Installing 5050 LEDS

When we got our new kitchen fitted i was looking to get down lighters installed under the cabinets, but after quite a bit of looking around i soon decided that they would use a lot of power so started looking into LEDs.

Ebay was naturally cheaper than most websites as the kits come in bulk from China. You do need to be slightly careful here as some of the cheaper kits might not include a power unit (Similar to a laptop charger) buying these alone can be around £10-£20, or be located in China, so if your in a hurry check that the item is located in the UK. and the LED kit i bought only cost £27 delivered.

There are also other things to look into what type of LED 5050 or 3528, a 5050 LED chip is bigger than a 3528 LED and also in theory 3 times brighter each 5050 LED will use around 0.24w.
I found that using two 5 RGB meter strips running all three colours of 5050 LEDs to create white used around 72watts of power and running a solid color IE Green or Red would use around 34watts. On standby the power consumed by the adaptor was around 1.2watt

There is also the amount of LEDs per strip 150 or 300 per 5 meters i went for 300, mainly because i wanted to use the kitchen by this lighting only if possible.

The main issue i had was that i wanted to run 2 5metre kits from one control box but i needed to run at least 3 metres of cable around the ceiling to get to the other side before the LEDs started, now while this doesn’t seem like a big deal i wasn’t sure whether the voltage would drop or if the box could handle the distance.

I stared with the cupboards on the oven side of the kitchen as this is where i was getting power from, all the controls are sat on top of the right hand unit.

I ran some 4 core flat cable down the back on the unit which allowed me to connect the bottom row of LEDs up using a connect which i soldered cable to cable and the used the laptop strip push crimp connector to connect to the strip of LED’s. I then ran a cable from the end of the bottom row down a channel and under the work top and along the side of the left hand wall to start the top LED’s for the left hand cupboard. To get to the bottom LED’s i just fed a cable to them, soldered cable to cable connection and used the same connection as the right hand side. the only difference here is that the bottom row only needs connecting at one end.

The next part was the bit i was worried about running along where the wall meets the ceiling to the other side of the kitchen. I used an electrical connection block after the first strip of LED’s where the cable goes down the wall to join in the new extension cable to feed the other side of the kitchen. But before i ran the cable i tested the LED strip in its full 5m length (I bought 2 kits) and the 10 metres of cable knowing if its worked at its longest length then halving it it would be fine. If it didn’t work then I’d need to address this later.

I put the LED’s in place on the top and bottom of the unit and wired up behind the cabinets.

Its fair to say that the kitchen is lit up pretty well by these LED strips alone.

Fancy a change in colour

There are about 20 other shades on the control which is pretty cool.

One thing i would recommended is using the connectors like the one on the left.

The ones on the right where very hard o get right and would often not work due to how they connected on to the LED strip.

Although the ones on the left require you to be slightly more careful when soldering they worked a lot better at connecting all 3 colour channels.

Everything i bought came from eBay.

Common issues with 5050 LED’s

Heres some issues i ran into

I’m missing a colour

If you’ve cut and reconnected your LEDs, then its a connection problem at the end of the last working LED Strip.

If none of the LED’s work fiddle around with the connection to the last strip you might see them flicker.

Boyu Protein Skimmer DT-1516

Heres another dry review of a piece of equipment sent from www.allpondsolutions.co.uk. Firstly the Boyu DT-1516 is so much bigger than i expected but then it is rated for tanks upto 600 litres, i figure my 2ft cube will be around 275 plus say 100 litres in the sump so this Boyu DT-1516 Protein Skimmer should easily handle my tank, stocking wise it will be taken slow and steady, probably with Clowns at first and then Gobies with larger fish later on like a Fox Face.

I have had some brief experience with protein skimmers before but it was a small hang on the back type, in fact it was a TMC V2 Nano. With this been an in sump protein skimmer it might take a little more fiddling with to setup, but hopefully it won’t be anything to complicated.

The only let down that i could find with the Boyu Protein Skimmer DT-1516 was the instructions, with the been a Chinese manufactured piece of equipment the instructions where in what i’d class as broken English, this shouldn’t really slow me down to much in setting it up, but if your someone that likes to read the instructions then you might find it a hard read.

The pump comes with a needle wheel for the pump which should help with bubble creation.
The Pump also had a nice feel to it and attached easily and quickly to the main body of the protein skimmer.

I’ve got a close up of the pump just in case your reading this review wanting to know a little more about the pump which is rated at 1400LPH. This felt like a really nice little pump.

