Controlling Viparspectra Lights

bishoptf

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Your assumptions are correct. You need to set up the PCA9685 driver. The default address should be 64 (0x40) unless you've bridged any of the address jumpers. Pretty much any frequency between 100 and 1500 should work just fine. You can use 1000, unless you have any other pwm devices you are planning to hook up.

1590549577751.png

I finally figured it out, woot! The moon lights are working, they are pretty bright but dim down really nice, now to add the other 2 channels for the main light.

Pretty stoked hopefully they work also!

:)
 

bishoptf

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Moon lights and the viparspectra lights are working, holy cow the vipar lights are so bright, the whites are just crazy. So with the moon lights and the vipar I can ramp up the moon lights and then go to the vipars and then reverse the sequence.

Pictures do not really show the strength but here are a couple:

Vipar at 20 white and 60 blue:
IMG_20200526_224635.jpg


Moon lights @10:
MVIMG_20200526_224924.jpg


Pretty neat, will have to figure out what settings blue vs white and how to fade in the moon lights but so far it appears to be really nice.

Please ignore my mess, I have lots of cleanup to do but this is close to last thing that I was wanting to have working even though I probably will not be turning on for at least a couple of months. Now I can get my tank back in place and start thinking about getting some water in the tank!

:)
 

Garold R Seifert

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I just setup this adapter with a raspberry pi 4 with the goby hat and the lights are working but every few minutes they seem to increase to full brightness for a second and then go back down to the set value. I attached pictures of my configuration. I cant seem to figure out why this is happening. I am powering the setup from a 12v 5 amp power supply going through a buck converter feeding the hat 5v.

pca.PNG connections.PNG lights.PNG
 

Bigtrout

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I just setup this adapter with a raspberry pi 4 with the goby hat and the lights are working but every few minutes they seem to increase to full brightness for a second and then go back down to the set value. I attached pictures of my configuration. I cant seem to figure out why this is happening. I am powering the setup from a 12v 5 amp power supply going through a buck converter feeding the hat 5v.

pca.PNG connections.PNG lights.PNG
Try lowering the frequency to 1000.
Not all pca9685 boards can handle the 1500hz
 

Garold R Seifert

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Try lowering the frequency to 1000.
Not all pca9685 boards can handle the 1500hz
I also just tried using different pca outputs and the same thing happens, I also tried the different profiles Diurnal, Interval and fixed and the problem is still there.
 

Mrreefercanada

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Moon lights and the viparspectra lights are working, holy cow the vipar lights are so bright, the whites are just crazy. So with the moon lights and the vipar I can ramp up the moon lights and then go to the vipars and then reverse the sequence.

Pictures do not really show the strength but here are a couple:

Vipar at 20 white and 60 blue:
IMG_20200526_224635.jpg


Moon lights @10:
MVIMG_20200526_224924.jpg


Pretty neat, will have to figure out what settings blue vs white and how to fade in the moon lights but so far it appears to be really nice.

Please ignore my mess, I have lots of cleanup to do but this is close to last thing that I was wanting to have working even though I probably will not be turning on for at least a couple of months. Now I can get my tank back in place and start thinking about getting some water in the tank!

:)
I like the colour output should be good!
 
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Michael Lane

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I just setup this adapter with a raspberry pi 4 with the goby hat and the lights are working but every few minutes they seem to increase to full brightness for a second and then go back down to the set value. I attached pictures of my configuration. I cant seem to figure out why this is happening. I am powering the setup from a 12v 5 amp power supply going through a buck converter feeding the hat 5v.

pca.PNG connections.PNG lights.PNG
I don't see anything obvious here, except that the profile option doesn't show anything selected. I would look for a couple of possibilities.
1. Is there anything else running on the rpi that might be communicating to the PCA9685?
2. Check the reef-pi logs to see if reef-pi is actually setting the PWM value in an unexpected way. reef-pi logs every time it changes light intensity.
sudo journalctl -fu reef-pi.service
 

