cool evil I will be looking out for that.

I'm going to hook up my Meanwell to only 6 XR-E's. The best way is in series, correct? The Meanwell is constant current so the voltage will automatically adjust to around 22V output (3.7*6) correct? I don't want to fry my array.

Also, turning the internal pot all the way counterclockwise reduces the current to near 1A, correct? My multimeter is cheap and I don't want to rely on it.

Correct
Correct



Incorrect, The internal pot will adjust further then 1A. Your going to need a new multimeter that can handle over 1A, and with it on the amp setting hook it up in series with the LEDs. Also always disconnect the power to the diver when disconnecting the LEDs or changing the multimeter.

Edit- should also mention that the voltage that you send to your dimming circuit will also determine where the internal pot adjustment will end up. So apply full voltage to the dimming circuit then adjust the internal pot.

You should be able to just turn it all the way CCW. Bottom end of the current limit is 975mA (1.3A -25%). I don't think 25mA will make much difference

I think the internal pot goes beyond that limit, but I'm cheating the dimming circuit with a 9v battery. Anyways with the fall 9v on the dimming circuit the internal pot will adjust from 1.29A - 0.15A

Allright so is there anything that would stop us from using a 9v power supply and adjusting the brightness of the drivers with the internal pot? Just curious if it is a bad idea to do this or if it would be just fine.

The internal pot can only dim it down to about 975mA. But yeah, if you want that 25mA dim then it's just the thing for you


In other news I just connected the pwm control pins to a 10v powersupply and that at least lit the LEDs for me. I can't be bothered with pwm just yet

The internal pot doesn't give you the adjustment you are looking for. They are also not designed to be repeatedly adjusted. Set the max current once and forget about it. I promise, I'll have the cleaned up circuit posted soon. I'll even have oscilloscope plots posted too, as my new USB scope shows up today

Just out of curiosity, what usb scope did you get evil?

Got the new one from Link Instruments (Sparkfun is selling them). Pretty good for the money. It doesn't have a super high sampling rate or frequency response, but it will work perfectly for anything I could ever need. Having an 8 channel logic analyzer and function generator built in doesn't hurt either

Yup. For me, I ended up using one of those adjustable power supplies from Radio Shack. It was under $15 and gives me 4 different settings I can run the lights at:) Here is one that is similar, but the one I got wasn't as expensive.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=3366426

Ok now I understand. I misread theluvablebum's post. So the internal pot should be turned all the way down so that the max current that will ever run through the leds will be 975mA. Am I understanding this right?

I know you're busy with everything else. I'm just a little impatient on the dimmer circuit. Using an adjustable power supply will work for now. Heck I don't even have the hanging stand for the fixture done yet so I'm not in a rush for the dimmer anyways.

You need to test to be sure, mine aren't all the way turned down and I had it running at 950mA. That was with a 9V power supply.

You are correct. Circuit will be coming soon.

How did you connect that to the meanwell? You have a picture?

I don't have a pic but it's very easy. It connects to the DIM + and - wires on the drivers. + to + and -to-!

Cool, thanks for the reply. I was nervous to have the Meanwell plugged into the wall in 2 different places.

tagged! looking forward to this circuit so that i can hook up to an RK ALC

Thanks for your hard work evil!

Anyone looked at how to control ELN-60-48D with Arduino?

Looks like "P" model can b cotrolled easier, but I ordered 4 "D" drivers because want something simple to run them before going into something more complex.

read here

http://www.next.gr/converters/frequency-to...rter-l4912.html

Hi Evil

I am wanting to order a few Meanwells for this setup too and Im still a little unsure about the dimming. I noticed that darkdevil made a buckpuck dimmer for his setup. Do you remember if that was 0-10V PWM? would it work with the meanwells?

Paul

He used a microcontroller to do 5v PWM, which isn't compatible directly with the Meanwell drivers.

You will need to make a few decisions before commiting to which model Meanwell you want. First, are you going to want to control these with a controller of some description. If no, you can get either the "D" or "P" model. The "D" is a little easier to get running, but both will work fine for manual dimming. If you are going to control them, you need to decide with what method. If you are going to do your own controller based off of something like an Arduino, the "P" is a better choice for PWM dimming. If you are going to use an off the shelf controller like an Reefkeeper Lite/Elite or a Profilux, then the "D" is the best choice. There are ways and means to make any version work with any control scheme, but these are the easiest ways.

