Krazie's Driftwood 90

Krazie4Acans · Feb 14, 2017

And some more...

Krazie4Acans · Feb 14, 2017

Then It got wet....

And it got Sandy

Then what always happens??

Yup, Someone changes their mind on the rockscape. lol

Krazie4Acans · Feb 15, 2017

Next up is the first DIY project that I built for the tank. Can anyone guess what it is?

Leaellynasaura · Feb 15, 2017

Are you thinking about making a canopy?

Krazie4Acans · Feb 15, 2017

Leaellynasaura said:
Are you thinking about making a canopy?

There is a matching Canopy with the stand. You can see it in the first picture as well as a couple of the later pics.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 15, 2017

Does this picture help?

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

I'm getting crickets. Maybe I should change my name to something more cool on the forum so that I get more responses. lol

mckinleyw · Feb 22, 2017

LOL Looks like a diy led lighting!! just a shot in the dark there. im curious what the pvc under the rocks whats purpose?

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

mckinleyw said:
LOL Looks like a diy led lighting!! just a shot in the dark there. im curious what the pvc under the rocks whats purpose?

You my friend would be correct. I'll get into this project with some more pics shortly.

You are also very observant! I was wondering if anyone was going to ask about that. I have a love for Blue Spot Jawfish and my tank will have one in it. This is the purpose of the pipe. I actually put a jawfish in the tank and he immediately used the pipe for his den. However, he would not eat for me and did not make it. I have decorated the pipe end with some rock debris and covered the back end with a rock to help protect from any harassing back door neighbors. Oh, and I have already made a nice screen top to keep him on the wet side of the tank.

mckinleyw · Feb 22, 2017

Thats really cool. Cant wait to see the light.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

Ok, so I control my tank with an apex so I wanted to find a way to control my lights with it. I knew I wanted to use Meanwell LDD drivers for my lights so then I needed a way to convert the 0-10 volt Variable speed port signal to a PWM signal compatible with the LDD's. So off to Eagle designer I went! Here are the results of that.

I needed a cable to connect my 2 Varspeed ports into a single cable to connect to the board I designed. Here is the Apex end of the cable.

Here is the full cable. Looks kinda pro if I say so myself.

Here are the boards I got back from the board house. and the tube full of LDD driver pucks.

Here is one of the boards (each light takes one board) and all the packages of components that go on them. I built it with very small parts to keep it all on a board that would fit in my light housing. This made assembly a little bit tougher but my years of soldering paid off.

Here is a close up of the board with a couple of the components soldered on. The Larger black chip is the Arduino MPU. The smaller black chip is the clock circuit ( designed this board so that it could be a stand alone Controller as well as Apex controlled this clock is not needed for Apex control but I wanted to build them up fully to make sure it all worked). The tan chip with three silver stripes is the Oscillator chip that controls the clock rate of the Arduino. Ya, that's tech talk for how fast the processor runs.

Here is the board a little further along. You can see the battery holder for keeping the clock running with no power applied, the header pins for programming the Arduino, All the resistors, diodes and capacitors installed, and the 5volt power regulator chip.

Then I added the socket pins for the LDD drivers. This allows me to choose the output current for each channel and if I change the LEDs later I can change the LDD's to make then match the needs of the new LED's. About the only things left to go on are the power connectors and the RJ45 connectors for the Apex connection.

Here it is with 5 of the LDD's in their sockets and the SCW power regulator in place.

Here are the two boards that I need for my lights. One is the bare board with all it's connectors and components and the other is fully populated and ready for programming.

Here are the two boards both completed.

And here is one of the boards being programmed.

NY_Sea · Feb 22, 2017

Really enjoyed your build. Awesome job on that DIY sump and plumbing. Gave me some ideas. Good luck with the tank.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

Next I needed some place to put the board. Sooo......

I decided to go with the Makers LED Heatsync assembly. They are solid, look great and best part they are wife approved even if I was to go hoodless.

This is the top of the fixture with one of the cooling fans installed.

Then the board goes into the grooves in the top edge. Almost like it was designed to fit like that.

Nice fit!

Then the second fan goes in

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

PristineWaters said:
Really enjoyed your build. Awesome job on that DIY sump and plumbing. Gave me some ideas. Good luck with the tank.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

Then I needed something cool on the bottom side of the light fixture so that it actually makes light.

So what's cooler than Ecotech radion XR30W's? That's right I bought the pucks and put them in my own fixture. I had custom cables made to connect to the factory connectors.

Then I did some fancy braiding to help manage the wires and keep things tidy.

Both light to the same point.

Then I drilled a hole and put a grommet in it to get the wires to the top side where the controller board is.

Inserted the splash guards and installed the end caps to dress the whole thing up.

Now time to connect everything on the top side. Two fans and 12 LED wires.

Tucked the wires into the edge and started figuring out the fan wire routing.

Fans both connected to the controller board (two connectors on the bottom right corner of the board). The 12 LED wires are connected in the right edge of the board. The board has a temperature probe under it that connects to the heatsync so that the fan speed is determined by the temperature of the fixture.

Both of the Lights all wired up.

Then I needed power! One for each light.

Then in testing the lights out and letting them run I absolutely hated the loud fans the came in the power supplies. So I ordered new ball bearing ones with the same air flow and 1/3rd the noise output. The Ball bearings should make them last a good long time as well.

All wired up and ready to connect to the lights.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

Then someone thought they would look cool over a tank.

So I followed her orders and did what I was told.

I thought I would turn them on and see what it looked like. There are three cables on the left. the two white ones are the power. One is run to each light. the black cable is the custom apex cable that I showed back a couple of posts. That one plugs into the control board on the left. Then there is a short black Ethernet cable that runs from the opposite side of the first board and across the gap to the controller board on the right hand light to get the same signal to both lights.

Looking pretty good.

Lets try dimming them and testing out the colors.

Krazie4Acans · Feb 22, 2017

That should hold you people over for about ten minutes. The rest of the next couple of days you'll have to figure out what to do to keep yourself busy.

Good luck.

mckinleyw · Feb 23, 2017

WOW awesome. There is alot to take in. Really cool

Krazie4Acans · Feb 23, 2017

mckinleyw said:
WOW awesome. There is alot to take in. Really cool

Thanks! I worked a lot on it and wanted to document as much as I could. Getting force fed 2 years worth in a few weeks of posts probably seams like a fire hose for those reading. lol The best part is we are only to the real beginning of the story.