LED's?

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:04 pm

What LED's are you guys using? I am looking to upgrade from my 72W T5 4bulb housing for a 10G nano reef. I want to get in on some of the thunderstorm action.

NanoTrevor · Post by **NanoTrevor** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:22 pm

custom build retro'd into nc6 hood. 6 cree xp-e rb, 4 cree xp-g nw and 2 cree xp-g cw all running at 1a on buckpucks.

binder · Post by **binder** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:20 pm

wolfador wrote:What LED's are you guys using? I am looking to upgrade from my 72W T5 4bulb housing for a 10G nano reef. I want to get in on some of the thunderstorm action.

I'm researching LED's right now as well. If you get a chance, the latest CORAL magazine has several articles all about LED's with explanations and guides. You might want to check it out.

curt

alexwbush · Post by **alexwbush** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:56 pm

I'm using a set I bought from someone else on reefcentral... it's a kit from rapidLED

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:00 am

binder wrote:
wolfador wrote:What LED's are you guys using? I am looking to upgrade from my 72W T5 4bulb housing for a 10G nano reef. I want to get in on some of the thunderstorm action.
I'm researching LED's right now as well. If you get a chance, the latest CORAL magazine has several articles all about LED's with explanations and guides. You might want to check it out.

curt

Is that the July/August issue? That is the latest that shows up on my iPad.

I guess I should have stated in the first post I was looking more commercial vs DIY.

Thanks for the help guys.

binder · Post by **binder** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:37 am

wolfador wrote: Is that the July/August issue? That is the latest that shows up on my iPad.

It's the September/October issue. I just got it in the mail last week.

curt

NanoTrevor · Post by **NanoTrevor** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 4:54 pm

ai nano

sjmusic2 · Post by **sjmusic2** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:35 am

DIY set-up for my 90g tank...

18 x SSC P7 (2.8A) "pure white"
18 x Cree blue (0.7A)
20 x Rebel Royal Blue (0.7A)
3 x Satistronics Royal Blue (0.9A)
6 x UV (0.7A) - used infrequently right now.

First 3 are dimmable (using custom pic-based controller), others are on/off

I do not use optics, but the leds are only about 4" above the water with a diffuser enhancing color mixing and protecting from splashes. I am very happy wth the look so far (3+ months)...problem is I like to tinker with electronics, so I may add more Satistronics Royals on a dimmable circuit...and maybe test some warm and neutral whites too.

Check out Nano-Reef's Lighting forum for masses of info on leds. Reef Central has led info too.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:21 am

NanoTrevor wrote:ai nano

Just ordered one.

How does it connect to the RA? It looks like their controller connects with a 3.5mm cable.

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:17 am

Yes, I went to a LFS a couple days ago and saw one of those.
They have what it looks to be a 3.5mm cable, but I didn't take it off to confirm.
I'm also pretty sure they use analog signal though.
I contacted C2 Development (makers of aqua illumination fixtures) yesterday and asked them if RA could be considered another controller in their list of compatible controllers.
Didn't get a response back yet.
But, there are only 2 cases: they use PWM or Analog signal.
I'll have a small converter board available shortly to convert the PWM to analog, for those that use drivers such as Meanwell "D" and Thomas Research and could very well be used fot AI too.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:33 am

How should I test it for analog vs pwm when it comes in? I didn't buy the controller they sell in hopes of letting RA control it all.

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:54 am

We may just be lucky again...
After some digging, I think the AI also use PWM, just like the Tunze pumps.
Let me scope the signal from one of their controllers.
I'm going to confirm this weekend.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 9:57 am

rimai wrote:We may just be lucky again...
After some digging, I think the AI also use PWM, just like the Tunze pumps.
Let me scope the signal from one of their controllers.
I'm going to confirm this weekend.

AWESOME!!!!!

I am adding in the PWM control to the iPhone app.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:29 pm

Just thinking but I would probably still need the PWM expansion correct? I think the 3 colors are individually controllable on the Ai. So I need need a 3rd channel unless controlled two colors together?

