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Controller for DIY LEDs

1K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  GeorgeTheGuppy 
#1 ·
Hey guys, so I had to sideline my project for awhile :(. However, I am back, I got some LEDs up and running, however now I need a controller and am going to make some changes as well.


I am curious about Controllers, I am dealing with old posts and half infos. So what I want and is there a controller that can suit it.

So my LEDs consist of 7 total channels, 4 of those are CW, (Vero 29 COBs, 1 COB per) 1 of them is WW, (Vero 29 2 COBs + Deep Red LEDs) 1 of them is Royal Blue, and the Last one is 2 T5HO UV-B lights on a 0-10v Dimming Ballast.

What I want to do, is vary the light, so that morning is WW, to mimic morning sun, then Fade into CW (with some blue) for the midday, then fade back into WW for the evening. All the while the UVB, increases and decreases separately (Ramps up in the morning, and down at night).

However, I also want the Cloud Coverage/Lightning to leverage my unique LED setup if I can, so the 4 whites, are independently flashed for Lighting, and cloud affects move through them. Storms and Clouds, need to be Scheduled, not Location based!

What I have seen and am basing from.

Storm Controller:

Can not schedule my Morning, Midday, Evening lighting, nor do anything on a per channel basis (Seriously, why would anyone buy this?)

Does not have the ability to do Lighting on per led, or even just on white channel, it flashes all the colors (Again? Really?)


Bluefish:

Can not schedule Clouds/Storms??? This is another one of those, WTH??? The location stuff is cool, but forcing us into that is silly.

I am not sure about per channel lightning, or clouds.

Apex:

Absurdly priced. (maybe if your a reefer, this is for a Viv, 99% of what it does is wasted)

Doesnt have 5v PWM control does it?

Is there any other controllers, is any of my info Wrong/Out of Date?
 
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#2 ·
I am (almost) clueless on the subject, but I have read enough posts on TC420 and TC420 led controllers to, hopefully, give you a starting point. ~$30 on Amazon and such.

Where is @jeffkrol, when you need him? :)
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
I am (almost) clueless on the subject, but I have read enough posts on TC420 and TC420 led controllers to, hopefully, give you a starting point. ~$30 on Amazon and such.

Where is @jeffkrol, when you need him? :)
I have seen that, however I need at least 6 channels, and that only provides 5, and has Zero storm features at all.

I mean I need 6 channels, with storm features. If that isnt there, and I just do ramping I could get away with 5 or less. But if it had more, oh the fun I could have :p, with letting the light "Move", throughout the day :p.

my stormx knockoff allows morning midday evening, might need you to code that in yourself though.
What I don't know is who actually uses cloud/lightning settings?

Man this site loves eating my messages, guess I have to triple post....

What is the storm X knockoff? Does it have timers per channel, like the TC 421?

I have made a change in design, I think I am going to use LDDs instead. This way I can cloud control on a per white basis. So each white cob (97CRI 5600k Vero 29s, Hard AF to get my hands on!) 4 of them, and the WWs (might just do red or the Ambers from Citizen, and my blues, each have their own channel.

In doing so, with the whites, and like a bluefish, I could even "Move" the sun, so that the leds pass from one side to the other, getting brighter and dimmer from side to side as the day progresses.


As to the Storm feature, I will very much use it. I am the candidate for it fully :).

In a reef, I see no point in it either. However this Naturalistic vivarium, is for a Chameleon. Chameleons are extremely sensitive to light, and changes in it. They are also not too happy about being sprayed by misters 3+x per day, however it is needed to fulfill their needs.

The storm clouds, along with Fans that will come on 15-20 mins before, and a fogger than will run 10mins prior to a Misting (will have rain hopefully later, just mist for now) will give natural cues, that rain is coming. Just like it does in the wild, instead of being woken up by instant extreme lighting, and then being sprayed by out of nowhere water, the cues will be there.

Chameleons are extremely fragile when it comes to stress, and spraying them with water out of nowhere has to be pretty stressful, so this should I hope provide a better life, and raise the bar, of keeping we have for this critters. Its just theory for now, and experimentation is needed, it could be a waste of time, or it could change the way we look at chameleon keeping.


The theory is, and my idea to change. The sun doesn't pop on, Temps dont go from 60 to 90 in 5 mins, and rain doesn't just start full blast out of nowhere. Fixing these things, to be more realistic as they are in nature, is a better way to keep the animal.

Bump:
To be honest most of the issues are software problems and that is beyond my err "expertise"..

Hardware is fairly simple. There are
converter boards to change 5V PWM to say 10V analogue and vice versa..


Suggest working w/ Reef-pi people to see if one can build to suit........
Like you see though each has their own "vision" and generally gets way blown out of proportion to individual needs..

All of what is wanted can be done.. "easily" doesn't come to mind though..

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...tank-controller-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/

571 pages of designing to ones ind. needs.. ;)
Thanks, I will check that out. Truly, thats what I should be doing, as the way I was going about it, has me using all kinds of controllers/Thermostats/timers to achieve my needs. A central brain like that, is my best option, I was just being lazy.
 
#4 ·
To be honest most of the issues are software problems and that is beyond my err "expertise"..

Hardware is fairly simple. There are
converter boards to change 5V PWM to say 10V analogue and vice versa..


Suggest working w/ Reef-pi people to see if one can build to suit........
Like you see though each has their own "vision" and generally gets way blown out of proportion to individual needs..

All of what is wanted can be done.. "easily" doesn't come to mind though..

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...tank-controller-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/

571 pages of designing to ones ind. needs.. ;)
 
#13 ·
Shouldn't be too terribly hard to control with an Arduino if you have any programming expertise or are willing to learn. You just need a few MOSFETs to be able to dim the LED channels, and maybe a RTC chip if you want more-accurate timekeeping.

If my understanding of the dimmable ballast is correct, you use a DC signal of 0-10v DC to control the ballast and dim the lights? I'm a mechanical engineer, not electrical, but maybe you could use a variable-voltage DC-DC converter for that? I feel like there must be a better solution. Maybe a digital pot would work if the current is low? (If it's high, resistive energy losses could be prohibitive.) Something like 20v source -> ballast control pin 1 -> 10kΩ digital pot -> ballast control pin 2 -> 10kΩ resistor -> ground. On second thought, that would probably be a lot better than a DC-DC converter.

Just some thoughts.
 
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