Thexder

The LED's with the Bond Ply attached and cut to shape.

Spent the night cutting the Bond Ply and attaching the LED and heatsinks to the aluminum plate. Here is Bond Ply being cut into small squares to be attached to the LED...

How long does the silica gel last? I find silica gel loses its absorption quite fast and turn pink in a short while.

I did water change last month with their NSW. No problem.

Which shop is that?

Got my company workshop guy to machine the aluminum plate and acrylic splash guard. Got some PP spacers made too. Saved me quite a bit of cost since the acrylic and spacers were FOC This weekend can start to assemble together already...

Today the Bond Ply thermal film arrived from RS. Damn expensive... $30+ for 6x6" piece.

My total LED wattage is 72W. Should be equivalent to 1x150W MH. But haven't factor in the effect of the lenses. Once I install then can see the effect.

I use the betta box itself as a fish trap.

Thanks. Cancelled the order and reordered Bond Ply instead.

Otherwise, I'm not sure if these other epoxies I saw at HomeFix can be used as thermal epoxy?

The first major problem for me... No thermal epoxy can be found in whole SLT or SLS To buy the Artica thermal epoxy from USA doesn't seem worth it. The shipping cost is more than the epoxy In the end RS Components sells it but have to wait 4 weeks for delivery I plan to use the thermal epoxy to glue the star PCB to the aluminum plate instead of using screws. So now waiting 4 weeks...

2 strips of waterproof low power blue LED for moonlights.

The Meanwell's and 9V transformer will go into a separate control box. Do you think if I need a DC fan to cool them? I'm not sure how hot they will run. I can use the 9V transformer to drive the fan.

You can see the low height clearance of the fan + heatsink in order to fit into the Solite casing. I actually haven't tried if it really can go in. Calculations say can lah...

My original plan was to stuff the Meanwells and heatsinks inside the Solite casing, but looks like reality is a different story. Seems that I have to house the Meanwell's in a separate project box together with a 9V transformer for the dimming controls.

LEDs, Meanwell drivers and lenses from bro Sherman. 12x cool-white 12x royal blue 2x ELN-60-48P 24x 45 deg lenses

The MH occupies the centre portion of the casing. It can be removed by sliding out the glass plates and aluminum panels. I got a 4mm thick aluminum plate to cover the whole centre panel. The LEDs and heatsinks will be attached to this plate. Here is the plate with the LED positions marked out. Got the plate from Soon Lian Hardware for $15 (900 x 140mm).

Here is my DIY on converting my existing Solite 3' from 2x150W MH to LED. Finally decided to go ahead and convert to LED after waiting for 1 year Here is the original MH on the Solite. The MH bulbs are also >1 year of use already.

I found this place Soon Lian Hardware which specializes in aluminum plates, rods, etc. Address 45 Joo Koon Circle Singapore 629106 Tel: 6261 8888 Its actually a factory, but they do walk-in sales and need to pay cash. You call them to place your order. Tell them what size you want and qty. Then go down to collect. They will cut to your required size. Not recommended for those who are squeamish about walking through noisy and dirty metalworks factory

The good thing about CF is their LR is cover with coraline and comes in big and nice shapes for scaping. Only thing is their price sibeh swee.

$125 for purple tang... last time only $45. Better than buying Citigroup shares

Not always true. I ever bought LR from CF and ended up with aiptasia outbreak.

Yup! I agree that programming is the most pain-in-the-butt job. Experienced it while debugging ladder diagrams for PLC last time. And that was before the time of Windows based s/w My first Arduino project should be simple. Just a light controller with sunrise, sunset, moonlight function. At most a temperature monitering for the heatsink with cut-off if over-temp.