Dave_uk Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 Bummer. Lets hope this trend doesn't continue. Look at the bright side. You ended up getting better power supplies anyway Yeah, your right. Now I just need to sort out the LEDs but theres no reply from Cutter yet. TBH Im pretty dissapointed with the service. I think when they realised they were out of stock of what I had ordered they should have contacted me and asked if I wanted a substitute or if I wanted to wait. Now after making the mistake they dont seem to be in a hurry to help me out either. Im hoping they turn out to be WG bin so I can carry on with the project. Link to comment
jewbilee Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 What did you do to go about testing the LEDs? Seems like a good idea especially since I'll have my LED's before my heatsink and I'll be ancy to do something anyway Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 I just used 2 AAA batteries to test and just fired them up for less than a second. Im not sure if this is the correct way to test them though. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 That's a perfectly fine way to test them. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 4, 2009 Author Share Posted September 4, 2009 Small Update: Still no reply from cutter so I dont know if the white LEDs are any good. Ive been a bit busy lately so have only managed to get half the R Blues wired up so far. For some strange reason the heatsink screw holes seem to be slightly smalIer than last time. I dont know why as I used the same size drill bit and tap as with the pico array. The only thing I did differently was to use a little wd40 when tapping. I decided to use steel screws with washers in the end as the nylon ones were not very strong and seemed to break quite easily in the smaller holes. Anyone know a good way to get a nylon screw with no head out of a tapped hole? Pics: Half of the blues wired up with optics fitted. I was pleased with how easily the optics attach. Powered on I couldnt resist trying them out over half of my reef. WOW! The corals really glowed and I think the coverage will be pretty good (difficut to be sure without the whites though). I think the 60 degree optics are about right as they really increased the intensity of the light but still give quite good coverage. Im hoping to get time to finish wiring up the blues this weekend and some of the whites if Cutter get back to me and they are useable. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 6, 2009 Author Share Posted September 6, 2009 I just got a reply from Cutter. They cant tell me which bin the LEDs are but suggested they could be WH or WG. I think they are probably WH as they appear pretty yellow so I will have to send them back. I have asked Cutter if they are willing to send the replacements straight away as otherwise I will have to wait for at least 3 or 4 weeks so hopefully they will agree, especially as they sent the wrong ones. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 17, 2009 Author Share Posted September 17, 2009 Time for an update.... The Arduino/automation side of the project is now complete (Thanks to Hugh and his hard work) . Unfortunately I can't do much with it as im still waiting for the replacement LEDs from Cutter so havent been able to finish the wiring In the mean time here are some photos of the arduino etc. :- Assembled. Im am probably going to ditch the idea of having the display showing through the front of the fixture and just have the whole unit sitting inside. Boards seperated. Arduino (left), LCD display (right) and interface board (centre) with RTC chip, crystal, battery, buffer (to protect arduino when controlling multiple buckpucks) and connectors etc. And some screenshots:- Main screen. The bars at the top show the current intensity of each colour of LED. There is a temperature reading from the temp sensor and the current date and time. The botton line is used to scroll between different screens. Time/Date adjust screen. LED test screen. This allows me to manually set the intensity of each LED and has display bars like the main screen. Extras Screen. The speed up option increases the speed by 20 (3 seconds per minute) for testing. The from EEPROM option loads a test data array from memory. The debug screen option outputs status data to the arduino software for debugging. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 UPDATE: Still no white LEDs from Cutter. They said they would chase the postal service a week ago but havent got back to me. Maybe its just me but If I sent a customer the incorrect item I would be trying to be as helpfull as possible to sort the issue out. Ive sent them another chase up email but Im losing hope as it been 5 1/2 weeks since I placed the order. Link to comment
jewbilee Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 I just saw your update on your Adruino. Thats pretty slick. How much did that end up costing you (out of curiosity) Link to comment
johnamon Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 UPDATE: Still no white LEDs from Cutter. They said they would chase the postal service a week ago but havent got back to me. Maybe its just me but If I sent a customer the incorrect item I would be trying to be as helpfull as possible to sort the issue out. Ive sent them another chase up email but Im losing hope as it been 5 1/2 weeks since I placed the order. Dave, It won't get you your LEDs any quicker but I've had only good experiences with Cutter (LEDs promptly followed by an order of optics). I'm sure it's a pain in the ass for them too if stuff goes missing... Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 I just saw your update on your Adruino. Thats pretty slick. How much did that end up costing you (out of curiosity) It only cost about £50-60 for components. Not bad really when you consider what it will do. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 Dave, It won't get you your LEDs any quicker but I've had only good experiences with Cutter (LEDs promptly followed by an order of optics). I'm sure it's a pain in the ass for them too if stuff goes missing... I didnt have any issues the last time I orderd either. They arrived very quickly and were exactly what I ordered. I know things can go wrong however good the company is, Im just a bit stressed with waiting for a reply as I think they should at least me keeping me updated on the situation especially as the original problem was their fault. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 9, 2009 Author Share Posted October 9, 2009 No LEDs yet. It appears that they were lost in the post so cutter are re-sending. There shouldnt be any issue posting the code as I think its already published online somewhere. I will be seeing him on monday so I'll ask him then. Link to comment
NYReef Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Sucks, always one vendor that screws up and affects the build. Chin up mate, you'll be happy soon I'm sure. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 Link to code as promised:- Code The main program file is krusduino.pde Its the first version of the code so its a work in progress but it works well and I havent found any issues yet when testing. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 Royal Mail left a card today saying they had a package they couldnt deliver as I owe them customs charges so hopefully its my LEDs finally!!. Hopefully I will be able to make some progress with the build this weekend. In the mean time, here is a photo of the tank with the current T5 lighting that the LEDs will be replacing. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 Collected the LEDs first thing this morning.. yaaay! and its only taken about 10 weeks to get them Ive wired up 2 of the 4 heatsinks with whites so far. Im hoping to get the rest done today and will post some photos. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 31, 2009 Author Share Posted October 31, 2009 Woah... busy day....... Finished wiring all the LEDs today and built a test fixture to play around with spacing etc so got to see all of the LEDs running over the tank for the first time. There was good news and bad news.... The bad news was that with the LEDs layed out as originally planned the dim area in the centre of the tank was worse than expected and didnt look good at all. The good news is that I tried rotating the heatsinks the other way to give a 3 x 16 array instead of 4 x 12 and the coverage is much better so theres no need for more LEDs. Im very happy I went with seperate heatsinks now I also tested the arduino and it worked perfectly. Tommorow I will start building the fixture and post some pics. Off to bed now. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 31, 2009 Author Share Posted October 31, 2009 Photo of all the LEDs on heatsinks. Finally! I used some molex connectors to make it easier to connect. I couldnt get any photos of the testing yesterday as I had to hold the temporary fixtur to stop it going for a swim so didnt have a hand free for a camera. I will be working on the fixture today and will post some pics later. Link to comment
Dave_uk Posted October 31, 2009 Author Share Posted October 31, 2009 Knocked this up this morning. Its simple but should do the job perfectly well. Its built from MDF as I couldnt find any ply locally that wasnt bent or warped. Primed, ready for vinyl wrap. Link to comment
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