Testing out some 10W Chinese LEDS

[Brian10962001]

Originally Posted by fishykid1

Did you really just say they're better than Cree? I would like to inform you that the Cree LED's are also only 3W LED's compared to the 10W. Also, they are XM-L not XP-L.

Other than that, this looks promising as long as they hold up...

He's talking about over driving the XM-L's and you're correct XP-L is a typo. I don't think its that hard of one to make, Crees went XP-G, XM-L.

[silvawispa]

The X-LM is rated for 3A, it is a 10W LED. (The XP-G is 3W though, if I remeber right.)
Overdriving XM-Ls up to 4.5A has apparently been tried, but proved pointless. Although it didn't destroy the unit, which gives a good indication as to the build quality and potential longevity.

Personally I underdrive mine at 2.1A on a passive (at the moment, I'll get around to sealing the water leaks one day, I promise!) heatsink.

I would be surprised if the chinese 10W LED's put out anywhere near the same PAR, the efficiency of those larger die units is not as good as the top of the line CREEs, and more surprised if the CRI (colour rendition index) was even in the same league.

I'm happy to read evidence to the contrary as it will make the rest of the conversion of my tank that much cheaper.

[Profector]

How many of these LED's do you think you need over a standard 55g tank to acheive high light/PAR? These might look good with a couple low watt 10000k mixed in.

[Profector]

I guess the answer would be four.

[tentacles]

cree makes 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 and 25w emitters. XML are 10w.

[blackdog76]

You can talk about this crap all you want. I'm not worried about PAR numbers. My Cuba likes the new LEDS and results are all I'm worried about.

[sendthis]

Good to hear positive comments on these... I was worried. I just bought two warm white and two cool white 10W LEDs (square) and another five 3W red LEDs on eBay. I am probably going to underdrive them... so running the 10W at maybe 5-7W and the 3W at about 2W.

I got my first one in today (I like to order them from different sellers - although some of them look like the same guy with different seller names). Waiting on the rest...

[Naekuh]

Originally Posted by blackdog76

My Cuba likes the new LEDS and results are all I'm worried about.

+1 yup my cuba loves the 10W's too.

so you can talk all the crap about them you guys want... but i still stand behind my statement.
These 10W's i like them much better then the 3W non XM-L Cree's.
And lets not get started on the bridgelux wannabe's.... there great... but... there not 10W.

But when u see growth like this, your sold...



My moss loves it, and so does a anubis that thinks its a sword plant in growth speed:



This is where it started:

[Adkins.its]

I'm really thinking about trying one of these out for my 11.4 gallon. Do you guys think one of these a foot or so over the water would do well? Its 11.8x18.9x11.8".

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[Naekuh]

Originally Posted by Adkins.its

I'm really thinking about trying one of these out for my 11.4 gallon. Do you guys think one of these a foot or so over the water would do well? Its 11.8x18.9x11.8".

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

they have a wide arc.. i believe its somewhere between 160 degree's on the square, and 140 degree's on the circle.

on a 11.4 i dont recommend u using anymore then 2.... 3 and ur asking for it with algae no matter how much co2 you inject.

[Adkins.its]

Well I was considering just using a single light if that would cover the spread of my tank.

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[Chlorophile]

Originally Posted by Naekuh

+1 yup my cuba loves the 10W's too.

so you can talk all the crap about them you guys want... but i still stand behind my statement.
These 10W's i like them much better then the 3W non XM-L Cree's.
And lets not get started on the bridgelux wannabe's.... there great... but... there not 10W.

But when u see growth like this, your sold...



My moss loves it, and so does a anubis that thinks its a sword plant in growth speed:



This is where it started:

And so does your algae!

[samamorgan]

Originally Posted by blackdog76

You can talk about this crap all you want. I'm not worried about PAR numbers. My Cuba likes the new LEDS and results are all I'm worried about.

Talking crap on a good solution is complete retardation, and anyone who does so is just anti progression. That aside, I would love to know the PAR output of these vs XM-L T6. Just for objective comparison, since both emmiters cost about the same. Another couple emmiters I would like to see tried is the CREE MC-E and MT-G. The MT-G in particular looks very interesting, made to replace MR16 bulbs.

[tentacles]

I have, sitting here in my lap, a box with 4 18w Citizen 5000k 85CRI emitters in it.. I'll have a chance to test one later (although not over a tank, as I'm in north dakota right now). They cost me $9.53 each from a USA based vendor, so the price is quite reasonable. The emitters themselves are superb quality. They're rated for 1380 lumens at 18w, but can be driven as high as 29w (no lumen data provided for that, probably like 2000?).

Biggest problem with them is the driving voltage of 38.2v, but that is no problem for an ELN60-48.

[sendthis]

I'm kind of surprised no one has tested these out yet. I would do it if I had the equipment.

hehe, I guess most people that have the equipment to test these out might also be the same people who are willing to spend the money on brand name LEDs :P

I'm not really into planted aquariums, but the reason I looked into LEDs was so I could build an algae turf scrubber and/or have supplemental lighting (I have a t5 on a 20G that's having a hard time even growing moss so I was hoping modifying it to use two of these) for my shrimp tank.