reef-pi :: An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi.

[Aaron Smith]

Nope I didn't change anything. That's just how it was. I should have gotten a pic of the top too before I put it all away haha. I thought I saw 4 white wires going into the top.

Looking back at the pics it looks like the 4 wires from the driver go into the row of 4 dots of solder above the empty ones.

I see now. The de-soldered pins are south of the female connection. I would have to think that this 4wire setup is 0-10v analog... Someone else will have to chime in to confirm.

 

[Aaron Smith]

My PWM drivers clearly say PWM / V+ / GRD you would have to open the driver and look at the connection to the board. My bet though, is that it says what the pot says.

 

[Ranjib]

Nope I didn't change anything. That's just how it was. I should have gotten a pic of the top too before I put it all away haha. I thought I saw 4 white wires going into the top.

Looking back at the pics it looks like the 4 wires from the driver go into the row of 4 dots of solder above the empty ones.

Somewhere in the fixture there will be couple of transformers, converting 110v ax to 12/10v , followed by a rectifier to make it D.C. (May be ) , you should be able to use it as it is. Use a logic level mosfet which is gated by 5 v pwm

 

[Ranjib]

My PWM drivers clearly say PWM / V+ / GRD you would have to open the driver and look at the connection to the board. My bet though, is that it says what the pot says.

Sometimes they can be interchangeable right ?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Sometimes they can be interchangeable right ?

Not sure that the analog dim and pwm dim are interchangeable. I only learned that there was 10v pwm and 5v pwm a month ago. In commercial lighting we use 0-10v analog which is what the controllers like apex use.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Not sure that the analog dim and pwm dim are interchangeable. I only learned that there was 10v pwm and 5v pwm a month ago. In commercial lighting we use 0-10v analog which is what the controllers like apex use.

Steve's LEDs has a 0-10v input to pwm output called aquarium controller interface. I actually bought one early on but decided against spending a million on an apex.

 

[Aaron Smith]

In the config file, I renamed my equipment pwm labels to white and blue.

Under lighting I did the same but the labels in the lighting tab remain as intensity and spectrum. Currently only the spectrum slider will control my white channel. The the intensity is not responding with my blue.

1st should the labels in the lighting tab follow the lighting labels of the config. And 2nd any idea why the blue wouldn't respond?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Disregard the fact that they are labeled backwards under lighting in the config.[emoji23]

 

[Ranjib]

Not sure that the analog dim and pwm dim are interchangeable. I only learned that there was 10v pwm and 5v pwm a month ago. In commercial lighting we use 0-10v analog which is what the controllers like apex use.

I know its bit weird, but I just found that in some cases this works. I am pretty sure its not universal. I think we can prototype a 0-10v analog using a DAC+OpAmp (LM324) if need be.


I am more curious about the actual effect of this in coral. PWM is pretty much high frequency on/off , that gives the dimming effect to our eyes, how it translates to coral growth is something I have to test out ..

 

[Ranjib]

In the config file, I renamed my equipment pwm labels to white and blue.

Under lighting I did the same but the labels in the lighting tab remain as intensity and spectrum. Currently only the spectrum slider will control my white channel. The the intensity is not responding with my blue.

1st should the labels in the lighting tab follow the lighting labels of the config. And 2nd any idea why the blue wouldn't respond?

The address should be the IP of the pi, i.e. `http://192.168.xx.xx:8080` in your case (ip should be visible in the dashboard)

 

[Ranjib]

In the config file, I renamed my equipment pwm labels to white and blue.

Under lighting I did the same but the labels in the lighting tab remain as intensity and spectrum. Currently only the spectrum slider will control my white channel. The the intensity is not responding with my blue.

1st should the labels in the lighting tab follow the lighting labels of the config. And 2nd any idea why the blue wouldn't respond?

Thats not a valid lighting configuration, your specified white/blue keys are being ignored and I think white channel is working because its using the default pin, which in your case is matching by chance.

I am working on a patch that will allow you to define arbitrary channels, till I get that working and publish a new build , I'll suggest using intesity_channel & spectrum_channel keys as mentioned in the sample configuration in lieu of white & blue channel. Note: PWM pins start from 0, not 1. So the very first pin is 0, and the last one is 15

 

[Aaron Smith]

Thats not a valid lighting configuration, your specified white/blue keys are being ignored and I think white channel is working because its using the default pin, which in your case is matching by chance.

I am working on a patch that will allow you to define arbitrary channels, till I get that working and publish a new build , I'll suggest using intesity_channel & spectrum_channel keys as mentioned in the sample configuration in lieu of white & blue channel. Note: PWM pins start from 0, not 1. So the very first pin is 0, and the last one is 15

Nice!

