jeffb418 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Has anyone here interfaced Bluefish to the T247 light? Doing some initial research online it seems it's drivers are 3.3V PWM. Can anyone confirm this? I have a bunch of friends with these fixtures, as well as a local retailer that is interested in retrofitting the bluefish into these lights. Let me know if anyone has any info before I dive in myself. Thanks! Link to comment
iHexBot Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Take a look at this (skip to 1 minutes and 28 seconds): I have commented on the video before and gotten a response within a few hours. Might not be a bad idea to ask your question on the video too, the guy who does the tear down can most likely answer your questions too. Cheers and good luck . Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 Thanks! After I get one integrated, I will be posting a how to on this forum. Link to comment
iHexBot Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Any idea on a rough time frame in regards to getting a bluefish into an OR 247B? I have been wanting to do this for a long time but have no idea how to... Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 I'm going to start on this in the next few weeks. I'm working with a local fish store that is a dealer for T247 and they are gonna to hook me up with everything I need to prototype this up. I might even put together premade harnesses if anyone wants one as well. I'll keep everyone posted. Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 Nope, I dont have a bluefish mini yet. Im waiting for my LFS to either get one or for another person to buy one. I'm not going to purchase one since I dont own T247 myself. Unless Spenser wants to ship me a sample to integrate with =). I have multiple local people with T247's that are more than willing to let me test it on. Link to comment
iHexBot Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 I'm in a similar boat. I have the LED fixture, but not the Bluefish Mini. Hard for me to justify purchasing one without knowing whether it will work or not. Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 Yeah I'll definitely have something in the next month or so for sure. Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Sorry the LFS owner has been busy and hasn't ordered me a bluefish mini yet. I may just end up buying it myself to get this moving. Link to comment
mlivvy Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 I managed to get the bluefish to dim the t-247b but.. It won't dim past 10%. At 0% on the bluefish app it stays ON at 10%. I wired the BF mini with the factory timer. The factory timer powers the mini but I disabled the PWM signals going to it and rerouted them to the BF. It works fine and the factory timer shuts off the lights. The only catch is that it's at 10% when the timer shuts them off. The only possible way to get it to work and dim to 0 will be to use a SSR relay. There is no room in the t-247 to fit a relay. I had to hack a space to fit the BF mini in and the BF mini is small. Adding the relays will most likely require an external box and more wires coming out of the light and I really like the single wire look of the light right now. So..For those of you interested in modding these lights.. Do you prefer to dim all the way down to 0 or can you live with 10-100% dimming? Link to comment
iHexBot Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 I managed to get the bluefish to dim the t-247b but.. It won't dim past 10%. At 0% on the bluefish app it stays ON at 10%. I wired the BF mini with the factory timer. The factory timer powers the mini but I disabled the PWM signals going to it and rerouted them to the BF. It works fine and the factory timer shuts off the lights. The only catch is that it's at 10% when the timer shuts them off. The only possible way to get it to work and dim to 0 will be to use a SSR relay. There is no room in the t-247 to fit a relay. I had to hack a space to fit the BF mini in and the BF mini is small. Adding the relays will most likely require an external box and more wires coming out of the light and I really like the single wire look of the light right now. So..For those of you interested in modding these lights.. Do you prefer to dim all the way down to 0 or can you live with 10-100% dimming? Honestly, you are a amazing. Any chance I can convince you to take some pictures detailing how to wire the bluefish mini to the T247? If time allows, a tutorial for complete noobs would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the awesome work. 10% is a great start...but the greedy part of me says 0% is even better :-p...of course I know nothing about how this all works, since I will take anything . Keep up the awesome work! P.S. - Can the T247 simulate a storm with the Bluefish mini? Link to comment
mlivvy Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 I'll have pics up soon. It's actually pretty simple since you only need the pwm wires to go into 2 channels on the mini. You can power the mini from an unused 12v connector on the factory timer. You only need 1 ground connection so hooking up to the connector solves that. The only hard part is getting the BF mini to fit inside the enclosure. They engineered this light down to every cm. I had to dremel out a piece from the heatsink to mount the BF. I also had to remove the USB port on the mini to fit it into the spot I chose. The BF mini works as normal. It ramps from 10-100% and the storm simulation works fine. The only thing you won't have is the sunset feature since it won't go to 0%. As soon as the driver hits 10% it stops dimming. Link to comment
iHexBot Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Awesome man, looking forward to the update! Link to comment
iHexBot Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Pretty damn sweet. Video / pictures coming for how to do the wiring? Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted June 6, 2016 Author Share Posted June 6, 2016 Yeah sorry I never got back to this. I never found anyone to invest in buying a bluefish mini so it never got off the ground. Instead I am now designing a converter board for APEX to control the T247 since many more people said they would rather have that. Just got the prototypes in this week. Link to comment
mlivvy Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Will the boards allow the drivers in the T247 to dim to 0%? Seems like those drivers don't go below 10%. Link to comment
mlivvy Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Here's something quick I put together. You'll need to cut the heatshield a few cm to allow the mini to fit in that corner. I used velcro/double sided tape to secure it. You'll also need to cover up the exposed area on the mini so it doesn't make contact with the heatshield. It's a good idea to also setup your wifi/blinkup before closing the fixture. I'm not sure if the phones screen will reach the mini during the blinkup with the closed enclosure. Maybe I can test this later. For wiring I used jumper cables from an Arduino. Or you could just use the Ribbon breakout cable sold with the BF mini but you would need pin connectors to tap into the connector port on the factory timer. And here's the wiring diagram.. Link to comment
jeffb418 Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 Will the boards allow the drivers in the T247 to dim to 0%? Seems like those drivers don't go below 10%. It doesn't now but now that I know this, I can easily design it to control the other lines below a certain %. Jeff Link to comment
JJ92 Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Hi Jeff, Any update on your work on the apex T247 mods? Link to comment
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