My latest DiY project! (aka "Warranties are for losers!")

[Hooz]

I still need to dig out the soldering iron, but warranty voiding shenanigans are afoot!

Some of you will immediately recognize what it is that I'm doing, for the rest of you... I'm trying out some DiY "Direct Drive" cables for my WaveEngine v2.

I'm planning to get the cables finished up and doing some testing over the long Holiday weekend. I'll post more when I know more.

 

[KrisReef]

I regret that I never figured out so much of the technology that can be hacked and improved if one has the understanding of how things like this work.

I did wire a LFS once or twice and I can sweat pipe but me and tiny wires and the amperage that travels in them never made the connections with any certainty.

Good testing!

 

[Hooz]

Making some progress!

 

[Hooz]

IT'S ALIVE!

The Jebao Gyres I have (ECP-70m) are 24v, 18w pumps which coincides perfectly with the Icecap 1k Gyre (also 24v, 18w), so I picked that for my pump profile. I got the wiring right on the first try, so I didn't even need to reverse them in the app to get them going in the right direction.

I setup an LPS Reef schedule with the pumps on opposite ends. Running at 100% (video to follow) they are pretty noisy, but I lowered them to around 70% and they quieted right down.

SUCCESS! I now have Jebao gyres running as direct drive pumps on the WaveEngine v2!

Next up is direct driving a Jebao return pump.

 

[Hooz]

 

[Hooz]

I might try this with some other Jebao stuff now. I have an MLW-5 kicking around.

The MLW-5 is a 24v, 7.5w pump. The OctoPulse 2 is a 24v, 10w pump. If min/max for the OctoPulse is 25% (2.5w) and 100% (10w), then I could adapt and limit it for the MLW-5 by setting the min/max in the app to 18% (1.8w) and 75% (7.5w). That should line up with the power capabilities of the MLW-5.

The MLW-10 is a 10w pump, so it would probably be a direct match for the OctoPulse 2 profile. As would the new DMP-10 (Ecotech clone).

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Nice…..now if only someone could do the same for apex 1Link wav!

 

[Reefing102]

I can’t see the video, but are you able to post a step by step for lose less electrical literate lol

 

[Hooz]

I can’t see the video, but are you able to post a step by step for lose less electrical literate lol

I didn't do a step by step, but I'm happy to answer questions. It looks daunting, but it really isn't.

The motors used in these powerheads and gyres are 3 phase DC, so there are 3 wires that need to be hooked up. It really doesn't matter how you hook them up, though. The Hydros app allows you to enable reverse mode, so if you plug it in and the pump spins backwards, just enable reverse mode in the app and you're off to the races.

I just happened to get lucky and wire them up "right" the first time, and I made sure the pinouts of both cables matched, so even if I swapped the left and right gyres, they'd still work the same. I could list my pinout (brown to pin 1, blue to pin 2 and yellow/green to pin 3), but unless you were running the same pumps, your wire colors might not match, or they might still run backwards... That's why Coralvue has the option to reverse the pumps in the app in the first place. Even the supported pumps could be different from batch to batch.

 

[HappyFm]

I still don't quite understand your idea—why do you need to redesign it?

For me, after purchasing the SCP 70 (without Wi-Fi—for cost-saving purposes), I redesigned the driver circuit to integrate Wi-Fi. With this setup, I can easily synchronize as many wave makers as I want, all synchronized through continuous calibration via the internet.

 

[Hooz]

I still don't quite understand your idea—why do you need to redesign it?

For me, after purchasing the SCP 70 (without Wi-Fi—for cost-saving purposes), I redesigned the driver circuit to integrate Wi-Fi. With this setup, I can easily synchronize as many wave makers as I want, all synchronized through continuous calibration via the internet.

I wanted to integrate the Jebao pumps into my Hydros controller ecosystem. It has more options for flow patterns, speeds, etc, and I can monitor them through the Hydros app, integrate them into the feed mode routine, etc.

 

[HappyFm]

I wanted to integrate the Jebao pumps into my Hydros controller ecosystem. It has more options for flow patterns, speeds, etc, and I can monitor them through the Hydros app, integrate them into the feed mode routine, etc.

That is exactly what I’m doing. After integrating Wi-Fi with the BLDC driver, I can do anything with it through PWM signals. Not only can it create waves, but the high-end pumps with integrated BLDC functionality can also be controlled in the same way. I’ve also found drivers with much higher power capacity.