Meanwell LDD driver: for those who want to dim to 0 using Arduino

[Ligershark]

Are you using PWM fans? Are you using the 'Fan Power and Control board' or 'Fan PowerPWM board'?

I am using the first one the fan power and control board. I am also using this fan Delta AFB0612VHC 60mm x 13mm PWM 4-Pin Fan.

Once again, I am able to set my desired speed, I am not able to ramp it throughout the day the way I am with my leds.

Jedi, does the bluefish controller have the capability to ramp up the speed based off the time or temps of your light?

 

[jedimasterben]

I am using the first one the fan power and control board. I am also using this fan Delta AFB0612VHC 60mm x 13mm PWM 4-Pin Fan.

Once again, I am able to set my desired speed, I am not able to ramp it throughout the day the way I am with my leds.

Jedi, does the bluefish controller have the capability to ramp up the speed based off the time or temps of your light?

I don't think the Storm X allows for ramping of the fans. D9 you can set minimum for night and maximum for sunrise/day/sunset, and D10 turns on during 'day' only. The Storm allows for setting minimum and maximum and ramps up during sunrise just like the LEDs do, stays at max for daytime, then ramps down for sunset.

The Bluefish has no 25KHz fan control for native 4-pin fans, at the moment it will only work with things like O2's fan control circuit that pulses the ground of an SCW or Coralux's Fan PowerPWM board which does basically the same thing with normal 12v input. It has no temperature probes or anything like that at this time.

 

[Ligershark]

I don't think the Storm X allows for ramping of the fans. D9 you can set minimum for night and maximum for sunrise/day/sunset, and D10 turns on during 'day' only. The Storm allows for setting minimum and maximum and ramps up during sunrise just like the LEDs do, stays at max for daytime, then ramps down for sunset.

I got a reply from Ben at coralux a little while ago and it didn't sound like he had any plans to add ramping for the fans to the coding. Interesting to hear that about d10. If they run with the daytime then I can use those fans to cool my t5 lamps (which are on an old school timer and come on at daytime) and that will cut me down from 4 to 2 fans during sunrise and sunset. Thank you sir.

 

[blitz49]

Hey guys, does the Meanwell LDD break easy? Cause I put the LDDs on the 4 up boards and pull the jumpers to test. Turns out I have 4 out of 8 LDDs not working. Anyone else have any issues with these LDD?

Thanks

 

[perkint]

They are pretty hardy when in use, but pretty easy to kill if you do anything even slightly wrong. If you mean the jumpers to activate the pull down resistors, pulling them whilst powered up shouldn't cause issues.

But, even tho I say they're pretty hardy, you do get odd failures or non working ones. IMO 4 out of 8 is more likely to be a result of something else going wrong tho. Not sure what could have happened to them during transit, but I suppose it is possible. If it were me tho, I'd be looking for the fault on the set up I'd been using them in...

Tim

 

[jedimasterben]

Hey guys, does the Meanwell LDD break easy? Cause I put the LDDs on the 4 up boards and pull the jumpers to test. Turns out I have 4 out of 8 LDDs not working. Anyone else have any issues with these LDD?

Thanks

Check your wiring. Swap one of the questionable LDD into a slot with a known working one. If the LEDs still light up, then it isn't the LDD.

 

[rott]

I would look at your wiring like jedi said not likely 4 would go bad at the same time you do have power going to the 4up pwm with out in no light. I think you would need 5v on them if you plan on dimming

 

[R_Mc]

Question - I notice that when the driver is dimmed all the way down there is a flickering proportional to the PWM frequency. Thus is expected behavior, but I worry about the possible health consequences.

Has anyone tried filtering the Meanwell output using a LC or just L configuration? Has anyone tried a lud56 driver I stead ( which dims by adjusting the current)

Will either approach disallow dimming to zero? Is there a threshold current where the led will simply shut off?

Has anyone tried PWM frequencies above 1khz?

 

[Krazie4Acans]

If you power up LDD'd without any LEDs connected you will fry them. They must have an LED load on them when turned on or they will be damaged. Krazie :jester:

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Question - I notice that when the driver is dimmed all the way down there is a flickering proportional to the PWM frequency. Thus is expected behavior, but I worry about the possible health consequences.

Has anyone tried filtering the Meanwell output using a LC or just L configuration? Has anyone tried a lud56 driver I stead ( which dims by adjusting the current)

Will either approach disallow dimming to zero? Is there a threshold current where the led will simply shut off?

Has anyone tried PWM frequencies above 1khz?

Verify that your PWM source is in the correct range per the LDD spec sheet. When I dim mine down to 1% I have no noticeable flicker at all.

Using drivers that vary current to dim also changes the color output of the LED and may produce a color that you do not want. PWM is the preferred method for dimming LEDs. Just make sure you are using the correct frequency of PWM for the LDD's. Krazie :jester:

 

[R_Mc]

The flicker is not noticeable but it is present. An example being that when dimmed down all the way the fan close by appears frozen due to the strobing led.

The question is whether this can be avoided.

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Not with PWM dimming as the LEDs are actually turning on and off.

Current controlled dimming would avoid this but then you are changing the color spectrum of the LED as you dim and that may or may not be a good thing either.

The current studies of PWM dimming and the effects on coral are showing that there appears to be no negative affect on corals. These studies are still in progress and there is always a chance that someone will discover something. However, with the success of LED lighting on SPS tanks in the last few years the studies appear to be leaning toward it not being a problem. Krazie:jester:

 

[oreo57]

Not with PWM dimming as the LEDs are actually turning on and off.

