Hurried home and got a first comparison photo. ..it is NOT a fair comparison, jsut a comparison ;)

Both photos were taken with the same camera conditions. In real life, the light is BRIGHTER than the photos show. I just didn't want to adjust things more than keeping things static.

The top picture is a 7watt Azoo palm light.
The bottom picture is a SINGLE 1watt luxeon star.
The picture is a section of my baby shrimp grow out tank.

Keep in mind also, that equal light intensity (to the eye) isn't the same as equal PAR. An experiment later will tackle that issue.

I work for a program at a University that gives me excellent access to some very nice shop facilities (I am the computer lab administrator). I have been chomping at the bit to make some DIY "nano" aquaria for home and office to learn the tools in the shop, and use the new design and CAD tools to plan with.

I am very much looking forward to your test results. These sound extremely promising for making some beautiful and highly efficient "nano" aquaria. Cannot wait to get my hands on some to try out! :-)

-Jason

Cool photos gomer, I can't believe how much just the 1 luxeon star is lighting up that aquarium. How many stars do you guestimate it will take to match the intensity of the 7 watt azoo?

Matt

That is what I will soon find out. My drivers should be here next week, so I'll know shortly after that. I'll have 7 1watters to directly compare (from both an intensity and a PAR standpoint). Just have to wait :(

had a little time to play in the machine shop today. wired it temp and ran it with a regulated power supply. ..Sorry..didn't have the camera with me..but it sure was nice and bright! I'll work on the 24 LED section later in the week.

Should have my drivers the beginning of next week, and then I'll be able to post comparison pictures of LED vs PC

view of the heatsink...an overkill, but I got a deal on it. ...hmm...I can switch out to 3watt luxeons on this :D

Nice to see the progress you've made.

Are you going to use Silicon Heatsink Compound on those luxeons. Will help with heat conduction.

I will be using some arctic silver III....CPU thermal heatsink compound :D

..had some extra.

Gomer,

I have not worked with LED's for a while, and they seem to be connected in series, why connect them in series... 1 blown LEd would mean all of them turn off or would the LED bypass itself?

In this case, they are supposed to be in series. The power will be by a constant current source designed for these LEDs

The 7 will be driven by the 350ma driver and the 24 by two 700ma drivers

http://www.advancetransformer.com/xi..._700ma_cco.pdf