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12/31/2011, 09:05 PM | #251 |
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Hey everyone!
Just found out about aquastyles and this is a great thread for information. I hate to be another "what kit should I buy" person, but I guess I am. I just setup a 90 gallon reef which I mainly would like to feature SPS. The tank is 48x24 but the opening of the top of the tank is only 44x11.5". Being mainly for SPS, I want to get the largest dimmable kit that aquastyles sells. Would this give good enough par readings for the majority of the tank and would I be able to fit the needed heat sinks in the space provided? I would love a phoenix 14k look to the color spectrum, and if I would like more blue later just add a few more blue led strips. So will the 90 kit be enough or should I get more? These DIY kits are much more affordable than the other leds on the market (ai, radion, etc.) What optics should I get, the 60 or the 80's? How do these bulbs compare to cree's, or do we not have that information yet? How many electrical cords do you need to plug in for the 90 kit? Thanks so much everyone for the help. If I actually do decide to pull the trigger, putting it all together will really scare the crap out of me. |
12/31/2011, 11:18 PM | #252 | ||
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I was under the impression that the Maxwellens produced their own internal reference voltage. We would need someone to put a multimeter on the dimmer wires to see what that voltage is. How exactly did you confirm that the 0-10v won't work? I'm just curious. Quote:
I'm not following what you are saying. Let me see if I am understanding you correctly. You used AA batteries for a 1.5 and 3 volt signal and applied that to the dimmer wires, right? If that's the case, and if these Maxwellens produce their own reference voltage, you're risking blowing the dimmer. Some LED drivers have tender dimmers and if they get too much voltage, things go wrong. This would entirely explain the odd results you got but contradict what you're saying about the polarity. How did you decide that they were not polarized? First-- you said that the dimmer wires were not polarized. I can't see how this is true at all. Any DC system is polarized. One of those wires has to be + and one -. When you applied the batteries in the position that shut the light off, you basically were giving it reversed voltage (ie just blocking the voltage signal altogether as current isn't going to flow backwards through the batteries). That's why the LEDs shut off. No voltage detected in the dimmer. But when you hooked it up the other way, your LEDs did a lightening effect. I don't know what exactly the internal electronics were doing, but you effectively were giving it too much voltage and possibly wreaking havoc with your dimmer. Chances are the flashing/dimming effect were the capacitor charging and discharging, not quite sure what exactly to be doing with the excess voltage reference in the dimmer. Is anyone dimming these with a 10K ohm pot? If so, and it's working a smooth linear 0-100% (or something similar) then they likely are a 10v reference. If that's the case, there should be some way to rig them up to accept a DIM4 or similar controller.
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"The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers. Last edited by redfishsc; 12/31/2011 at 11:26 PM. |
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01/01/2012, 12:39 AM | #253 |
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hey nemo i watched you video and love the aquascaping and looks like you have plenty of light
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01/01/2012, 11:40 AM | #254 | |||||||||
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Here is the part I don't think I mentioned earlier. If I short the dim wires together I get LED's full blast. DIM wires floating with infinite resistance I get some light but I would call it minimum brightness. So I have to make some assumptions here because my goal was to determine if the driver was controlled by a 0-10VDC. Again I didn't dig out my meter... maybe I will now just for fun, even though I'm satisfied it's not a 0-10V control in my own mind. It might be PWM I don't know I admittedly didn't test for this but it's NOT 10V or even 5VDC. IF it was... I have to assume 10V is on one of the two dim wires and putting a resistance across the dim wires (a potentiometer in this case) causes a smaller voltage to be seen on the other wire. When both wires shorted together 10V on both wires = full bright. So when I hook a 1.5V battery or two to make 3V up trying both polarities I should see some things happen. lets say I have 10V and hook my 1.5 V up and end up with 11.5V on the "sense" wire. Could I get the "lightning effect" I describe. ABSOLUTELY I COULD. with the 3V. YES also. It wouldn't surprise me in the least and would actually make sense. But if I then hook up in the opposite polarity you will now see 8.5V on the "sense" wire. In a 0-10V range 8.5V should give me 85% brightness not lights out. 3V down from 10V should give me 7.0V or 70% brightness not lights out. Quote:
