Who wants a cheap, simple, Arduino-based LED controller?

A lot of neat things can be done with LEDs. But once again IMHO having lots of banks East to West just isn't going to help the life in the tank. I have spent most of my design time on finding a way to make the LEDs aimmable. If only my shop skills where as good as my imagination.
 
TheFishMan65 said:
A lot of neat things can be done with LEDs. But once again IMHO having lots of banks East to West just isn't going to help the life in the tank. I have spent most of my design time on finding a way to make the LEDs aimmable. If only my shop skills where as good as my imagination.
Click to expand...

All of this is more to reduce the impact of a light that just turns On/Off and the only creatures that will definitely enjoy having all those feature is US reefers :lol:
 
TheFishMan65 said:
There are people that are trying to simulate sunrise. But IMHO a 10x10 foot square of ocean is not going to see much difference from the east side to the west side. I admit it is a cool idea, but I don't think the life in the tank will care - or if they do I would think they would not like it, But I repeat IMHO.
Click to expand...

How will it not see much difference? Think about it. The sun will rise from a very low point giving a large angle across the rocks. There would most certainly be a "slow" period where the brightness increases as the sun rises to be able to light more top down, especially will varying heights of rock. It would be very tricky to recreate this I would imagine. I figure slowly fading on across the tank would be the easiest option to somewhat recreate this. I agree, I doubt anything in the tank would care much other than fading on all together.

Now it would be cool if someone tried to create a real sunrise. You could run a 90 degree arc with a piece of track and mount one panel in the track. Then slowly raise the panel up the track so the panel starts shining through the side of the tank. As the panel get's to say 45 degrees, start slowly fading the rest of the lights on. I think something along those lines would give be close to a real sunrise effect.
 
Maybe you read me wrong I was trying to say the East and West side would not see a difference in the the light at a specific time. Over the day they would change, but IMO they would change together.

But with a basic design most are doing if you have say 8 panels and start in the east then one side gets light straight down (possibly getting brighter). Then the next panels comes on more straight down light (possibly getting brighter). I don't see this as having any advantage to the life in the tank over having all 8 come one and getting brighter.

If you did a track then maybe the corals would care. I think you would have more growth near the bottom and sides since there would be less shading.
 
This is posted earlier in the thread. Everything is located on the google code site: http://code.google.com/p/hpled/wiki/PageName?tm=6

Direct Link to "Bill of Materials" file: http://hpled.googlecode.com/files/CAT4101_triple_BOM.zip

This file lists part numbers for www.mouser.com.

Aside from the part numbers listed you can use the following for the screw terminal blocks:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1984659virtualkey65100000virtualkey651-1984659
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1984785virtualkey65100000virtualkey651-1984785

For each complete board you need the following from mouser.com:
3 x 80-C1206C105M5R
3 x 77-VJ1206Y104KXAMC
3 x 660-RK73H2BTTD7680F
3 x 698-CAT4101TV-T75
1 x 651-1984659
1 x 651-1984785
 
DustinB said:
This is posted earlier in the thread. Everything is located on the google code site: http://code.google.com/p/hpled/wiki/PageName?tm=6

Direct Link to "Bill of Materials" file: http://hpled.googlecode.com/files/CAT4101_triple_BOM.zip

This file lists part numbers for www.mouser.com.

Aside from the part numbers listed you can use the following for the screw terminal blocks:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1984659virtualkey65100000virtualkey651-1984659
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1984785virtualkey65100000virtualkey651-1984785

For each complete board you need the following from mouser.com:
3 x 80-C1206C105M5R
3 x 77-VJ1206Y104KXAMC
3 x 660-RK73H2BTTD7680F
3 x 698-CAT4101TV-T75
1 x 651-1984659
1 x 651-1984785
Click to expand...
Actually, that's for the LED driver. This thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1759758

For the LED Controller go here: http://code.google.com/p/typhon-reef/source/browse/#svn/trunk/hardware/typhon

You will find the board file (.brd), the schematic (.sch) and the bill of materials (.xls)
 
D'oh, thanks for catching that. Maybe I should pay more attention to which thread I'm in. I think I only have 30 different subscribed threads with LED/Driver/Controller in the title... :spin2:
 
Of the items listed on the BoM without specific part numbers I have some questions.

LCD display: any specifics you guys are using? I found this one on mouser but Im unsure if it will work.. 763-0216K1Z-NSW-BBW

ATMega (ATMEGA328P) chip: any specific source for this thing?

Also, has anyone other than DWZM ordered boards? I know the one place that was listed previously in this thread had a 10 board minimum, was that 10 per run meaning that you needed to order 10 of each of the two required boards for this project?
 
That LCD should work fine.

You can get the ATmega328p chip at sparkfun, moderndevice, and a few other places. Make sure to get the one with the arduino bootloader preloaded.

