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

Yeah I see the cost diff. :uhoh3: plus 8 channels ! Everytime you put something new up I have to check it out,...I seen the cost,...wow ! although I'm really happy with my Bluefish that I got from you.
 
Here's my latest design. This one uses the WEMOS D1 Mini for WiFi control instead of the BlueFish Mini. It features 8 PWM channels, Dual SCW's, 3 cooling fan connections, ect.. The PcB measures 100mm X 150mm. I've got a batch of 10 coming in the next week or so. I'll post the design files if this design proves sound and defect free.

WEMOS%20D1%20Mini%20controlled%208%20channel%20LDD-Xdual%20SCW%20PcB_zpsxdxrms4g.png

It would be cool if the controller were seperate from the driver boards and they were linked together by a 2 wire serial interface with the fan outputs on the driver boards.
 
I need to ask a probably stupid question. If I have 1000 drivers and have them dimmed to say 50% will they essentially be putting out the equivalent of 500 mah? I have coral in my frag tank that has very good p/e and the same coral in my display will have very little extension. The only difference would be the flow in the tank and the drivers for the leds. The frag tank has nondimmable lpc 35-700 drivers and the display is ardurino controlled with mainly 1000 drivers. Just wondering if maybe I am overkill on the lights in the display running them at the 1000 level?
thanks
jeff
 
I need to ask a probably stupid question. If I have 1000 drivers and have them dimmed to say 50% will they essentially be putting out the equivalent of 500 mah? I have coral in my frag tank that has very good p/e and the same coral in my display will have very little extension. The only difference would be the flow in the tank and the drivers for the leds. The frag tank has nondimmable lpc 35-700 drivers and the display is ardurino controlled with mainly 1000 drivers. Just wondering if maybe I am overkill on the lights in the display running them at the 1000 level?
thanks
jeff
Do the systems share water? If not, that's probably the culprit.

If they do, then it could be the amount of light or could be a change in flow if the display is drastically different. Have you measured PAR between the two?
 
they share the same amount of water just alot less flow in the frag tank. I havent checked with the par meter. The heat sinks were built with the same configure of leds but just have different drivers. Ardurino driven on display and plain jane meanwells on the frag tank. Thats why I was wondering about the 1000mah drivers being dimmed would be somewhat equivalent to the standard 700's?
jeff
 
Neat thread. I'm running LDD-700s on my tank right now. I'm glad to know I can consolidate color channels onto one pin.


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I need to ask a probably stupid question. If I have 1000 drivers and have them dimmed to say 50% will they essentially be putting out the equivalent of 500 mah?
Not quite, but not far off. For example:
An XPG3 S4 puts out 250.8 lm at 500mA and 452.9 lm at 1000mA. When you run the 1000mA at 50% you get 452.9 lm for 50% of the time. When you run the 500mA at 100% you get 250.8 all the time. So a bit more light. Also a bit less power - 2.854W compared with 2.981W. So more light for less power and therefore less heat means the 500mA would actually perform better than these figures in comparison with the 1000mA.

But not a massive difference overall - I bet the 500mA at 100% puts out about 15% more light, all else being equal, in comparison with the same LED at 50% on 1000mA.

Tim
 
So I wonder if I should order 600 ma drivers? I would think my corals would be use to the stronger lighting by now. I don't have any bleaching issues so I'm not so sure it is a lighting issue.
Thanks
Jeff
 
Here's a schematic that shows how I got parallel output from a pair of LDD's. The strange thing is- Both LDD's operate as a single driver with respect to PWM signals. I was expecting to be able to raise and lower the output level of each LDD independently by using two separate PWM signals, but I found that whichever of the pair gets a signal first, it acts as a master to the other LDD. The slave LDD contributes to an equal share of the current load, regardless of it's own PWM value, Go figure?

ParallelLDDs_zps34a9323f.png

Has anyone followed up on running these in parallel over any period of time? Has anyone measured how bad (if any) the LF ripple is? Enough to damage emitters?
 
LOL- It's been a while since I've added anything to this thread. Here's my latest project. It's a 6 LDD-H/dual SCW Pcb designed for use with the new BlueFish "Mini" Wifi led controller. " Comes with more features and flexibility than you can shake a stick at".
010_zpsrlqbs1jy.jpg
Are these boards still available?
 
Here's my latest design. This one utilizes the ESP8266 WiFi chip instead of the BlueFish Mini. It's got 8 channels instead of 6 and the fan controller has been integrated directly into the main PcB. The PcB measures 100mm X 150mm.

Bare PcB-
IMG_20160814_164130080_zpsfhnypsem.jpg




All SMD components soldered-
IMG_20160814_164145368_zpsdyaucfuk.jpg





All through hole components soldered with a few of the plugin components installed for testing-
IMG_20160814_164200439_zpsacq2ta0p.jpg
 
Looking good!

The antenna surrounded by all of those wires is going to suffer in range. Maybe next revision move it off the end of the board?


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Looking good!

The antenna surrounded by all of those wires is going to suffer in range. Maybe next revision move it off the end of the board?


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LOL- I've tested the Wifi capabilities already. This ESP maintains a good connection to my router from 75' out and with two interior walls in between.
:beer:
 
Does anyone have any code for the ESP8266 chip and controlling a full day cycle? I'm just starting to play with one and could use a good starting point for the code.
 
LOL- I've tested the Wifi capabilities already. This ESP maintains a good connection to my router from 75' out and with two interior walls in between.
:beer:

Sorry for posting here but I'm interested in O2surplus's board for the Bluefin Mini and was hoping he would PM me some info. The board won't let me PM him because I'm to new and I don't want to just send 10 useless posts.
 
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