I bought a used tank that came with three Ocean Revive LED lights... lights look nice but the programming and control was annoying. I build a retrofit controller board that works with Neptune Apex's 0-10v VDM connection. Here's what I have working today in a prototype:
- 2-channel control: VDM channel 1 is blue, 2 is white
- Full dimming control, settable off-point (I have it configured to 5%, so that anything <0.5v is off, then dimming scales from 0.5v-10v to 0-100%
- Exponential signal scaling to make the LED output seem more linear
- 5000hz PWM dimming on the LEDs (may tune this, but seems to work well)
- Replaces built-in LED controller board, uses the same connectors
- Control board is way overkill (ESP32 C3: dual-core, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) (it's what I had on-hand at the time and honestly a tiny part of the price so who cares)
This is working very well for me, with full control of the lights with my Apex. Also I freed up a power jack since the controls are all via VDM, so I just plugged the lights into a 'dumb' outlet.
Next steps:
- Self-contained, mount in place of the old board, jacks where the screens were, powered by the LED drivers (right now the control board is external (or alternative below)
- Config UI (Wifi or maybe a small screen?)
- Fine tuning on/off (add hysteresis to eliminate some blinking during on/off transitions)
- Add VDM through jack to support daisy-chaining lights
- Add calibration to precisely set and sync levels across lights
Right now have a small connector jack inside of each light and running the internal control lines to a splitter, so one controller is controlling all the lights. This made for easy debugging and minimal costs, but has more pieces + parts. I think a self-contained, controller-per-light approach is better, even if it's more expensive.
Over Christmas break I'll make a finished version of this using a custom PC board, durable jacks, Acrylic cover/trim/lens.
Would this be interesting for anyone else? I don't have a price point yet, but my guess is between $30-$60, per light (in the self-contained configuration). It's not a lot more work to make a few dozen than to make one, and the cost goes down at scale.
- 2-channel control: VDM channel 1 is blue, 2 is white
- Full dimming control, settable off-point (I have it configured to 5%, so that anything <0.5v is off, then dimming scales from 0.5v-10v to 0-100%
- Exponential signal scaling to make the LED output seem more linear
- 5000hz PWM dimming on the LEDs (may tune this, but seems to work well)
- Replaces built-in LED controller board, uses the same connectors
- Control board is way overkill (ESP32 C3: dual-core, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) (it's what I had on-hand at the time and honestly a tiny part of the price so who cares)
This is working very well for me, with full control of the lights with my Apex. Also I freed up a power jack since the controls are all via VDM, so I just plugged the lights into a 'dumb' outlet.
Next steps:
- Self-contained, mount in place of the old board, jacks where the screens were, powered by the LED drivers (right now the control board is external (or alternative below)
- Config UI (Wifi or maybe a small screen?)
- Fine tuning on/off (add hysteresis to eliminate some blinking during on/off transitions)
- Add VDM through jack to support daisy-chaining lights
- Add calibration to precisely set and sync levels across lights
Right now have a small connector jack inside of each light and running the internal control lines to a splitter, so one controller is controlling all the lights. This made for easy debugging and minimal costs, but has more pieces + parts. I think a self-contained, controller-per-light approach is better, even if it's more expensive.
Over Christmas break I'll make a finished version of this using a custom PC board, durable jacks, Acrylic cover/trim/lens.
Would this be interesting for anyone else? I don't have a price point yet, but my guess is between $30-$60, per light (in the self-contained configuration). It's not a lot more work to make a few dozen than to make one, and the cost goes down at scale.