Apex to control chinese led

[Jorgens]

As many have been trying to figure out, it is not the easiest. However, After a month of crusing threads, reading articles, tech support I feel it's possible. But I'm not good at problem solving wiring so this is where ya'll come in. My understanding is that the Chinese 120w box can be converted to PWM. Steve's LED has a 0-10v apex controlable "chip" or "card" that turns the apex signal into PWM. That seem easy to wire up. But I'm having trouble with how to attach the PWM card to the drivers in the box.

The driver


The dimmable pot


And I copied the photo from steves led as I wasnt' sure if attaching a link would violate rules so here is the interface to convert 0-10v to pwm


Ho to I wire the interface to that driver? And will this work? Or am I just ****in in the wind.....:dance:

 

[JaysonA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnxrO8Fbug&list=UUq8BtjRuPNW5xFTMFPWYGog

I completely bypassed the POT dimmer. On the other side of your dimmer you should see a VDIM+ and VDIM- this is looking for a 0-10V signal. The other 2 wires just needed to be jumped. It works perfectly, now i just need to learn the storm and lightning programming.

 

[JaysonA]

why do you think its using pwm for dimming? also, im only sharing my experience, your light is different, thus may take different wiring..

 

[Jorgens]

Somewhere I read that 0-10v will not completley dim these leds and that PWM would be easier. Well, After a bunch of emails back and forth to Steve's LEDs I still have no answer. It looks like just hooking the 0-10v from apex to the pot and then jumping the other wires is working for some people. I just have 4 fixtures I need to wire up to 1 cable and need the time to do it...

 

[madadi]

I cant find the 0-10v to pwm interface on his website. does he sell that. I would love to switch out my minwells and be able to dim down to 1% brightness!!!!

 

[JaysonA]

I cant find the 0-10v to pwm interface on his website. does he sell that. I would love to switch out my minwells and be able to dim down to 1% brightness!!!!

I could be wrong, but I think you have a misunderstanding about PWM, its not a more precise version of 0-10V, its a completely different signal, so they are not interchangeable. That being said, if you have the option, PWM is more precise, I believe you can adjust from 0-254, but you cant take a 0-10v ballast and control it with a PWM device.

 

[JaysonA]

Somewhere I read that 0-10v will not completley dim these leds and that PWM would be easier. Well, After a bunch of emails back and forth to Steve's LEDs I still have no answer. It looks like just hooking the 0-10v from apex to the pot and then jumping the other wires is working for some people. I just have 4 fixtures I need to wire up to 1 cable and need the time to do it...

I have the light connected to an EB8 port 1&2 and VDM Ports 1&2, i can dim down to 1%, but not turn the light off with dimming, I have to power off the EB8 outlet.

I would be a little afraid to connect 4 to the same channel. Someone smarter than me would have to let you know if that is safe. I know the ONYX from rapid LED does this, but they may be buffering the load somehow so its not on the Apex.

 

[JaysonA]

I cant find the 0-10v to pwm interface on his website. does he sell that. I would love to switch out my minwells and be able to dim down to 1% brightness!!!!

http://shop.stevesleds.com/Aquarium-Controller-Interface-Harness-for-Steves-LEDs-Drivers-harness.htm

 

[Rocko1]

It looks like the interface controls 4 channels, if I'm not mistaken the 4 input Channels go to the apex and the 4 output channels got to the light fixture, and the u send 5 volts and ground to it. I might be wrong, just trying to take a shot at it.
Good luck

 

[oreo57]

Your missing a point.. and the thread I linked above explains it a bit..
MY "take" on this..
The drivers are PWM dimmed.. The circutry is hooked to the "pot dimmer"..
from what I understand the "trick" is to reverse 2 of the wires on the "pot" connection and then hook the PWM signal in...

After reading that part of another thread. I pretty much decided to ignore it.. It has been done but it is not straight forward.. also there is some mention of using a "trimming pot" on the orig. driver to tweek the circuit to dim fully...even after getting some functionality..

The 10V to PWM apex thing is a side issue...and depending on the setup may or may not be needed..

hope this helps a bit..

Actually I think I better clarify this a bit since there are 2 (or more) methods these lights use..
This is what the PWM version looks like on the pot:

 

[Atomik]

I'm sorry to revive this old thread but I thought it could be of interest to you guys. I have a similar chinese LED fixture and was wondering how to electronically control them. First step was to figure out the control scheme of this thing



My PWM control PCB is very similar to oreo's, so I suspect that it could be a another version or something... I also analyzed the board to determine its schematics. Some values could be wrong, but the overall circuit does make sense for it purpose. The hard part was to deduce the IC which I thought at first was a PWM controller of some sort or a 555. It is however a simple quad op-amp package configure as a triangle oscillator followed by a comparator... The dimming is simply done by varying the comparison threshold using a potentiometer (knob). I attached a schematics from my understanding of the PCB (which you can also find here http://schematics.com/project/aquarium-led-pwm-37047/.



My aim is to be able to control this thing using a wireless microcontroller such as the (really) cheap ESP-12. I suppose to road is similar if you want to control it using a Neptune Apex...