GHL moonlighting

[Lasse]

Same reason we use inches and feet instead of cm and meters.

And I haven´t understand that either -

But if you will learn to count in a very difficult way - count in Danish In order to understand that - you must be a native Danish in ten generations

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Member No 1]

It does sound like this could be the problem, but it appears to be working for @Member No 1.

@Scdell and @Member No 1 what firmwares are you running? Wonder if they are different.

When I get some time I'm going to try to implement this on one of my XHO bars.

Firmware
P4 7.24
LX7206 1.11

 

[Scdell]

Thank you everyone for your help. Kudo's to @Lasse and @Member No 1.

 

[Scdell]

Interesting thing:
I had my calculated moon phase set to 8am-8pm. Moonlight was on.
I changed it to 8pm-8am which is where I feel it should be at. Moonlight went off!
I am at 6% moon phase so to may be in new moon phase. I'll wait a few days and see.
Meanwhile support ticket is still active

 

[ingchr1]

Interesting thing:
I had my calculated moon phase set to 8am-8pm. Moonlight was on.
I changed it to 8pm-8am which is where I feel it should be at. Moonlight went off!
I am at 6% moon phase so to may be in new moon phase. I'll wait a few days and see.
Meanwhile support ticket is still active

Try increasing your Max Brightness full moon to see if it comes on. At 2% it may be too low for the LED to come on.

In Light Composer use output directly on lamps to adjust the LED(s) you are using to the full brightness you want for the moonlight, then set the Max Brightness full moon setting to 100%. I think this will cause 100% Moon Phase (Full Moon) to be that full brightness.

Right now I think your moonlight LED is only at 0.0024% (2*0.02*0.06).

2% Max Led brightness (set in light composer, your curve)
2% Max Brightness Full Moon (set in moonlight setting)
6% Moon Phase

Full moon would only be 0.04% (2*0.02*1.0).

 

[Scdell]

Try increasing your Max Brightness full moon to see if it comes on. At 2% it may be too low for the LED to come on.

In Light Composer use output directly on lamps to adjust the LED(s) you are using to the full brightness you want for the moonlight, then set the Max Brightness full moon setting to 100%. I think this will cause 100% Moon Phase (Full Moon) to be that full brightness.

Right now I think your moonlight LED is only at 0.0024% (2*0.02*0.06).

2% Max Led brightness (set in light composer, your curve)
2% Max Brightness Full Moon (set in moonlight setting)
6% Moon Phase

Full moon would only be 0.04% (2*0.02*1.0).

When it was on the other way it was plenty bright for 6%. I can try increasing and see. When I had the moonlight on the LX7's it was way too bright at full moon. Like 50% of regular daytime settings. That is what I'm trying to avoid.
I'm hoping that at 6% it's in new moon phase????
I can't see having moonlight phase between 8am-8pm. It doesn't make sense.
Both Lasse and Member No 1 have it set the same way and it's working for them.
I'll figure this out or just give up on moonlight. Maybe buy a simustick and dedicate it to moonlight.

 

[RobW]

This is some great information in advance for me as I am getting ready to start a build and am leaning to using all GHL products and wanted to do something with moonlighting as well.

 

[Scdell]

Meanwhile, I'm rather quite pleased with the addition of the Mitras Lightbar.
So much so I'll probably add another deep actinic in the near future.

 

[Scdell]

Try increasing your Max Brightness full moon to see if it comes on. At 2% it may be too low for the LED to come on.

In Light Composer use output directly on lamps to adjust the LED(s) you are using to the full brightness you want for the moonlight, then set the Max Brightness full moon setting to 100%. I think this will cause 100% Moon Phase (Full Moon) to be that full brightness.

Right now I think your moonlight LED is only at 0.0024% (2*0.02*0.06).

2% Max Led brightness (set in light composer, your curve)
2% Max Brightness Full Moon (set in moonlight setting)
6% Moon Phase

Full moon would only be 0.04% (2*0.02*1.0).

You were right about increasing the Max brightness! I also had to go into Light Composer and increase it there. Thank you! Now it appears to be working exactly like I want it to and expected it to. Perfect!!!!!

 

[Scdell]

I'll let it run like this for a week then see if I can get it do the schedule from 9pm to 3am. I do want some darkness.

 

[ingchr1]

You were right about increasing the Max brightness! I also had to go into Light Composer and increase it there. Thank you! Now it appears to be working exactly like I want it to and expected it to. Perfect!!!!!

With your settings I think it would be the equivalent of setting the channel to 3.75% brightness and full moon to 100%.

With your current settings 3.75% (5*0.75) is effectively what the channel will max out at (full moon) when your moon phase is active.

 

[Scdell]

With your settings I think it would be the equivalent of setting the channel to 3.75% brightness and full moon to 100%.

With your current settings 3.75% (5*0.75) is effectively what the channel will max out at (full moon) when your moon phase is active.

