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

bigguy you the same one from over at kev's list? The boards have been threw many changes the latest ones are great and there are many versions of them. I payed approx $50 USD for boards and shipping then I put 4 LDD-1000H drivers on it. about $8 each and 2 8 position screw terminals cost about $2.50 each I think so all in all not real bad. but you can use perf board also in a pinch or if you know some one with a cnc router you could ask him.

Dale
 
jbadd99 said:
If you start at the beginning of the thread and work your way forward it will answer your questions in detail. It does take some reading but the information contained is well worth it.

And another word of advice - dont do any ordering until you've read the whole thread.
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Thanks Guess i have some reading to do lol
 
Hey guys, iv read the whole thread and learned some great stuff. Im looking to do a led setup on my freshwater setup, fish only at the moment but the wife wants some plants. I will be starting my sw tank up when we are finished remodeling. First off anyone have any spare 4 or 5 boards? Also i know this is not a led thread but can anyone suggest what lights i should grab. So many opinions out there i was hoping for someones suggestion from here. Currently i have 2 18 inch t5's over my 55 gallon tank, 15 watts each, so i don't need much. Wondering what would look best not needed to do any colors for corals being fresh water. The wife is letting me buy some led's and components for my birthday on Monday. Thanks in advance and thank you guys for the work on the boards. i think im going to learn some eagle this weekend.
 
Controller to PWM

Controller to PWM

O2Surplus may already have a converter done based on the atmega chip. I'm very close to having my arduino doing it. The only thing I don't have is the LDD's which should ship from futuregate very soon. But I do have the arduino taking a dimming signal from apex and spitting out a pwm signal, works well and was pretty easy.
If anyone has experience or has a controller (apex RKE etc.) converting the signal to pwm, please share your method and how its working.. ie. are you getting smooth consistent dimming to 0%?
 
new thought for any legit software nerds.. Using some variables, a real time clock on and arduino (possibly one acting as a converter for apex or other controller) totrack days of the year and vary the intensity of the pwm being put out over the course of 365 days. Basically solar and lunar cycle dimming.. hmm fork out cash to neptune to get just lunar cycle dimming or think hard and get solar and lunar without having to add more gadgets/LEDs.
 
the jarduino code, as well as some others out there have all that already in them. Just modify to suit your needs. (it's what i'm doing) The arduino controller can be as expensive, or inexpensive to build as you want. Ebay becomes your best friend then. :-)
 
Thanks for the suggestion, I looked at Jarduino 1.1 sketch and it tracks lunar in 4 increments but didn't see any solar cycle code in there..

This is OCD, but a great thing about the pwm is the fine granularity/resolution, RKE and I bet Apex all dim lunar in 4 phases/increments, it would be cool to have a real 29 day lunar code to set pwm lunar signal and sun for that matter.. If a software person could come up with a real lunar/solar algorithm for the lights, it could also be used for signals to pumps and then we'd have tidal strength and lunar intensity pretty much natural, could make corals very happy. Sorry if this is getting off topic.
 
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rott said:
bigguy you the same one from over at kev's list? The boards have been threw many changes the latest ones are great and there are many versions of them. I payed approx $50 USD for boards and shipping then I put 4 LDD-1000H drivers on it. about $8 each and 2 8 position screw terminals cost about $2.50 each I think so all in all not real bad. but you can use perf board also in a pinch or if you know some one with a cnc router you could ask him.

Dale
Click to expand...

thanks Will Be looking at Getting Some Orded I have 3 different LEDs Builds in pipe Line :)
 
Does anybody also experience the buzzing from the LDD-1000H? If the PWM signal is anywhere between 5 - 95%, they start buzzing. At 100%, they are silent. Running 5x LDD-1000H w/ HRP600-36 powersupply on a test jig with a "dream chip" and an arduino.

I was hoping to only run them ~80% or so.
 
frogg21 said:
Thanks for the suggestion, I looked at Jarduino 1.1 sketch and it tracks lunar in 4 increments but didn't see any solar cycle code in there..

This is OCD, but a great thing about the pwm is the fine granularity/resolution, RKE and I bet Apex all dim lunar in 4 phases/increments, it would be cool to have a real 29 day lunar code to set pwm lunar signal and sun for that matter.. If a software person could come up with a real lunar/solar algorithm for the lights, it could also be used for signals to pumps and then we'd have tidal strength and lunar intensity pretty much natural, could make corals very happy. Sorry if this is getting off topic.
Click to expand...

