What would you look for in an LED fixture?...

[cthoughts1]

So lets say you want an LED fixture but you can't afford it..... I may potentially have the answer to all your prayers... LOL... Read on...

Want a fixture that you like, but haven't seen it at an affordable price? Do you have specific qualities that you are looking for in an LED fixture, but the existing units don't have them? What would be the essentials you would look for in such a fixture, and what would be some of the things you would be willing to give up to make such fixture affodable? I know affordability would be a definite quality most people would look for, but what else would you like out of it....? Size? LED Colors? How many LED's? What percentage of what color would you like? Moon lights built in? Voltage? Length of power cords? What kind of LED's? Hanging units or brackets? Etc...

I'm asking you all this because I have a friend who is considering mass producing LED fixtures for reef tanks and I think he can possibly make them affordable. Yes you read right, AFFORDABLE. LED's are not really that expensive, so why should we have to pay 1000's of dollars for such a unit? Maybe we won't in the near future, lets see what happens. Here you all have an opportunity to provide me with valuable input for the design! I would like to give him some ideas in terms of design so the potential unit can make all us reefers happy. Let me know your thoughts.......

DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to sell you anything, I'm just hoping to get a product that will be of good quality, at an affordable price, with all the essentials we would like in such a unit.

 

[thesauce]

I think that some of these manufacturers have it right with the 'modular' approach. Being able to piece together a fixture is a lot more cost effective. Buff the power on these units and add a dimmable feature and you are in business.

I think the dimmable option is probably a little harder and less cost effective to implement via bluetooth or wifi like some of these fixtures do, but at least dim manually.

 

[cthoughts1]

Is the dimable feature a necessity or more of an option? MH lights aren't dimmable and they've been great... I was thinking maybe two or three cords. 1 for blue lights, one for white lights and 1 for night lights... kind of like a coralife aqua light pro..

 

[pecan2phat]

To make it affordable, scrap the computer controlled dimming for sunrise/sunset. Have at the very least, the blues wired separately from the whites on it's own power cord so that people can at least have the two on individual timers so that they can have actinics on first and last.
Use dimmable drivers which are pretty standard so people can adjust the color temperature.
Use modular units vs fixtures so that it can be upgraded according to size of tank.
Use high bin LEDs.

 

[cthoughts1]

Thanks for the input pecan2phat... What about ideal size? I was thinking 14" x 22"?

 

[albano]

To make it affordable, scrap the computer controlled dimming for sunrise/sunset. Have at the very least, the blues wired separately from the whites on it's own power cord so that people can at least have the two on individual timers so that they can have actinics on first and last.
Use dimmable drivers which are pretty standard so people can adjust the color temperature.
Use modular units vs fixtures so that it can be upgraded according to size of tank.
Use high bin LEDs.

+1 ...build it, and they will come!

 

[cthoughts1]

Albano, I think we're very close....

Also what do you guys think would be an "affordable" price for each module?

 

[knugenx]

Albano, I think we're very close....

Also what do you guys think would be an "affordable" price for each module?

Tough question...ask yourself do you wanna make the $$$ while it's the hottest thing in town and roll with the big boys or you want to cheap sell to gain market share and undercut the comp.

Your friend probably has the answer...

 

[pecan2phat]

He would have a hard time competing with the China knock offs. They are modular units with bridgelux LEDs not dimmable but with separate blue and whites and run about $300 shipped to a US address.

He would have to make it appealing by offering high bin LEDs, warranty, dimmable and where one strip of the LEDs can be manipulated for moonlight purposes.

 

[cthoughts1]

Karmen, the point of this build is to try to hook up fellow reefers. Obviously profit would come into play for my friend, but it's not the primary purpose of the build. The suggestion of this build was mine and my purpose is primarily to try to be able to get these units out to those of us who would like to try LEDs, but don't want to spend a couple of grand on them. That being said, obviously my friend has to make enough to cover his costs, but the pricing of these units I'm sure will be more than fair, especially for us MR members.

I would like more suggestions on the construction. Example size, amount of LEDs per unit, etc.. TALK TO ME GUYS, THIS IS A CHANCE TO PUT YOUR INPUT IN ON A FIXTURE YOU MAY WANT TO PURCHASE.

 

[reefs4life]

I've been looking into building an LED fixture myself and I've looked up LEDs and I found some pretty good ones on ledsupply.com maybe you can try that, you get a cheaper rate for bulk orders. As far as drivers the most reasonably priced, dimmable drivers that I've seen are Mean Well drivers. And finally to save on housing costs and such, I would just build the whole thing on an aluminum heatsink extrusion so you get cooling and a sort of base to put your LEDs on, kind of like how eco-lamps builds their fixture. As far as amount of LEDs, my 24" eco-lamp fixture has 2-28 blue LED/white LED alternating strip on each side of the fixture running length wise and 5-7 LED circles running in the middle with 1 blue LED in the center and 6 white ones surrounding it. Depending on the luminosity of the LEDs you find you can probably cut down on the amount of LEDs you're going to use. The highest I've seen was 400 lumens but off of LED supply the most reasonable ones to work with were 220 lumen LEDs that are $11.50each but as I said it gets cheaper as you buy 10(11.20ea), 50(10.30ea), 100(10.00) and over 250+(9.56ea)...hope that helps some

 

[cthoughts1]

Hey Fortunato, thanks for the input. My friend actually has is own supply of LEDs, its what he does... I am hoping to get more info on the specific structure and what you'd like to see it look like. Such as percentage of blue vs. white bulbs. 420nm or 460nm on the blue. Fixture/module size, etc.

 

[reefs4life]

Well as far as what it'll look like, I think building it fully on a heatsink piece wouldn't be bad. I mean that's how the eco-lamps is built and it looks pretty nice and like I said it probably save on building materials. As far as blue to white ratio I think that there should be slightly more of the white LEDs than blue if not 2:1. On the eco-lamps, when it's "day" time there are 58 white LEDs and 33 blue LEDs on. As far what you should make as fixture, I would make a standard just two sizes so you don't have to worry about making so many different ones, probably 12" and 24" because if you think about it in a business aspect if you do it like that you'll always be selling one of the two whereas, the 12" ones for smaller tanks, 24" ones for larger tanks and as many as need. If you make specific, 12", 24", 30", 36", 48" and so on, you might sell a lot of one size but you might lose on just keeping the other sizes around, unless you'd be making them upon request.

 

[knugenx]

got ur point...yous may want to put into consideration that some tanks have a center brace, ie 4ft tank...im thinking as if it will be a 4ft long unit, and not having to buy two separate units...no use of lighting up the center brace.