I was slightly worried when i saw the size of the protein skimmer as its big, but I’ve got a couple of in sump shots which you can see below.

I’ll be re visiting this skimmer a few months down the line when there is some bio load in the tank and i can do a review on the product performance. You can checkout the range of protein skimmers from All Pond Solutions Here, see below for a video from All Pond Solutions.

All Pond Solutions WM3000 Powerhead

I’ve recently been sent a All Pond Solutions WM3000 Powerhead direct from them to review.

On the website they call them wavemakers and they call a pump a powerhead. But since I’ve always referred to them as a powerhead this is what I’ll call them in this review.

The WM3000 Powerhead retails for £27.99 on www.allpondsolutions.co.uk which is pretty cheap when you compare it to a relevant Hydor Koralia 3 3200L/H will cost around £45 online. So these Powerheads are pretty cheap compared to other leading brands that you can buy online.

In the box you’ll get a sucker attachment and a more popular magnet attachment. If it was me i would advise using the magnet attachment as the suckers are only small and there’s only 3 on the holder, and the last thing you need is to come home to find a small sand storm in your tank due to the suckers un attaching themselves from the glass of the tank, I’ve had this with more expensive brands. Of course one thing to bare in mind is children maybe not your own but other family members kids may accidentally be drawn to to the outer magnet attachment and if they are strong enough maybe able to pull it off, so remember to place out of reach.

Another thing that really impressed me was the thickness of the electricity cable, usually with cheaper products you’ll find a cheaper cable has been used but not with these powerheads. You can probably see in the picture to the left.

Should you run into any issues the then the casing just twists in half and you can inspect your impeller. You do need to be careful when re assembling though as the top of the impeller sits in the front of the powerhead in a small casing, so don’t force the front back on if there is resistance.

I’ve done a close up shot of the impeller to the left it doesn’t feel as well made as other popular brands, but if it performs well then I’m not that bothered.

My tank isn’t quite ready to be filled yet so there’s no performance reports yet, but I’ll be back with a report when this has been in the tank and been running for a month or so, i then feel i can give a more honest review of the product performance of the WM3000 from All Pond Solutions

Here’s a video showing the varying models that All Pond Solutions do and there performance.

Marine Aquarium On A Budget : The Aquarium

This will be my third marine aquarium but only my second from new as my 2nd to 3rd was a tank down size.

I’m looking to do this setup on a limited budget but without cutting any major corners, must of the stuff i’m hoping to get 2nd hand so it should only cost a fraction of the price.

I’ve been looking for a 2ft cube aquarium which is quite a popular size and these don’t come up for sale often and when they do then they are bought pretty quickly.

I’d been looking daily on 3 main sources for the aquarium

Ebay
www.ultimatereef.net
www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk

I got mine through the last website www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk, after around 3/4 weeks of looking a 2ft cube aquarium came up for £300, it was only 6 months old and was £699 new and its in a light oak colour.

It came with a light a clip on Metal Halide only 70w but it seems bright enough for what i need and its a good make a K2 Viper.

The only down side was that the tank was 2 hours away and a 4 hour trip in total which also cost me £70 in fuel. I can’t say whether the tank is water tight yet and this will be one of the last things i find out .
So there are a few downsides the tank needs the below:

New Door Hinges, these rust easily and its pretty common on sumped marine aquariums

Glass & Perspex cover, glass for the tank this will stop a big loss of water from evaporation, also covering the sump with perspex, im choosing perspex as i can cut holes in the right places for the return pipe hose and the weir outlet, with glass this could prove a pain.

Plumbing I’ve currently spent around £13 on plumbing for the sump, there was no ball valve to control the flow of water out of the aquarium, its easier to sort this now than later, I’ve also bough a few jubilee clips and 2 new sections of hose.

My next job is to hover the remnants of the old sand out of the aquarium and the fully clean the inside of the glass with vinegar, ive already done 2 sides, and it looks a lot better already as most of the water marks have been removed. But when the tank was drained it was tipped on its side so the sand stayed on that side and has now dried on, this just needs brushing off and hoovering out.

Although buying a tank from a considerable way away does have draw backs, i feel that i couldn’t have bought one close to me in the same quality or age, or i’d of had a long wait

Tank & Sump and Lighting £300

Plumbing £14

Fuel £70

Total cost so far £384

EGR Valve Cleaning 1.9cdti

Here is a quick photo guide of how to clean your EGR Valve, my car is a Vauxhall Vectra C with the 1.9cdti 150 engine on a 2006 plate. Its got around 46k on the clock and a few months back the EML came on a quick trip to a local Auto Electric place confirmed it was the EGR Valve stuck error.