Thanks Ranjib!!!

Note: To anyone using black box LEDs . Figure out your "on" threshold (mine is 4) and make sure to set your first "on" time at or above that threshold.

 

[Ranjib]

Nice!

Thanks Ranjib!!!

Note: To anyone using black box LEDs . Figure out your "on" threshold (mine is 4) and make sure to set your first "on" time at or above that threshold.

Thanks for pointing this out. In fact, for Kessil I have noticed the light flickers below certain values. Thats kinda dangerous, since if one configures it wrong, it will make the LED blink, cause stress to the corals. I am thinking of having a bare minimal start value , below which pwm output will be 0, as safety measure

 

[Aaron Smith]

Thanks for pointing this out. In fact, for Kessil I have noticed the light flickers below certain values. Thats kinda dangerous, since if one configures it wrong, it will make the LED blink, cause stress to the corals. I am thinking of having a bare minimal start value , below which pwm output will be 0, as safety measure

I noticed my whites come on brighter then setpoint and dim down to setpoint. It is a fairly quick process that is acceptable and is probably due to cheap drivers

Blues come on at setpoint.

 

[Ranjib]

I noticed my whites come on brighter then setpoint and dim down to setpoint. It is a fairly quick process that is acceptable and is probably due to cheap drivers

Blues come on at setpoint.

I think its a software bug :-/

 

[Aaron Smith]

The address should be the IP of the pi, i.e. `http://192.168.xx.xx:8080` in your case (ip should be visible in the dashboard)

I can't believe I missed adding 8080 after the pi IP address. Remote local connection worked great this morning. Thanks again!!

 

[MaccaPopEye]

My PWM drivers clearly say PWM / V+ / GRD you would have to open the driver and look at the connection to the board. My bet though, is that it says what the pot says.

Got one of the lights back down again and opened up the driver this time. Here is what the insides look like.
Bottom pic is the whole thing and the top pics are closer pics of the components.

Here is a close up of the plug that goes into the driver and then into the top of the pot (the bottom of the pot had more detail).

Somewhere in the fixture there will be couple of transformers, converting 110v ax to 12/10v , followed by a rectifier to make it D.C. (May be ) , you should be able to use it as it is. Use a logic level mosfet which is gated by 5 v pwm

Not sure that the analog dim and pwm dim are interchangeable. I only learned that there was 10v pwm and 5v pwm a month ago. In commercial lighting we use 0-10v analog which is what the controllers like apex use.

After some further research it appears that they are most likely dimmed by 0-10V analog (if that is what the apex takes) as most people cut the wires, jump the 2 power wires together and the + and - dimming wires can go straight to the apex.

If they are 0-10V analog what would I need to dim 6-8 channels?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Got one of the lights back down again and opened up the driver this time. Here is what the insides look like.
Bottom pic is the whole thing and the top pics are closer pics of the components.

Here is a close up of the plug that goes into the driver and then into the top of the pot (the bottom of the pot had more detail).

After some further research it appears that they are most likely dimmed by 0-10V analog (if that is what the apex takes) as most people cut the wires, jump the 2 power wires together and the + and - dimming wires can go straight to the apex.

If they are 0-10V analog what would I need to dim 6-8 channels?

All the research I have done tells me that you can dim these with 10v pwm with a low pass filter installed. @Ranjib will need to provide input as this is over my head. I deal with large wires not small ones[emoji23]

 

[Ranjib]

Got one of the lights back down again and opened up the driver this time. Here is what the insides look like.
Bottom pic is the whole thing and the top pics are closer pics of the components.

Here is a close up of the plug that goes into the driver and then into the top of the pot (the bottom of the pot had more detail).

After some further research it appears that they are most likely dimmed by 0-10V analog (if that is what the apex takes) as most people cut the wires, jump the 2 power wires together and the + and - dimming wires can go straight to the apex.

If they are 0-10V analog what would I need to dim 6-8 channels?

I'll say lets go slow with only 1 channel first. Hook up ULN2903a to boost PCA9685's 5v PWM to 10v PWM, and see if that works. If so, we are good, and only need some more electronics. If not, I'll do some software + DAC (digital to analog converter) to generate analog 0-10v. To summarize lets first test that 10v pwm wont work and we have to generate 0-10v analog.

 

[Ranjib]

All the research I have done tells me that you can dim these with 10v pwm with a low pass filter installed. @Ranjib will need to provide input as this is over my head. I deal with large wires not small ones[emoji23]

@Aaron Smith this is what I was trying to explain earlier, that some of the equipments work fine with 10v pwm even though they mention 0-10v analog (kessil for example) in their control specifications.

I am planning to buy an oscilloscope and get to the bottom of it ... soon