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:35 pm

Here is what I found:
1- Although AI fixtures have 3 colors (White, Blue and Royal Blue), according to DA website, both blues are controlled together and not independently.
2- It does not use PWM, but Serial communication.

Here is the pinout from DA website:

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:28 pm

Ok, it is confirmed.
The AI fixture uses very simple serial protocol at 9600 baud rate.
All 3 channels can be independently controlled.
We will need to test if the controller will be able to handle the streaming of data without the need of a coprocessor.
The main reason is the wifi attachment.
It could happen that the processor would be too busy handling the data stream and would drop wifi data and vice-versa. That's why I decided to use a coprocessor for the Vortech module.
But with the AI, the stream is much shorter and much slower, so we may be able to pull it off.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:03 pm

Sweet. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Light should be here Tuesday

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 6:39 pm

Ai Nano came in today and had to modify the tank and bracket to get it to fit but it looks nice. I like being able to now access the tank without having to remove the lights. LOL.

Now just need to control them

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:02 pm

Cool

I was just testing the code when you sent the post.
I've got 0 problems so far.
I got the wifi stream being pulled every 5 seconds through my web browser and I got the AI data stream being pushed every 300ms.
I'll try to go out for a real test tomorrow if I get some free time.
But, in order to avoid having to use a coprocessor, there are only 2 port we can use. Either ATO High or Low. So, if you require both ports for anything else, you will need to go for an expansion module.
If you can spare one of the ports, it seems we can have both data streams coexisting without a problem.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:23 pm

rimai wrote:Cool
I was just testing the code when you sent the post.
I've got 0 problems so far.
I got the wifi stream being pulled every 5 seconds through my web browser and I got the AI data stream being pushed every 300ms.
I'll try to go out for a real test tomorrow if I get some free time.
But, in order to avoid having to use a coprocessor, there are only 2 port we can use. Either ATO High or Low. So, if you require both ports for anything else, you will need to go for an expansion module.
If you can spare one of the ports, it seems we can have both data streams coexisting without a problem.

No ATO for me so both ports are available.

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:36 pm

Well, my first attempt was a failure.

Let me investigate what went wrong.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:35 pm

rimai wrote:Well, my first attempt was a failure.
Let me investigate what went wrong.

oh no

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:59 pm

Ok, so I had some time to go reasearch on why my 1st attempt was not successful and I realized that I missed an interesting point.
On my haste and excitement that they were using serial communication, I forgot to measure the voltage they are using.
According to the data I sniffed from their controller, they are using a very odd and non-standard serial protocol. They are inverting everything, which doesn't make sense.
Unless they actually using real RS-232 logic levels, instead of TTL levels.
So, I'm going to hack the code to invert the signals and head out to test again tomorrow.

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:35 pm

I guess I just found out the answer of the inverted signal.
It does look like they indeed use RS-232 levels instead of UART levels
This is a photo from Neptunes website:

The cable connects to the serial port of their VDM module.

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:38 pm

rimai wrote:I guess I just found out the answer of the inverted signal.
It does look like they indeed use RS-232 levels instead of UART levels
This is a photo from Neptunes website:

The cable connects to the serial port of their VDM module.

Once you had mentioned it being RS-232, this also made sense

http://www.ghl-direct.com/proddetail.ph ... profiluxAI

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:44 pm

So, I went to LFS today to measure the voltage and took an RA with me with the inverted UART signal.
I guess there is no need for additional hardware

This was my very crude attempt of thunderstorm, just to confirm that I could control it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDniy7FvF0A[/youtube]

So, I guess I'll work on creating a library for it and have some cables available at the webstore very shortly

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:55 pm

awesome, let me know when the cables are ready

wolfador · Post by **wolfador** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:18 pm

I see the class added to Curt's github. I am excited to get this working

pandimus · Post by **pandimus** » Sat Apr 11, 2015 6:48 pm

Has anyone else built one of these? I have the shielding going to the base of the plug and red wire going to middle section, with my polarity same as the dimmer ports on relay.. But its still not contrilling my ai sol.

pandimus · Post by **pandimus** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:34 am

Anyone? All i seem to get is full on or a flicker with my sol

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