Reef Angel Forum

What additional equipment needs to be purchased in order to control dimming functionality on LEDs?

LEDs, dimmable drivers (your choice), RA and wire

Add: time

Equals: fully dimmable LEDs

You might want the dimming port lead wires from the store. These plug into the RA's dimming ports. If you get them, check the polarity. Mine had the wires reversed from the markings.

Be sure you match your RA to your drivers (PWM dimming or analog dimming).

--Colin




--Colin

And remember to wire LEDs in series. That's about all you need to know.

I have a few chinese LED units one is an eshine 4G and the other 2 are the generic chinese "black box" type like you see alibaba or something.. I'm talking to my local reef club in Atlanta about swapping out non dimmable drivers for the dimmable drivers and was curious if I'd have everything I needed with the RA to function as the controller. Wasn't sure if i needed an expansion module or something..

I haven't purchased an RA yet but one of the attractions of the RA is that I would have everything I need to control dimmable LEDs once I upgrade the drivers. I think with the APEX you need an additional module or something for dimmable control.

We would need to know exact products and exact drivers you're choosing to ensure they will work with RA. But that all depends on what the club will do for you. No way to guarantee what they "trade" you will be compatible with RA (even though most drivers are). But that's applies any any controller until you get 100% specifics on your project.

kirkwood wrote:I have a few chinese LED units one is an eshine 4G and the other 2 are the generic chinese "black box" type like you see alibaba or something.. I'm talking to my local reef club in Atlanta about swapping out non dimmable drivers for the dimmable drivers and was curious if I'd have everything I needed with the RA to function as the controller. Wasn't sure if i needed an expansion module or something..

I haven't purchased an RA yet but one of the attractions of the RA is that I would have everything I need to control dimmable LEDs once I upgrade the drivers. I think with the APEX you need an additional module or something for dimmable control.

Just to be clear, the RA comes standard with 2 dimming channels. If you want more than that there are expansion modules that add another 6.

Like Drew said, nail down your drivers and let us know. We can help you from there.

--Colin

I am probably a step behind what you guys are talking about, since I only have experience with non-dimmable LED units. For my non dimmable LED I simply plug (3-prong) the white lights into one outlet and the blues into another. Are you saying that dimmable LEDs have another connection separate from the 3-prong plug that goes into the outlet?

Yup. You won't plug dimmable LEDs in with a standard edison (3-prong) plug.
They'll operate on much lower DC power that you provide with an LED driver (which would in turn be controlled by the RA), unless you were to buy an LED fixture that already just accepted a "PWM" or "0-10V DC" signal for control.

kirkwood wrote:I am probably a step behind what you guys are talking about, since I only have experience with non-dimmable LED units. For my non dimmable LED I simply plug (3-prong) the white lights into one outlet and the blues into another. Are you saying that dimmable LEDs have another connection separate from the 3-prong plug that goes into the outlet?

You'll have the 3 (or 2) prong power plug, plus 2 more wires that are for the dimmer to plug into.

--Colin

Here's a pic I stole off the internet of a typical dimmable LED driver:



The brown and blue coming off the left side of the picture go to the power plug. The black and red wires coming out of the right side are negative and positive to the LED's, and the blue and white wires go to the dimmer.

--Colin

Not to steal the thread, but if you add an expansion relay box, does that also add 2 more channels for dimming?

Unfortunately not.

Spotted wrote:Not to steal the thread, but if you add an expansion relay box, does that also add 2 more channels for dimming?

you would need the dimming expansion module for 6 more dimming channels.