How much current does the control input on the meanwells pull? I couldn't see the details of that in the spec sheet, and was wondering how big of a transistor I need.

Any 2n2222 or 2n4401 type transistor should be fine. The draw on the dimming circuit is in the milliamps.

Thanks for the heads up on which model to choose Mate

It sounds like P is the way to go, considering the cost of everything. Is there any designs based on the Arduino that can be replicated at home?

There has been some work here on Arduino platforms, but because it is a relatively simple platform to program for, the sky is the limit. Go nuts, try it yourself.

If you are going to use a Meanwell "P" with an Arduino, you need to control the driver via a transistor feeding it 10v. The outputs of the Arduino are only 5v.

Thank you Mate.
Im going to give it a go

may i pm you with the final shopping list for approval?

Sure. Everyone else does

okay so i'm having a dumba$$ moment
last night i completed the 555 timer circuit for the meanwell driver ( i just need to get a 10k resistor not a 10 resistor)
where does the the external 12v power gets connected to? and the red and black wiers goes to the dim wiers on the drivers correct?
many thanks evil for the pics of the circuit. it really wasn't too hard to make just time consuming because of all the quadruple checking i did before i soldered

well i finished the dimming circuit and it was a major FAIL!
i plugged everything in to test it out and the test LED that i had on there did light up. however it did not dim. i then unplugged the external power supply needed and it still stayed lit. back to the old drawing board

what about this one guys. it might take a pot directly on the line. it looks nice on paper but with my minimal knowledge on this stuff i might be wrong.

http://www.lumotech.com/sys/index.php?id=2...ppageteaser_pi1[backId]=119

Looks interesting. Hopefully it doesn't cost an arm and a leg considering that it will only support 5 LEDs at 1000mA. The dimming would be nice and simple if it really does have an internal 10v reference. Seems odd that it would for commercial lighting applications.

im having a hard time finding a place to order it from. i will continue to look but they are not located here in the usa either.
i was thinking to run my leds at a lower mA so that i can put more closer together without burning my corals and getting a much more uniform light coverage. this is going to be on a 24gal JBJ nano and since the leds are so low to the water surface too many leds at 1000mA will definitaly burn the corals but too few leds will look ugly.

Certainly. But a dimmer fixes all those problems

Did I miss the schematic for the Meanwell dimmer?

Nope Should be finished soon. Trying to find the time to polish it off and get all the pretty pictures for you guys.

ok, i'm looking at options for downgrading and it is down to either finnex 9g or cadlights 12g. I would like to try to use LEDs for it but the cost cannot go above $350, maybe up to $400. From my recent 3 hour study yesterday on a lot of LED threads i'm going to go with 16 leds (7 white, 8 RB, 1 UV for SPS) which i hope is not too much or just right. The CAD tank which looks more appealing is 15x12x13.

now onto my question: Are these drivers/PS available (where?) and i seen the dimming circuit on page whatever but read the last couple pages and seen some things that i'm not sure about. I don't want a controller to control this (just on/off not dimming) but i do want a pot. Which one would i need.

Thanks!

hey all, was just wandering if its possible to just run this driver without worrying about dimming or "extra" wiring.. or do you still have to hook up something to the dimming wires to make it happy,

You can get these drivers without dimming options.

ok cool, scared me for a minute.. thought i would have wire up a little powereboard of some kind.. thanks evil,

hi evil any updates on the circuit for RKL-ALC?

Still have to finish the manual pwm circuit (this week hopefully). The RKL interface will be next.

Cool thanks evil

...

Sorry. Been busy. I will have it done soon.

i'm having trouble locating diagram for making a voltage regulator using the lm317 to dim an ELN-60D. Could somebody point me to it? Thanks

http://www.electronics-lab.com/articles/LM317/

Set the value of R2 to an easy to get pot value, like 5K, 10K, 100K, and adjust R1 to get the 10v max output.

If you want to get all the parts from Radioshack, you can go with a 10K pot, and a 1.5K 1/2W resistor for 0-10v ouput. Feed it with a 12v power supply.

awesome! thanks evil!