Tank Journal Archive
Hey @Miller
If your on this side of town yell out mate, always happy to talk tanks lol, maybe you will stop for coffee lol :p
If your on this side of town yell out mate, always happy to talk tanks lol, maybe you will stop for coffee lol :p
Got the first bits of the new power supply today & had to unpack & have a play. :)
This the power supply cradle & the power supply controller above.
We will only be using two 48v 1000w units in the cradle which will be controllable.
The rear end of everything
The controller handles each power supply & keeps it all running tickity-bo.
3 supply's so 3 display's.
The first 3 digits are voltage, second 3 digits amps, third 3 digits are supply temp. Repeated for the other two supply's.
The LED's above each group of digits, first is alarm for AC fail, second is alarm for DC fail, third is alarm for supply temp. Repeated for the other two supply's.
@DavidS started talking about a SNTP something teco something teco to send E-mail or SMS lol. I am sure he will have fun helping me hook it all up ;)
The actual power supply's wont be landing till early July so until then I will try to have everything else setup.
UPS might have to wait next month also, but done without one for so long, a bit longer wont hurt much lol.
That's about it for now.
Hoo-Roo
This the power supply cradle & the power supply controller above.
We will only be using two 48v 1000w units in the cradle which will be controllable.
The rear end of everything
The controller handles each power supply & keeps it all running tickity-bo.
3 supply's so 3 display's.
The first 3 digits are voltage, second 3 digits amps, third 3 digits are supply temp. Repeated for the other two supply's.
The LED's above each group of digits, first is alarm for AC fail, second is alarm for DC fail, third is alarm for supply temp. Repeated for the other two supply's.
@DavidS started talking about a SNTP something teco something teco to send E-mail or SMS lol. I am sure he will have fun helping me hook it all up ;)
The actual power supply's wont be landing till early July so until then I will try to have everything else setup.
UPS might have to wait next month also, but done without one for so long, a bit longer wont hurt much lol.
That's about it for now.
Hoo-Roo
I came across this on the weekend and was blown away by the scale of the tank. It's extraordinary and really lovely.
Thanks for the comments guy's, :)
I started to build a box to hold all the LDD boards that @MagicJ got organised for us all. I had an idea of what it would like it so headed off to JayCar. Brought more then I may need but left overs are always handy. Two more trips & three JayCar stores later I thought I had everything. One more trip today when I wake up & it should be everything.
The idea is, this will be the power dist for the lights above the tank & internal cabinet lighting. The power supply has two binding post's on the back were you hook up for power. These are to big for the driver boards so this will spread & reduce both power & cable size. The rear panel has 30 outlets attached to 30 LDD's of varying size. This is enough for at least 390 3W LED's. Already have 208 LED's but will not be using all of them. The box is a 2U ABS rack mount again to fit in with the rest of the gear.
Power
So the power comes in via the cable/ binding posts, into the bus-bar's which allow me to then use smaller wire to take off from there to the LDD boards.I had to move the bus-bar's around as I didn't have enough room to get to the rear panel once I put it all together. I had to move the post's to get all the speaker terminals in lol.
Control
I used 25 core IDC cable for the controller signal. One of the reasons for another trip back to JayCar is to get a couple more IDC plugs. I can't count & I need 35 wires going to the boards lol :rolleyes I want every channel to be individual, I will hook channels together at the controller end. I figure this unit can then be moved, changed or put into another system without opening it up at anytime.
LED Out
There are 15 2-way speaker terminals on the rear panel. Each pair is hooked up to a LDD which keeps it all looking tidy. PITA to solder everything up tho! Didn't take to long, hour & a half maybe, just fiddly.
The fans I had on order never turned up, they had no stock but had not removed them from the site. They are discontinued stock so now I'm looking for a few normal type fans. Should be able to pick the controller & fans up on Friday if I can get over to the other side of town while I'm off work.
Fan controller will be one of these things.
As for fans, I'm now thinking these are what I will use. Two over each heatsink as once finished the whole thing will be enclosed. It's OK now as still wide open to the elements.
AND NO, the pretty blue leds on the fans will not be hooked up lol :p
Had a bit of a change around on the left side of the tank to. No matter what I do I can get the left side right.
Right side....
Left side....
Full tank....
And last, the Chalice we picked up from Reeflections last Thursday, They take much better pic's then I do so stole the pic off Ernie's FB page :rolleyes
That's about it for this time, take it easy.
Ken & Jen :)
I started to build a box to hold all the LDD boards that @MagicJ got organised for us all. I had an idea of what it would like it so headed off to JayCar. Brought more then I may need but left overs are always handy. Two more trips & three JayCar stores later I thought I had everything. One more trip today when I wake up & it should be everything.
The idea is, this will be the power dist for the lights above the tank & internal cabinet lighting. The power supply has two binding post's on the back were you hook up for power. These are to big for the driver boards so this will spread & reduce both power & cable size. The rear panel has 30 outlets attached to 30 LDD's of varying size. This is enough for at least 390 3W LED's. Already have 208 LED's but will not be using all of them. The box is a 2U ABS rack mount again to fit in with the rest of the gear.
