big diy multichip led lighting with realtime weather

[am.gee]

Nice set up and tank. Always cool to see people design features like yours.

thank you, it was lot of fun and i learned many things.

 

[am.gee]

Nice tank and great job on the light fixture. I am running 4 50w multichips on my 120 gallon reef.

thanks, I believe you are happy with them?

 

[senne76]

imagine this fixture as a big screen with nearly hd resolution of 7 x 3 pixels :dance: i have some form of framebuffer of that size. with the algorithm i fill that buffer and when its time to draw it, i put that buffer into the displaybuffer. this is some kind of doublebuffering. currently i dont copy one buffer into the other dircectly, but do some fading or blending between them. the time of this fade process depends on the wind speed. also depending on windspeed is the time such an image is displayed until the next image will be 'rendered'. you can use the current displaybuffer values to feed in this algorithm, add a little to x and y depending on wind direction and there is your cloud animation.

So your persistence and amplitude are affected with the amount of clouds. If there are more clouds you persistence and amplitude are bigger?

 

[am.gee]

So your persistence and amplitude are affected with the amount of clouds. If there are more clouds you persistence and amplitude are bigger?

yes, play around with the values and look what happens, but change only very slightly. furthermore when there are more clouds i change set the max brightness to a lower value. for example, when its 'overcast' then all values in the image differ only very slightly from each other and brightness is set to about 60% as it is the case in nature. dont forget to set a limit on the lower end of the values too.

 

[am.gee]

i go on holidays now and will be back next friday to answer your questions.
Mallorca is waiting:rollface:

so far, sunny greetz.....

when i'm back, its time to upgrade the sun over my tank.

 

[2clown]

Question. Would that be the Arduino 2560 boards?

 

[am.gee]

Question. Would that be the Arduino 2560 boards?

yes, its an arduino mega 2560 but with an additional 16 channel 12 bit pwm board.

 

[2clown]

Thanks. I have been researching a new build. Your system is sick. How many pucks/LDD drivers can it control?

 

[am.gee]

Thanks. I have been researching a new build. Your system is sick. How many pucks/LDD drivers can it control?

28 channels or drivers currently, 12 by arduino and 16 by the 16 channel pwm shield.if i want more, i simply add another 16 channel board and change the display size in the code, thats all. i use network cables for signal transmission to the drivers.

 

[am.gee]

hi,
after a quick test of the new 20K 10 Watt LEDs i could not resist to order all missing parts to upgrade my lighting system (holy sh... they are bright....). today the first parts arrived and I just soldered the first few LDDs.... i will add 2 rows, each with 5 multichips. For the upgrade i dont use optics to get i wider spread of the light. so far... pictures are coming when i put it all together.

 

[todddye]

Are you replacing all of your current leds with the 20k 10w?

What model 20k are you using?

 

[slief]

Very impressive build and tank!

 

[am.gee]

Are you replacing all of your current leds with the 20k 10w?

What model 20k are you using?

hi,
no its an add-on :bounce3: i add 2 profiles with 5 chips each to the long sides of the fixture.
btw. i call the add-on The Ambi-Light-Addon

 

[am.gee]

What model 20k are you using?

This is something that i do not know. I got them from a german reseller on ebay. All i know is that they are rated to be 20K.

 

[am.gee]

Today i put the chips on the profiles, glued the heatsinks and soldered the LDDs..

 

[am.gee]

Very impressive build and tank!

thank you very much.

 

[todddye]

Looks great.

 

[am.gee]

Today I finished the addon...
here i did the wiring, where i lost one L-ovely D-iode D-river.... by short circuiting.
i always triple check the wiring, but i did not help.... No problem, I ordered a new one. :hmm5:

 

[am.gee]

then i installed it on the central star.....

 

[am.gee]

and finally put the star back on its place in the little universe of this tank... one LED is not working because of the fried driver. i will repair that next week.
Currently the LEDs are just connected with other nearby ones for the dimming. In the wintertime i will upgrade the fixture so that i can control them separately and implement some kind of ambient light algorithm you all know from some TVs.. :bdaysmile:

I must say it was really neccessary to upgrade the lamp. With this new addon the overall brightness increased significantly and looks absolutly great! :bum: