thamnasteroid
2500 Club Member
A little background:
Aquarium powerheads and pumps use brushless, permanent-magnet motors to spin their propellers/impellers. This is so that none of the electronics are in contact with the water, as the rotors of brushless motors are not directly connected to the circuitry.
AC pumps use a single-phase version of these motors, while DC pumps use a 3-phase version, connected to a driver circuit which turns the DC current into 3-phase, pulsed AC. BLDC drivers require two inputs—a DC power supply, and a PWM (pulse-width modulation) controller which controls the speed of the motor. Most DC-powered pumps/powerheads have their drivers housed separately from the pump, in a controller.
How this applies to the WAV:
The Neptune WAV powerhead has its driver built into the powerhead itself, instead of the driver being in a separate controller. The WAV has a single cable connected to the Apex controller, which serves as both the power and control input.
The main question:
How does the WAV combine both the power and the PWM inputs into one wire? Does it split the electricity into two paths, one with a fixed amount of current serving as the power, and the other using the leftover current for the control? How would that be implemented?
Aquarium powerheads and pumps use brushless, permanent-magnet motors to spin their propellers/impellers. This is so that none of the electronics are in contact with the water, as the rotors of brushless motors are not directly connected to the circuitry.
AC pumps use a single-phase version of these motors, while DC pumps use a 3-phase version, connected to a driver circuit which turns the DC current into 3-phase, pulsed AC. BLDC drivers require two inputs—a DC power supply, and a PWM (pulse-width modulation) controller which controls the speed of the motor. Most DC-powered pumps/powerheads have their drivers housed separately from the pump, in a controller.
How this applies to the WAV:
The Neptune WAV powerhead has its driver built into the powerhead itself, instead of the driver being in a separate controller. The WAV has a single cable connected to the Apex controller, which serves as both the power and control input.
The main question:
How does the WAV combine both the power and the PWM inputs into one wire? Does it split the electricity into two paths, one with a fixed amount of current serving as the power, and the other using the leftover current for the control? How would that be implemented?
