How To: Connecting a DIY LED to an Apex Dimmable Outlet

tomtom2245 · Nov 21, 2016

Roberto Toala said:
Ok did as advised and cut the knobs, and everything is working to perfection, lights go as bright as day, and dim extremely low, very happy with this mod. I will work on documenting this over the weekend for those with the Galaxyhydro WIFI lights.

Thank you all for the help.

Kindest Regards,

RT

That's awesome! Glad everything worked out for you and that I could be of assistance!

Osiel Alvarado · Dec 6, 2016

ok so quick question i know this is for LED's but I bought the dimmable T5 retrofit ballast for my tank from BRS and I have an Apex Neptune, but I have no clue how to set this up. or If i should even bother. i currently have it to turn on from 1000-1800 controlled by one of the apex outlets. My primary lights are the AI hydra's and those have their own schedule controlled on their own without the Apex. those ramp up for two hours and at peak the T5 turn on and at 1800 when the T5's go off they start to ramp down. What do you guys think? should I bother with the dimming the T5 and having a "ramp time" in conjunction with the hydra's or just leave it as is? any benefits or cons in doing either of these methods?

Thank's in advance.

tomtom2245 · Dec 6, 2016

Osiel Alvarado said:
ok so quick question i know this is for LED's but I bought the dimmable T5 retrofit ballast for my tank from BRS and I have an Apex Neptune, but I have no clue how to set this up. or If i should even bother. i currently have it to turn on from 1000-1800 controlled by one of the apex outlets. My primary lights are the AI hydra's and those have their own schedule controlled on their own without the Apex. those ramp up for two hours and at peak the T5 turn on and at 1800 when the T5's go off they start to ramp down. What do you guys think? should I bother with the dimming the T5 and having a "ramp time" in conjunction with the hydra's or just leave it as is? any benefits or cons in doing either of these methods?

Thank's in advance.

Personally I probably wouldn't dim the T5s if you already have the AI's ramping up and down, but that's just me. However with that said, if you would like to then I will do my best to help you out here. If you would like to, can you post a pic of the driver and what connections it has to start with? You should be able to follow the rj-45 portion of the instructions above and then connect that straight to your driver, if you have the set I think you do.

Papi Sanchez · Sep 11, 2017

Hate to bring up a old thread but has anyone been able to figure out a way to completely turn off lights through the variable speed/dimmer port without just shutting that outlet off

User1 · Feb 11, 2018

Well, I too am going to necro this older thread. First, thanks for the write up. I have my cables made. I'm also using Steve's interface but his docs are a bit confusing. It is showing power from a 12v source, is that correct? Then the last driver input shows a ground wire being spliced to the main power supply - but in the 8 x ldd board, which I'm also using, shows that actually going to the main power supply - not ground... I circled in blue what I'm confused on (rightly so with only one cup of coffee so far

). So I need to find a power source I guess - didn't factor that in but need to get the last wire set correctly which seems to be a ground. The last to main power supply is to power the other 4 ldd's so that splice/ground comment isn't making sense.

Thoughts or ideas?

Roberto Toala · Mar 21, 2018

saf1 said:
Well, I too am going to necro this older thread. First, thanks for the write up. I have my cables made. I'm also using Steve's interface but his docs are a bit confusing. It is showing power from a 12v source, is that correct? Then the last driver input shows a ground wire being spliced to the main power supply - but in the 8 x ldd board, which I'm also using, shows that actually going to the main power supply - not ground... I circled in blue what I'm confused on (rightly so with only one cup of coffee so far ). So I need to find a power source I guess - didn't factor that in but need to get the last wire set correctly which seems to be a ground. The last to main power supply is to power the other 4 ldd's so that splice/ground comment isn't making sense.

Thoughts or ideas?

I have one of these for sale if anyone interested