Power
So the power comes in via the cable/ binding posts, into the bus-bar's which allow me to then use smaller wire to take off from there to the LDD boards.I had to move the bus-bar's around as I didn't have enough room to get to the rear panel once I put it all together. I had to move the post's to get all the speaker terminals in lol.
Control
I used 25 core IDC cable for the controller signal. One of the reasons for another trip back to JayCar is to get a couple more IDC plugs. I can't count & I need 35 wires going to the boards lol :rolleyes I want every channel to be individual, I will hook channels together at the controller end. I figure this unit can then be moved, changed or put into another system without opening it up at anytime.
LED Out
There are 15 2-way speaker terminals on the rear panel. Each pair is hooked up to a LDD which keeps it all looking tidy. PITA to solder everything up tho! Didn't take to long, hour & a half maybe, just fiddly.
The fans I had on order never turned up, they had no stock but had not removed them from the site. They are discontinued stock so now I'm looking for a few normal type fans. Should be able to pick the controller & fans up on Friday if I can get over to the other side of town while I'm off work.
Fan controller will be one of these things.
As for fans, I'm now thinking these are what I will use. Two over each heatsink as once finished the whole thing will be enclosed. It's OK now as still wide open to the elements.
AND NO, the pretty blue leds on the fans will not be hooked up lol :p
Had a bit of a change around on the left side of the tank to. No matter what I do I can get the left side right.
Right side....
Left side....
Full tank....
And last, the Chalice we picked up from Reeflections last Thursday, They take much better pic's then I do so stole the pic off Ernie's FB page :rolleyes
That's about it for this time, take it easy.
Ken & Jen :)
what is the cost difference between buying something like that and making it yourself? i have no idea about electronics, but i do wonder if it's time to learn.
@TheJordans,
Don't give up on the thought guy's @MagicJ will bust your balls again :p and don't take my build as a standard lol. I tend to go over board with stuff like this. More is better & better is bigger! There is no need to do what I'm doing to get a great DIY LED light at a reasonable cost. Just look at the builds in a lot of the TJ's here to see that.
@Buddy,
You mean the plugs on the rear panel? Everything in this build came from JayCar lol. Let me know what your after & I will see if I can find something.
@ezza,
For the actual driver box I'm building, there is nothing on the market like this you could buy that I am aware of. At the end of the day, it will have 30 independent channels which can be changed as easy as pulling out an LDD & inserting another of a different size. I don't know anyone that uses of could use 30 strings of LED's lol.
As for the power supplies, lmao, that is just overkill cause I can lol. No need for anything so extreme in most reefs.
For a DIY build, this is extreme lol. No need to take it this far.
As for cost compared to buying a brand name? For our tank it could be anywhere from $5000 to $8000 to buy brand name LED units. How many GHL units do you see for sale? or Razors, or any other brand, they all come up at some sage in the forums for sale. Why? people have spent a fortune & then end up selling them to buy different brand names.
With this I have what I want & it is expandable as times change. I didn't have to troll the forums trying to find info on a certain light, hoping it would suit our tank. It will never be for sale as it can be broken down to 2x 5ft units if we ever down size & has a long life span. If something ever goes wrong, I don't have to send them away for warranty, or wait for parts, I can just fix it. We are keeping SPS 2.5ft (800mm) away from from the light, the light is 1ft above the tank! I am slowly placing SPS lower to see how it goes to find the limit. So if we can keep this total start to finish DIY build under $4500 then for what we will have at the end, even with all the
factor toys, then we will be happy with that for the reasons above.
Hows that for an answer @ezza
My advice to anyone who is considering a DIY light, just do it. There is so much info on this site & others, there are many members here who will help with parts, advice & more. I had no idea about LED's when I started, it was the members here & reading lots that got me through it, & truth be known I was pretty bloody chuffed with myself when I hit the switch on the first unit & it lit the garage up first go. If your handy with a soldering iron & basic hand tools, if you have the time, then DIY will save you a lot.
Don't give up on the thought guy's @MagicJ will bust your balls again :p and don't take my build as a standard lol. I tend to go over board with stuff like this. More is better & better is bigger! There is no need to do what I'm doing to get a great DIY LED light at a reasonable cost. Just look at the builds in a lot of the TJ's here to see that.
@Buddy,
You mean the plugs on the rear panel? Everything in this build came from JayCar lol. Let me know what your after & I will see if I can find something.
@ezza,
For the actual driver box I'm building, there is nothing on the market like this you could buy that I am aware of. At the end of the day, it will have 30 independent channels which can be changed as easy as pulling out an LDD & inserting another of a different size. I don't know anyone that uses of could use 30 strings of LED's lol.
As for the power supplies, lmao, that is just overkill cause I can lol. No need for anything so extreme in most reefs.
For a DIY build, this is extreme lol. No need to take it this far.
