Controlling Viparspectra Lights

[bishoptf]

First of the two ML boards installed. Waiting on more RB LEDs to arrive to I can do the last swaps then button her up.

Man, this board vs my "manual labor" way of achieving the same control is almost silly. Dropped from 8 wires to each light to 3 to one and a short piggieback to the 2nd.

Huge thank you to @Michael Lane.

Agree makes it really easy to put together, I will spend more time figuring out how to hang the light vs adding it to reef-pi thanks @Michael Lane!

One thing I am looking at is adding an extra channel for moon lights, I have gotten some actinic strips in but have not wired things up yet. I also ordered some cool white and warm white strips to see what a combination will look like. I am using these mosfet boards - Amazon product
to allow me to use PWM from reef-pi and control the moon lights. I modified them by removing the screw down terminals and the pins on the input for JST-XH connectors, see picture below:

The input lined up fine for a 3 pin jst-xh connector, and the 12v input and output lined up with a 3 pin also, however the original screw terminals only have 2 connectors to the board so I removed the center pin and then they worked fine. the JST-XH connectors are rated for much lower current than the screw terminals (3amp) but that should be plenty for the led moon light strips.

 

[bishoptf]

My led strips for the moon lights came in and couldn't wait to play, I did 4 strips, 2 actinic blue (middle) and one warm white and one cool white (each on the outside). My tank doesn't have water in it (thats coming very soon) and I am not controlling yet with #reef-pi, just wanted to see what these look like at 100%. Light is right above the tank which is a 29G tank.

Couple of pictures, eye level then below showing the strips:

I think I like the combination, has some blue but not to much and a little blue white and warm white.

 

[Badfish2too]

First of the two ML boards installed. Waiting on more RB LEDs to arrive to I can do the last swaps then button her up.

Man, this board vs my "manual labor" way of achieving the same control is almost silly. Dropped from 8 wires to each light to 3 to one and a short piggieback to the 2nd.

Huge thank you to @Michael Lane.

Curious as to why you went (2) 3 pin connectors vs a single 4 pin?

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Curious as to why you went (2) 3 pin connectors vs a single 4 pin?

One 3pin (ch1, ch2, GND) is for input from the Pi, 2nd is the out to go to the next light in the series so I don't have to run a second wire from the pi, only wire from light to light. Basically every light after the first one piggie backs off the light before it (master light - > slave light - > etc...)

 

[Badfish2too]

One 3pin (ch1, ch2, GND) is for input from the Pi, 2nd is the out to go to the next light in the series so I don't have to run a second wire from the pi, only wire from light to light. Basically every light after the first one piggie backs off the light before it (master light - > slave light - > etc...)

Ok that makes sense. Thanks, I was just ordering connectors and was trying to figure out which ones to get. I was looking at 4 pins. Was thinking power, ground and 2 signals. Blues and whites separate

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks, I was just ordering connectors and was trying to figure out which ones to get. I was looking at 4 pins. Was thinking power, ground and 2 signals. Blues and whites separate

That's why I like aviation connectors, they come many flavors. I've got 2, 3,4, 8, 10 pin lol.

What are you trying to control?

 

[Badfish2too]

That's why I like aviation connectors, they come many flavors. I've got 2, 3,4, 8, 10 pin lol.

What are you trying to control?

Vipar lights. Yeah thats what I was ordering. Aviation

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Vipar lights. Yeah thats what I was ordering. Aviation

Are you planning on using Mike's boards or "manual labor" option with relays?

 

[Badfish2too]

Are you planning on using Mike's boards or "manual labor" option with relays?

Ive got some of the mini adapter boards. Then controlling with Robo-Tank kit using reefpi

 

[Michael Lane]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks, I was just ordering connectors and was trying to figure out which ones to get. I was looking at 4 pins. Was thinking power, ground and 2 signals. Blues and whites separate

You only need signals and ground. The adapter boards are powered by the viparspectra fixture itself. There's no need to send power to them unless you are going to add some additional LEDs.

 

[Badfish2too]

Yeah I ended up getting 4 pin just in case I want to add later. I was thinking possible fan control because I already added pwm fans in case I decided to control them later

 

[JT26]

Is this the same light everyone is working on?
Amazon product

The 165W version Dimensions: 16x8.5x2.4inches. Item Weight: 6.8 lbs


Want to make sure its the same and I can follow these builds, as I have ML Hat already install.

 

[Bo.]

