Aquastyleonline.com LED questions.

milkman55 said:
One of the drawbacks of the Maxwellen driver is the analog dimming. I did a presentation on my Aquastyle build at a recent reef hobbyist meeting. Some one mentioned there as a device you could get that takes the VDC output from a controller and converts it to analog to replace the rheostat? Anybody seen anything like this?
Click to expand...

I just pulled the trigger on my aquastyle LED kit tonight. I got the maxwellen drivers in my kit. I would love a way to convert the 0-10V output from a controller of some sort to the variable resistance that is needed to dim the maxwellen drivers. If anyone has more info on this it would be great. I guess a backup plan would be to do a diy LED driver like in the big DIY led driver thread and investigate using the maxwellen drivers as the power supply for such a circuit.

Nick
 
nemosworld said:
I am not sure about driving multiple drivers on one pot, always wondered that but to chicken to try. You are correct the pots do not require an additional power source.
If you get a project box from radio shack, you can house the pots in there.
I run my leds at full blast. The only downside to the maxwellen drivers i see is that it sucks dimming, one turn cuts it to about 1/2 power.
Click to expand...


Has anyone tried hooking up multiple drivers to one pot with these kits?
 
yessir, the whole setup is inside one of the large project boxes from Rad. Shack.... drilled about i dont know enough holes to let the heat vent, and 2 Pots one for white, and one for blue.
 
Quick sanity check before I order.

Setup is for a 60 Gal Tank 48"L 12"Wide 24" Deep in what essentially works out to be 2 12"x24" Openings.

Mostly Softies, LPS right now.. Potentially a SPS or two later, but would be near the top 1/3 of the tank. Would rather err on the side of cost savings if that means no SPS ( both initial and ongoing, our power cost out here is ridiculous at .42 per KWH )

Im thinking about two of the 24 LED kits with the (4.7"W x 15.8"L) Heatsink for each side.

Im wondering if this is going to be enough coverage or I should be looking at 2 X 36 with a bigger (mainly longer) heatsink.

another option would be to buy a few extra LED, maybe run another 8 and have 4 rows of 8 offset, 16 on each driver intead of 3 three rows of 8 (12 on each driver).
 
Just buy enough LEDs to max out each driver. Coverage will depend on the optics and how high you mount them. I have 300-400 PAR where my SPS is, so you can always find a place where you want to put them.
 
00Warpig00 said:
I have been strongly considering a DIM4... Before spending the $$ I wanted some sort of verification that it somehow works with the Aquastyle maxwellen drivers. Every comment I have seen about the maxwellen drivers is the DO NOT work with ANY controller and MUST be dimmed by potentiometer. If I could see a time lapse you tube vid of someone using a DIM4 with some maxwellen drivers I'd probably already have pulled the trigger. I just don't want to blow ~$80 on the DIM4 if it isn't going to control the maxwellen's

Nick
Click to expand...

from the manual
DIM4 is a component for lighting systems that need to gradually increase and decrease the
light intensity, typically, to simulate sunrise and sunset. It provides analog 0-10V outputs.

full manual:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/LEDGroupBuy/DIM4/DIM4 Man R1.0a.pdf

maybe a more experienced person can give a better insight on this.
If i needed dimming, i would be the tester for this, but i do not need to dim mines.
 
Hard to give any opinion since the Maxwellan Controllers are so data-sheet-less. We have nothing - at all - to go on.
 
Received my kit today from aquastyle. OMG they have FAST shipping. FedEx international really has it together. I placed my order late Friday night (12/16). My order shipped on Saturday (12/17) from Hong Kong and Arrived here in suburbia of Chicagoland today (12/20) That's DELIVERED on the Second business day. FedEx website projected delivery to be tomorrow. lol. Order looks complete I haven't counted my LED's but it looks like a bag with some extras was included. Need to hit the hardware store next for supplies. :D

Nick
 
I have confirmed tonight that the Maxwellen LED drivers will NOT work with a 0-10V reference voltage to dim and ONLY work with potentiometers. You CAN hook the dim wires from multiple maxwellens to a single potentiometer if you dont want to have 20 of them. I hooked one up for the blues and one for the whites 2 drivers each. The Dim wires on the Maxewllen's are not polarized. I used a single aaa battery and two aaa batteries in series to put across the dimmer wires to test. Both voltages 1.5/3V gave the same results. When hooked up in one polarity they caused the drivers to turn off output completely. When the polarity was reversed the drivers acted like they were creating a lightning effect. The LED's would flash at full brightness for a couple milliseconds and then turn off and then flash again. Really looked like lightning effect.

I also learned one more thing. In my setup 72 LED kit with about 50/50 white 10000K and Royal blue's if you turn off the whites and open the dimmer circuit by giving infinite resistance the blue LED's get pretty dim and made a very nice moonlight effect. Note my fixture is 9" above water line and has the optics installed as well as glass tops on my tank. ymmv.

Nick
 
Just bought a 90gallon (48X18X24) and am goign to go with AquaStyles....

Which kit should i get? Plan on mostly LPS, Softies, and some SPS (i am sure i will add more SPS later on when i get more confident in reefing)
 
symon_say said:
So this drivers don't work with any controller?
Click to expand...

it does not appear as if the aquastyle "Maxwellen" drivers will work with ANY 0-10V controller. I have tried the 0-10V but I did not confirm pwm methods.

Also when using potentiometers, it appears as if a higher value of potentiometer would allow a dimmer lighting minimum. The 22 ohm pots that came with my kit only get the dimmer so dim but still too bright for moon lights. however when the dimmer wires are "open" the dimmer dims very low and makes the Royal blues look like they would work great as a moonlight. I have 32 RB's in my kit and the have optics and were still just about perfect for moonlights over my 180 in this config. They are much brighter with the pot at the max resistance (22 ohm) setting.

Nick
 
Last edited:
For moonlight is just put 3 leds without lens over my 66" tank, if they can't be controlled i'll have to do it old way, with timers.
 
symon_say said:
For moonlight is just put 3 leds without lens over my 66" tank, if they can't be controlled i'll have to do it old way, with timers.
Click to expand...

In my LED build I actually put two RB's in my setup for this purpose. They are not wired yet. i may abandon those two in favor of using all my RB's for moonlights if I can find a way to dim them like in my experimenting yesterday.

Nick
 
00Warpig00 said:
I also learned one more thing. In my setup 72 LED kit with about 50/50 white 10000K and Royal blue's if you turn off the whites and open the dimmer circuit by giving infinite resistance the blue LED's get pretty dim and made a very nice moonlight effect. Note my fixture is 9" above water line and has the optics installed as well as glass tops on my tank. ymmv.

Nick
Click to expand...

Which optics did you end up going with? mine will be slightly closer 6-8 inches but should give similar results
 
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