Im still trying to get some good pics of the corals but its so hard to take decent photos with the Royal Blues on.. everything just looks washed out. The tank looks amazing and its frustrating not being able to share photos so if anyone has any tips on getting good photos....


Heres a photo of the moonlight setting.

Looks great.

I struggled with pics too - why I didnt post any for my build.

Any chance of a parts list for the Arduino & where to buy in uk. Thought I'd finished my build but I'm too jealous now

just like to say dave uk ive not seen your tank before
would like to say it looks great, those led lights are brill.
nice to see someone from uk on here too!!

Parts list and links for the Arduino part of the project:-

Arduino
LCD Sheild
Protoshield board
DS1307RTC Chip
Holder for RTC
32.756kHz Crystal - I think I bought this from bitbox.co.uk
CR2032 Battery holder
CR2032 Battery - Standard type, available everywhere
DS18B20 Temp Sensor
Dual Power Mosfet Driver

Resistors
1 x 4k7 for temp sensor
2 x 10k for RTC Chip
1 x 220R for second timing LED

We also used some molex connectors to connect the wires from the buckpucks and temp sensor etc.

In total it cost around £50 in parts to put together.

Quick update:

All of the corals seem to be doing well. My frogspawn and cornet were sulking for a few days but seem much better now. My xenia especially likes the new lighting and is pulsing better than ever. Im going to increase the LEDs to about 65% this weekend.

For anyone that had downloaded the arduino code, there is a slight bug... the line:-

else {tickrate = 59;}

should be

else {tickrate = 60;}

otherwise it will run fast.

Aother quick update:

I increased the array to 65% today and the corals appear to have responded well, especially my frogspawn which was sulking a bit when I first made the switch to LEDs but its now fully extended and looks great. Its even started to show some new growth.

It took me a few days to get used to the new lights as they look so different to the T5's but Im now very happy with the more dramatic look and vibrant colours and the shimmer is fantastic. Im also very happy with the dawn to dusk cycle as I have never liked the on/off timer setup.

Unfortunately I dont have the equipment to measure PAR but from the way my corals are reacting i think I have found a level similar or slightly higher than the 4 54w T5s which is great as its using about half the electricity. I will be running at this level for a week and will then probably increase to 75%.
__________________

Awesome build Dave_UK. Thanks also for the details on the arduino dawn/dusk gadget. I hope to put LED lighting on my next build, and then upgrade it to an arduino sunrise/sunset as soon as I can figure it out properly. And hopefully the details posted are enough to get me going.

In any case, your arduino board, with the added LCD, seems the nicest and most complete implementation of this that I've seen anywhere. It's been fun to read about.

Thanks.

Ive tried to give as much info as I can as I know how helpfull the info from other build threads can be.

this thread is great! im going to be starting my LED fixture soon for my 56G tank, im going with 60 LED's but going to have a computer friend of mine replicate your controller over a 36x18x21 tank using 60* optics. thanks a bunch for posting all of the great info!

Update:

Corals still appear to be doing well and growing faster than under T5s, especially the pipe organ and frogspawn which has become aggressive with sweeper tenticles all over the place. I assume its making sure there is plenty of space to grow around it. The only coral thats not doing too well is a small blasto frag that has retracted a little. If it doesnt improve I will move it further down away from the LEDs.

The array is still currently running at a peak of 65% with a 14 hour cycle (with 2 hours dawn & 2 hour dusk) and I will be increasing this to 75% this weekend if there are no further issues with the corals. I dont think I will need to increase it further than this for the current livestock, although I may turn up the blues a little more to raise the colour temp a little.

Ive just been given an updated version of the arduino code which fixes some bugs and adds a handy temperature readout to the LED Test menu. For anyone thats using the code, the update (release 10) is available via the first link.

wow. just read this whole thread. that is awesome!

Sick thread.
When im back living in London, I will sure hit you up for my LED project.

I'd be glad to help

Hello Dave,

This is such a nice build, I've been studying it to build my own. I just have a couple of questions regarding the Arduino board. I have no experience with it so the questions are pretty simple.

I've seen on nuelectronics that they have Freeduino. I know it's an open-source version of the Arduino. But are there any differences ? I mean, is there anything else to do to have the Freeduino running that I would'nt have to do with Arduino ? I'm a newbee and I don't want to lose time finding out how the Freeduino works whereas there's so much info about Arduino.

Thanks Dave !

I think they are the same but just non-branded. I would still buy the Arduino though as they are pretty cheap and not a big part of the build cost.

The best luck I have had photographing LED's is a ridiculously slow shutter speed and a tripod. I have taken some awesome photos of LED's that way. Anything that fluoresces will come out crystal clear, but the dark blue/shaded areas will seem a little funky; almost like they are 2D.

Hey, guess what? I found one of my Royal Blue LED photos!

This is a 5g aquarium I set up for some blind cave tetras. Used the Red Sea coral ornaments for kicks. I can't remember the settings I used to get this to come out right, but the shutter speed was like 2 seconds lol...

