Another reef-pi build.

[b4tn]

@b4tn Here's a shot of the inside of my lights. Hope it helps.
There looks like there might be enough room for a couple of leds right in the middle of the base. There's about 1 1/2 inches between the drivers. and the drivers hang down to just below the heatsinks.

Perfect, this is going to be easier than I thought. Thanks

 

[b4tn]

The masking tape bled through a little so I need to clean up some edges. If all goes to plan I’m going to try and light it up blue.

 

[Diamond1]

The masking tape bled through a little so I need to clean up some edges. If all goes to plan I’m going to try and light it up blue.

Now that's cool!

 

[b4tn]

So now the tricky part. I have almost everything complete and ready to close up the box except for the wiring the light control plugs. These lights are my only lights so I only have one go at it or I am without lights until I can either replace or fix what I messed up or put together wrong lol. I have 2 Ocean Revive T247 lights that I will be wiring up nearly identical to what @Diamond1 has done.... Except I have two lights and will also be doing some minor modifications to add moon lights. In order to keep it so that I only have one wire coming off each light and avoid having a jumper wire between lights I need to do all the wiring inside the box. I have two relays, one for blue and one for white. Each light will have blues and whites tied together on one PWM channel as well as one relay. There is one wire left that will power the moon lights which will get the 12 volts they need from the light itself. Below is both lights which essentially will be jumpered at the plug. If anyone sees anything thats off or does not look correct please let me know.

 

[crusso1993]

So now the tricky part. I have almost everything complete and ready to close up the box except for the wiring the light control plugs. These lights are my only lights so I only have one go at it or I am without lights until I can either replace or fix what I messed up or put together wrong lol. I have 2 Ocean Revive T247 lights that I will be wiring up nearly identical to what @Diamond1 has done.... Except I have two lights and will also be doing some minor modifications to add moon lights. In order to keep it so that I only have one wire coming off each light and avoid having a jumper wire between lights I need to do all the wiring inside the box. I have two relays, one for blue and one for white. Each light will have blues and whites tied together on one PWM channel as well as one relay. There is one wire left that will power the moon lights which will get the 12 volts they need from the light itself. Below is both lights which essentially will be jumpered at the plug. If anyone sees anything thats off or does not look correct please let me know.

I'm not trying to be a wise guy and maybe I missed something but where is your power coming from on this circuit?

 

[crusso1993]

I'm not trying to be a wise guy and maybe I missed something but where is your power coming from on this circuit?

I don't often quote myself but when I do it's usually because I'm clearly off my rocker! Please ignore the previous question. Sorry

 

[b4tn]

That’s where it gets confusing to diagram. To the right is like an exploded view of both plugs. They are all wired together.

 

[Diamond1]

I don't see anything wrong with the circuit.

I think you will be fine. I set up a similar circuit when testing my lights to see if the pwm signal was strong enough straight from the rpi to run 2 channels at once and had no problems getting both blue and white channel to run as expected. Of course mine didn't have the moonlights or the pca9685.

 

[b4tn]

I don't see anything wrong with the circuit.

I think you will be fine. I set up a similar circuit when testing my lights to see if the pwm signal was strong enough straight from the rpi to run 2 channels at once and had no problems getting both blue and white channel to run as expected. Of course mine didn't have the moonlights or the pca9685.

I am fairly positive it should work. I like to diagram everything out before building so I can run through it and have something to follow while building.

Next up is the moon light circuit. My 5mm LED holders came in yesterday so I have everything I need to get started. I just have to plan a time after lights out and hope I can get everything completed and working in one swoop. I wont be doing this though until I am 100% ready to transition from RKL to reef-pi. I have a few very small things to do and I will be ready.

So I have a surplus of 450nm blue LED's. They are the standard hobby style 3v 20mA. I have always wanted moon lights and I put several of these above my tank as an experiment and it looked pretty cool. Everything in the tank was still dark but it was enough light to give a shimmer on the sand and make the corals glow.

The OR T247 light forms an x of blank space like below. So the idea is to mount 5 LED's inside the x for spread and use reef-pi to dim them to the level that looks the best.

So I did some research and it gets pretty complicated driving LED's at the same brightness level and efficiency and thats why there are special drivers just for the sole purpose of powering LED's. Since I dont have a driver and my LED's are low power I decided to run with just using a transistor. In a perfect world to run 5, 3 volt 20mA LED's in series it would require a 15 volt supply with a constant current of 20mA. Since I dont have a 20mA constant current driver and only have 12 volts to work with I will run the LED's in a combination of series and parallel per light fixture. There may be slight differences in brightness but because I am not relying on them to grow anything I am not to worried about it. The 3.3v PWM will come from the PCA9685 and the 12 volt supply will come from the light fixture itself. The ground will already be common due to the modifications above for the main light control.

This is a handy calculator for designing LED circuits
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

 

[Diamond1]

I'm really looking forward to you getting this whole thing going. Looks like you have a good plan for the swap.
I been meaning to mention to you that I used 4 pin JST XHP connectors soldered to the ends of my controller cable to plug right into the light fixture.
It makes the cable connections plug n play.

 

[speedstar]

I'm really looking forward to you getting this whole thing going. Looks like you have a good plan for the swap.
I been meaning to mention to you that I used 4 pin JST XHP connectors soldered to the ends of my controller cable to plug right into the light fixture.
It makes the cable connections plug n play.

Did you heat shrink or tape them individually under that? And is that connector rated for the needed amperage or is it only control?

 

[b4tn]

@Diamond1 do these look like the correct ones?

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Balance-Connector-Extension-Battery/dp/B011HFVUBE

 

[Diamond1]

@Diamond1 do these look like the correct ones?

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Balance-Connector-Extension-Battery/dp/B011HFVUBE

Yes they look just like what I have.

 

[Diamond1]

Did you heat shrink or tape them individually under that? And is that connector rated for the needed amperage or is it only control?

Just taped them and just control.

 

[b4tn]

Yes they look just like what I have.

I might actually have some of those laying around from another one of my hole in the wallet hobbies...... Radio Controlled rock crawlers lol

 

[Diamond1]

I used them to make a breakout board fot my 2 ato sensors and found they fit the lights too.

 

[b4tn]

Holidays have been crazy but I got a chance today to get back on this project. I made a float switch bracket from a $4 sheet of lexan and some nylon bolts from Home Depot. I just cut a couple 1” strips and used a heat gun to make the bends. It’s not pretty but it’s going to work just fine.

 

[crusso1993]

Welcome back! I think it doesn't look bad. (BTW - I see you edited "pecan" to lexan. Glad to know I'm not the only one that struggles with auto-correct!)

 

[b4tn]

Welcome back! I think it doesn't look bad. (BTW - I see you edited "pecan" to lexan. Glad to know I'm not the only one that struggles with auto-correct!)

lol! It’s a constant struggle lol. My phone used to auto correct someone to Simone. My wife would read I was out with Simone from work or Simone any time I typed someone. She would have all sorts of questions lol

 

[crusso1993]

lol! It’s a constant struggle lol. My phone used to auto correct someone to Simone. My wife would read I was out with Simone from work or Simone any time I typed someone. She would have all sorts of questions lol

Now THAT is frickin' funny!