I'll play with it. Get it the way I want. I really don't want it too bright at full moon.
The way it's set up now is exactly the way it's supposed to work. Happy!
I've never gotten it to work right. It was always waaaaaay too bright at full moon.
I don't understand how @Lasse and @Member No 1 are doing it at that low %. Possibly they don't have it set up right? I can now dim the moonlight way down. To almost barely seeing it on.
That's a huge step.

 

[Scdell]

So...... I'm still trying wrap my head around this whole thing.
I set the calculated brightness to between 9pm-3Am.
The lights went off at 8pm, just like normal. Moonlight came on, but bright as heck.
I went in and tried to get it dimmer, set the total brightness to 5%. Nothing I could do to get it dimmer except to set the calculated brightness again to 8pm-8am.
Why give the option to set it the way you want if it's not going to do what you want?
This is the most confusing, complicated and inconsistent thing!
It seems like a last minute thrown together option. It is one of the reasons I bought these lights.
It shouldn't be this confusing!

 

[Member No 1]

You still have my PM?
Give me a call when you can.

 

[Scdell]

You still have my PM?
Give me a call when you can.

Yeah I do. I'll call in a few.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Sorry to dredge this up - but there is still no good explanation of all of this. This thread is the closest thing that I have found.

Lights are not over tank yet. 2x Mitras 7206
Going to run AB+ modified to ramp up from 10am to full around 1pm and then back down from 7pm to near 2% around 11pm.

I want the moon lights to run from 11pm to 4am.

I have set BASIC moon schedule from 11pm - 4am 0% min to 2% max
I have set AB+ to ramp down to 2% brightness at 11pm
I have set 425nm channel to be dependent on moon.
I have set 525nm channel ONLY to 2% from 11pm to 4am.
I have set 0% at 4:10 am - so everything should be off until 10:00 am where 0% is also set. The ramp for daylight begins there. As AB+ includes 425nm it should work with the AB+ settings, as the moon mode is not set to active during this time.

Is this a correct understanding?

So am i to assume that depending on moon phase, come 11pm every evening, the 425nm channel will stay on somewhere between 0% and 2% until 4am?

 

[Scdell]

Sorry to dredge this up - but there is still no good explanation of all of this. This thread is the closest thing that I have found.

Lights are not over tank yet. 2x Mitras 7206
Going to run AB+ modified to ramp up from 10am to full around 1pm and then back down from 7pm to near 2% around 11pm.

I want the moon lights to run from 11pm to 4am.

I have set BASIC moon schedule from 11pm - 4am 0% min to 2% max
I have set AB+ to ramp down to 2% brightness at 11pm
I have set 425nm channel to be dependent on moon.
I have set 525nm channel ONLY to 2% from 11pm to 4am.
I have set 0% at 4:10 am - so everything should be off until 10:00 am where 0% is also set. The ramp for daylight begins there. As AB+ includes 425nm it should work with the AB+ settings, as the moon mode is not set to active during this time.

Is this a correct understanding?

So am i to assume that depending on moon phase, come 11pm every evening, the 425nm channel will stay on somewhere between 0% and 2% until 4am?

I don't see the need to have the AB schedule at anything but 0% when the moonlight is active.
2% on moonlight phase may not be enough. I think it needs at least 10% to come on.
You'll also have to go into simulation and adjust the moonphase there also. The problem with two light fixtures is it will be too bright....... You'll have to adjust it as you like. It's not going to be a one set program to set up right. It'll take some tinkering.

 

[DFR]

Sounds like you plan to use the P4 to run your LX7s.

The one issue I see is your max brightness (full moon) should be set to 100% instead of 2%. This will allow the brightness during the full moon period to get up to your 2% (100% of your 2% schedule =2% brightness) set point in the schedule. The way you currently have it set, during the full moon period, you will only get to .04% max brightness from your lights (which will not turn on the light).

I found that 2% works fine on mine but may be different for you based on other settings. Before transferring control of my lights to my P4, I had similar settings on my LX7 but set to 1%. I found that it I needed to increase the trigger to 2% on my P4 or the lights wouldn’t turn on.

Here are some screen shots showing mine using only Channel 7 for my moonlight:

 

[BeanAnimal]

So
100% Max in moon settings
2% in Chan 9 from 11pm - 4am?

Or

2% Max in moon settings
100% in chan 0 from 11pm -4am?

@Gaël @Vinny@GHLUSA - your thoughts?

Feel like same thing from different directions.

I dee see where 2% in chan 9 and 2% max in moon settings could be 2% of 2% or .04 --

So many adjustments.. overall brightness - brightness of channel it self - power balance settings for channels. etc.. Brain hurts.

Not sure what shows in simulation (if moon brightness does or doesn't). Feels almost too complicated for me to wrap my head around and more trial and error than anything else I guess.

In the end i just want nice smooth transitions from morning darkness to daylight to moonlight back to darkness
I notice my fish do so much better with natural light changes.

 

[DFR]

Both will achieve the same outcome. I would however personally go with the 1st. In the event the “depend on moon phase” button would ever get turned off (whether by accident or a mishap of an update), that channel would only be on at 2% from 11p to 4a. If that were to happen with option 2, it would be on at 100%.