Garold R Seifert

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I don't see anything obvious here, except that the profile option doesn't show anything selected. I would look for a couple of possibilities.
1. Is there anything else running on the rpi that might be communicating to the PCA9685?
2. Check the reef-pi logs to see if reef-pi is actually setting the PWM value in an unexpected way. reef-pi logs every time it changes light intensity.
sudo journalctl -fu reef-pi.service
This is the log for when the light goes to max brightness. It seems to happen when reef pi increases the intensity. And I have a jabeo slave doser setup using your adopter using 4, 5, 6 on the PCA.

log.PNG
 

bishoptf

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This is the log for when the light goes to max brightness. It seems to happen when reef pi increases the intensity. And I have a jabeo slave doser setup using your adopter using 4, 5, 6 on the PCA.

log.PNG

I have this same setup (although running on a pi 3 a+) but didn't have the doser setup, which I do now. Does the light change even when your not using the doser? If you can provide more details as to what you are seeing I will see if I see the same issue. Which version of #reefpi are you running?
 

Garold R Seifert

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I have this same setup (although running on a pi 3 a+) but didn't have the doser setup, which I do now. Does the light change even when your not using the doser? If you can provide more details as to what you are seeing I will see if I see the same issue. Which version of #reefpi are you running?
I am running the latest version of reefpi. The doser right now only runs once at 9pm every night so the doser is not running when this happens. Thanks
 

bishoptf

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I am running the latest version of reefpi. The doser right now only runs once at 9pm every night so the doser is not running when this happens. Thanks

You may not like this answer but I had some temp issues in 3.4 and I would trying rolling back to 3.3 and see if the issue remains. Once I rolled back to 3.3 my issues went away, would be something semi easy to try and see what the results are. I can try to see if I can repeat the issue but it's not clear how quickly you see the issue etc. Does it continually happen or randomly etc?

:)
 

Garold R Seifert

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You may not like this answer but I had some temp issues in 3.4 and I would trying rolling back to 3.3 and see if the issue remains. Once I rolled back to 3.3 my issues went away, would be something semi easy to try and see what the results are. I can try to see if I can repeat the issue but it's not clear how quickly you see the issue etc. Does it continually happen or randomly etc?

:)
Yea I'll try the older version. I also noticed some temperature issues it wouldn't hold my calibration it would randomly go back to the original value. It seems to be pretty regularly when it is ramping the lights up once they reach full brightness it goes away.
 
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Michael Lane

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I've been scratching my head on this one. I finally noticed a couple of clues that might be relevant. This line in the log indicates the use of a pca9685 pin as equipment.

1594055465515.png


Double checking the connectors shows duplicated pins in outlets and jacks. I bet these outlets are set to ON, so every few minutes reef-pi tells the PCA9685 to turn that pin solid on (100%). Then the light profile sets the next value shortly after. I recommend removing the Blue and White Channel outlets.

1594055385944.png
 

bishoptf

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I've been scratching my head on this one. I finally noticed a couple of clues that might be relevant. This line in the log indicates the use of a pca9685 pin as equipment.

1594055465515.png


Double checking the connectors shows duplicated pins in outlets and jacks. I bet these outlets are set to ON, so every few minutes reef-pi tells the PCA9685 to turn that pin solid on (100%). Then the light profile sets the next value shortly after. I recommend removing the Blue and White Channel outlets.

1594055385944.png

Good catch, I just ran my lights and I was unable to duplicate the issue, the duplicate outlets and Jacks was a good catch, thats the issue for sure. I needed to look more closer at the screenshots, I should have caught that also...Doh!

:)
 

Garold R Seifert

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I've been scratching my head on this one. I finally noticed a couple of clues that might be relevant. This line in the log indicates the use of a pca9685 pin as equipment.

1594055465515.png


Double checking the connectors shows duplicated pins in outlets and jacks. I bet these outlets are set to ON, so every few minutes reef-pi tells the PCA9685 to turn that pin solid on (100%). Then the light profile sets the next value shortly after. I recommend removing the Blue and White Channel outlets.

1594055385944.png
Wow I knew it was something simple I was over looking. Thank you!
 

Ninjacorgi13

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I think I just bought the last one of Michaels Goby hat and one of his Viparspectra controllers. I’ve done some light programming on a Teensy board for a simracing controller, but I’m sure I’ll be asking for some advice! Very cool project here, I’ll be using this for my first reef tank and I’m very excited.
 

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