Controlling Viparspectra Lights

[Ninjacorgi13]

In that picture @Michael Lane is just using that splice point to feed the led strips which need 12v, if you splice 120v you will need a transformer to output 12v to the mosfet board and that is what he did. He mounted a transformer with heat shrink and used that to feed 12v to the mosfet. If you look for some of my posts you will see that instead of taping and converting 120v in the fixture I ran a separate 12v feed to the unit, either way works it just depends on how you want to do it.

Here is how I did it - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/controlling-viparspectra-lights.698216/post-7528647

Awesome, not sure how I missed that post of yours. Thanks!

 

[Michael Lane]

hey Michael, can you explain the splice on the picture above? I have some LED strips here but don’t fully understand the 120v to outlet connector part.

Tom's description is accurate. Here's a simplified illustration of the purpose.

I cut the original wires and soldered one side to the original wires going to the outlet. The other side had 2 wires soldered to each terminal.

 

[bishoptf]

Tom's description is accurate. Here's a simplified illustration of the purpose.

I cut the original wires and soldered one side to the original wires going to the outlet. The other side had 2 wires soldered to each terminal.

Ha mike always has prettier pitcures....lol

 

[Ninjacorgi13]

Ha mike always has prettier pitcures....lol

His Wednesday's must be MS paint time!

Thanks both of you guys, I've got the main lights setup and just working on the moonlights now. Will report back with my inevitable failures.

 

[musser233]

Anyone have an update on how to get ahold of these boards since they’re out of stock on tindie?

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Anyone have an update on how to get ahold of these boards since they’re out of stock on tindie?

If he provides a schematic, so you can make one on a breadboard. It won't be as neat, but it will function the same.

If not, you can achieve similar result with relays.

Viparspectra is already dimmed via PWM, so you can run a connection directly to the pi. However, it doesn't dim to zero and flickers at low levels, so you need a relay signal the controller on the viparspectra to tell it to turn off/on the power to the driver.

 

[bishoptf]

If he provides a schematic, so you can make one on a breadboard. It won't be as neat, but it will function the same.

If not, you can achieve similar result with relays.

Viparspectra is already dimmed via PWM, so you can run a connection directly to the pi. However, it doesn't dim to zero and flickers at low levels, so you need a relay signal the controller on the viparspectra to tell it to turn off/on the power to the driver.

Yeah from what I hear @Michael Lane is really busy these days outside of the forum. I thought I might have purchased an extra module and looked in my bin but I do not have a spare, prolly should have bought one. I do have a Mars Aqua Board, PM if you are interested, otherwise like @AbjectMaelstroM states he does have all the schematics on github and you can make one up yourself. I think I have also seen some other postings of DIY vipar boards so you may search for them also...

 

[drnibz]

Hi all, I am working on getting my reefPi up and running, I have all the boards built by @Michael Lane (goby hat, 2 light boards, ph board, dosing board, great stuff) my question/confusion how do I connect the PCA9685 to my pi and/or goby hat so that I can use the light channel in the hat to control my Viparspectra?

 

[drnibz]

I think I figured it out. the goby hat has an onboard PCA9685 all I need to do is add the driver on the reefpi and select PC pins where needed. driver added all i need to do is test to make sure i got this right.

 

[drnibz]

@Michael Lane can you please provide some support on how to use the goby hat along with ph board and Vparspectra adaptor

 

[Michael Lane]

@Michael Lane can you please provide some support on how to use the goby hat along with ph board and Vparspectra adaptor

Can you post what you have done? I'm not sure where to start helping. This image gallery shows many common set ups.

 

[Savampyre]

I know you are busy so I was trying to get some of these boards made over at JLCPCB however they are telling me the Gerbers are the wrong format (using v3 files from github)? That was about as far as I got lol, a novice here so hit a hard roadblock.

 

[unchaotic]

@Michael Lane or any other knowledgeable person who sees this,

I've set up my Viparspectra to ramp with my Apex using a Steve's LED signal converter. I've tried following steps from other's tutorials to add On/Off control using the other two channels on the converter/variable speed ports and I'm having no luck. The lights come on and I can still ramp them but I cannot turn them off with the Apex.

So I have 2 questions:

1. If anyone feels like looking at my tutorial here it is. I assumed the next step would be simply unplugging the control harness from the Vipars control panel, cutting the On/Off wires and connecting them to the other channels on the converter. (I also added an independent 12v power supply for the converter, and have tried almost every connection point I can think of with the ground wires.) Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong? I'm guessing it's a Ground wire or Apex procedural issue.

