RSM 250 LED conversion

D

DarkSurferZA

Joined
22 Jan 2014
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Location
Alberton, Gauteng
Ok, so I am by no means an electrician, an engineer or even an "honorable member", but I am a tinkerer and I have (not for the first time) performed some freestyle mods. That being said, I finally took the plunge and ventured into the realm of the LED folkses and built my own.

The only requirement I had was as follows:
1) I found a second hand profilux unit on MASA, so it had to be compatible (Analogue DC dimmable driver);
2) The tank is in my lounge, so pretty for the fish and pretty for my wife MUST align;
3) Had to be reversible;
4) I DO NOT drill/cut my tank. EVER!!!

There is undo button on the drilling thing, so this is generally not a good idea when flying by the seat of your pants.

Here is the final product, but I will post some pics of the build process and the FEW (1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or....) snags I ran into on the way.

IMG_20170211_191537.jpg


If your feeling nervous and this is preventing you from taking the plunge, I hope it gives you some comfort knowing that if I can do it, then it may as well be one of those Suezelle DIY video, cause anybody can.
 
The basis for the LED build (other than the profilux as the controller) is the solderless kit from RapidLED. http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-90g-tank-dimmable-kit/
Now it does say solderless, and it is plug and play, but the long and the short of it is that you will need a soldering iron, and you will need a multimeter. This is neither optional or all that complex. If you get stuck, post a question and I will give you the best advise I can (and some else will rapidly correct me. It is one of the immutable rules of the internet).

So step 1 is to remove and gut the hood of your MAX. I am not going to make up a guide, I followed this one and it is pretty good. Just follow the steps involved with removing everything (the actual build process is different to the one listed here as the LEDs are different).

http://www.menarilighting.com/rapidled/documentation/RSM250 Retrofit Kit Instructions.pdf

The kit comes with 2 heat sinks. together both of them are too long for the red sea. You will need to cut one of the heatsinks so that the size is the same as your tank hood size from fan to fan with a 1cm on each side as tolerance. You wont need the enclosure or splash guard so you can pack those in garage if you use the LEDs on a bigger tank at a later stage.

Black_Heatsink_fins_up__33083.1411511585.640.640.jpg
 
Once cut, use some screws, bolts (provided in the kit) and some washers (from the red sea hood, you will have extra) to join the two in the middle.

Then follow the LED wiring layout from the rapidled site http://www.menarilighting.com/rapidled/documentation/Tank Kit Layout 75 and 90 Gallon.pdf

Make sure the LEDs are lined up in the correct orientation. It will take time but there is no glue involved here, so take your time. dont rush. Also, dont use the thermal paste that came with the kit yet. I promise. I have regrets.

You should end up with something like this (this is before I neatened the wires).
Untitled.png


The cable ties I used here were to hold everything in place while i wired everything. Dont do what I did. wait till you're happy with the layout, and then use black cable ties to tie everything down to the light shield. Also note how the heat sink is longer than the light shield, this is correct.

When complete use the 2 part epoxy (arctic silver or something) from the kit and glue on the lenses. Place all your lenses, then put a dab of the arctic silver on each side ( Do not glue from underneath the lense and then stick it down. You will get glue on the LED itself). Mix in 4 batches so you have enough time. You have a 4 minute pot time with this stuff (4 minutes till dry). Leave a little for some of the wires that need tidying up after.
 
Once the LEDs are mounted the soldering begins. This is to make sure that none of the wiring between the drivers and the LEDs come apart.

First layout each of the meanwell drivers along the back plate (in your now empty RSM lighting hood), and then screw them into the existing holes in the back. I had to add 3 holes for mounting everything the way I wanted, and I re-used one of the non-dimmable drivers from the red sea to power the fans in the back.

Set the potentiometer on the meanwell drivers now, it is a pain to open everything up again (trust me). they are very small and small movements are required to make big adjustments in terms of output. Youtube vid shows everything you need to do for this step:

Should look something like this:
IMG_20170210_192505.jpg


After you solder the LEDs to the driver, I used a "chocolate block" not sure what the actual name is, and joined all the power cables in parallel to the mains supply for the red sea.

Although the profilux drives 4 LED channels over 2 L connectors (you will need 2 RJ 12 connectors), I was able to wire everything off a single cat 6 cable. Basically 1 striped orange as the dimmable negative for two drivers and striped blue as the positive for one driver and solid blue for positive for the other driver (and then ditto for the remaining 2 drivers).

Pic of my messy cabinet for reference, but you can see the 2 headed hydra thing here that goes into the profilux.

IMG_20170211_180755.jpg

On the profilux side, the negative (striped orange) was plugged into the pin 3 on the rj 12 connector with each of the blues on pin 2 and 5 respectively.
Repeat for the remaining cable. This leaves you with some 2 headed dragon thing on one side (profilux side) a single cat 6 cable, and lots of wiring all over on the red sea side.

IMG_20170211_180742.jpg


I ran the cat 6 cable through the slot for the power cable for the cooling fans, so no drilling of the covers here, however the eagle eyed among you may notice I did have to make a few holes in the lighting shield for cable ties. Only compromise on my requirements list. Promise. :)

Then it is just a matter of closing up the covers and putting everything back the way it was.
 
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Awesome upgrade, @DarkSurferZA. Really top-notch DIY skills you've got there, I've got an RSM250 as well so will probably consider an upgrade like this in the future.
 
Thanks. The truest answer is, it depends. It cost more in shipping and taxes than it did for the unit. 460 USD for the kit, although if i did leds without the kit and soldered them individually and mounted them directly to the light hood, it wouldve been around 200 USD.

Probably wouldve been cheaper if i went local too.
 
I got a RSM lid if anyone is interested.Bought it to covert to led then sold the tank.Its stripped but still got the inner part.PM me if interested
 
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