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If anyone has any info/ideas... PLEASE feel free... I'm trying to slay this dragon. I want a sunrise/sunset light system that doesn't click off and startle my fish every night. I've already spent ~$300 on getting to this point. Trying to spend as little as possible but also want a solution that fits my goals. I cant be the only one who has this goal. Nick
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180G - 5 Yellow Tail Blue Damsels, Two Lined Sleeper Goby, Royal Gramma, Flame Angel pair, Yellow Stripe Maroon Clown, Pearlscale Butterfly, Australian Harlequin Tuskfish, Magnificent Foxface, Yellow Current Tank Info: 180G FOWLR Established 10/2010 Last edited by 00Warpig00; 01/01/2012 at 11:58 AM. |
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01/01/2012, 01:21 PM | #255 | |
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the way i have the channels spaced out right now, i get 180 par on the sandbed, and no more than about 2oo-230 in the middle, i think this is due to the optics and the spacing of the channels. towads the back i have the channels a little bit closer and infact get higher par in the middle of the tank. this is why instead of adding more bridgelux leds, i am adding more cree's. this will allow me to use less leds and get more par. once i get the xml's in (did not order yet) i will play with the spacing and show final results. in the meantime i highly suggest dual 72 led kits for tanks my size and larger. this will allow you to place the leds closer together and get great par numbers. all for the cost of a singe ai sol blue and less than a single AI phoenix, ooops-AI Vega. I also decided to keep the background dark so i could keep algae from growing on my diy foam rock wall and grow low light and NPS corals on it.
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Felix Nice to meet you! Current Tank Info: 60 Gallon Cube Last edited by nemosworld; 01/01/2012 at 01:22 PM. Reason: typo |
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01/01/2012, 01:44 PM | #256 | |
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Felix Nice to meet you! Current Tank Info: 60 Gallon Cube |
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01/01/2012, 01:44 PM | #257 | |||
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Try that same experiment and set your meter to test for current and see if any current flows (I honestly am not sure whether current would pass or not but I am very skeptical). The dimmer requires some current flow at the right voltage; not just latent voltage. Just because there is voltage doesn't mean current will flow--- you can charge a capacitor with DC and it will read whatever voltage you want, but there will be no current flow at all. Capacitors do not pass DC current, and I also don't think alkaline batteries will either (backwards at least). I'm willing to be wrong here though, but something shut the current flow on your dimmer from your test, and I think it was the reversed polarity that did it. The dimmer does require at least some current flow even if there is a voltage reading, and I think your reversed polarity tests shut down all current flow. Quote:
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You just described it just right, except for that last part. Just to restate what I said above, even if the reversed polarity did drop the voltage only a tiny amount, it's going to probably block all current flow. If you have no current flow, the dimmer won't work- it must have current even if there is a detectable potential (voltage) applied to it. Thus your reversed polarity tests netted you a "off" situation. FWIW my Meanwells will turn on at 50mA. I just checked them (they are on digital current meters 100% of the time). It is a slightly sudden "on" but it's not that bad really. Quite dim. Once you dig out the multimeter and test the voltage on the Maxwellen, and see if it is a 10v, then there must be some way you can use the DIM4. You would just cap off and not use the + wire on the dimmer. You may have to find a grounding place somewhere, may not Here is a good test---- try connecting your batteries (3v) positive lead to the dimmer wires on your Maxewellen. One wire at a time.... see what happens. You may have to run the battery's - wire down to a ground in your outlet or a power strip for this to work. I use Radio-shack battery holders for this, they are $2 and hold 2 AA batteries. If you can do this---- + battery lead to the appropriate dimmer wire, - battery lead to ground.... and you get light..... then all you need to do is discover the max voltage of the dimmer's output and find a controller that can be programmed not to exceed that voltage. Even if this is a 0-5v dimmer, the DIM4 should theoretically work as long as you don't set it to exceed the 5v max.