As for cost compared to buying a brand name? For our tank it could be anywhere from $5000 to $8000 to buy brand name LED units. How many GHL units do you see for sale? or Razors, or any other brand, they all come up at some sage in the forums for sale. Why? people have spent a fortune & then end up selling them to buy different brand names.
With this I have what I want & it is expandable as times change. I didn't have to troll the forums trying to find info on a certain light, hoping it would suit our tank. It will never be for sale as it can be broken down to 2x 5ft units if we ever down size & has a long life span. If something ever goes wrong, I don't have to send them away for warranty, or wait for parts, I can just fix it. We are keeping SPS 2.5ft (800mm) away from from the light, the light is 1ft above the tank! I am slowly placing SPS lower to see how it goes to find the limit. So if we can keep this total start to finish DIY build under $4500 then for what we will have at the end, even with all the
factor toys, then we will be happy with that for the reasons above. Hows that for an answer @ezza
My advice to anyone who is considering a DIY light, just do it. There is so much info on this site & others, there are many members here who will help with parts, advice & more. I had no idea about LED's when I started, it was the members here & reading lots that got me through it, & truth be known I was pretty bloody chuffed with myself when I hit the switch on the first unit & it lit the garage up first go. If your handy with a soldering iron & basic hand tools, if you have the time, then DIY will save you a lot.
You know when your sitting around, talking crap about things?
One thought leads to another & before you know it your miles away from where you started.
Happened last weekend to me. Telling a mate about the controller & fans I picked up for the tank,
Started talking about hooking up a power supply & what size to order for the controller, considering it was meant to go into a PC chassis lol.
After getting the power supply sorted I had the thought, (& it's lucky Jen wasn't here) why not just hook up a PC to the tank?
Covers a housing for the controller & both 12v & 5v for the fans & controller in one go!
Brilliant idea I thought & that's what David & I were talking about lol. It started to grow from there....
Me: Why not just use a PC?
@DavidS: But all the other stuff is rack mounted mate
Me: Sooo, I can hide the PC in the server cabinet can't I?
David: What if we use a server mounted PC?
Me: Nah, cost to much lol
David: What if we pull your old PC apart & build that into a old rack mount PC case?
Me: Hey that's not a bad idea!
David: I was joking lol
Me: I wasn't! Lets do that!
David: I've got a rack PC case we can use
Me: I've got the old PC.....
About then Jen came in & could tell by the look on my face that I had something planned lol.
So anyway, I'm dribbling again,
This is what David came up with,
My old PC has been butchered to fit into the rack PC case. The screen above the PC will not be used, this was just to get the thing up & running. It will be hooked up wireless so we can log into it from the main PC & from any other PC through a simple web browser.
This is the view when you log in from another PC. The pic above was with the whole setup at Davids place, the one below is me logging into it from Melton.
So now the plans are made to have a PC hooked up to the tank, the thoughts have started about what else we can get it to do! Well ...I'm thinking of projects for David to get up & running because I'm crap when it comes to PC's, they come from Harvey Norman don't they?? You don't build one from scrap you have around the house lol.
So now we just have to find a 27RU white server cabinet lol.
Just thought I'd share the ideas lol
Ken & Jen:)
One thought leads to another & before you know it your miles away from where you started.
Happened last weekend to me. Telling a mate about the controller & fans I picked up for the tank,
Started talking about hooking up a power supply & what size to order for the controller, considering it was meant to go into a PC chassis lol.
After getting the power supply sorted I had the thought, (& it's lucky Jen wasn't here) why not just hook up a PC to the tank?
Covers a housing for the controller & both 12v & 5v for the fans & controller in one go!
Brilliant idea I thought & that's what David & I were talking about lol. It started to grow from there....
Me: Why not just use a PC?
@DavidS: But all the other stuff is rack mounted mate
Me: Sooo, I can hide the PC in the server cabinet can't I?
David: What if we use a server mounted PC?
Me: Nah, cost to much lol
David: What if we pull your old PC apart & build that into a old rack mount PC case?
Me: Hey that's not a bad idea!
David: I was joking lol
Me: I wasn't! Lets do that!
David: I've got a rack PC case we can use
Me: I've got the old PC.....
About then Jen came in & could tell by the look on my face that I had something planned lol.
So anyway, I'm dribbling again,
This is what David came up with,
My old PC has been butchered to fit into the rack PC case. The screen above the PC will not be used, this was just to get the thing up & running. It will be hooked up wireless so we can log into it from the main PC & from any other PC through a simple web browser.
This is the view when you log in from another PC. The pic above was with the whole setup at Davids place, the one below is me logging into it from Melton.
So now the plans are made to have a PC hooked up to the tank, the thoughts have started about what else we can get it to do! Well ...I'm thinking of projects for David to get up & running because I'm crap when it comes to PC's, they come from Harvey Norman don't they?? You don't build one from scrap you have around the house lol.
So now we just have to find a 27RU white server cabinet lol.
Just thought I'd share the ideas lol
Ken & Jen:)
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