Connecting Steve LEDs to the Neptune Apex Aquarium Controller
These instructions are intentionally, painfully redundant to make this connection as easy as possible. It should be possible to study the photos alone and set up everything and just reference the text for more detail.
These instructions include 5 photos:
Photo 1: Displays all of the parts you will need to connect Steve’s Leds to your Apex controller. There is one Item included in the photo (the power supply for the LEDs) that is not actually needed to connect to the controller. This is only needed to supply power directly to the LEDs (see the silver rectangular box in the photo which is the LED power supply).
Photo 2: This is the Aquarium Controller Interface (ACI).
Photo 3: This is the “Driver.” If you chose the 99% completion build from Steve LEDs, the driver will already be connected to the heat sink/LEDs. The driver has “versadriver” engraved on it in the photo.
Photo 4: This is an annotated version of photo 3 which provides instructions on where wires should go. Note that in the photo, the opening for where you will stick the wires in “Dim 1” and “Dim 2” on the left side of the driver are not visible due to obstruction by the red and black wires in the photo. There are holes/inputs located on the opposite side of where Dim 1 and Dim 2 are written which accepts the wires you will use to connect the ACI to the driver.
Photo 5: This is an annotated version of photo 2 (the ACI).
Some things to be made clear before we get into the specifics:
1. These instruction will assume that you bought the parts to connect the ACI to the Apex Dimming Cable from the Steve’ LEDs website. The apex dimming cable can be bought on many different websites online.
2. In photo 1, there is a bundle of black and red wires. The black wire will only be needed to connect the GND (ground) on the ACI to the “G” (ground) on the Driver. After this, you will need no more black wire from the bundle during this setup.
a. You will only need the red wire to connect the “#1 and #2” inputs on the ACI to the Dim 1 and Dim 2 inputs on the driver. You will see inputs #1 and #2 in Photo #2 right above the words “to drivers” which is written directly onto the ACI.
3. The power supply plug sold by Steve’s has a plug on the end of it. You have to cut away the plug to expose the red and black wire inside in order to connect the wires to the ACI.
4. It is recommended that once you are finished connecting everything to leave the ACI in the splash shield of the biocube hood along with the LEDs/heat sink to protect the circuitry from water.
5. The black wires in the Neptune Apex Dimming Cable are positive (+) and the reds are (-). This is a reverse of convention.
Now to get started:
First, take a look at the photo of the ACI (Photo 2). It has a total of 16 inputs. There are 2 inputs per white box you see in the photo. There are a total of 4 white boxes on the left side of the ACI in the photo and there are a total of 4 white boxes on the bottom of the ACI. Again, each has two inputs. Each input has “jaws” that will clamp onto a wire once you stick the wire into the input. If you have trouble sticking a wire into the input, you can use a small flat head screwdriver to apply pressure to the small groove located on top of the white box. This will open the jaws so that the wire will be easier to stick into it. Once you release the pressure applied to the grove on top of the white box, the jaws will snap shut onto the wire.
The 0-10V ports are located on the left side (this is where the Neptune Apex cables will plug into). You can see the 0-10v written by the inputs directly on the ACI in the photo. Each set of ports are numbered 1-4.
Second, look at the photo of the “driver” (photo 3). This is a very busy photo with all of the wires and all but you need only to be concerned with 3 inputs in this photo. You can ignore everything else in the photo. The three inputs you will be working with is one of the “G” (ground) inputs (there are 3 shown in the photo), the Dim 1 and Dim 2 inputs (these are located just to the right of the “G” inputs on the driver. Again, due to the wires obstructing the view in the photo, you cannot see the actual input holes in the photo.
Now, connect the Neptune Apex Dimming Cable first. In the photo, the apex cable is a 2 channel cable. It consists of a CAT-5 like head such at the one you see on an Ethernet cable and 2 black cords coming from the head, channel 1 and channel 2, respectively. Each channel consists of 4 wires (red, black, green and yellow). Forget about the Green and yellow wires. You will not need them at all. All you are going to be working with is the red and black wires in each channel. Again, the black wire is positive and the red is negative.
