Hello there!
I have a basic understanding of electronic circuitry at best. I've spent many hours reading up on LED / Light based circuits and have almost (hopefully) answered all of my own questions accurately so far.
I have a rather unique Marine fish tank which has been used for a 'Coral Reef' tank. I want to upgrade the lighting to improve coral growth and the aesthetics of the tank.
This is what I want to build.
So to cut to the chase there will be two separately dimmable serial circuits of 6 super duper LEDs each. One for the white and another for the royal blue LEDs.
I originally designed a circuit with resistors but was advised that LED drivers are more fitting to this application and would serve me well – great, that saves me work.
I've become aware of a rather large problem with the design – the drivers are too large for the enclosure in conjunction with the rest of the components required within the enclosure.
I am limited by the size of the aquarium opening. It's not a standard aquarium given it has a glass top and a smaller opening in the middle which the pump, heater and lighting unit all sit.
Given I would need two drivers for each set of LED's they essentially take up 2/3 of the enclosure and that's stacked shoulder to shoulder, they won't fit any other way.
Picture of the tank opening and current light unit.
175mm x 80mm x 55mm - Usable area within tank opening
120mm x 78mm x 43mm - Size of enclosure/instrument box
91mm x 41mm x 1mm - LED Driver
My only other alternative that I could think of is to house the drivers separately? However this would forfeit having the dimmers on the actual light unit (given they need to be before the drivers) unless I double back on cabling – I assume this isn't recommend, maybe even unsafe.
Any ideas anyone?
I have a basic understanding of electronic circuitry at best. I've spent many hours reading up on LED / Light based circuits and have almost (hopefully) answered all of my own questions accurately so far.
I have a rather unique Marine fish tank which has been used for a 'Coral Reef' tank. I want to upgrade the lighting to improve coral growth and the aesthetics of the tank.
This is what I want to build.
So to cut to the chase there will be two separately dimmable serial circuits of 6 super duper LEDs each. One for the white and another for the royal blue LEDs.
I originally designed a circuit with resistors but was advised that LED drivers are more fitting to this application and would serve me well – great, that saves me work.
I've become aware of a rather large problem with the design – the drivers are too large for the enclosure in conjunction with the rest of the components required within the enclosure.
I am limited by the size of the aquarium opening. It's not a standard aquarium given it has a glass top and a smaller opening in the middle which the pump, heater and lighting unit all sit.
Given I would need two drivers for each set of LED's they essentially take up 2/3 of the enclosure and that's stacked shoulder to shoulder, they won't fit any other way.
Picture of the tank opening and current light unit.
175mm x 80mm x 55mm - Usable area within tank opening
120mm x 78mm x 43mm - Size of enclosure/instrument box
91mm x 41mm x 1mm - LED Driver
My only other alternative that I could think of is to house the drivers separately? However this would forfeit having the dimmers on the actual light unit (given they need to be before the drivers) unless I double back on cabling – I assume this isn't recommend, maybe even unsafe.
Any ideas anyone?