divecj5
Active Member
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- Jul 24, 2006
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- Charleston, SC
- What state or country do you live in
- South Carolina
Ryujin Lighting System -- Controller/Program Review
Let me start this review by saying that I've been reefing for going on 6 years now and I've mainly stuck with T5 lighting. I started with some el cheapo strip lights that were called T5s but were really VHOs on a 55g. Then I switched to T5s with top notch individual reflectors with an Aquatinics fixture....then switched to a 150w Sunpod....then back to another Aquatinics fixture. Long story short, I have ZERO experience with LEDs other than knowing of them and reading about them. I was on the verge of switching over to some Par38 bulbs when DFason mentioned some ideas he had about a sleek, modern LED fixture paired with some awesome ideas for the controller and computer interface.
After about 10 months of chatting back and forth, GBs worth of emails, and hundreds of hours of testing on Dave's part, I now have a prototype of his final unit over my 17g rimless and I think he's on the verge of something really unique.
Since this isn't the final fixture fixture, I'm going to review the board and controller with of course lots of pictures and some FTS at the end.
LED's - Luxeon Rebel's with custom optics
2:1 Royal Blue : Neutral White
LED Boards - Custom 1" square three up boards. Can be run all separate, together, and 2:1. The LED's are in a radial pattern resulting in little to no issues with colors not blending. The squares also have a custom wide optic.
OLED Screen - OLED (organic light emitting diode) - advantages over traditional LCDs include: lower power consumption, higher contrast, and due to the manufacturing process they are sealed, making them highly resistant to vibration and moisture. Unlike LCDs, each pixel of an OLED screen is a light emitting diode and emits its own light. Power consumption is directly proportional to how many pixels are lit, making it easy to view, even in direct sunlight. The screen is incredibly crisp!!!
Program - There are already a lot of various LED fixtures out there that have controllers, but the NanoBox application that comes with the fixture is really one of the best features. Well at least for me, someone coming from the world of T5 and getting used to the color of LEDs.
Here are some screenshots of the application, which allows you to tweak the following for each individual buckpuck:
Here is the boot screen for the NanoBox program. Really simple design and easy to find what you're looking for. The controller has a USB port via a printer cable connection. Plug it in, start up the program, and you're ready to roll.
You can get all fancy smancy through the Boot Screen Editor (I haven't tweaked anything on this screen yet)
Here is the real meat of the application, the Settings tab. As you can see from the screenshot below, you can tweak all settings from this page (you can also enter edit mode on the controller without having to use a computer as well). The best thing is that you can save these to your computer, allowing you to try all sorts of combinations.
I literally spent 2 hours the weekend I got the prototype monkeying around and trying different settings.
Here are my initial thoughts and some suggestions for future improvements -
The only real improvements that I can suggest at this point are really only minor comments relating to the computer program. Currently everything is done in military (0000-2400) time. Not a huge deal, but would be nice to have AM/PM, which may take some controller/program rewriting. The only other suggestion is to eventually have a forum or location online where people can share their settings, allowing you to share and try what others have had success with.
To finish, I really couldn't be much more impressed with what DFason has produced so far. I can't wait to see what the final extruded aluminum cases for the controller and fixture look like. Here is a picture of what my 17g Rimless looks under the lighting. This is with only 18 or the 24 bulbs firing and this was before I had a chance to tweak the min/max brightness for the whites and royal blues.
Part 2 will be coming in the next few weeks.
-Adam
Let me start this review by saying that I've been reefing for going on 6 years now and I've mainly stuck with T5 lighting. I started with some el cheapo strip lights that were called T5s but were really VHOs on a 55g. Then I switched to T5s with top notch individual reflectors with an Aquatinics fixture....then switched to a 150w Sunpod....then back to another Aquatinics fixture. Long story short, I have ZERO experience with LEDs other than knowing of them and reading about them. I was on the verge of switching over to some Par38 bulbs when DFason mentioned some ideas he had about a sleek, modern LED fixture paired with some awesome ideas for the controller and computer interface.
After about 10 months of chatting back and forth, GBs worth of emails, and hundreds of hours of testing on Dave's part, I now have a prototype of his final unit over my 17g rimless and I think he's on the verge of something really unique.
Since this isn't the final fixture fixture, I'm going to review the board and controller with of course lots of pictures and some FTS at the end.
LED's - Luxeon Rebel's with custom optics
2:1 Royal Blue : Neutral White
LED Boards - Custom 1" square three up boards. Can be run all separate, together, and 2:1. The LED's are in a radial pattern resulting in little to no issues with colors not blending. The squares also have a custom wide optic.
OLED Screen - OLED (organic light emitting diode) - advantages over traditional LCDs include: lower power consumption, higher contrast, and due to the manufacturing process they are sealed, making them highly resistant to vibration and moisture. Unlike LCDs, each pixel of an OLED screen is a light emitting diode and emits its own light. Power consumption is directly proportional to how many pixels are lit, making it easy to view, even in direct sunlight. The screen is incredibly crisp!!!
Program - There are already a lot of various LED fixtures out there that have controllers, but the NanoBox application that comes with the fixture is really one of the best features. Well at least for me, someone coming from the world of T5 and getting used to the color of LEDs.
Here are some screenshots of the application, which allows you to tweak the following for each individual buckpuck:
- Time
- Min/Max brightness (0-250)
- Max Time - since all of the LEDs are dimmable, this is the total time that the LEDs are at their maximum brightness
- Storm and Cloud Settings - will review these later
Here is the boot screen for the NanoBox program. Really simple design and easy to find what you're looking for. The controller has a USB port via a printer cable connection. Plug it in, start up the program, and you're ready to roll.
You can get all fancy smancy through the Boot Screen Editor (I haven't tweaked anything on this screen yet)
Here is the real meat of the application, the Settings tab. As you can see from the screenshot below, you can tweak all settings from this page (you can also enter edit mode on the controller without having to use a computer as well). The best thing is that you can save these to your computer, allowing you to try all sorts of combinations.
I literally spent 2 hours the weekend I got the prototype monkeying around and trying different settings.
Here are my initial thoughts and some suggestions for future improvements -
- For someone that has very little experience with LEDs, the program made tweaking and trying different color combinations incredibly easy.
- Board, controller, and program are pretty much plug and play.
- I'm still amazed at how small the fixture is and how much light it can produce. Each individual LED is tiny.
- Coming from the world of T5s, I never thought that LEDs could match the flexibility that T5 bulb combinations offer. WIth the LUXEON bulbs and this program, you can really achieve anything from a 10k look to something close to ATI Blue+.
The only real improvements that I can suggest at this point are really only minor comments relating to the computer program. Currently everything is done in military (0000-2400) time. Not a huge deal, but would be nice to have AM/PM, which may take some controller/program rewriting. The only other suggestion is to eventually have a forum or location online where people can share their settings, allowing you to share and try what others have had success with.
To finish, I really couldn't be much more impressed with what DFason has produced so far. I can't wait to see what the final extruded aluminum cases for the controller and fixture look like. Here is a picture of what my 17g Rimless looks under the lighting. This is with only 18 or the 24 bulbs firing and this was before I had a chance to tweak the min/max brightness for the whites and royal blues.
Part 2 will be coming in the next few weeks.
-Adam
