Meanwell LDD/Cree LEDs & Reef-Pi problem

[CadTS25]

Hi everyone,
I am trying to control some Cree LEDs driven by Meanwell LDD drivers with the reef-pi.
I have wired everything according to the description and as shown in the diagram below. So, the circuit is:

5V-Pi to VCC-Pca9685
Gnb-pi to gnd-pca9685
SDA-pi to SDA-pca9685
SCL-pi to SCL-pca9685
PWM-ldd board to pwm-pca9685
Outbound gnd-pca9685 to ldd board out v-
Ldd board out v+ to led chain +
Other Ldd board out v- to led chain
Ldd board v+ in to meanwell power supply
Ldd board v- in to meanwell power supply v-

I have configured the lights in the reefpi by assigning a jack , choosing the pca9685 driver and selecting pin 0. However, my lights are always off. If I unplug the pwm cable then they turn on at 100%
What am I doing wrong? Am I missing something?

 

[oreo54]

Most "common" mistake is not having the LED power supply common-ed (-) w/ the rest of the system..
I'd let others verify though..and tell you where to put it..

 

[CadTS25]

I actually wired everything very similar or identical described by #Biokabe or #MBellavance in the reef-pi thread

Here

https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/4349501/

And here

https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/4350443/

I encountered the same problem with 3 different pca9685 boards and 2 different pi, so it is not a direct hardware defect.

So I believe it is a software or circuit problem

 

[Michael Lane]

I'm using a similar driver board with reef-pi for some of my lights. I don't see anything immediately wrong with the wiring. Are you able to confirm that you are getting the expected signal from the PCA9685?
Can you confirm that you have pca9685 enabled in reef-pi?

 

[CadTS25]

Here are some photos of my configurations

 

[CadTS25]

Sorry for the double post of some images

 

[Michael Lane]

I see the screenshots for most of the configurations, but don't see if you had the option to Enable pca9685 checked. If it is checked, try setting the brightness to 50% and measure the voltage on the output. Most meters will average the reading, so you should get around 2.5v.

 

[CadTS25]

For no particular reason, it just started to work. I did not do any changes, just booted the system again and it started to work. Before that I had done at least 10 reboots (and cold starts) and nothing changed. Now, for some reason it is working (I rebooted again to make sure it will stay working and it stayed working. Weird but who cares, it works now!

However, I hear a whine coming from the ldd drivers. Is that normal?

 

[CadTS25]

@Kampo Have you figured out what caused the whine in your case and could you solve it? (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...-on-raspberry-pi.289256/page-148#post-4346444)

 

[Ranjib]

Everytime you change settings (like enable pca9685), you have to reload reef-pi for that change to take effect

 

[CadTS25]

Everytime you change settings (like enable pca9685), you have to reload reef-pi for that change to take effect

Yes, must have been that. Although I am sure that I reloaded reef-pi and even restarted the pi itself a couple of times without changing something. Odd, but ok. I am very happy that I can move on.
Hopefully I can fix the whine noise coming from the ldd drivers (I would not mind so much the noise if I would know for sure that the drivers are fine).

 

[Ranjib]

Keep us posted. I got busy with some stuff (first flu, and now bad weather). We’ll sort out the pwm frequency issue soon as we can, in case that’s something useful here

 

[oreo54]

Keep us posted. I got busy with some stuff (first flu, and now bad weather). We’ll sort out the pwm frequency issue soon as we can, in case that’s something useful here

100-1kHz for the LDD-h's..per spec sheet.

 

[Bigtrout]

100-1kHz for the LDD-h's..per spec sheet.

If his is like mine, the 1500 serting may be "stuck" and may not be able to be changed. Thats been my problem, the fet boards im using for my lights also take 1khz max, the high freq may be making the meanwells make the noise.

You can try lowering the freq, but if you measure it, im betting it dont move from 1500. This is the bug ive reported on.

 

[CadTS25]

I would like to implement a atlas scientific pH probe and a ds3221 real time clock, both of which connect to the sda and scl pins like the pca9685. My question is rather simple as I am a beginner. Can I connect all 3 devices to the pi by using a breadboard, or should I connect first the pca9685 to the pi and then the pH probe to the outgoing sda/scl of the pca9685?

 

[Michael Lane]

I would like to implement a atlas scientific pH probe and a ds3221 real time clock, both of which connect to the sda and scl pins like the pca9685. My question is rather simple as I am a beginner. Can I connect all 3 devices to the pi by using a breadboard, or should I connect first the pca9685 to the pi and then the pH probe to the outgoing sda/scl of the pca9685?

Either way should work fine, so choose whichever is more convenient to wire.

 

[Ranjib]

You got the pwm bits working ?