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"The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers. |
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01/01/2012, 02:52 PM | #258 |
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i agree nemo everyone's perception is going to be a little diferent, i have a 90 i'm am going to do led's on plus i plan on keeping the 2 bulb t5 retro i have because they just look that good..lol.. but plan on doing away with the MH and led combo i have in there. just havn't figured out what i need yet
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01/01/2012, 05:09 PM | #259 | |||||||||||
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I have to admit it has been about 25 years since I took DC Electronics 101 but we did an actual experiment with multiple batteries in lab back in the 80's so I know this works. We used a light bulb for our load. I've actually done it. So unless batteries have changed to the point they have reverse polarity protection built in to them this should not have changed. Quote:
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Nick
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180G - 5 Yellow Tail Blue Damsels, Two Lined Sleeper Goby, Royal Gramma, Flame Angel pair, Yellow Stripe Maroon Clown, Pearlscale Butterfly, Australian Harlequin Tuskfish, Magnificent Foxface, Yellow Current Tank Info: 180G FOWLR Established 10/2010 Last edited by 00Warpig00; 01/01/2012 at 05:19 PM. |
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01/01/2012, 06:24 PM | #260 |
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If you're just trying to dim the blues once you hit sunset and turn the whites off, put all your white drivers on one plug (hell you could use a timer strip for this too). Take your pot wires and find the polarity #1, put your common to the common of the 120v relay, the other wire will be split to 2 different pots, one to the normally closed contact of the relay and the other to the normally open contact of the relay.
Now bring the ac of your WHITES over to the relay coil to pick the contacts. That honestly to me seems the easiest way, but it won't be transitional, just straight to dim and back to bright when it comes on. You don't necessarily have to use your white's for the ac reference on the coil btw, just my idea. You could also use your fuge lighting as the trigger if it's on a reverse cycle, or whatever plug you would normally use for your blues (since you would be powering the blues 100% of the time, the only time to switch them would be to fall back to moonlighting). All viable options without using more precious programmable outlets :-P
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BRB, Goldfish on fire How much deeper would the ocean really be if sponges didn't exist? Current Tank Info: 75 gallon mixed reef tank Last edited by dread240; 01/01/2012 at 06:32 PM. |
01/01/2012, 07:51 PM | #261 | |
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A string of 12 Crees (or 8 Crees and two 10-watt BL402's) is way, way too bright for moonlight. Hell, a single XPE at 300mA is gross overkill on a 45g tank. I bought a DealExtreme driver (300mA) just for this, and put a single XPE white on it, and it actually lights the tank up like a solar flare lol. So now I use that XPE as a reading lamp, no joke. I verified the current with my multimeter at about 300-350mA (depending on the power supply, for whatever reason).
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"The measure of a life is not its duration but its donation." Corrie Ten Boom “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” -- Søren Kierkegaard Current Tank Info: ghetto grad school reef.....11g rimless tank, 36X9X9, lit by Cree and Rebels scobbled together. Stocked mostly with free stuff I got from panhandling my fellow reefers. |
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01/02/2012, 09:48 PM | #262 |
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Well I finally built mine. I went with 40 rb 8 6.5k and 24 10k. Got them all wired up and they are looking great. I put the drivers and the pots in a large project bow and have it mounted to the wall next to the tank. I decided to use a pot per driver that way I can dim one side of the tank if I need to acclimate corals and keep the other side at whatever intensity it is.
Right now I am running about 60% blue and 50% white. How long do I have to wait to turn it up a bit since I was coming from 250w halides? So far I am very pleased with the kit I just need to see how my corals like it. Here are some pictures. They are not the best since they are from my iPhone camera but they give a pretty good idea. They might look a little more purple in person.
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01/02/2012, 10:15 PM | #263 |
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Actually glad to finally see a 72 kit over a 75g tank lol. I was wondering how good my coverage was going to be. My kit won't be here till this week most likely though
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BRB, Goldfish on fire How much deeper would the ocean really be if sponges didn't exist? Current Tank Info: 75 gallon mixed reef tank |
01/03/2012, 08:42 AM | #264 |
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What about led mixture, what are you using, right now i have 36 kit all white and RB but i need to get another kit when i start adding corals, so what leds should be in the mixture in my next kit??
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01/03/2012, 01:04 PM | #265 |
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arentspowell - Great Job! Very clean build.
I am surprised you can fine tune your blue and white to that fine a degree. Mine seem to take a big jump in intensity with the slightest movement of the rheostat? I would give it a couple of weeks before you start turning up the intensity. I think I started mine too high and while nothing browned out, it did look stressed for awhile. |
01/03/2012, 05:21 PM | #266 |
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Putting aquastyles customer service to the test as we speak apparently Nothing major, they just put down the wrong shipping address with fedex (Order actually went out fairly quickly considering the holidays all over the world) and all they have to do on their end is update it.
