply tomorrow.

darkfury18

any progress on your project?
do you think one of those k2 luxeon star would be enough to light a 4" cube nano?

Gomer

TEST PICTURES
Yes, these are crappy pictures, but I don't feel like re-shooting, so they will have to do.

Eventually (next week?) these will be retrofit into a fixture.

First impressions: BRIGHT!!
They light up the room quite well. No they are not as bright as the 2x13W AH setup, but they are close. It really is like a mini metal halide setup.

The photos below are taking with ALL camera settings the same, so you can use it for relative comparisons.

1x13watt AH (deluxe kit with reflectors)


2x13watt AH (deluxe kit with reflectors)


12x 700mA K2 emmitters (I might try driving at 1amp to see how bright they go)


Another fiew of the emmitters


Another fiew of the emmitters

Gomer

This is a terrible photo for a tank shot (too low, off to the side, equipment in, floating plants, newly planted etc) LOL...but that is ok. THe intention is purely the lights.

Top= 12x700mA K2
Bottom=1x13watt Finnex (it has a really good reflector equivilent to the AHSupply kit)

Camera setting identical. Color is fairly accurate

Ibn

Very promising so far.

Gomer

Ignore the barrel distortion of the craptacular camera

(I offset it because of where the plants are in the tank)

ruki

That does look like a mini metal halide light. They must get pretty hot since such a small area is putting out so much light. But on average this should be less than the total heat from a fluorescent tube to put out the same amount of light.

I took a look at the PDF file. Do you think the white LEDs needs some Red LEDs added for better plant growth?

If you have the success I think you will have, I might have to pull my soldering iron out of storage.

Gomer

I had great success in growing plants with the original 1watt luxeon stars. No need for red LED supplimentation.


They do throw a bit of heat, but nothing that an underdriven (quite) old computer fan + heatsink couldn't handle.

dennis

Cool beans! Hard to tell from photos but are you getting the MH type shimmer from the emitters?

Does this mean we'll have to start figuring ou thow many ma/gallon is necessary to grow plants?

onemyndseye

Holly crap thats bright!!! I've been wanting to jump into these projects for awhile now...

I demand that yu cease posting these pictures at once before you make me have to spend more money!!! LOL

-Justin
One Mynds Eye