Controlling Viparspectra Lights

[Badfish2too]

Man I had bought the parts from when you playing with it a while ago and hadnt got to putting them together. Now its just easier to buy your pcbs...Now to find something to make with those parts

 

[bishoptf]

After looking at the adafruit guide for lighting and the actinic part of the build I assume we will need something like this

Thats pretty much what I have running my LED lights although I am using the pi pwm for control, in this case we take one input from the pc9685 and feed it into the fet and output to the moon light led strips. What option do we have besides the proto board, I have some that I can use but your right it is not the prettiest, I also have some high power fets on hand from my last build. I think I understand how this will work just need to have the board, 12v and pwm from the hat.

 

[Michael Lane]

Man I had bought the parts from when you playing with it a while ago and hadnt got to putting them together. Now its just easier to buy your pcbs...Now to find something to make with those parts

These are versatile components, so I'm sure you'll find another use for them. There are plenty of problems to solve!

I've had a project on the back burner (i.e. not started) to monitor an audio signal to automatically turn on a small amplifier when casting music. It can probably use pretty much the same parts.

 

[Michael Lane]

After looking at the adafruit guide for lighting and the actinic part of the build I assume we will need something like this

Thats pretty much what I have running my LED lights although I am using the pi pwm for control, in this case we take one input from the pc9685 and feed it into the fet and output to the moon light led strips. What option do we have besides the proto board, I have some that I can use but your right it is not the prettiest, I also have some high power fets on hand from my last build. I think I understand how this will work just need to have the board, 12v and pwm from the hat.

If I had a mosfet, I would have proably just put it together in a dead bug style. In fact, I probably should have just done that with the ULN2803. I actually might have a N channel mosfet on a scrap board, so maybe I'll try to put one together for the other light.

This mosfet from Sparkfun is a reasonable module. Your layout looks like it would work as well. I'm happy to help if you'd like a second set of eyes.

 

[bishoptf]

If I had a mosfet, I would have proably just put it together in a dead bug style. In fact, I probably should have just done that with the ULN2803. I actually might have a N channel mosfet on a scrap board, so maybe I'll try to put one together for the other light.

This mosfet from Sparkfun is a reasonable module. Your layout looks like it would work as well. I'm happy to help if you'd like a second set of eyes.

I have questions probably dumb questions but I need to make sure I understand how things are connected. So with a 4 pin min xlr you can control three pwm channels connected back to the hat, is that correct. You have ground coming from the hat to the xlr and then it would feed both the vipar board and the moonlight board, correct? 2 pwm channels would connect to the vipar board and then the additonal one would connect to the moonlight board. You are feeding 12v+ to the led and then the negative is being fed from the led to the moon light board, which in your case is a uln2803 or could be a mosfet. Where are you tapping 120v to take to the ac-dc converter to feed the moon light?

Using this board from amazon, I am trying to make sense of all of the connections on the board. I would assume that the pwm from the hat goes to the signal (gate) on the board and negative from the moon light board will come into the board to the v- (drain pin) but still feel like I have more connections (like vcc) than needed and want to verify how things should be connected.

Will look at it again in the morning and see if I can get my head wrapped around it.

Thanks

UPDATE: looking at things in the morning always seem to help, I think I have it figured out:

for that amazon board listed above my connections will be:
v+ and v- = Load (in this case the Moonlights)
Vin/Gnd = 12v power in

Gnd = ground from pi
VCC = Not connected
Sig = pwm from pi

From what I can see from the the goby hat I should be able to use one light connection since it has 3 pwm (2 for vipar and 1 for moon) and one ground so a 4 conducter to the light should work. Still thinking about the best way to provide 12v in the unit. Mike where did you splice into the 120v for the 12v power supply, not clear from the pictures and was just wondering.

Thanks, and sorry for asking so many dumb questions, electronics is just one of those things that I do not understand and always trying to improve on.

 

[Michael Lane]

Here's how I think I would connect everything. The mosfet only has 3 pins, so I'm not really sure how that breakout board exposes 7 pins. If you are not daisy chaining lights, then you can ignore the connector on the right.

