APEX controlling LED HELP

[Jamesus]

So i'm about done with my DIY LED build. I also just got my apex today, so i'm not very familiar with it yet.

I'll have 48 XRE blue ran off of two driver, and 24 XPG ran off two more drivers.
I care about controlling all the blues, and all the whites on there own. not all 4 drivers on there own.

My question is this. Can I put the two XRE drivers into a power strip and then to my apex and still be able to dim it correctly?

Also how would I program this. For example. I want it to go from 10% power to 95% power starting at 8 AM and building up till noon. Then stay at 95% power from noon to 7. Then I want it to go from 95% power back to 10% power from 7pm to 9pm. How would I do that?

Thanks!

 

[ReefMan1111]

you need the dim. cable for the apex to dim the leds. do you have the cable?

 

[Jamesus]

no, wasnt aware that I needed something else. Where do I find them?

 

[ReefMan1111]

http://www.marinedepot.com/2_Channe...ories-Neptune_Systems-NS5555-FITEMOAC-vi.html

 

[Jamesus]

So I have to buy two of those cables to control the 4 drivers?

 

[ReefMan1111]

no I have six drivers on 1 cable. one cable has two wires out of it I am only use one wire on the cable

 

[Jamesus]

But what if I want to dim my whites and blues independently?

 

[ReefMan1111]

all you need is one cable it has 2 wires out of it. you wire 1 it to the whites and 1 in to the blues look at the pic. and you will see the 2 wires.

 

[Jamesus]

sweet, thank for the help.

How would I write up the instructions for the apex I posted in my first post. I mean what would I actually type to program the apex.

 

[HeneryH]

I wouldn't bother with the cables.

Just use a regular network cable and cut the other end off.

If you really want the Neptune cable, I'll sell you my unused one for 70% off the MD price.

 

[ReefMan1111]

Set OFF
If Time 08:00 to 12:00 Then ledup
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then ledon
If Time 19:00 to 21:00 Then leddown

 

[ReefMan1111]

you have to set the ramp mode in the profile field for dim from 10% to 95%
Ramp time 240
Start intensity 10
End intensity 95

 

[Jamesus]

can you ramp down and up?

Can you have different ramps for blues and whites?

 

[Jamesus]

I wouldn't bother with the cables.

Just use a regular network cable and cut the other end off.

If you really want the Neptune cable, I'll sell you my unused one for 70% off the MD price.

Thanks a lot for the offer, but before I saw this I called my lfs and had them order me in one. Its only 14 bucks so its not a big deal.

 

[aquamanic]

can you ramp down and up? Can you have different ramps for blues and whites?

These are just profiles. You can have up to 16. And yes, you can have the intensity go from 0 - 100 or 100 - 0 or anything in-between.

 

[Jamesus]

How do I tell each light which ramp profile to do?

Thanks so much for all this help guys.

 

[aquamanic]

Take this simple example:

1. You have two profiles, one called 'BlueUp' and one called 'WhiteUp'.
2. Both profiles ramp the intensity from 0 - 100 over 60 minutes.

You use (2) of the (4) variable speed ports to do this. We'll use VarSpd1 for the blue and VarSpd2 for the whites.

The program for VarSpd1 would look like this:

Set OFF
If Time 08:00 to 18:00 Then BlueUp

The program for VarSpd2 would be similar except using the other profile.

If you wanted to ramp the intensity down you would create additional profiles that vary the intensity in the inverse (100 to 0) and then modify your time statements so you use the ramp up profiles in the morning and the ramp down profiles in the evenings.

This is all explained in detail in the User Guide that's stickied.

 

[Jamesus]

Awesome.

Back to one of my pervious questions. If I want one of my outlets to do the exact same thing for multiple things, can i just plug all those into a powerstrip and then that powerstrip into my dc8? Would that also work for dimming? I'm still not 100% on how the dimming cables are goign to work, I just need to get them and see it in person to figure it out i'm guessing.

 

[HeneryH]

You'd use the profiles above assigned to the VSPs. This drives the 0-10v signals into the LED drivers. Also you'd envelope the entire time period that the LEDs are energized with a regular EB8 outlet to provide the main 115v power to the driver.

------

All of the driver power inputs can be shared on a power strip if you want assuming the max power is under the spec. There is some discussion about leaving the drivers energized but set to 0% which would mean that you wouldn't even need to power them with an EB8 outlet if you didn't want to. Jury is still out on this practice I think.

All of the drivers that share a similar dimming profile can share a VSP up to a certain limit which people are still trying to figure out.

 

[aquamanic]

If I want one of my outlets to do the exact same thing for multiple things, can i just plug all those into a powerstrip and then that powerstrip into my dc8?

Yes, subject to the amp rating of the individual outlet of course.

Would that also work for dimming?

Sort of, but keep in mind (as HH addresses above) that with dimmable lighting and variable speed pumps, there are two outlets involved. One is the 110vac that supplies power to your device (ballast or pump). The other provides 0 - 10vdc for your dimming signal and almost no current (< 10ma). That's different than other devices where a single outlet turns ON or OFF. With these 'variable voltage' devices, you need one outlet to provide power (that would be the DC8 or the EB8) and another to provide signaling (that would be the varable speed ports on the base module, or an AquaSurf module).

You could use one signal port and daisy it out to multiple ballasts and do the powerstrip thing for the multiple 110v. What I think is unclear relative to LED's is exactly how many ballasts one signaling port can drive reliably. The technology is new and there's just not a lot of actual field results yet.