Now, this is the part where you will only need to use the solder. Once you connect the Apex dimming cables to the 0-10V inputs, you shouldn’t need to solder anything else. Solder the tips of the black and white wires in each of the channels in the dimming cable. The solder should make the tips of the wires hard enough to be pushed through the jaws of each input without fraying the wires. If you do not use solder, it will be much tougher to stick the unsoldered wire tips of the red and black cables through the jaws of the input.
So the 0-10V input white housing boxes are each numbered 1- 4. You will only need to use 1 and 2. You only need to use 1 and 2 because you are only working with a 2 channel cable. If you were working with a 4 channel dimming cable then you would need to use all 4. So go ahead and place the black cable from channel 1 into the (+) input in the first housing and the red into the (–) input of the first housing. Take the black and red wire from channel 2 and do the same for white box #2.
Now, it is time to connect the GND (ground) from the ACI to the “G” ground on the driver. Take a piece of the black wire from the bundle of red and black wires and stick one end into one of the –GND inputs on the ACI (shown on the bottom right in photo #2). Now, take the other end of the black wire and stick it into the “G” input on the driver (shown on the left of the driver in photo 3).
Now you will need two separate pieces of red wire to finish up this project. Place one end of one of the red wires into the #1 input located on the bottom of the ACI (The #1 input is located directly above the words “To Drivers” written on the ACI). Take the other end and push it into the Dim 1 input located on the Driver. Now take the other red wire and place one end into the #2 input on the ACI and stick the other end of that red wire into DIM 2 located on the driver.
Finally, it is time to connect the power supply to the ACI and then you are done. Again, you must remove the plug at the end of the power cord to expose the red and black wires inside of it. Place the end of the red wire into the VIN input located on the ACI. DO NOT PLACE IT IN THE +5 INPUT! Now, place the black wire from the power supply cord into the other –GND port located on the ACI.
Now, place the ACI in the splash shield along with the Driver and LEDS for protection from water and salt creep. You can now connect the other end of the Neptune dimming cable to the variable speed (V1/V2) port located on the Apex base unit if you have an Apex Gold module or the VDM module if you have that instead. Also, connect the molex from the Leds/heat sink white cord to the molex located on the Steve’s LEDs power supply box. You should be good to go now.
These instructions are intentionally, painfully redundant to make this connection as easy as possible. It should be possible to study the photos alone and set up everything and just reference the text for more detail.
These instructions include 5 photos:
Photo 1: Displays all of the parts you will need to connect Steve’s Leds to your Apex controller. There is one Item included in the photo (the power supply for the LEDs) that is not actually needed to connect to the controller. This is only needed to supply power directly to the LEDs (see the silver rectangular box in the photo which is the LED power supply).
Photo 2: This is the Aquarium Controller Interface (ACI).
Photo 3: This is the “Driver.” If you chose the 99% completion build from Steve LEDs, the driver will already be connected to the heat sink/LEDs. The driver has “versadriver” engraved on it in the photo.
Photo 4: This is an annotated version of photo 3 which provides instructions on where wires should go. Note that in the photo, the opening for where you will stick the wires in “Dim 1” and “Dim 2” on the left side of the driver are not visible due to obstruction by the red and black wires in the photo. There are holes/inputs located on the opposite side of where Dim 1 and Dim 2 are written which accepts the wires you will use to connect the ACI to the driver.
Photo 5: This is an annotated version of photo 2 (the ACI).
Some things to be made clear before we get into the specifics:
1. These instruction will assume that you bought the parts to connect the ACI to the Apex Dimming Cable from the Steve’ LEDs website. The apex dimming cable can be bought on many different websites online.
2. In photo 1, there is a bundle of black and red wires. The black wire will only be needed to connect the GND (ground) on the ACI to the “G” (ground) on the Driver. After this, you will need no more black wire from the bundle during this setup.
a. You will only need the red wire to connect the “#1 and #2” inputs on the ACI to the Dim 1 and Dim 2 inputs on the driver. You will see inputs #1 and #2 in Photo #2 right above the words “to drivers” which is written directly onto the ACI.
3. The power supply plug sold by Steve’s has a plug on the end of it. You have to cut away the plug to expose the red and black wire inside in order to connect the wires to the ACI.
