Interested in Apex/RK controlled d120's?

[monkiboy]

i love when smart technical people start posting stuff i dont understand - means progress or a fire, both of which in controlled situations can be tons of fun! scurvyrat, thanks for your contributions thus far!

Edited September 24, 2013 by monkiboy

[Rosco's Reefs]

I was thinking the same thing!  Thx Monkiboy.

[lnevo]

Yes, this is a huge topic that comes up on the Reef Angel forum a lot. They are great fixtures and for those who want the control, this thread is high on the radar.

 

As i said earlier, aside from the toy of sunrise/sunset dimming, I would really like to modify my acclimation program to affect a max dim rather than just my photoperiod that i have with my non-dimmables.

Edited September 24, 2013 by lnevo

[Origami]

I didnt check yet on the connector. We have drawers of them at work. I will get back to you. I think Tom is right with a 4 pin 0.1 header.

Looks like a standard 4-pin header that uses an insulation-displacement (ribbon cable) type of connector. Very common. I hadn't noticed the PWM silkscreen. Very observant and helpful, too. Seems to indicate exactly how to interface to it.

 

Sent from my phone

 

 

[scurvyrat]

I've been monitoring the voltages on my setup today and I'm getting some odd results.

 

I have it wired from the Reef Angel 0-10V PWM Dimmer expansion. Pins 1 & 2 are short-circuited together. This represents +12V and On/OFF. Pin 3 is the PWM and Pin 4 is Ground connecting the Reef Angel ground to the driver ground. There are two banks of lights each with a white and blue channel -- so in total there are 4 LED drivers. I've got both blue and both white channels connected together so making only 2 channels for now.

 

At low PWM signals ( < 2V) One bank is noticeably brighter than the other. ie: the left bank is brighter than the right bank, meaning one blue and one channel are brighter than the other ones.

 

Reading the PWM signal, there is about +0.5V more on the wire than what the PCA9685 is putting out. For instance:

 

PWM   Measured

1.8V -- 2.33V

2.0V -- 2.525V

3.40V -- 3.87V

4.61V -- 5.0

4.92V -- 5.28V

 

As you can see, the difference is decreasing as the PWM signal goes up. Not sure what is putting more voltage on the line. Any ideas?

 

I did measure 10.77V on the on/off pin when the factory dimmer was installed. I'm feeding it 11.78V which is what the +12V pin reads. Not sure if that is involved or is an issue.

Edited September 24, 2013 by scurvyrat

[AlanM]

Is your "pwm voltage" time averaged over the duty cycle or something? Not trying to offend, but you know PWM isnt analog voltage, right, but that seems to be how you are measuring it.

[scurvyrat]

Ooops -- forgot about that. Thanks for the clarification. If I measure the duty cycle they are spot on and the same.

 

Still unclear why one of the whites would be brighter than the other since they are wired together. Ditto for the two blue drivers.

 

Seems to clear up when the voltages get a bit higher, but that also might be just because its harder to see the difference visually.

 

When I opened up the driver there is a small POT that maybe is adjusted different between the two?

 

Either way, they dim up and down and are under full control of the Reef Angel which was the hope.

[MJNTWise]

Is it passable to get step by step instructions on how to do this...Just to make sure I dont burn my house down? I have 2 D 120 i wouls like to hook up to my Apex...

 

Thanks

[scurvyrat]

Update: I am driving 3 Nova A8s, which would be 12 LED drivers all from 1 PWM pin on the Reef Angel Dimmer Expansion. Works fine. Some of the banks are brighter than others at low PWM signals and I think that is more to do with adjustments on each driver. Works great.

 

I've started looking at my D120. I have the same rheostat dimmer board as show by AlanM except I have two connectors on board, but only one used. Otherwise, the pot looks the same:

 

I opened up the driver, labeled as Well-LIT LT-PCB-9076C. There are a bunch of connectors.

 

Counting up from the bottom, connected to the Rheostat board are

• +12V
• VR-SW2
• VR-
• VR+

I measure 9.78V on the VR-SW2 when the light is on.

 

Note two connectors, not connected:

• D-GND
• VDIM+

Here is the underside of the PCB:

So, my first thought was I might be able to dim off the VDIM+ pin. Unfortunately, that pin just connects to JP1 and JP2.

Also, when the light is on, I read 2.24V on VDIM+.

All the ICs have their labels sanded off. There are very few components which are not soldered on the board, so I'm hoping that the circuitry that can take the PWM signal is all there.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to proceed? I'm a little nervous to close JP1 and JP2 and wire it up, but it might come to that...

Edited September 30, 2013 by scurvyrat

[AlanM]

I don't think you have the same pot as mine.  Mine has a bunch of other stuff on it.  Yours is the newer style which only has the pot on the board, even though it does seem to have 4 pins.