Current controlled dimming would avoid this but then you are changing the color spectrum of the LED as you dim and that may or may not be a good thing either.

The current studies of PWM dimming and the effects on coral are showing that there appears to be no negative affect on corals. These studies are still in progress and there is always a chance that someone will discover something. However, with the success of LED lighting on SPS tanks in the last few years the studies appear to be leaning toward it not being a problem. Krazie:jester:

not too surprising .. T5's and all florescent flicker don't they? And at, generally, much slower cycles.

some question flicker in regard to fish vision as well.. Any data??

 

[blitz49]

Thanks for the response guys. I screwed up probably, cause on the 4 up LDD board there are 2 pairs of Vin+ and Vin-. I added power to both Vins, that probably fried the LDDs. I thought each Vins power two LDDs that's why there are 2 pairs of Vins. I added power to only 1 pair and all LDD has power. So why was the 4 up boards designed with 2 pairs of Vins?

 

[Krazie4Acans]

not too surprising .. T5's and all florescent flicker don't they? And at, generally, much slower cycles.

some question flicker in regard to fish vision as well.. Any data??

Very little information out there on the vision of fish and flickering light. I suspect that there is very little issue here as there is tons of flicker naturally produced in a reef due to surface water movement. We see this in our own tanks regardless of the type of lighting used. Agitating the surface produces flickering light intensity all the way to the sand bed. The only real difference is the speed (read that frequency) of the flickering being produced.

Here again we don't see fish going blind due to the flicker of Fluorescent lighting frequencies. However, it still remains to be seen of the faster "strobe" frequencies of LEDs are perceived the same way in a fishes eye. I guess time will tell on this one as well. Krazie :jester:

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Thanks for the response guys. I screwed up probably, cause on the 4 up LDD board there are 2 pairs of Vin+ and Vin-. I added power to both Vins, that probably fried the LDDs. I thought each Vins power two LDDs. Why was the 4 up boards designed with 2 pairs of Vins?

It was setup that way so that you could run two power supplies for redundancy. If one power supply went out the other should still be running and allow the lights to function.
It also allowed for using a single power supply to power not only the LDD board but a controller board (think Arduino) off of the same power.

Did you connect the same power supply to both Vin+ pins? If you did then that would not have effected the LDD's. It would have to have been something else.

If you connected two power supplies to the same board then that could have created an over voltage situation that could have damaged the LDD's. Krazie :jester:

 

[blitz49]

Did you connect the same power supply to both Vin+ pins? If you did then that would not have effected the LDD's. It would have to have been something else.

If you connected two power supplies to the same board then that could have created an over voltage situation that could have damaged the LDD's. Krazie :jester:

Yes I connected the same power supply to both Vin pins and am using a Meanwell SE-450 powersupply. I was testing to make sure all lights work by connecting the powersupply with the jumper removed. Only 3 strings lit up and the other 2 was off, so I put the jumpers back on the 3 strings that was on. The 2 strings that was off, lit up after, but one of them was flickering so I thought it was a power issue. So I moved the LDD arounds, and somehow 4 of them got fried. I will be checking my connections again to make sure there is no bare copper anywhere. Maybe I had 4 bad LDDs, who knows

Thanks

 

[Silent Mike]

Yes I connected the same power supply to both Vin pins and am using a Meanwell SE-450 powersupply. I was testing to make sure all lights work by connecting the powersupply with the jumper removed. Only 3 strings lit up and the other 2 was off, so I put the jumpers back on the 3 strings that was on. The 2 strings that was off, lit up after, but one of them was flickering so I thought it was a power issue. So I moved the LDD arounds, and somehow 4 of them got fried. I will be checking my connections again to make sure there is no bare copper anywhere. Maybe I had 4 bad LDDs, who knows

Thanks

Were you moving the LDDs around while you had power to the board?

 

[blitz49]

Were you moving the LDDs around while you had power to the board?

Nope, powered off and unplugged the power.

 

[R_Mc]

Very little information out there on the vision of fish and flickering light. I suspect that there is very little issue here as there is tons of flicker naturally produced in a reef due to surface water movement. We see this in our own tanks regardless of the type of lighting used. Agitating the surface produces flickering light intensity all the way to the sand bed. The only real difference is the speed (read that frequency) of the flickering being produced.

Here again we don't see fish going blind due to the flicker of Fluorescent lighting frequencies. However, it still remains to be seen of the faster "strobe" frequencies of LEDs are perceived the same way in a fishes eye. I guess time will tell on this one as well. Krazie :jester:

And what of the animals observing the aquarium. Photosensitive epilepsy generally occurs at frequencies between 7 and 30hz. The higher frequency flickering may not cause significantly noticeable health effects in coral, with rudimentary photo receptors that are designed to sense Flux over time. Eyes and the pvcs of fish and mammals are far more complex and are tuned to quick movements and flashes of light.

Personally, I am sensitive to flickering lights and immediately notice poorly filtered led drivers or ballasts. Similarly, I notice the flickering of the dimmed Meanwell and find the light of a poor aesthetic quality. The light agitates me and I can only imagine that it does the same for some of the life in my tank.

Its possible that a higher frequency could help, but the Meanwell seems limited to 1khz. Are there drivers out there that can deal with a higher frequency?

Right now I use an arduino mini pro with the PWM resolution modified to 16 bits. This gives 64,535 values for fading which I find necessary - unfortunately it in turn limits the 16mhz PWM frequency to 240ish hz.

Seems like I'd need at least a 64mhz chip to top out the Meanwell at 16bit resolution.