DIY Lighting Project (LED Strips)

How much Simon? 

Just ordered my TC420, coming from China so it'll be here by the end of April.
 

Cool If you need a hand with anything, just give me a shout.

So I've ordered my LED controller and a couple of metres of blue 5630 LEDs to replace my existing cheap LED moonlight unit.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a metre or two of red 5630 LEDs to try and achieve a sunset effect. 

Can't quite figure how I'd blend the colours ...

I'm thinking I'll have cool white fading out with red fading in and then red fading out as the blue fades in to moonlight..

Sound about right Darren ?

The controller will be here soon and a couple of metres of red will cost about four quid so I could just buy it and experiment ...

So I've ordered my LED controller and a couple of metres of blue 5630 LEDs to replace my existing cheap LED moonlight unit.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a metre or two of red 5630 LEDs to try and achieve a sunset effect. 

Can't quite figure how I'd blend the colours ...

I'm thinking I'll have cool white fading out with red fading in and then red fading out as the blue fades in to moonlight..

Sound about right Darren ?

The controller will be here soon and a couple of metres of red will cost about four quid so I could just buy it and experiment ...

Sounds about right, though it may be a bit pink with they whites and reds. How many channels are you using at the moment? I'm guessing 3 (white, blue, and red), if so, I'd probably go for 1m of red and 1m of orange, then you'd get a bit more control with the fades and a nicer colour.

Daytime, have the whites on, but as you're approaching sunset (for the aquarium) fade up the orange which will produce a warm white to light orange.

Next fade up the reds as you fade the whites off, which should give you that nice orangey/red sunset colour, then fade out the orange. You may only want to go to 50%, you'll have to play and see what works best.

Next fade the red (red/orange) down as you fade on the blues, which will give you a nice purpley transition before the full blues come on.

Finally fade out the blues as the night gets darker

I've had a quick look and I guess where 5360 is a fairly new LED technology they haven't got quite the range of colours yet. I found a couple of pretty expensive solutions coming out of america, but nothing out of china yet.

A couple of other options for orange would be:

1. Get green 5360's and run them at 50% with the red's on full (R 100% + G 50% = Orange) but you may have to do a bit of tweaking.

2. Get orange 5050 strips, which are pretty cheap. The problem with these it they aren't as bright, but if you have the space, you could run twice as many strips or orange as you do red, which should counter the problem.

Option 1 would be more space and power efficient, but would require a lot of tweaking the light levels to get the desired colour.

Option 2 would take up more space and use a bit more energy, but would be easier to set up in the software.

Hope this helps

My TC420 arrived today. Had a good laugh at the instruction manual.

Took me 10 minutes or so to figure out exactly how to work the software to program it.

So, this evening we witnessed our first aquarium sunset. The white light faded out over the course of an hour and the blue light was left. I'm really pleased. 

I've now realised that my power supply is inadequate for my existing white light, so will order a new one soon.

This new power supply will also enable me to fade my blue moonlight (bought 2M of blue 5630s) and I'll also buy some red and orange strips to get a red-sky-at-night sunset effect.

Thanks again to Darren for the pointers. 

I'll try posting a video when I have finished.

My TC420 arrived today. Had a good laugh at the instruction manual.

Took me 10 minutes or so to figure out exactly how to work the software to program it.

So, this evening we witnessed our first aquarium sunset. The white light faded out over the course of an hour and the blue light was left. I'm really pleased. 

I've now realised that my power supply is inadequate for my existing white light, so will order a new one soon.

This new power supply will also enable me to fade my blue moonlight (bought 2M of blue 5630s) and I'll also buy some red and orange strips to get a red-sky-at-night sunset effect.

Thanks again to Darren for the pointers. 

I'll try posting a video when I have finished.

Awesome news. The manual is a bit of a joke, which is why I'm putting my site together. Eventually it'll be a full step by step guide so that anyone can do it.

I'm so glad you like the effect to me it's like having a £400 light for 1:8th the cost.

If you need a hand calculating what size power supply to get, we can sort that out.

Darren, I look forward to reading the instructions on your site!

It's still a work in progress at the moment. I'm planning on breaking each section down more and adding more sections covering each step from choosing LEDs to programming the TC420 and having the running lights. I'll add loads of on screen calculators to, to make things even easier.

The site is at www.TC420.net

Lots of useful info on your site. Just wanted to check if there was a typo in the 'connecting the transformer' page. It currently states:

amps = (2 + 1.5 + 0.6 + 1.1) x 1.1
amps = 5.2 x 1.1 (Multiplying by 1.1 adds 10% to the amps)
amps = 5.72
So we would need a 12v transformer rated at 5.72 watts or above. If the transformers are sized in watts, we must multiply the amps by the voltage.

Should it be amps not watts? Just wanted to be clear as I might give this a go and want to make sure I have the right equipment!

Thanks for that, yes it should have been amps . I've updated it now. I'll be replacing these with calculators at some point to make life even easier

I have added the following power supply to my watch list: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400536283613
12v 84W 7A which should be adequate for up to almost 7 metres of LED, not accounting for the +10% margin.

Question: what if I use the above power supply but only end up installing 5 metres?

The power supply will only draw what it needs to, plus a small percentage lost due to the conversion, so getting a bigger power supply wouldn't use more than the LEDs demand. Just been looking at a few 5630 strips, and they seem to draw and average of 30w per metre (for 60 LEDs per metre), so it may be worth double checking the power needed by your strips. If they're 30 LEDs per metre and you end up with 5 metres, that power supply should be fine, but any more than that or 60 per metre I'd go for a bigger supply. It's better to have reserve than stress the components.