Vertex Illumina Light Studio Programming Thread

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a Vertex Illumina for my new reef tank. However, I use a Mac exclusively and hopefully by the time I get this up and running, any MacOS issues should be resolved.

OTOH, I was wondering if the Vertex Light Studio would work with Windows 7 or just XP? I have XP with Fusion emulator, but need to get Win7 for work which I'll install as a bootcamp volume.

Thanks everyone.
 
alin2 said:
I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a Vertex Illumina for my new reef tank. However, I use a Mac exclusively and hopefully by the time I get this up and running, any MacOS issues should be resolved.

OTOH, I was wondering if the Vertex Light Studio would work with Windows 7 or just XP? I have XP with Fusion emulator, but need to get Win7 for work which I'll install as a bootcamp volume.

Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...

I use windows 7 with bootcamp with my Mac book pro. Works no problem.
 
I'm using Windows XP.

Some interesting notes since I've been using the Vertex Illumina 260. many of the corals are changing colour to brighter turqouises, from greens, and pinks are really developing, which I didn't expect, as there is literally no warm spectrum in the tank now. Also, many Montis are developing coloured edges and some are changing polyp colour. It is really quite amazing what spectrum can do.
 
Kolognekoral said:
I'm using Windows XP.

Some interesting notes since I've been using the Vertex Illumina 260. many of the corals are changing colour to brighter turqouises, from greens, and pinks are really developing, which I didn't expect, as there is literally no warm spectrum in the tank now. Also, many Montis are developing coloured edges and some are changing polyp colour. It is really quite amazing what spectrum can do.
Click to expand...

What white-blue-royal blue intensity do you use?
 
I'm still experimenting, but, with a 70cm depth, I like 100% both blues and between 50-60% white. I am running a long sunrise-sunset, 3 hours, as I like seeing the slow changeover from actinic to daylight. I may change the settings in a few weeks to a miday white of 90-100%, but just for 2-3hours, plus add a few storm clouds to break it up. What i really like about this unit is that is never gets hot, no matter how high I run the whites. Plus, it can apparently sense overheating and will automatically reduce the intensity of the whites, should the lamp get too hot. With these fans, which also run at different speeds according to heat load, I can only imagine this function tripping in during an extremely hot Summer or if the fans were turned off via the controler by the aquarist. Nice to know stupid moments are being thought about!
 
This is my current setting after many changes. I may still need to tune down the whites as there are too much algae on the sand bed now.

The reason that I have more whites than blues during the day becasue I usually am at work at that time and don't care too much about the look. But may be I am wrong because of the spectrum thing.
 

Attachments

  • Settings.JPG
    Settings.JPG
    66.1 KB · Views: 7
I would set the whites at 50%, especially if the aesthetic is not important. The corals actually need the blue spectrum and any radiation over 500nm or so is not important to them. Higher algae, on the other hand, use light in the red spectrum, as do see grasses. Cyanobacteria uses light from around 510-600, which is right in the middle of our visual spectrum. probably one of the reasons it is such a problem for most aquarists, we see best in this slice of the spectrum and most traditional lighting is oriented to this part of the spectrum, plus the actinic waves.

With the advent of LED lighting, we can truly customise the spectrum. We will need to rethink our attitude to proper lighting. Much of what we have come to accept as desirable or normal was due to not being able to have it otherwise.

Adjust the whites to 50% and see what changes.
 
I've set the whites to 65% instead of 50% as I don't want to reduce it so dramatic.

At the same time I also increased the blues and royal blues from 70% and 80% to 80% and 90% respectively.

Let's see in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the advice.
 
eums said:
A few issues i've run into:

I cant get this running on a mac book pro(2010), had to boot into windows for things to work. If some one knows how to manually build or install the driver it needs please let me know, the bash script that comes with the install does not work for me in OSX.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem. Your Mac may have the FTDI USB Serial driver already loaded thus preventing the VertexDesktop app from loading it to talk to the Vstick.

Run the following in a terminal window to unload the driver then run the Vertex Desktop app.

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

Cheers!

-TDF
 
here is how mine are running
still need a bit of tweaking but overall looks ok I will upload a video if i get a chance of the quickmotion settings for it if any one is interested
lights.jpg
 
After numerous tweakings the follwing is the current setting:
 

Attachments

  • Vertex Illumina Settings 20110424.JPG
    Vertex Illumina Settings 20110424.JPG
    63.8 KB · Views: 5
TheDogFather said:
I had a similar problem. Your Mac may have the FTDI USB Serial driver already loaded thus preventing the VertexDesktop app from loading it to talk to the Vstick.

Run the following in a terminal window to unload the driver then run the Vertex Desktop app.

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

Cheers!

-TDF
Click to expand...

Thanks, will try this tonight to see if it fixes things.
 
Just bought a 260 and not having any luck programming the fixture.When I click expert and download I cant get the 4 points for light setting.What am I doing wrong?Thx
 
ginrin said:
Just bought a 260 and not having any luck programming the fixture.When I click expert and download I cant get the 4 points for light setting.What am I doing wrong?Thx
Click to expand...

It sounds like you are not getting a wireless connection going. How far away are you from the unit?
 
ginrin said:
No more than 20 ft
Click to expand...

OK, had you programmed anything into expert? If not, copy the program from Custom into Expert and edit it. There is a button 'Custom Copy'. I found this the easiest way to get started. I'm not sure if it is, but Expert behaves like a sub-program of Custom.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

DPauley
Bonnethead Shark Collection and Care in Home Aquaria
Replies
3
Views
99
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
D
Automated/bluetooth/wifi alert systems
Replies
7
Views
210
Dustin07
D
P
Considering saltwater
2
Replies
28
Views
719
Patscom4
P
D
Noopsyche Pro V3 QR for Softie and LPS 15 g. cube???
Replies
5
Views
749
duganderson
D
griss
Had a Laugh at Myself Tonight
Replies
5
Views
437
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
Back
Top