Your description of connections to the mosfet board seem reasonable. I didn't find a schematic for that board, so I'm not 100% sure what is connected where. I'm almost certain you are correct though.

You are also correct about using a single light port on the goby hat. That's exactly how I have it in my test picture, and I'll have mine connected to the Light2 port. The following picutre also shows how I spliced into the mains voltage. Just be sure to do this with the fixture unplugged and secure and cover any mains wiring.

 

[bishoptf]

Here's how I think I would connect everything. The mosfet only has 3 pins, so I'm not really sure how that breakout board exposes 7 pins. If you are not daisy chaining lights, then you can ignore the connector on the right.

Your description of connections to the mosfet board seem reasonable. I didn't find a schematic for that board, so I'm not 100% sure what is connected where. I'm almost certain you are correct though.

You are also correct about using a single light port on the goby hat. That's exactly how I have it in my test picture, and I'll have mine connected to the Light2 port. The following picutre also shows how I spliced into the mains voltage. Just be sure to do this with the fixture unplugged and secure and cover any mains wiring.

Robojax to the rescue -

The one thing I think I will change to that mosfet board is I will ditch the screw terminals and replace them with JST-XH connectors, I think that will be a much better connector, I think they are good up to 3.5amps and that should be plenty.

Still not sure I like the 120v splice, what kind of connector is that. I have a couple of choices, feed 12v from my drawer which its not a long run, I could add another 120v input and tap off of that, or 12v from my outlet which is above the light fixture but I went with a recessed outlet and then where to place the brick since the one attached to the end will not fit in the box, always something. Right now I am leaning towards feeding 12v from my cabinet since its not a long run.

I opened the vipar up today, wow the led's are really bright. Already ordered some replacement fans since I thought they were kind of obnoxious, I thought I had some laying around but I only have 120mm fans. The other thing I noticed about the fans was the direction of flow, they have the fans blowing into the heat sink, I think it would make more sense to have the fans blowing out of the case and therefore pulling air into and over the heat sink.

I only ordered actinic lights and now thinking that a mix of blue and warm white might be better, maybe alternate blue and white, will wait till the led's come in to make up my mind. I know you ordered some different strips, let me know when they come in what they look like.

Thanks for all the help, wish I understood electronics like some of you guys do, so I appreciate you helping explain stuff.

 

[Michael Lane]

Screw terminals and JST-XH connectors most likely don't have the same footprint, so you won't be able to directly change them out.

I used XT30 connectors. I didn't choose them for any particular reason, I just happened to have them on hand and I know they can handle a decent voltage and current.

Running a dedicated 12v line would be fine. I don't think there's much point to adding another 120v input to the fixture. 500 mA at 12v is only about 50 mA at 120v (not entirely accurate, but the scale is right).

My LED strips are on a slow boat, so I probably wont' get them until the end of June. I'll post an update once I get them set up.

I'm glad I'm able to help by sharing what I've picked up over the years.

 

[Badfish2too]

Robojax to the rescue -

The one thing I think I will change to that mosfet board is I will ditch the screw terminals and replace them with JST-XH connectors, I think that will be a much better connector, I think they are good up to 3.5amps and that should be plenty.

Still not sure I like the 120v splice, what kind of connector is that. I have a couple of choices, feed 12v from my drawer which its not a long run, I could add another 120v input and tap off of that, or 12v from my outlet which is above the light fixture but I went with a recessed outlet and then where to place the brick since the one attached to the end will not fit in the box, always something. Right now I am leaning towards feeding 12v from my cabinet since its not a long run.

I opened the vipar up today, wow the led's are really bright. Already ordered some replacement fans since I thought they were kind of obnoxious, I thought I had some laying around but I only have 120mm fans. The other thing I noticed about the fans was the direction of flow, they have the fans blowing into the heat sink, I think it would make more sense to have the fans blowing out of the case and therefore pulling air into and over the heat sink.