I believe he is working on this....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Yam said:
Does anybody also experience the buzzing from the LDD-1000H? If the PWM signal is anywhere between 5 - 95%, they start buzzing. At 100%, they are silent. Running 5x LDD-1000H w/ HRP600-36 powersupply on a test jig with a "dream chip" and an arduino.

I was hoping to only run them ~80% or so.
Click to expand...


Mine don't make any noise at all. You might try changing the PWM frequency that your Arduino is running on, to alleviate the situation. The PWM frequency can be adjusted from inside your dimming sketch. Here's a link for a how to -arduino-info - Arduino-PWM-Frequency
 
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OK, I need help. lol, story of my life...

So, I'm trying to take O2's 5up board and add fan headers to it. The board will sit on top of the heat sink between the two fans, so I figured I might as well add connections for the fans. And as an added benefit I get to learn new stuff :bigeyes: Would someone knowledgeable in such matters mind taking a look and see if I'm on the right track. I know I still have a bunch of work to straighten up my routing and stuff, but I wanted to get someone's input before I get too far.

**Edit- Oh, I think I totally misunderstood what the pull down resister is doing so that will have to be changed as well -Edit**

This is going on a new planted tank using
2x 20w 6400k Forward Voltage: 30-34V Forward Current: 700 MA
2x moonlights 3.3V @350mA
I plan to add in colored LEDs to balance out the 6400ks, but that will have to wait until I see what it will need.

What do you all suggest for settings for the net class and routing grid?

Thanks boatloads for your help
 

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impure said:
OK, I need help. lol, story of my life...

So, I'm trying to take O2's 5up board and add fan headers to it. The board will sit on top of the heat sink between the two fans, so I figured I might as well add connections for the fans. And as an added benefit I get to learn new stuff :bigeyes: Would someone knowledgeable in such matters mind taking a look and see if I'm on the right track. I know I still have a bunch of work to straighten up my routing and stuff, but I wanted to get someone's input before I get too far.

**Edit- Oh, I think I totally misunderstood what the pull down resister is doing so that will have to be changed as well -Edit**

This is going on a new planted tank using
2x 20w 6400k Forward Voltage: 30-34V Forward Current: 700 MA
2x moonlights 3.3V @350mA
I plan to add in colored LEDs to balance out the 6400ks, but that will have to wait until I see what it will need.

What do you all suggest for settings for the net class and routing grid?

Thanks boatloads for your help
Click to expand...

Impure-

Here's the original .brd & .sch files for my 5up LDD board. Keep a clean copy for reference and modify another copy to your liking. I found,when I first started working with EAGLE, That it was easier to learn- by looking at and tweaking working designs, rather than starting a new design from scratch.

P.s> Since you're into the Freshwater stuff, I think you'll get a kick out of the image that I buried in the PcB.
 

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pwreef said:
Excellent work O2. In case you are bored at work again, and want to make this Arduino shield perfect you need to make the following modifications:
1. start PWM pins from 7. If anyone is building a controller that is like Jarduino, pins 5 & 6 are used for the display shield. Re-mapping them is hard because that's how the screen shields are already designed. So Jarduino uses pins 7-13 for the 7 channels.
2. physically its not possible to use such shield in a 'sandwich' because you need to have the 36-pin connector go through to the display shield. Is it possible to re-design the board so that in and out terminals are on the left side and there is a pass-through for 36-pin connector on the right? The board may be a little shifted physically to the left, which is probably okay in most cases. I also got to check if the height of the LDDs would allow the boards to connect. I think they should.
Basically it looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-Mega2560-Display-Adjustable-Duemilanove/dp/B008FWSH3C
The driver board would be exactly on top of the Mega board, then the lcd shield, then the LCD itself. All the power terminals would be on top of the USB/Power connectors on the Mega board.
Good luck!
P.S. Extra credit: design a board with 6 (or 8?) LDD-Ls. That should be enough for most nano tanks to cover all possible colors.
Click to expand...

Hi O2Surplus did you get round to designing this one ?

Thanks
Simon
 
O2Surplus said:
Impure-

Here's the original .brd & .sch files for my 5up LDD board. Keep a clean copy for reference and modify another copy to your liking. I found,when I first started working with EAGLE, That it was easier to learn- by looking at and tweaking working designs, rather than starting a new design from scratch.

P.s> Since you're into the Freshwater stuff, I think you'll get a kick out of the image that I buried in the PcB.
Click to expand...
O2
Thanks boatloads. That will help a lot. This making boards business is beyond cool. My cleaned up version is getting pretty close to right just need to play around a bit. This has been a blast to learn thanks for your help.
 
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