I ordered boards, but not for this project. Just the hydra and the led driver. With those services you do have to order 10, you get 10 for the price listed. The CAT4101 can fit on the 5cm x 5cm board so you can save some cash there. FWIW, I ordered from iTeadstudio, which is a knockoff of seeedstudio with even better prices. Still waiting on my boards to come in so I can't comment on those vs seeed, though they claim to use the same board house. You can get 10 CAT4101 boards and 10 Typhon boards for $40 + $3 shipping.
 
DustinB said:
That LCD should work fine.

You can get the ATmega328p chip at sparkfun, moderndevice, and a few other places. Make sure to get the one with the arduino bootloader preloaded.

I ordered boards, but not for this project. Just the hydra and the led driver. With those services you do have to order 10, you get 10 for the price listed. The CAT4101 can fit on the 5cm x 5cm board so you can save some cash there. FWIW, I ordered from iTeadstudio, which is a knockoff of seeedstudio with even better prices. Still waiting on my boards to come in so I can't comment on those vs seeed, though they claim to use the same board house. You can get 10 CAT4101 boards and 10 Typhon boards for $40 + $3 shipping.
Click to expand...

well, Im not interested in the CAT4101 boards at the moment, but I know that the typhon needs two different boards, and they are about 8cm x 5cm... so I am assuming I'll be needing to spend $80 to get 1 completed typhon.
 
XSiVE said:
well, Im not interested in the CAT4101 boards at the moment, but I know that the typhon needs two different boards, and they are about 8cm x 5cm... so I am assuming I'll be needing to spend $80 to get 1 completed typhon.
Click to expand...
The typhon should be one board (plus the LCD) unless you're looking for more than 4 PWM outputs.
 
chrisfowler99 said:
The typhon should be one board (plus the LCD) unless you're looking for more than 4 PWM outputs.
Click to expand...

hm, dwzm sent me two boards on accident that I mailed back, they were both the same size, though the layouts on each were different, only one was labeled typhon and had the solder pads ready for an arduino chip but i guess I assumed that it was a 2-board system. for some reason.
 
I feel kind of dumb asking this but I'm attempting to export the eagle files to something usable for prototyping.

using the CAM processor in Eagle I can see that I need a different section for each file that the prototyper needs, the question is which layers need to be selected for which output files..

they want individual files for the following:

Top layer: Top + Pads + Vias???
Bottom layer: Bottom + Pads + Vias??
Solder Stop Mask top: tStop? + ?
Solder Stop Mask Bottom: bStop? + ?
Silk Top: _tsilk? + ?
Silk Bottom: _bsilk? + ?
NC Drill: Drills? Holes? Drill_Legend?

Since I dont have any CAM equipment handy to ensure that these files will produce an output that I want Im asking for a little guidance on the layer selection for each file.

Top needs top, bottom needs bottom, sure, but if you just export top it yells at you about Pads and Vias, so what else is necessary for a proper file output?

Thanks for any help, sorry for the noob question, but I guess it's something that we will eventually have to write up for those unfamiliar with the process if they want to DIY :)
 
This link from Seeed Studio contains a CAM profile that will create the gerber files that Seeed Depot wants (and it also will create the ones that batchPCB wants). It's a .zip file.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/datasheet/Fusion eagle.zip

I created created and uploaded the files for batchPCB and it looks like it will cost $15.92 for a single Typhon board...which is better than spending $40 at Seeed Studio for 10 of them, when you only need 1.
 
chrisfowler99 said:
This link from Seeed Studio contains a CAM profile that will create the gerber files that Seeed Depot wants (and it also will create the ones that batchPCB wants). It's a .zip file.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/datasheet/Fusion eagle.zip

I created created and uploaded the files for batchPCB and it looks like it will cost $15.92 for a single Typhon board...which is better than spending $40 at Seeed Studio for 10 of them, when you only need 1.
Click to expand...

Awesome! thanks a ton :D

Incase anyone was wondering or that link stops working:

Top layer: Top + Pads + Vias + Dimension
Bottom layer: Bottom + Pads + Vias + Dimension
Solder Stop Mask top: tStop + Dimension
Solder Stop Mask Bottom: bStop + Dimension
Silk Top: tPlace + tNames + Dimension
Silk Bottom: bPlace + bNames + Dimension
NC Drill: Drills + Holes (EXCELLON device)
 
If you are planning on using iTeadstudio instead of seeedstudio I contacted them today and they sent me their CAM file. PM me an e-mail addy if you want it.

They also told me they do a quick "basic" inspection of the gerber files, so you shouldn't totally screwed if you make a mistake. Within reason of course.
 
and im at a loss of what to do next. so i found the parts file did a search and stuuf was backordered to like feb. is this normal??? and i guess i was under the impression that all i needed was an arduino board, RTC and an LCD maybe i need to do more research or do i just place the order and wait any advice
 
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