Controlling Viparspectra Lights with Apex

[unchaotic]

I was going through @Michael Lane's post about controlling Mars Aqua lights to allow them to ramp up and down. A litlle while into the discussion the topic starts to turn towards Viparspectra lights being controlled by a Reef-Pi system. Michael sells adapters for this purpose and I was contemplating going down that road but decided that I have enough to learn as a new reef keeper and so I chose to buy an Apex.

The problem with this purchase is that while a Reef-Pi can natively handle PWM, the Apex uses a 10v analog signal. So I found a thread on a Neptune forum that pointed me to this adapter. I am not savvy with all of this led circuit board stuff so I had some questions for the seller. The installation instructions were not Viparspectra specific and so when they reference leaving wires connected to the control dials I became concerned that this adapter won't work for the current remote controlled/digital display lights.

I emailed their tech support and the guy who replied said he knew nothing about Vipar lights.

So I'm just kind of hanging here. I'm not knowledgeable enough about these things to figure it out myself. I really do like doing research but so much of this just flies over my head. And so I'm posting this here to see if anyone wants to take a whack at it, or see if anyone else has already managed to do this.

 

[Jekyl]

I own the mars aqua lights. Don't know if I'd go poking around in them. Had it open to clean them out before. Not the highest quality stuff in there.

 

[oreo54]

Viparspectra led swap and exploration of Drivers

sorry for the long title. Anyway I thought I would make a new post for this for anyone looking for information. So I decided I wanted to get rid of all the warm white and neutral white leds on channel 2. I replaced them with 20k and 30k LEDs. Looks great. While I was inside of the light I...

www.reef2reef.com

Looks to be "all in 1" on this part version
Fans controller drivers fan power..
(Note pic looks to just be driver. I assumed something different. Ignore the above)

Removing Lens from (China box) 300 watt long Vipar Spectra

I have the Vipar Spectra 300 watt long led light. It’s a great powerful light but I need to remove the Lazer beam focusing lenses. I have seen videos online on the run of the mill China leds, but these are built or assembled differently. When I get to the inside of the light there is a big...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[unchaotic]

Viparspectra led swap and exploration of Drivers

sorry for the long title. Anyway I thought I would make a new post for this for anyone looking for information. So I decided I wanted to get rid of all the warm white and neutral white leds on channel 2. I replaced them with 20k and 30k LEDs. Looks great. While I was inside of the light I...

www.reef2reef.com

Removing Lens from (China box) 300 watt long Vipar Spectra

I have the Vipar Spectra 300 watt long led light. It’s a great powerful light but I need to remove the Lazer beam focusing lenses. I have seen videos online on the run of the mill China leds, but these are built or assembled differently. When I get to the inside of the light there is a big...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you, but that thread also went the reef-pi route.

 

[oreo54]

Thank you, but that thread also went the reef-pi route.

Doesn' t matter particularly until you figure out " if" it's easy to extract just the pwm signal.
Changing apex to whatever it uses isn't difficult.
Easiest it to replace the entire control/ driver board.

Over time there have been probably a dozen iterations of these and like lights and 2x that of people messing with them.


Somewhere here I posted replacement drivers w 10v analog dimming and a 12v fan circuit .

Possible "Black box" driver replacement.

Over time one of the more frustrating things was finding replacement drivers for those black boxes. No guarantee of usability but at least it covers the harder to find odd specs of them 70-100V DC 550mA 10v analog dimming (think it is), on off switch in pot (again assumption)...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[oreo54]

Old reefbreeders version of controller Viparspectra.

 

[oreo54]

Bottom line.. Without knowing the construction of "your" model it's impossible to tell what you need.
Most black boxes run a 10V analog dimmer circuit. The thing you researched is how to convert 10V analog to 5 (or 3.3v) pwm.

In a broad guessing sense most black box drivers are "Apex ready". Generally with a few twists or turns like the off thing.
10v analog can't dim to "off" and some get real weird when you drop the voltage below say 1-2V.
So you also need the plug box (forgot what its called) of the Apex to work in concert.

Dozens of threads on how to do this w/ the simple black boxes. The controlled ones have less information.
Mostly, I assume, is they are already "controlled" so why mess w/ it. You paid for it.

Anyways no reason to believe it is anywhere more difficult unless (and contrary to what I said earlier) the board is "all in 1"
Even the reefbreeders board above has seperate modules for drivers and the logic circuits.

Chinese Black Box to Apex

Hey everyone, I've been hovering the forums for a while now trying to find the info I need with no such luck. Does anyone know if any of the current Amazon black boxes use 0-10v dimming? I was hoping to do this the easy way, without having to go through the ACI from Steve's LED's, or a level...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Michael Lane]

The Viparspectra lights are not directly compatible with Apex controllers (well, obviously, since they don't have any kind of control port), but I think it is possible to come up with way to make it work. Apex has an output signal of 0-10v, but the Viparspectra lights work with an on/off signal, and a 3.3v pwm signal for dimming. Something will have to sit in the middle to translate.

I think a couple of the easiest approaches would be to just use a microcontroller (like arduino) to sample the apex signal and set pwm and an output. There are also voltage controlled PWM chips that can handle part of it. Another way could be use use a triangle wave and comparators to translate. Each of these would probably also need a voltage divider or some other way to scale the Apex signal down. You could also ignore the On/Off signal if you use a relay to cut power to the entire fixture.

