esacjack

I really feel like Neptune needs to take advantage of this multidriver movement, and put out a full 4 channels per VDM port for a total of 8 channels. Hell, a 3rd port sans VDM expansion box would be amazing.

It will likely be an upgrade. It may even be in their planning/development cycle at this point. I know the stormX can do 16 independent channels of PWM. The dim4 can do obviously, 4.

cool! just let us know when we can swing by! Jebao party at nikos reef!!

i just ordered the dc jebao, i havent fired it up yet... But I'm pretty stoked about it!

Oh and after addressing the flaky ground issue, the temperatures of the fixtures bottomed out. Instead of the two fans running full speed all the time, they now move at 10% speed. Fixtures are barely warm to the touch, drivers are luke warm after 8 hours of lighting.

Ty I'm not greedy, I'll just take a WP10

Thanks, so far I've fired up the two fixtures individually. Contacted Coralux about the flaky ground and they are sending me a new pcb. Now I'm kicking myself for using silver solder, as its a real PITA to get off these PCB's. At 100% just one fixture lights up an entire 36x18x18 area without flinching. If I didn't have a center brace, I could definitely see only needing one for a 36" tank. Currently I have them ramped to about 35% and its still pretty dang bright! I should have both fixtures ready tonight for full testing.

Incidentally, anyone interested in a Typhon controller for PWM, StevesLED's actually adds 100ma signal boosting transistors. Which allows 10LDD's per channel, for a whopping 40 drivers total.

I have a second Typhon here that I'm going to be tinkering with. I plan on adding a few features that I'd like to see. When complete I'll add to this thread as a download.

what kinda rock are you selling ? Is it fiji or?

How would you prefer we send payment niko? And is the store in the shopping center by windermere?

Actually you did help me out, just not in a way you would think... When you said "Switch the cables around" it triggered a memory, that I had previously swapped channels to test the drivers. I went back to the control board to switch them back, and thats when I noticed the shared ground... So yes, Thanks!

Success! It was a flaky ground on my PCB. Applying a jumper across the two ground terminals, both eliminated the dimming hum, and the dead spots in the dim cycle.

dimming is smooooth as butter

I should explain by mentioning, I discovered the two channels having an issue (1 and 3) were using the same grounding terminal on the power supply. Which led me to the "Ah ha" moment..

I should add, that moving the PWM +5v to the +10v side, only results in the lights going into shutdown mode (pull down resistor senses no signal and shuts the lights off)

Keep in mind, most of what you say in here sounds like Charlie brown's teacher. But can you, or will it help to isolate, switch channels 2 and 3 to see whether it's the light, wires, controller, wah wah wah, ruh fruh grumph...etc?

The problem definitely resides on channel 1 and 3. Switching the wiring just makes a different color behave similarly. I feel as though its current related.

So between the wedding, getting furloughed, starting a new job, holidays, etc.. The project was scuttled for a short while. Last week I picked up a new Hakko FX888D for myself for christmas... So of course, I had to 'test it'.... Much to my wife's dismay, my 'man cave' has been converted into a scene from Iron Man. Wires and solder everywhere. I've started over on the control box. Things were too crowded, shorts were happening left and right, It just was a pain in the ascii to work with anyway.

So I picked up an outdoor sprinkler control box, 10 new drivers (mouser had them on sale for 5.00 ea!), a new controller, and some standoffs. I also picked up a few sets of the CoraLux 5up boards.

So I may have gone overboard with the amount of free space inside the box. I plan on using this space for my Jebao controller, and possibly my RKL head.

I used a newer SilenX high flow fan for the inlets. For back connecting the lights to the control box, I used 15 Pin VGA.

I opted to use separate power cords for each light. My reasoning for this isn't what you'd expect. I actually did it for the sake of maintenance. After blowing a driver or two with the first setup I had to tear down the power and connectors, which was a pain in the ascii. So this time, I wanted the ability to isolate each fixture. In the picture I have the boots/housings off of the cable to test for voltage drop.

5UP Power up test. I love/hate these things. I love how easy they are to slap together. I hate how close the traces and pads are to each other. I've already lost 2 drivers to arc'ing in the old rig. I'm not in the mood to lose another!

Attaching wiring to 5 ups.

I'm almost done setting it all up and getting the timers setup.

I am having one issue that I could use some help with. 2 channels on the fixtures, White (ch1) and Violet (ch3), have these odd dead spots in the dimming cycle. (Keep in mind these are PWM drivers, with the Typhon handling the dimming) White works flawlessly and smoothly till 35%, at which point it turns off. It stays off till the ramp or manual dimming hits about 80% and then turns back on. Violet ramps fine till it hits 83% and shuts off till 98%. Royal Blue (ch2) and ancillary colors (red, green, blue, ultra violet ch4) work completely fine 0-100%.

Considerations ;

I am splitting a 12v 1000mA wall wart between my three fans and the typhon controller.

I am splitting the 4 channel controller into 10 channels. From what I've read, you can do up to 12 total, Though only 8 is supported.

I have removed fixture 2, and run with only one fixture being controlled by the typhon. The channels cutting out continue to do so, although the number sometimes varies, i.e. 34% +/- 5%.

Updates coming soon!

what size t5's?

looks like damaged pieces of frogspawn.

My frag tank has no substrate, and uses a lot of rock, with the gyre method... my powerheads push water under the rocks (since they're lifted off the glass about 3 inches). So far, no detritus build up.

river city aquatics?

tuna blue was just their way of saying tune-able. It was less of a color thing.

is that a huge ball of chaeto?

nope. but rapidled has good deals on them

I only use cat5/6 for the job. Even my lumia build is constructed of pairs of cat5. There is ONE other option that is much tidier.. its a 10P10C (RJ50 i believe?) connector, would allow for 5 channels! or 4 channels and a fan, with a single cable. But the 10p10c is hard to come by. Cat5/Cat6 are easily available and quicker to hook up than VGA15's, or DB25 Serial.

did you get a 90cube?

is this still open? I wanted to pick up some sand and a little rock..

Id be interested in a single WP25, unless the WP10's come out before we place the order saltybox has a close connection to them, and they've announced they'll be finished with the mount mold by end of November, and mag mounts available with WP10 in early december/mid december.