CALLING LED Experts - PWM dimming Conrol needed

pickupman66 · Apr 14, 2015

Ok, need a little help here on my LED system. I have a Reef Radiance Lumentek Pro 240. Love the light but sometimes the controller jumps programming to another setting. randomly. Anyways that is not where I am imploring your help.

I would like to convert the unit to be used with my Archon controller from Digital Aquatics. i am one of the Beta testers. The controller comes standard with 2 PWM dimming circuits and 4 0-10Vdc circuits. I believe that my RR fixture is PWM . Attached is an image of my ballast. while this unit has three Channels, i am only concerned with two of them at this point.

The control wires from the on-board controller are 4 wire controls and are shown below. the 4 wire cable runs from the controlboard into one ballast and the 2nd is then daisy chained to this. (6 ballasts total, 2 per channel) I opened one of the ballasts and in looking at the pcp, the two middle wires are tied together and the outer wires are tied together (at least the pcb looked that way). printed on this pcb PWM+ was in the middle and PWM- was on the outer pin. I wish I had taken a photo of this part, and may do so another evening.

Anyways, when I unplug a channel from the On board controller, the LEDs got to full output (as expected) but when I hook them up to my PWM feed from my Archon set to 25%, nothing changes.

here is photo of the cables connecting to their ports on the board.

Shep · Apr 14, 2015

bump! I hope someone can help you!

hawkinsrgk · Apr 14, 2015

Bump, I would like to see this done as well

pickupman66 · Apr 14, 2015

Ok. So the lumentek voltage is as follows. When the on board controller is at 0% I read 3.8 volts. When it was set to 100% I read zero voltage across the pwm+ and pwm- wires.

Unfortunately I only have a basic digital multimeter and cannot read the pwm signaling like a fluke 87.

ReefLEDLights · Apr 15, 2015

Interesting...The LED Power Supply 1990121-NL is not UL, UR or CE Listed. In fact based on its output voltage its not class II and its not even IP67 which would leave vulnerable to moisture. (good thing we dont have that near our tanks).

Given its out put VF can you verify the number of LEDs on each series string. There may be a jumper connecting strings of LEDs. Without a jumper 20-30 LEDs depending on type would be no surprise.

This May Be Valuable in the event you need to replace the driver.

Realistically you would need an oscilloscope to note the PWM out put of the controller and then a replacement would be easy.

Hope this helps

Bill

pickupman66 · Apr 16, 2015

Bill, From my understanding on the light, there are 19 LED's Per ballast. they are 3 watt Bridgeluxe. I did verify that my External controller does not produce a 5 volt signal. at least my Multimeter only reads it to 3.2 volts. where as it will read 4.8 volts from theon-board controller in the lights (without ballasts hooked)

from what I can tell, when the ballasts are hooked to the on-board controller, my readings drop to 3.8 volts. when hooked to my external controller, it drops to just over 1 volt. no where near enough to provide a good signal IMO. I am waiting on a device that will convert a 0-10V signal to a 5v PWM and invert it for me. once I get that, I think I may be successful.

and Yes, an oscilliscope would be much better to have but I dont have access to one. I did read that a Fluke 87x will do the job, but dont have one of those $400 gems either.

BTW, knowing this information, if you have any ballast replacement recommendations, i would love to hear them.

ReefLEDLights · Apr 16, 2015

Have you looked into the Storm Controller

http://coralux.net/?wpsc-product=storm-led-controller

As far as the Driver Inventronics makes an excellent driver.

http://www.inventronics-co.com/cplb.aspx?c_kind=2&c_kind2=28&c_kind3=43

They are UL, UR, CE and IP67. Just find a constant current one with similar Vf. They are analog 1-10vdc which would work with the APEX. Two with your Forward Voltage requirement may cost more than some of these EBay Fixtures.

Bill

pickupman66 · Apr 16, 2015

Bill, thanks, I am a beta Tester for the Reefkeeper Archon so I really need to stick with it. I am working with them on the voltage delivery aspect.

the issue I am running into the the output voltages in the 65-100V range. I dont see anything like that in a constant current driver. most are about 1/2 of that. Each of hte 4 drivers would run 19 3 watt LEDS. that equates to about 57 watts?

ReefLEDLights · Apr 16, 2015

Check their whole site. Maybe EUC100 or EUC150.

We used to stock these but since we went with the BJB solderless connectors in our kits we had to stay Class II or less than 54vdc

Inventronics(Hangzhou)Inc.

pickupman66 · Apr 16, 2015

Thanks, I think the EUC-075S070DD

Should fit the bill well should I choose to replace my ballasts. it is 700 mA with 54 to 108 Volts. at $35 each not tooo badd if I have to replace my ballasts. But The goal here is to use what I have and make it work.

joekool · Apr 17, 2015

pickupman66 said:
Ok, need a little help here on my LED system. I have a Reef Radiance Lumentek Pro 240. Love the light but sometimes the controller jumps programming to another setting. randomly. Anyways that is not where I am imploring your help.

I would like to convert the unit to be used with my Archon controller from Digital Aquatics. i am one of the Beta testers. The controller comes standard with 2 PWM dimming circuits and 4 0-10Vdc circuits. I believe that my RR fixture is PWM . Attached is an image of my ballast. while this unit has three Channels, i am only concerned with two of them at this point.