 

I admire your skills pulling this stuff apart and your courage opening up the driver.  I don't have any good suggestions for you, but drivers are pretty cheap.  Monkiboy on the board here probably even has a few he could get to you if you blow yours up.  I just hope you don't blow up the reef angel.

[scott711]

Is it passable to get step by step instructions on how to do this...Just to make sure I dont burn my house down? I have 2 D 120 i wouls like to hook up to my Apex...

 

Thanks

 

+1

[scurvyrat]

I don't think you have the same pot as mine.  Mine has a bunch of other stuff on it.  Yours is the newer style which only has the pot on the board, even though it does seem to have 4 pins.

 

I admire your skills pulling this stuff apart and your courage opening up the driver.  I don't have any good suggestions for you, but drivers are pretty cheap.  Monkiboy on the board here probably even has a few he could get to you if you blow yours up.  I just hope you don't blow up the reef angel.

Thank you. Love tinkering with this stuff. I'm going to spend a bit of time tracing the PCB traces and see what I can figure out a bit of the schematic.

 

Here are two shots of the D120 board that was in my fixture:

 

Not a whole lot there. Would be good though to see the various models that are out there.

[AlanM]

What you have pictured is the one that monkiboy got when he ordered me a few more pot boards.  It's not what mine looks like. 

 

Here are the pics of the board with the pot on my d120.

 

The back (with pot and 4 pin connector on the other side).  The labeled pin 1 and pin 2 are the vdim+ and vdim- pins.  I literally just snipped those wires and hooked them up to the two Apex wires which supply a 0-10V analog signal from their VDM module and it seemed to work fine.  I was trying to do it more complicated with a unity gain op-amp at Tom's direction to try to protect the Apex, but it probably isn't necessary.  Yours is way different if it uses PWM to dim.

 

[TheyCallMeMr.703]

So.. How'd it turn out, got us a Kit yet???

[HighTide]

^{Thank you. Love tinkering with this stuff. I'm going to spend a bit of time tracing the PCB traces and see what I can figure out a bit of the schematic.}

 

^{Here are two shots of the D120 board that was in my fixture:}

 

 

 

^{Not a whole lot there. Would be good though to see the various models that are out there}

 

 

^scurvyrat,

 

  ^{I have two of "what appears" to be the same D120 as you, I just started looking at mine today. Have you come up with anything yet? I would like to control it via an APEX, so things may be a bit different as it seems you are using a Reef Angel controller.}

 

[kbrennan]

First of all, let me say that this is an awesome thread.  I am quite impressed by the level of knowledge on this forum.

 

I also have one of the D120's with the new dimmer style.   AlanM, can you take a look at your driver and tell me if the connector is similar to the pic below?  The model # on driver the case is  2g-3551w-DF. 

 

[AlanM]

First of all, let me say that this is an awesome thread.  I am quite impressed by the level of knowledge on this forum.

 

I also have one of the D120's with the new dimmer style.   AlanM, can you take a look at your driver and tell me if the connector is similar to the pic below?  The model # on driver the case is  2g-3551w-DF. 

 

 

 

I'm sorry, I would have to take my operating light off my fuge, open it up, then remove the drivers and open them up as well to see if my connector looks like that.  My d120 is no longer part of a DIY project, it's in service, so not so open to experimentation. 8)

[kbrennan]

Fair enough!  Again, thanks for all the leg work you did in this thread.

[MJNTWise]

Thank you. Love tinkering with this stuff. I'm going to spend a bit of time tracing the PCB traces and see what I can figure out a bit of the schematic.

 

Here are two shots of the D120 board that was in my fixture:

 

Not a whole lot there. Would be good though to see the various models that are out there.

 

I have this switch. I found what ones to tie together for the off/on. But dont know what ones are the + or - for the dimming part. Im think pin 3 and 4 are for dimming and pin 3 is plus??????

[MJNTWise]

using the info in post 109( I have this type of board) I hook up my difital aquatics acl to my d120. I tied the first 2 wire together and then wires 3 and 4 to the acl...In post 109 I went with looking at the pic the botton wire to the plus side of the acl. Now the lights stay on at 100% no matter what I tell the controller to do....HELP.....

 

[MJNTWise]

Ok have one channel working, The other one starts blinking when I plug it into the alc.

[MJNTWise]

Ok just a update, I fixed what i did wrong. tied the wrong wires together. so looking like everything is working.

[monkiboy]

Ok just a update, I fixed what i did wrong. tied the wrong wires together. so looking like everything is working.

that's great to hear. please share what information you have with photos if possible of what you accomplished. thanks!

[MJNTWise]

If the vdm+ and vdm- are crossed what would happen?

[AlanM]

On mine if i simply connect them the lights are on as dim as possible. If I open them completely the lights are on fully.