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So in the middle of my diy strip light build I came across this: <$50
LED 30" 0.5W 6500K Freshwater Plant Bright LED by Beamworks 4th Generation
110 x 0.5w LEDs. I could not help myself.
I tested this unit on a kill-a-watt meter. It consumes 56w that includes the power supply. My 4 cfls ran consumed 90w.
I was originally going to gut it and replace the lights with my own. But after trying it I decided to keep it for a while and see what it can do. As always phone pics don't get across what is actually there.
Build quality is good. I might be mad if I paid $200 but for $50 I can live happily with it. Small cosmetic scratches on the black led board is all I can complain about. Some of them have been colored in with what looks like marker. I still like it.
6500K seems fair. Comparing it to the a 5000K and 6500K CFL reveals that it is cooler than 5000K cfl and I can't tell if it is warmer or cooler than the 6500K cfl.
Light intensity seems slightly better than the 4 x 23w cfls. The plants do not seem to mind the new light. They still pearl slightly with the leds. I had 2x5000K and 2x6500K cfls on my tank before this light. Beta and black neon look much better now.
More good news. The leds are mounted on a metal pcb board. This was one of my main concerns as I thought it would be the standard pcb board material. The metal pcb board has direct contact with heat sink. It could be better but it's not getting hot. So that makes it good enough.
The night light is too bright. Way to bright IMO. It has 16 leds on(8w) with the night setting. I will need to customize this as I like it really dim at night. But I'm waiting on parts from Hong Kong.
Overall I have been happy for the 6 hours I have had it on. And if I can build a fully programmable led system for <$100 I will be even happier.
There should be enough room between the led rows to add some rgb strip lights. Or I could remove the night circuit and, or... Or......OR The layout of the pcb makes adding to the board easy for A DIY'er who loves to tinker. And if you do love to tinker this unit runs off of 15V. It has 4 leds in series chains and a resistor.
One of the parts I ordered off of the bay is a 5 channel fully programmable led controller. I plan on using this with some RGB lights for color control, sunrise, sunset, clouds, moon etc.. If anyone has experience with these please chime in.
Hope this help.
Pictures coming soon as I can't upload right now. 😤. I also don't want to accidentally delete this ... so I'm posting now.
LED 30" 0.5W 6500K Freshwater Plant Bright LED by Beamworks 4th Generation
110 x 0.5w LEDs. I could not help myself.
I tested this unit on a kill-a-watt meter. It consumes 56w that includes the power supply. My 4 cfls ran consumed 90w.
I was originally going to gut it and replace the lights with my own. But after trying it I decided to keep it for a while and see what it can do. As always phone pics don't get across what is actually there.
Build quality is good. I might be mad if I paid $200 but for $50 I can live happily with it. Small cosmetic scratches on the black led board is all I can complain about. Some of them have been colored in with what looks like marker. I still like it.
6500K seems fair. Comparing it to the a 5000K and 6500K CFL reveals that it is cooler than 5000K cfl and I can't tell if it is warmer or cooler than the 6500K cfl.
Light intensity seems slightly better than the 4 x 23w cfls. The plants do not seem to mind the new light. They still pearl slightly with the leds. I had 2x5000K and 2x6500K cfls on my tank before this light. Beta and black neon look much better now.
More good news. The leds are mounted on a metal pcb board. This was one of my main concerns as I thought it would be the standard pcb board material. The metal pcb board has direct contact with heat sink. It could be better but it's not getting hot. So that makes it good enough.
The night light is too bright. Way to bright IMO. It has 16 leds on(8w) with the night setting. I will need to customize this as I like it really dim at night. But I'm waiting on parts from Hong Kong.
Overall I have been happy for the 6 hours I have had it on. And if I can build a fully programmable led system for <$100 I will be even happier.
There should be enough room between the led rows to add some rgb strip lights. Or I could remove the night circuit and, or... Or......OR The layout of the pcb makes adding to the board easy for A DIY'er who loves to tinker. And if you do love to tinker this unit runs off of 15V. It has 4 leds in series chains and a resistor.
One of the parts I ordered off of the bay is a 5 channel fully programmable led controller. I plan on using this with some RGB lights for color control, sunrise, sunset, clouds, moon etc.. If anyone has experience with these please chime in.
Hope this help.
Pictures coming soon as I can't upload right now. 😤. I also don't want to accidentally delete this ... so I'm posting now.