They did create a new city in the process though, Marylanda, MA. Don't take this as a complaint on the company though, just seeing how quickly they can fix it if it will delay me any. So far they've been great on communication and I can easily see this happening because I don't expect them to be familiar with the US like that Probably 20% of Americans could screw that up with ease sadly
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BRB, Goldfish on fire How much deeper would the ocean really be if sponges didn't exist? Current Tank Info: 75 gallon mixed reef tank |
01/03/2012, 10:51 PM | #267 |
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I'm thinking of putting their 14 LED, 7 RB and 7 of the 10K, dimmable kit over my 14 gal fuge. I've been in contact with them...I'm considering the dimmable Meanwell drivers instead of the included Maxwellen drivers. Apparently they allow substitutions. Anyway, I have a question that I couldn't get answered from them: are the dimmable Maxwells controllable with the ReefKeeper lite 1-10v capable controller? And, would you be able to simulate sunrise and sunset with that setup? Thanks in advance!
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01/04/2012, 01:06 PM | #268 | |
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As discused on page 10 of this thread, in theory it should work with the dim4 but someone needs to test the driver and find out. Would anyone out there who is using Maxwellen driver and who owns a multimeter be willing to test the dim leads of thier driver. Just disconnect you potentiometer and measure the voltage between the wires when the driver is powered up. then power down, swicht you meter to measure currnt and measure the current being produced between the two wires. That should tell us all we need to know to determine how to set up the DIM4 to run this driver. only other variable would be the that the two circuts need a common ground as you'd be caping off the + lead from the driver and not using the - lead from the DIM4. So as long as long as both circuts go to a common ground (ie, the wall outlet) then it should work "in theory". if you don't have a DIM4 handy then a wall wort that outputs the appropriate current at a voltage somewhere between 1-10volts (assuming you measured 10volts with the multimeter) will give us the same answer as to whether this is doable. |
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01/04/2012, 02:24 PM | #269 |
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Just put in my order for the 36 diy dimmable and 72 dimmable kits to cover my 125 gallon 72-18-21d. The LEDs will be roughly 7" off of the water.
I did order some extra 80 deg lenses to help with the spread if needed. I just need to find some 6' c-channels. I will try to find someone with a meter to check the par once the lights are put together. What is the Diameter of the LED star? Last edited by gammer_100; 01/04/2012 at 02:32 PM. |
01/04/2012, 04:25 PM | #270 | |
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01/04/2012, 04:33 PM | #271 | |
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Has anyone tried the ReefKeeper Lite with these LEDs and the Meanwell driver? |
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01/04/2012, 05:36 PM | #272 |
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I ordered one of their 14LED kits with 2 dimmable ballast for my QT tank. The only complaint I had was that the pots(dimmers) were poor quality and would cause the LEDs to flicker, or go off as your turned the dial slowly. I tried to find a suitable replacement locally, but couldnt.
I ended up taking the pot apart and bending the contact spring a little to get them to perform better. still not perfect, but useable.
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Time is the most valuable thing you have... spend it wisely Current Tank Info: 60x26x24 AGE 3 sided starphire |
01/04/2012, 06:37 PM | #273 | ||
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The Maxwellen drivers at this point look like they are NOT controllable by a controller only potentiometer. My test thus far of applying various voltages <10V to the dim leads of a Maxwellen driver have not produced any fruitful results at this time. Quote:
Nick
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180G - 5 Yellow Tail Blue Damsels, Two Lined Sleeper Goby, Royal Gramma, Flame Angel pair, Yellow Stripe Maroon Clown, Pearlscale Butterfly, Australian Harlequin Tuskfish, Magnificent Foxface, Yellow Current Tank Info: 180G FOWLR Established 10/2010 |
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01/04/2012, 06:57 PM | #274 |
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You can make an arduino controller for them with a DPIC.
I do promise you guys, I'll bring my fluke 1587 home from work, hell even my scope and I'll find out exactly what the maxwellen drivers are doing :-P
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BRB, Goldfish on fire How much deeper would the ocean really be if sponges didn't exist? Current Tank Info: 75 gallon mixed reef tank |
01/04/2012, 08:00 PM | #275 |
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that would be great! Dread240
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Felix Nice to meet you! Current Tank Info: 60 Gallon Cube |
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