You can see what I mean about the blue/shaded areas looking 2D.

wow. thats a great photo.

I had another try today but still couldnt get anything decent. Im on ly using a compact digital camera which doesnt have many options though so maybe thats why.

Beautiful build and end result. I would love to play with an Arduino controlled LED setup sometime myself

After a hell of a lot of playing around with the settings on my camera I finally have a few coral photos to post. They are still not great but after a minor bit of photoshopping the colours are pretty accurate but still a little less bright that they look under the LEDs.

Dave, did you use pull up resistors for the RTC ?

NICE light!

Yes.

Well then, what are the resistors values ? Thanks Dave.

10K

For anyone that wants to copy the controller design, Ive just been told by the guy that built it that it should also work with meanwell drivers too with the addition of just a 10v power supply and possibly a pull up resistor. This is because it uses a dual power MOSFET driver on the output which will convert TTL level signals into high current outputs at voltages up to 15v. Not sure how many meanwells you could run in parralel without knowing the input requirement for the PWM connections. (MOSFET driver is max 200mA)

Dave

Great looking build.

Do you have a close up photo or do you know the resistor bandings.

Heres a photo

ok.. Ive been getting loads of messages about the controller so to help everyone out here is a pdf document with full a full parts list, circuit diagram, board layout and link to the code etc. This should be enough to enable anyone that can hold a sodering iron to replicate the controller.

Before downloading and reading this document please be aware that I accept no liability for any damages or losses suffered as a result of actions taken based on the information in the document. It is simply a documented account of the way my controller was built and if anyone wishes to replicate the design they do so at their own risk.

Here is the link

There's great stuff there.

Cheers
JC

It's a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I can't believe how cheap that LCD module is.

Yep. not too many components but does exactly what it was designed to do.

I dont know how they sell the LCD shields for £10 and still make a profit. Happy they do though. They arent the best looking screens available but are the perfect size and with the joystick/button etc I think they are ideal.

could you add this controller to any LED set up, say maybe 6 or 12 LED set up and just use diff power supply, buck pucks for the amount of LED's your using? or would you need to change things on the controller also ?

You could use the controller for any amount of buckpucks from 2 (1 for each colour) up to the maximum the buffer chip supports (10 per output/colour I think). It wouldnt require any change to the controller.

V2 of the document will be coming soon with a user guide etc.

Hi Dave,

I have questions about sunrise and sunset phases. Are these made by dimming the blue leds only ? Could you please tell us how you do it (what time the blue leds start and finish ramping up for sunrise mode, how about the white leds) ?
Thans Dave !

In the code each colour has a data array of 96 values each representing a 15 minute time interval in the 24 hour period. This enables complete control over the period and intensity of each colour. I will be experimenting with this to give different colour temps at different times of the day. I currenly have a 2 hour dawn and dusk (both colours) with 10 hours on max intensity (75% at the moment).

Dave that build is excellent man really thought out and clean!

Did you have to use those filter capacitors between the pucks and psu like johnamon was talking about?

Thanks, Im pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I ended up using the capacitors as I didnt want to take the risk of killing the buckpucks.

Dave, I'm far from being an expert in coding so I don't understand everything in your code. As you've described you have defined 15-minute time intervals for lighting. Is it possible to increment / decrement light in a "more" linear way ?

Its just the data array that is split into 15 minute intervals but the code adjusts the instensity incrimentaly every 1 minute between intervals. It would be possible to have a larger data array with closer together time intervals (would also use more memory) but I dont think it would be of any benefit unless you wanted to be able to change LED intensity in a shorter time.

One thing i have found is that Its pretty much impossible to have a completely smooth dawn/dusk as the arduino only has values of 0 to 255 for PWM and the difference between 0 and 1, 1 to 2 etc are noticeable. at higher levels its not noticeable at all though.

The fake acro looks real. Lol!

really nice dave.

BUGGER!!

Lost a power supply today. Its the second time its happenned.

Looks like its overheated and died.

Im worried that it might be something in my array causing the power supplies to fail. Can anyone with some electrical experience (hi evil) tell me if this is possible or if I have probably just been unlucky.

Hi Dave,

I blew both of the buckpucks prior to adding the capacitors recommended by the cree datasheets. My 12 LED unit has been running since last June on the same maplin power supply..

However my Maplin power supply has recently been squealing when the fan kicks in (the fan bearings sound wrecked). So it could just be a case that we have purchased rubbish power supplies!!

Thats what happened to the first power supply. It got really noisy before it failed. Im hoping its just the power supply that was crap as thats easy to fix.

Hmm... I should investigate a backup soon then!!

I might be getting away with it because I'm only running at about 2amps (2strings of 6 LEDs plus arduino) and my kitchen doesn't go above about 15deg C at this time of year in sunny Aberdeen!

Im only running at around 3A per power supply and they are rated up to 6A. I think they have crap fans and overheat easily.

I'll get my screwdriver, Hoover and lubricant (ooh err..) and see if I can't fix my injured psu tonight! I'm going on holiday soon and don't want a failure then!