The control wires from the on-board controller are 4 wire controls and are shown below. the 4 wire cable runs from the controlboard into one ballast and the 2nd is then daisy chained to this. (6 ballasts total, 2 per channel) I opened one of the ballasts and in looking at the pcp, the two middle wires are tied together and the outer wires are tied together (at least the pcb looked that way). printed on this pcb PWM+ was in the middle and PWM- was on the outer pin. I wish I had taken a photo of this part, and may do so another evening.

Anyways, when I unplug a channel from the On board controller, the LEDs got to full output (as expected) but when I hook them up to my PWM feed from my Archon set to 25%, nothing changes.

here is photo of the cables connecting to their ports on the board.

Okay pickup

I looked at the photo. All you have to do is get three apex mods from RR and then unplug the jp104, 105, & 106 from the back of the built in controller board. Take that that 4 wire plug and plug it into the mod board connector then drill a holes in light case for Ethernet socket than get three rj45 patch cables and you'll be good to go. Assuming that da uses the same number wires for the control of the dimming as the apex you will be good to go. If not you will have to modify the contact wires from the socket to the control board to get the right wires for da signal. Which is just a little bit of soldering. Just looked at RR site and Da and apex mod is same so should be as easy as stated above.

Now if you want dimming below40% then switch to analog drivers and wire to Ethernet socket.
Also RR is saying not to go over 75% and even though they don't say it. It's because the LEDs are melting do to lack of heat dissipation for there well I guess you could call it a heat sink.

Bam you got it

joekool · Apr 17, 2015

Ps if you use the dimmer mod from RR I told you about. The knobs have to be turned to 100%.

Also if you have six drivers you could always do six mods for individual control but the way it's wired now each connections running two drivers.

joekool · Apr 17, 2015

Not seeing the mods for sale on there site anymore but they ar installing them so if you call sure they would sell you some.

pickupman66 · Apr 17, 2015

Joe, Charles up there has told me that dont have those mods working with this unit. he has not dove into it yet so they dont think that it will work.

and ouch, they are $60 a piece. there has to be a Less expensive way here. Unfortunately I dont have any manual dim PWM knobs either. I do however have a controller that produces PWM but its signaling is oposite of what the light controller does. Hopefully the board I ordered (similar to the Steve's LED ones) will work. it has been programmed to invert the signaling for me so when I send a 10V signal to it, it sends a 0% PWM to the ballast giving me 100% power. and when I send a 0v to the board it sends a 100% PWM to the dirivers telling them to go to 0%. That I believe is mu hurdle here.

also lack of an oscilloscope has been a bit of a hindrance here.

joekool · Apr 17, 2015

Of course he has no idea about using the mods for these lights because they have built in controller. He also didn't make the mod nor did Rick the owner. They try to run interference games with you when your talking about something that they have no clue about. I was working on the workaround before they even had a mod.

But all in all PWM drivers in that light will work exactly the same as in the DM lights you just need a manual dimmer board. All the kit they sell is, is a manual dimmer with board from say a 155 or 165e an rj45 female socket with four wires two running to each board. They soldered the orange wire to the ground and white/orange to the potentiometer to one board and same on othe board but green to ground and white/green to potentiometer. Bam mod kit. Humm maybe I thought of this lol.

I wouldn't pay $60 for a kit and it's also funny how it's more expensive to buy it and put it in your light by yourself then what they charge to install it into the lights before sending them to you. Tell me how that works. I mean you don't get a discount on buying the light if you pay for it to be moded and so if you bought one and they made the same money on it than why would you have to pay more. Makes zero sense. But sorry that could be a whole other thread topic.

On another note you could maybe find PWM manaul dimmer boards elsewhere for cheaper and as expected there are plenty on amazon for cheap. But hey if your new da board does PWM why not us that connection for the two drivers it only does two and that all you need. You would have to make a cable to connect the two together.

pickupman66 · Apr 17, 2015

NO kidding. quite expensive. issue with the DA board is that the signaling is not up to par with the lights. at 100% it produces a 100% signal which would tell THESE ballasts to turn off. I need that reversed. and unfortunately I cannot do that with my Archon programming currently. there are some other issues I cannot specify here that I am working with them on.

yea, their lights are interesting. they do produce alot of light and mine seems to run quite cool. I only get my blues up to 70% anyways on my Tank. Hopefully early next week, ill have it figured out. I just want more control on it than the onboard controller can provide and with some new thing son the horizon from DA, I think i can get this thing to perform some super fancy programming.

pickupman66 · Apr 20, 2015

So, Ill just leave this little video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUrqZitUUAk

and now to tell you how i have accomplished it. I was in some thread on RC. found a guy who was making 0-10V boards to PWM-5v. Just like what Steve's LED dot come has but way less expensive. it has 4 inputs and 4 outputs. plus a 5v input that is regulated.

so now to build a three channel cable to run all the way up to the top. im SUPER stoked. ONly issue I have with it is that it does not 100% turn them off. they go down to 1%. I need to look at my programs and get it all qritten up as well as the cable built to run the 3 channels up to the top.

pickupman66 · Apr 20, 2015

One last update here on this. I got the system 100% functional. what I ended up doing was using a Arduino 4 channel relay shield. it required 5 volts so I fed its power off the same power supply for the PWM board. then I used the PWM channels on the Archon to activate the relays. two relays per PWM channel. they kick on and off perfectly. I am so stoked here.

its somewhat tight in there and the plastic protection box i used is a bit tight but everything fits and works.

NOw, lemme tell you this thing is BRIGHT holy smokes. where I was doing 70% blue and 40% white. I am dialing down to 50% blue and 30% white. also since i left the original board powered up, it SHOULD power the fans too.