Is this the same light everyone is working on?
Amazon product

The 165W version Dimensions: 16x8.5x2.4inches. Item Weight: 6.8 lbs


Want to make sure its the same and I can follow these builds, as I have ML Hat already install.

Absolutely is.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Absolutely is.

Check eBay you might be able to shave off $10. But yes, that's it.

 

[bishoptf]

Here is my update, getting close, I need to re-do my moon lights and make them more permanent and clean up the wiring. I am using jst-sm connectors just like I have on my latest #reefpi build, requires you to have a crimper but once you do and the connectors you can make any jumper that is needed. Using back to back connectors through a rubber 5/16 grommet (.45 at menards, I don't need no fancy aviation connectors , lol). I am feeding 12v for the moon lights vs tapping the 120v through a converter so I have 2 feeds, one will go to a 4 pin @Michael Lane hat, 3pwms (2 for viparsectra and one for moon) and then a ground. One of the pwm will feed the moon with a ground going to both the mosfet and @Michael Lane hat. I need to update my build thread but I have a low voltage chase separate from my line voltage up at the light, I just need to feed the wires and finish hooking things up, hopefully it will all work.

Woot!

Oh and I love my new crimper <3...lol

My ocd has a hard time letting go that the mosfet board is not perpendicular to the fan but I do not want another hole in the light. Let me know if I have missed anything or any clarifications needed.

Thanks again to @Michael Lane for the board and the additional details.

 

[Michael Lane]

Here is my update, getting close, I need to re-do my moon lights and make them more permanent and clean up the wiring. I am using jst-sm connectors just like I have on my latest #reefpi build, requires you to have a crimper but once you do and the connectors you can make any jumper that is needed. Using back to back connectors through a rubber 5/16 grommet (.45 at menards, I don't need no fancy aviation connectors , lol). I am feeding 12v for the moon lights vs tapping the 120v through a converter so I have 2 feeds, one will go to a 4 pin @Michael Lane hat, 3pwms (2 for viparsectra and one for moon) and then a ground. One of the pwm will feed the moon with a ground going to both the mosfet and @Michael Lane hat. I need to update my build thread but I have a low voltage chase separate from my line voltage up at the light, I just need to feed the wires and finish hooking things up, hopefully it will all work.

Woot!

Oh and I love my new crimper <3...lol

My ocd has a hard time letting go that the mosfet board is not perpendicular to the fan but I do not want another hole in the light. Let me know if I have missed anything or any clarifications needed.

Thanks again to @Michael Lane for the board and the additional details.

That looks very nice. I love the use of grommets for that connection! Does that crimper take care of both crimp points at the same time? The one I have requires 2 separate operations, so I hate using it.

 

[bishoptf]

That looks very nice. I love the use of grommets for that connection! Does that crimper take care of both crimp points at the same time? The one I have requires 2 separate operations, so I hate using it.

Yeah it crimps both at the same time. The JST-SM connections are pretty easy to do and seem to work well, the JST-XH with the smaller wire were more fun. From what I have read the tool that you have to use to crimp separately is probably the better tool. This one works but you have to practice and get a feel for how it works but once you learn it makes decent crimps, are they as good as the $400 tool, nope but if I do my job loading it up properly it makes decent crimps. One thing that I learned is I can crimp initially on the larger die then switch to the smaller die and crimp again and it seems to work really well.

I will say that I prefer 22ga wire vs the 26ga that you have with your boards, I use them but with my old eyes its more fiddly. I've used it a bunch and can see that I will continue to use it a lot more, it does take time when you have a bunch but I like the size and space savings plus once you have the crimper a box of bazillion connectors are pretty cheap.



Oh one additional thing, just a lazy thing but maybe in the future on the layout of your boards, instead of four mounting holes use only three. I rarely use all four but for the size of most of them three would be a good compromise.

 

[bishoptf]

Here is a crimp with 22ga sm connector pins, not the best picture but one on the right not as good as the left but both of them are serviceable and should work fine...

 

[bishoptf]

Ok I have a dumb question, I have things wired up and ready to go but not sure how to configure in reef-pi v3 using @Michael Lane hat. I assumed I need to configure a driver with the pc9685 but it asks for frequency and address. I assume I can then create a jack and use it in the lighting section.

Anyone pass along what frequency's they are using for the vipar and how to configure?

Thanks

 

[Michael Lane]

Your assumptions are correct. You need to set up the PCA9685 driver. The default address should be 64 (0x40) unless you've bridged any of the address jumpers. Pretty much any frequency between 100 and 1500 should work just fine. You can use 1000, unless you have any other pwm devices you are planning to hook up.