2. Could the On/Off signal just bypass the converter and go straight to the variable speed port? I know the ramping function is PWM but is the On/Off as well? If not it seems (to the uneducated) like the variable speed port could handle that directly, just maybe not at 100% output. Or I could be an idiot looking to fry my drivers ...

 

[bishoptf]

@Michael Lane or any other knowledgeable person who sees this,

I've set up my Viparspectra to ramp with my Apex using a Steve's LED signal converter. I've tried following steps from other's tutorials to add On/Off control using the other two channels on the converter/variable speed ports and I'm having no luck. The lights come on and I can still ramp them but I cannot turn them off with the Apex.

So I have 2 questions:

1. If anyone feels like looking at my tutorial here it is. I assumed the next step would be simply unplugging the control harness from the Vipars control panel, cutting the On/Off wires and connecting them to the other channels on the converter. (I also added an independent 12v power supply for the converter, and have tried almost every connection point I can think of with the ground wires.) Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong? I'm guessing it's a Ground wire or Apex procedural issue.

2. Could the On/Off signal just bypass the converter and go straight to the variable speed port? I know the ramping function is PWM but is the On/Off as well? If not it seems (to the uneducated) like the variable speed port could handle that directly, just maybe not at 100% output. Or I could be an idiot looking to fry my drivers ...

I think if you look a couple of posts above most of us are using @Michael Lane boards this may clarify things a little:

If he provides a schematic, so you can make one on a breadboard. It won't be as neat, but it will function the same.

If not, you can achieve similar result with relays.

Viparspectra is already dimmed via PWM, so you can run a connection directly to the pi. However, it doesn't dim to zero and flickers at low levels, so you need a relay signal the controller on the viparspectra to tell it to turn off/on the power to the driver.

You may want to try searching for more integrations with the Apex and post in a thread that is specific to that, I am controlling mine via a reefpi and his custome board. Know thats not much help but thought I would pass it along.

 

[unchaotic]

I think if you look a couple of posts above most of us are using @Michael Lane boards this may clarify things a little:


You may want to try searching for more integrations with the Apex and post in a thread that is specific to that, I am controlling mine via a reefpi and his custome board. Know thats not much help but thought I would pass it along.

I've been trying. I don't know if my search criteria suck or what, but that's why I'm here. I believe my questions are generic enough that someone here might have an answer.

This is all part of the "legwork" I'm doing to build simpler and more thorough walk throughs on this subject.

 

[unchaotic]

Ignore my above questions. I've actually accomplished all of my goals on my setup now. These things are surprisingly "trial and error" friendly.

 

[bishoptf]

I know I am bumping an old thread but I am modifying a t300 version and have a question that I am hoping @theatrus can clarify. I have the 165w version also but actually wanting to change things up and the longer unit I think will work better. I was swapping out the fans last night for Noctua fans like I normally do and noticed how they had them hooked up was odd. I'm sure there must be a reason for it but I can only guess was wondering what your thoughts on it. In the 165w version they an led driver that has a 12v output for the fans, each led driver connects to one fan. On the t300 it has more led's so it has 3 led drivers, now the difference is instead of each led driver connnecting to a single fan they have the 2 outside 12v feeds in parallel,they have it junpered from one end to the other end. The only thing that I can surmise is that if they loose either led driver then at least the fans continue to work? Doesn't make much sense to me but thought I would ask, here are some pics.

 

[theatrus]

Yeah, unclear why. Most likely explanation is the 12V output is an auxiliary and very low current, so they just doubled things up.

If a driver failed, it could sag the whole 12V line so it’s not really redundant. This includes backfeeding a failed driver.

 

[bishoptf]

There are some Viparspectra adapter boards available if anyone is interested in them @theatrus was nice enough to put in an order and I have some coming as well. If anyone is interested please shoot me a PM and we can go from there. These are @Michael Lane deigned boards just ordered some additional to update some lights.

 

[Daboys2007]

There are some Viparspectra adapter boards available if anyone is interested in them @theatrus was nice enough to put in an order and I have some coming as well. If anyone is interested please shoot me a PM and we can go from there. These are @Michael Lane deigned boards just ordered some additional to update some lights.

Hi Tom - I have 2 of those 165w Viparspectra lights too and would like to mod them like Michael Lane. Do I need these boards plus something called a goby hat?