If you want to try it out, I can draw some more specific ideas later.

 

[unchaotic]

I think a couple of the easiest approaches would be to just use a microcontroller (like arduino) to sample the apex signal and set pwm and an output. There are also voltage controlled PWM chips that can handle part of it. Another way could be use use a triangle wave and comparators to translate. Each of these would probably also need a voltage divider or some other way to scale the Apex signal down. You could also ignore the On/Off signal if you use a relay to cut power to the entire fixture.

TBH, I'm not sure how much research I would need to do just to be able to comprehend that paragraph.

But I've pieced together a plan from a couple different threads on here and other forums. I'll try to be thorough with picture taking and post a DIY thread on it if it works. If it doesn't work ... you may never hear me say anything about it again, lol.

 

[Michael Lane]

TBH, I'm not sure how much research I would need to do just to be able to comprehend that paragraph.

But I've pieced together a plan from a couple different threads on here and other forums. I'll try to be thorough with picture taking and post a DIY thread on it if it works. If it doesn't work ... you may never hear me say anything about it again, lol.

I guess that was a little more stream of consciousness instead of helpful information. I'll probably draw some examples this weekend.

What kind of background do you have for these kinds of projects? Have you done any kind of soldering? Any arduino projects? Have you built anything on a breadboard? Every journey starts with a step, so don't get discouraged.

I got started with electronic when a friend dumped a bunch of LEDs on my desk and asked me to see if I could get them to work on his tank. I had no idea what to do! That was almost 10 years ago, but I've clawed my way forward over the years.

Anyway, don't stop if you hit a problem; there are a lot of helpful people here. Everyone progresses at a different pace. It's all good as long as you are learning, having fun, and your pets are happy and healthy.

 

[hlaalu]

Did you make any progress with this? I believe I have the same unit as you, and since I took down my frag tank I have these lights waiting to be experimented with. Here is the inside, I guess that whole board needs to be replaced/bypassed with something that converts the apex signal?

 

[unchaotic]

Did you make any progress with this?

Here is the inside, I guess that whole board needs to be replaced/bypassed with something that converts the apex signal?

I got about 1/2 done and then got distracted adding corals to my FOWLR tank lol. I was taking step by step pictures so I could post what I did ... assuming everything works.

The method I'm using doesn't touch any of the current boards in the light, you actually just cut some wires going to that board and add a Steve's LEDs adapter. I did have to open up the driver boxes but that was just to confirm which wire was which.

So far I've got that adapter wired into the light, now I just need to make a cable to plug the adapter into my Apex and test it. I might make that wire this week but I'll have to see how intensive it is or isn't to test it on the Apex.

 

[hlaalu]

Awesome, excited to see your progress, and sounds like we will be getting a very detailed how-to soon, so thanks for that! Do you just need 1 of steve's controller? And is it the 2 channel or 4 channel? Figured I'd order it now so when I'm ready to start I have it on hand.

 

[unchaotic]

I went with one of the 4 channel controllers. I figured it's only 5 bucks more and worth having in case I need it. After I get one working I want to get 1 to 3 more going on the same controller.

 

[outhouse]

From what I understand these are 5v through the controller, and you cut the one wore but your limited to only get the lights as low as 10% and you still want the timer circut left intact as the controller cant shut on or off lights. These are the same controllers as ocean revive , here is another thread you might find usefull https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/l...revive-t247-bluefish-light-controller.359541/

 

[Gtinnel]

I haven't modified my viparspectra lights but there is a thread on Neptune's forum that goes into decent detail. There is also a pdf that I downloaded that has pretty detailed instructions, although I haven't done it yet because I just got my apex. Also I'm not positive that the instructions are the same for me because I have the 300 watt viparspectras.

I'm not sure how to attach a pdf but I would happily email it to anyone who wants it.

EDIT- Hey it looked like it did let me attach the file.

 

[unchaotic]

EDIT- Hey it looked like it did let me attach the file.

@hlaalu if you can decipher everything in that pdf file I am essentially doing a much more simplified version of it. I'd say having it like that would be my end goal but I'm keeping it simple and I'll try to have step-by-step instructions (and pictures) to make it easier to follow.

 

[Gtinnel]

@hlaalu if you can decipher everything in that pdf file I am essentially doing a much more simplified version of it. I'd say having it like that would be my end goal but I'm keeping it simple and I'll try to have step-by-step instructions (and pictures) to make it easier to follow.

I'm all for anything that makes it easier to make the viparspectra ramp up and down. I look forward to anything you provide.

 

[hlaalu]

I’m really looking forward to your guide as well!

 

[oreo54]

Did you make any progress with this? I believe I have the same unit as you, and since I took down my frag tank I have these lights waiting to be experimented with. Here is the inside, I guess that whole board needs to be replaced/bypassed with something that converts the apex signal?

Hmmm.. right side of your board looks a little fried (or an illusion?)
My guess is they are voltage regulators,the 2 3 leg chips that look partially melted from the pic.

Well this won't help much but some nice pics and a bit of analysis:

Help understanding this LED driver and how to control

First let me start off by saying I don't have an o-scope at the moment. Hoping to get some help here.

www.avrfreaks.net

note the first pic post 1 is the driver internals.. Oddly they state driver is marked 0-10v PWM.
yet the circuit board feeding the driver is -3.3v???

Very confusing.