DIY LED Question

Spartanman22

Spartanman22

Well-known member
I am considering replacing the T5's with LEDs in my halide T5 combo fixture. I was going to go solderless and try to run 1 dimmable ballast. It'd be 12 Cree XT-E Royal Blues using a meanwell ELN 60-48D connect to a ReefKeeper via an ALC. My concern is that on rapudleds site it states that all the connecting wires between the LEDs has to be the same length. Is this true and if so why?

The way it'd be setup would be halide in the middle then two 12" heatsinks on each side with 6 LEDs each. I would use 1.5" connectors from LED to LED on each heatsinks then use a 6" connector to connect the final LED on the first heat sink to the first LED on the second.

But according to rapidled's site this can't be done. Is there a way around this?
 
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A crude sketch to put my words in context
 
I built my own led setup. My wires are not equal length and i have no problems.

Id like to see the reasoning behind all wires needing to be the same length. There will be absolutely no difference in resistance between a 3" wire and a 6" wire. Ok there probably is but you would need equipment to measure it that is so freaking expensive.

I would just build it the way you want. How long are the wires going to be?
 
maidia said:
You may need a fuse and resitor between driver and led...
Click to expand...
I'm just going off what rapidled listed in their actinic kit. It had a driver, jumper cable, leds, terminal plug, power supply, and heatsinks but no fuse and resistor.

I apologize for mt ignorance (its been awhile since if spent any time with electrical circuits) but why would I want a fuse and resistor between the LEDs and drivers?
Milhouse said:
I built my own led setup. My wires are not equal length and i have no problems.

Id like to see the reasoning behind all wires needing to be the same length. There will be absolutely no difference in resistance between a 3" wire and a 6" wire. Ok there probably is but you would need equipment to measure it that is so freaking expensive.

I would just build it the way you want. How long are the wires going to be?
Click to expand...
I was planning on using the 1.5" connectors for the LEDs on each heatsink then a 6" connector to connect the final LED on heatsink #1 to the first LED on heatsink #2
 
Spartanman22 said:
I'm just going off what rapidled listed in their actinic kit. It had a driver, jumper cable, leds, terminal plug, power supply, and heatsinks but no fuse and resistor.

I apologize for mt ignorance (its been awhile since if spent any time with electrical circuits) but why would I want a fuse and resistor between the LEDs and drivers?

I was planning on using the 1.5" connectors for the LEDs on each heatsink then a 6" connector to connect the final LED on heatsink #1 to the first LED on heatsink #2
Click to expand...

I learned this from Bill (Reefledlight) long ago, he told me it's safe to use fuse between driver and led incase if the electrical blow up it's will blow up the fuse not the whole string series of leds. Same the the circuit breaker fuse in the house. I alway did my DIY leds. Now with new technic of LEDs, I don't know but you can PM Bill and ask.
 
The 60-48D is 1200mA which is fine for the Cree XT-E as its max is rated 1500mA

A lot of this is due to parallel strings as the older XP-E LEDs were generally run in two Parallel Strings with a guessed 600mA each.

This in reality turned into 550 and 650 or 500 and 700 or 450 and 750 mA each as with s DIY circuit you could not keep the total resistance between strings constant...Also with everything perfect individual LEDs may have a slightly different resistance which adds up.

Either way the circuit was well within its design limits.

For Parallel strings Fuses are a great safety net. One open causes all the current to rush through the other string.

1 ohm Resistors are an easy way to measure current imbalance. V=I/R Ohms Law

Personally I feel the 60-48D is dated and there are better drivers out there. This is why we no longer carry them.

Bill

www.reefledlights.com
 
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