Apparently these can stick quickly and then free them selves but still throw the error up or then can cease permanently. Anyway the light came on again so i decided that it was probably worth taking off the EGR Valve and giving it a good clean and the mouth of the inlet manifold.

I’m not a mechanic by trade but i felt confident that this was easy enough to fix and probably took me around 40 minutes.

Things you will need

10mm Spanner or Socket
13mm Spanner or Socket
Flat head screw driver
Carb/Injector cleaner (i used 2 cans)
Cloths/towels
Small Paintbrush

1: Pop your bonnet and it should look like the below

2: Lift off the black plastic engine cover, these are quite flexi and hard to damage

3: Your now looking at a bare engine, your EGR Valve is directly under the top right engine mount.

4:Undo the nuts that are holding the engine mount on, don’t drop the nuts.

5: You’ll now have something like

6: There is a sensor cable which attaches to the plastic side of the EGR Valve, i found this fiddly to remove whilst bolted to the engine, so i left it attached until the EGR Valve was free and removed then, now remove the bolts i would suggest leaving a top one till last, there is also a metal gasket between the EGR and inlet mani, mine was stuck to the engine, but be careful and try not to lose it.

7: The bolts should loosen off easily and you’ll have something like this, you can just see the black gasket, on the inlet mani

8: There are the 2 top bolts here which connect to a loose bracket, underneath of the EGR. To be honest you can remove these first if you want, infact its probably easier, i think that there is a gasket under this between the EGR and the connection, anyway I’ve lost mine and all seems fine.

9: Your EGR Valve is now free but remember to disconnect the Sensor. You should have something like the below.

10: As you can see mines pretty caked with soot, soak with Carb Cleaner and wrap a rag around the screwdriver to clean the inside, if i had the time, i would of left the EGR Valve to soak in Carb Cleaner over night.

Now all you need to do is fit the EGR back on to your car. a word of warning before you start your car.

Mine didn’t want to start the first time and it did idle roughly for a minute or so, which I’m putting down to loose soot and Carb Cleaner.

Challenge Xtreme Petrol Grass Trimmer 25cc Reviewed

I know that Challenge Xtreme is a pretty cheap brand so i didn’t expect the Challenge Xtreme Petrol Grass Trimmer 25cc to be like a £200 / £300 strimmer when it only costs £80 from Argos.

I needed a new Strimmer as the old electric one had died. I’ve already got a petrol lawn mower so i didn’t want to have to get all the leads out just for the strimmer when its only a quick job to go round the edge of the garden.

I’ve never owned a 2 stroke engine before but mixed was really easy, just fill the supplied mixing bottle up to the line and then top up with 2 stroke mixture (supplied) to the next line, give it a good shake and your done. The bottle will easily fill the petrol tank up and you do have a little left in the bottle. I cant say how long it will take for the tank to empty as i haven’t really used it much.

Its not a quick starting 2 stroke engine and you need to push the primer around 10 times but 3/4 pulls and it will start close the choke and your going.

The rotating head won’t rotate until you let out the lock for the centrifugal clutch which is good and a nice feature. Weight wise its a well balanced piece of equipment neither is it to light or to heavy.

The supplied strimming cord is pretty thick and only did me for around 2 cuttings of our medium sized back garden, but i’m going to put slightly thinner stuff in this time.

It did take me some time to get familiar with the higher angle i needed to use to strim with put the supplied shoulder strap took the weight for me.

Below are the tech specs on the Challenge Xtreme Petrol Grass Trimmer 25cc

The self assembly was pretty easy all i needed to do was fit the handle and the safety Guard for above the cutting head. oh and clamp the 2 shafts together

Petrol grass trimmer.
25cc engine.
2 stroke engine.
Requires 2 stroke oil (supplied).
Cutting width 38cm.
Bump feed.
Dual line feed system.
Low vibration.
Weight 5.2kg.

Temple Run

Temple Run is taking the mobile gaming scene by storm. its already on smashing sales records left right and centre. You can play temple run online at varying arcade and online gaming websites. Temple run is costing just under £1 on both app markets.

The idea for Temple run is simple keep running on a never ending level collectiong coins, but you have monkeys chasing you close behind, but collecting the money will slow you down if your just over to the left all the time, so you need to be careful otherwise you will be monkey food