chinese led lights

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Not sure if this would be a good way, but I wonder if you can tap (splice) into the dim+ dim- wires without removing them from the potentiometer.

I used these for my car headunit. Worked great. Not sure if it could work in this application though.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP605/Posi-Products-Wire-Connectors.html

The other way would be to remove or cut the dim+ dim- wires from the potentiometer and either solder it to the VDC cable, or use quick connectors like these.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP500/Posi-Products-Car-Stereo-Connectors.html?tp=990

Finding out which wire is which is the vital part.
 
I just purchased 2 of the 120w and am waiting on a response from Hendy about customizing the a4's

*i just got a response and he indicated that he could do:
4 - 400nm
20 - royal blues*460nm
24 - white 12000k

Since there are 24 led per switch would I do the 400nm and royal blues on one and the others on two?
 
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Nova A4 breakdown shots...

Nova A4 breakdown shots...

As promised, here are my pictures. If you want more detail just click and it will take you to a high-res shot on Flickr.

First, the exterior of the unit showing the new control layout and power connectors:


Top by TKIY, on Flickr

And the LED array:


LEDs by TKIY, on Flickr

Cracking the case open is just a matter or removing 8 screws. There are four quick disconnects you need to separate in order to fully open the case, one from each driver to the LED arrays, and one from each driver to the two potentiometers.

Here is the heatsink and the cables pulled through it:


Heatsink by TKIY, on Flickr

The other half of the case holds the drivers, cabling and fans:


DriversAndFans by TKIY, on Flickr

As you can see the driver has almost no information on it, and nothing like a model number anywhere:


DriverDetail by TKIY, on Flickr

This is the very short cable that connects to the pot:


PotConnector by TKIY, on Flickr

And here is the PCB that the pot is connected to:


PotPCB by TKIY, on Flickr

I can't figure out how to get a better look at the LEDs short of pulling the whole heatsink. The screws on the face of the LED arrays don't seem to do anything?

Anyhow, as you can see if you wanted to swap in a pair of other drivers, I think it would be fairly easy to do so. I've asked Sam if he can give me details on the drivers and the leads going to the pots, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Still, for $230, the case, heatsink, and LED arrays are probably worth it. A little manual labour would allow you to swap in drivers of your choice and bypass the pots entirely.
 
That looks really confusing compared to a meanwell driver. Hopefully the pots 4 wires contain all the leads we need. Being 4 black wires on a quick connect doesn't help.

Not sure if you can bypass the pots completely, as they also control on/off.
 
From Sam,

"About the WIRE, you can test the connectors(End of the Plug) "œDIM+ and DIM-" by multimeter.
Red wire is + and black wire is "“ if you open it.

Our power supply is 580mA(55-75V). 2pcs Power supplies in one light."
 
bhazard451 said:
From Sam,

"About the WIRE, you can test the connectors(End of the Plug) "œDIM+ and DIM-" by multimeter.
Red wire is + and black wire is "“ if you open it.

Our power supply is 580mA(55-75V). 2pcs Power supplies in one light."
Click to expand...

Yup I got the same detail from Sam this morning.

So I'm not sure if this is going to be compatible with the 0-10VDC standard that the Apex supports or not?
 
This is the difference....

This is the difference....

WinnipegDragon said:
Thin wires too. 28AWG.
Click to expand...

Ok thin wires, confusing setup, GENARIC materials.

First, thin wires don't matter as long as they can carry the load...

Second, this is built in a fast in fast out facility on the other side of the planet
They don't even drive on the same side of the road what did you expect

Third, this is why we save so much money

I'm happy.. See growth... I saved $600... :dance:

P.S. I'm running (2) 55x3w 90deg lens dimmable black box on a 125 gal 48x24x30
 
These are just the eshine LEDs with a different name slapped on them right? And is there a benefit to the round array/pucks vs. the straight lines?
 
E-mailed sam the other day. He told me to get 3 a6s for a 180 gallon (6x2x2)and 2 a4s for a 120 gallon (4x2x2). I understand 2 a4s for the 120 (which I am debating getting 2 a6s since this is a sps tank and I want to get some violet and uv as well). doesn't 3 a6s sound a little excessive for a 180 gallon? I guess I could go that route and switch out the corals in each tank (have soft corals in the 180 gallon).
 
Ianwraab said:
Ok thin wires, confusing setup, GENARIC materials.

First, thin wires don't matter as long as they can carry the load...

Second, this is built in a fast in fast out facility on the other side of the planet
They don't even drive on the same side of the road what did you expect

Third, this is why we save so much money

I'm happy.. See growth... I saved $600... :dance:

P.S. I'm running (2) 55x3w 90deg lens dimmable black box on a 125 gal 48x24x30
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm not complaining at all. These are an absolute steal for the price. I'm just listing the hurdles we would have to overcome if we were going to dim these and do sunrise/sunset on the Apex. Things like thin, short wires are just going to make it a little harder to modify.
 
Well my buddy here at work is an electrical engineer and he's going to bring his meter in to work tomorrow, I'm going to bring the light, and we are going to figure out the pinout on the pot connector.

I'll report in once we know what cable is which.
 
WinnipegDragon said:
Well my buddy here at work is an electrical engineer and he's going to bring his meter in to work tomorrow, I'm going to bring the light, and we are going to figure out the pinout on the pot connector.

I'll report in once we know what cable is which.
Click to expand...

It will either be from the pot connector wires, or one of the red/black from the driver.

On a meanwell driver, there is led+ led- and dimmer+ dimmer-. If you can figure out which ones are dimmer+ and dimmer- (if they even exist) here, this would be a huge step.

Then we have to see if it is compatible with a PWM signal (Typhon) or VDC (Apex). I might order a typhon to test just for this once the right wires are established.
 
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