I only ordered actinic lights and now thinking that a mix of blue and warm white might be better, maybe alternate blue and white, will wait till the led's come in to make up my mind. I know you ordered some different strips, let me know when they come in what they look like.

Thanks for all the help, wish I understood electronics like some of you guys do, so I appreciate you helping explain stuff.

Actually the better direction is forcing in down over the top and out the side vents. Not only will it be more active cooling, you will pull less salt into the light. I replaced my fans with Noctua. Best fans out there IMHO

 

[Bo.]

Replaced mine with noctua redux. Had to order them because I only had 120's laying around though.

 

[Eb1air]

Man I wish I could understand this stuff. Lol I just want to get a controller that I can just hot wire in for ramping my LEDs and t5s for a disk dawn effect n possibly put in a moon light. But then again after all the money I've spent on lights I could of bought a radion lol.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Man I wish I could understand this stuff. Lol I just want to get a controller that I can just hot wire in for ramping my LEDs and t5s for a disk dawn effect n possibly put in a moon light. But then again after all the money I've spent on lights I could of bought a radion lol.

It's really not all that bad. With all the prefabbed boards it's super simple. To accomplish the same thing before the boards required 8 wires to run to the light and 2 relays, gets a little messy. With boards it's 3 wires.... Can't beat that, about as plug and play as DIY can get.

 

[bishoptf]

Man I wish I could understand this stuff. Lol I just want to get a controller that I can just hot wire in for ramping my LEDs and t5s for a disk dawn effect n possibly put in a moon light. But then again after all the money I've spent on lights I could of bought a radion lol.

If I can do it then just about anyone can do it, lots of great folks to help answer questions, there is a learning curve but as mentioned above its almost plug and play.

 

[bishoptf]

Replaced mine with noctua redux. Had to order them because I only had 120's laying around though.

Those are the fans that I ordered the Noctua redux 80mm fans should help on the noise front and if they are still ramping up to loud I will undervolt them.

 

[bishoptf]

Screw terminals and JST-XH connectors most likely don't have the same footprint, so you won't be able to directly change them out.

I used XT30 connectors. I didn't choose them for any particular reason, I just happened to have them on hand and I know they can handle a decent voltage and current.

Running a dedicated 12v line would be fine. I don't think there's much point to adding another 120v input to the fixture. 500 mA at 12v is only about 50 mA at 120v (not entirely accurate, but the scale is right).

My LED strips are on a slow boat, so I probably wont' get them until the end of June. I'll post an update once I get them set up.

I'm glad I'm able to help by sharing what I've picked up over the years.

Ah, good point about the jst connectors not lining up, didnt think about that. that will be a bummer since I am not a fan of the screw terminals but if thats the case then I will live with it. I ordered some warm white and cool white strips last night, I am thinking a combination of the deep blue and the white may look the best but we will see.

 

[Bo.]

Those are the fans that I ordered the Noctua redux 80mm fans should help on the noise front and if they are still ramping up to loud I will undervolt them.

I ordered 4, two pwm ones. Just have the standard installed now and the difference is amazing. If I ever get around to it I'm going to test out tying the pwm version in to @Michael Lane 's board to ramp with lighting control.

 

[Eb1air]

It's really not all that bad. With all the prefabbed boards it's super simple. To accomplish the same thing before the boards required 8 wires to run to the light and 2 relays, gets a little messy. With boards it's 3 wires.... Can't beat that, about as plug and play as DIY can get.

I'll have to look into it where can I find these boards

 

[Bo.]

I'll have to look into it where can I find these boards

I got mine off Michael's Tindie store.

 

[Eb1air]

I got mine off Michael's Tindie store.

I got mine off Michael's Tindie store.

Thank you

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

First of the two ML boards installed. Waiting on more RB LEDs to arrive to I can do the last swaps then button her up.

Man, this board vs my "manual labor" way of achieving the same control is almost silly. Dropped from 8 wires to each light to 3 to one and a short piggieback to the 2nd.

Huge thank you to @Michael Lane.