"Hacking" AI Prime presets... file details (technical)

gray808 · Jul 26, 2021

I have a pair of AI Prime 16s for my tank. I currently use one of their presets (Saxby). I started poking about, looking at the preset files (.AIP files).

First glance shows them to be simple XML files.
Within this file, we have a header with a checksum (I'll worry about this later) and version.
Then, it has a section for each color (UV, Violet, Royal, Blue, Green, Deep Red, Moonlight, & Cool White).
Within each color, are a list of points.
Each point has a value for intensity, and for time.

(Ok, first, why am I doing this? I find the app a bit of a pain to use to create custom presets. Once I saw they were XML files, I thought I might be able to write a simple web-based tool to build presets more easily. Then, I just got interested in chewing on the problem.)

With some experimentation, it seems time is numeric value, and seems to be # of minutes from midnight. ie, if you have something that has a point at 8am, you will see <time>480</time> for that. Ok, ok, good, we're making progress.

But intensity is where it gets weird. In the App, you can set a lower and upper bound of the light intensity for any given point, from 0% to 133%. What this ends up being in the file is... well... very nearly
fileIntensityValue = appIntensitySettingValue * 10

So that if you have the app set to 60%, looking at the file, you will see <intensity>600</intensity>. This makes sense to me... but it isn't even across the board, as shown here (I(x) = intensity value in file, I(a) = intensity setting in app:

So, for the most part the equation above, fIV=aISV*10 does a reasonable job of estimation, but is very slightly off sometimes. And once it gets above 100% in the app, it falls apart completely.

1) Anyone have any insight as to what the file intensity value actually is? Lumens? A look-up-table for how many watts to crank?

2) Why would the number not end up being nice and round, like setting 20% would give you a file value of 200, instead of the reality of it giving 202?

3) Why the steep climb after 100%?

4) There seems to be a max cumulative amount of intensity you can spend across all colors. You can't set all of them to 133%. With all set to 100%, you seem to have 4% left to assign. To get anything above 104, at least one other color has to be set lower than 100, at a 1:1 ratio.

I supposed at worst, I can just make a ugly look up table that matches the settings I see emperically, but I'm curious why it works the way it does.

Thoughts?

--Gray

oreo54 · Jul 27, 2021

Is each "color" the same?
First instinct was it was mA's and more parabolic to follow the efficiency curve BUT 1) It's sort of off at high again.. i.e
CREE xp-g @ 1000mA is 250% of relative flux, at 2000mA about 425% 1.7X not 1.33
2) Can't picture running like deep reds at 2000mA

Would be easiest if drivers did mA dimming but most do pwm.
Then table would just be the sum of currents and need to not exceed a set amount of mA's.
Technically 7000mA (not including moonlight which may be the factor throwing things off..
Your 4% could be moonlight
6986mA (998 @ 100% x7) plus 14mA reserved for moonlight??? seems low..

Using pwm is sort of problematic since one would need to shift 100% = 133%
No law saying 100% is actually 100%. Of course at the "real" 100% (pure DC) there will be no flicker.
I believe "Kessil logic" works like this.. Each channel is 50% when color is 50% and intensity is 100%
If you shift to say "blue" then one channel goes to 100% the other to 0% preserving the 100% intensity..
so their 100% is really 50% of available drive current. sort of.. if you get my drift.

100% would be 75.19%
Of course why pick 133% in the first place?

Bottom line I haven't a clue but an interesting puzzle.

11.33W per 4 xp-g2's @1000mA
24.48 per 4 @ 2000mA ... all approx.
16 total diodes..

gray808 · Jul 27, 2021

The app, when you use the EasySetup option, lets you adjust a set of sliders. Each color has a 2-button slider (low and high), so you can, say, set your Royal channel to be 10% on the low end and 115% on the high. Then it will never dip below 10%, and will ramp from 10% to 115% in the time you've set for ramp (you also set a "sunrise" (time the lighting program starts), "sunset" (the lighting program ends, and "Ramp time" (how long to ramp up and ramp down around sunrise and sunset, in 10min increments.

Each color seems to have the same "app set value" -> "value in file". I.e., if I set UV to 70% and Violet to 70%, at 8am, in the app, both the <uv> and <violet> sections will have identical XML sections within the <uv> and <violet> sections:
<point><intensity>704</intensity><time>480</time></point>

I suspect the limitation on total cumulative % is to prevent the lights from just burning up (it will show you, at any given "point" on the app, what the power usage is watts, and with as many as you can maxxed, it's suckin' the watts up).

--Gray