4. It is recommended that once you are finished connecting everything to leave the ACI in the splash shield of the biocube hood along with the LEDs/heat sink to protect the circuitry from water.
5. The black wires in the Neptune Apex Dimming Cable are positive (+) and the reds are (-). This is a reverse of convention.
Now to get started:
First, take a look at the photo of the ACI (Photo 2). It has a total of 16 inputs. There are 2 inputs per white box you see in the photo. There are a total of 4 white boxes on the left side of the ACI in the photo and there are a total of 4 white boxes on the bottom of the ACI. Again, each has two inputs. Each input has “jaws” that will clamp onto a wire once you stick the wire into the input. If you have trouble sticking a wire into the input, you can use a small flat head screwdriver to apply pressure to the small groove located on top of the white box. This will open the jaws so that the wire will be easier to stick into it. Once you release the pressure applied to the grove on top of the white box, the jaws will snap shut onto the wire.
The 0-10V ports are located on the left side (this is where the Neptune Apex cables will plug into). You can see the 0-10v written by the inputs directly on the ACI in the photo. Each set of ports are numbered 1-4.
Second, look at the photo of the “driver” (photo 3). This is a very busy photo with all of the wires and all but you need only to be concerned with 3 inputs in this photo. You can ignore everything else in the photo. The three inputs you will be working with is one of the “G” (ground) inputs (there are 3 shown in the photo), the Dim 1 and Dim 2 inputs (these are located just to the right of the “G” inputs on the driver. Again, due to the wires obstructing the view in the photo, you cannot see the actual input holes in the photo.
Now, connect the Neptune Apex Dimming Cable first. In the photo, the apex cable is a 2 channel cable. It consists of a CAT-5 like head such at the one you see on an Ethernet cable and 2 black cords coming from the head, channel 1 and channel 2, respectively. Each channel consists of 4 wires (red, black, green and yellow). Forget about the Green and yellow wires. You will not need them at all. All you are going to be working with is the red and black wires in each channel. Again, the black wire is positive and the red is negative.
Now, this is the part where you will only need to use the solder. Once you connect the Apex dimming cables to the 0-10V inputs, you shouldn’t need to solder anything else. Solder the tips of the black and white wires in each of the channels in the dimming cable. The solder should make the tips of the wires hard enough to be pushed through the jaws of each input without fraying the wires. If you do not use solder, it will be much tougher to stick the unsoldered wire tips of the red and black cables through the jaws of the input.
So the 0-10V input white housing boxes are each numbered 1- 4. You will only need to use 1 and 2. You only need to use 1 and 2 because you are only working with a 2 channel cable. If you were working with a 4 channel dimming cable then you would need to use all 4. So go ahead and place the black cable from channel 1 into the (+) input in the first housing and the red into the (–) input of the first housing. Take the black and red wire from channel 2 and do the same for white box #2.
Now, it is time to connect the GND (ground) from the ACI to the “G” ground on the driver. Take a piece of the black wire from the bundle of red and black wires and stick one end into one of the –GND inputs on the ACI (shown on the bottom right in photo #2). Now, take the other end of the black wire and stick it into the “G” input on the driver (shown on the left of the driver in photo 3).
Now you will need two separate pieces of red wire to finish up this project. Place one end of one of the red wires into the #1 input located on the bottom of the ACI (The #1 input is located directly above the words “To Drivers” written on the ACI). Take the other end and push it into the Dim 1 input located on the Driver. Now take the other red wire and place one end into the #2 input on the ACI and stick the other end of that red wire into DIM 2 located on the driver.
Finally, it is time to connect the power supply to the ACI and then you are done. Again, you must remove the plug at the end of the power cord to expose the red and black wires inside of it. Place the end of the red wire into the VIN input located on the ACI. DO NOT PLACE IT IN THE +5 INPUT! Now, place the black wire from the power supply cord into the other –GND port located on the ACI.
Now, place the ACI in the splash shield along with the Driver and LEDS for protection from water and salt creep. You can now connect the other end of the Neptune dimming cable to the variable speed (V1/V2) port located on the Apex base unit if you have an Apex Gold module or the VDM module if you have that instead. Also, connect the molex from the Leds/heat sink white cord to the molex located on the Steve’s LEDs power supply box. You should be good to go now.
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