RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G

[markalot]

Glad to see you around, looking forward for more updates!

[RollaJase]

Glad to see you around, looking forward for more updates!

Thanks Mark .

 

Seeing as there are no pics on page 19, here is a potato quality picture of what I have been working on...

[RollaJase]

Well, not having a whole lot of luck with the light. Was working flawlessly when I hung it Saturday, since then, I lost my Cyan channel and when trying to fix that lost one of my blue channels. I've disabled the two affected channels so no more damage is done and I'll look at it this weekend. I hope its just a dodgy solder point. I tried swapping around the LDD drivers on the channels that aren't working and that didn't fix the issue so I'm fairly certain its just shorting somewhere.

[jedimasterben]

Well, that sucks hard! What I do in times like this is just melt every solder connection in the array, then try it again

[RollaJase]

Well, that sucks hard! What I do in times like this is just melt every solder connection in the array, then try it again

That will be what I'll do this weekend. When I initially started soldering I had some old cruddy solder that wouldn't melt correctly, I got part way through and stopped while I waited for some new solder to come in. One last thing I want to try is swapping my blue channels around and the cyan with the UV to confirm if it is dodgy soldering or of my O2 board is having issues. I hope it's not the board, if I need to order a new one the freight is worth more than the board!

[jedimasterben]

That will be what I'll do this weekend. When I initially started soldering I had some old cruddy solder that wouldn't melt correctly, I got part way through and stopped while I waited for some new solder to come in. One last thing I want to try is swapping my blue channels around and the cyan with the UV to confirm if it is dodgy soldering or of my O2 board is having issues. I hope it's not the board, if I need to order a new one the freight is worth more than the board!

What kind of solder did you use? Lead FTW

[RollaJase]

What kind of solder did you use? Lead FTW

I usually use standard rosin core for cable soldering but this time round I used a lead free solder (63 sn/37 pb), this is probably my problem. Lead free can be acidic to gold contacts and can become brittle but I have never encountered this myself. I really don't want to have to solder everything back in again . Lead anything is really hard to get over here due to the health implications. Worst case is I'm cooking channels due to heat but I don't think that is the case, the heatsink I made is overkill.

 

I always solder surface contacts using flux though, to prevent unnecessary heat to delicate electronics, this could also be my issue, maybe, never had this issue before either.

 

Also, Ben, would it be safe to say that the issue is most likely at the start of the string of LEDs? Its not like like the first and second arrays with Cyan are working and the rest aren't, I just get no illumination at all, same with the Royal Blues.

[RollaJase]

So, was able to troubleshoot the light this evening. I started by taking it down and checking all solder points across the arrays. I checked all for possible arcing and correct connection. I even fixed a few that I weren't happy with. Powered the light and still was having issues with one of the Royal Blue channels and the Cyan channel.

 

Next I checked all connections between the LEDs and the control board. Here I found that one of the terminal blocks on the Royal Blue channel that wasn't working was faulty. It wouldn't clamp down hard enough or as far as the other terminal blocks. This was causing a poor connection and as a result the string of arrays wasn't working. I fixed this and tested the fixture again. Both Royal Blue channels working correctly again .

 

Next I swapped the cabling on the controller between my UV channel and Cyan channel. Tested the fixture again, Cyan channel works, UV doesn't. I also noticed that while fixing up a dodgy solder point that I must have had the shaft of my soldering iron too close to one of the LEDs on the Cyan channel. The gel cap on the LED has disintegrated and it does not light up . Kinda pissed me off but at least it is on the Cyan channel and not one of the more noticeable ones. If it annoys me enough I'll just order a new array from Dave, or order a replacement diode and try my hand at fixing it myself.

 

Lastly, I swapped the cables back between the UV and Cyan channels on the controller and swapped one of the LDD drivers from the Royal Blue channels with the one running the Cyan channel. UV channel is back working, nothing from the Cyan channel.

 

I'm starting to think that the issue has something to do with the driver board that I am using. I may have to pull the fixture apart again and check the solder points on the main board to make sure everything is ok. This isn't necessarily a difficult tank but it is time consuming. I am hoping to have time to do this over the weekend.

[EquinsuOcha]

Awesome tank. Can you please give a link for the wire management ways you have, the grey treys

[RollaJase]

Awesome tank. Can you please give a link for the wire management ways you have, the grey treys

Thanks, and thanks for stopping buy. The stuff I used is similar to this:

http://3.imimg.com/data3/DV/CW/MY-2528287/pvc-cable-channels-500x500.jpg

I got it from a local hardware store for about $15 for a 2M length. It comes pre-fitted with double sided tape for mounting but I used button head screws with washers to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. I took a look on the website of the store I got mine from and it looks like they no longer have it. Did a quick look on Home Depot and Lowe's also and didn't really have much luck. Did manage to find something on amazon though:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-2inx1in-Wiring-Cable-Raceway/dp/B00066HOPM/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1463728811&sr=8-27&keywords=cable+management

[jedimasterben]

Did manage to find something on amazon though:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-2inx1in-Wiring-Cable-Raceway/dp/B00066HOPM/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1463728811&sr=8-27&keywords=cable+management

This is what I have and it is well made and awesome

[EquinsuOcha]

Thank you very much!!! Going to use them!

[jedimasterben]

Thank you very much!!! Going to use them!

The only downside is that if you ever want to remove a device or add another, it is a complete and utter bitch to do lol.

[RollaJase]

The only downside is that if you ever want to remove a device or add another, it is a complete and utter bitch to do lol.

And this is why I used decent screws and large washers to hold the channel in place. One on each end and one in the centre of each length. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to remove the tight fitting lid if I need to.

[RollaJase]

Another quick update. While trying to fix an issue with my new light I made matters worse by running reverse polarity through it. This resulted in me blowing some drivers and hopefully none of the LED's were damaged. Some replacement drivers arrived today from a local source and I have some extra spares coming in from overseas. I'm hoping that after some further testing tonight I can determine the extent of the damage I caused. For now, the AI Sol is back over the tank until I can get things sorted.

 

Big thanks to Ben for his advise and help in regards to all the issues. Goes to show that I shouldn't be messing with this sort of stuff at 11pm at night lol.

[Benny314]

Hahaha, I managed to put 48V 700ma through a DS1820 temperature sensor when building my arrays (I'd crossed some wires in a d sub connector when I soldered the 2 sides up).

There was a pop, blue flash and distinct smell of burning electrical equipment. Needless to say that temperature sensor has never worked lol.

 

If it was the power supply you hooked up wrong the chances are you'll of only fried your LDDs or whatever your using as LED drivers as they'll of fried before allowing the wrong polarity to the LEDs.

[RollaJase]

Hahaha, I managed to put 48V 700ma through a DS1820 temperature sensor when building my arrays (I'd crossed some wires in a d sub connector when I soldered the 2 sides up).

There was a pop, blue flash and distinct smell of burning electrical equipment. Needless to say that temperature sensor has never worked lol.

 

If it was the power supply you hooked up wrong the chances are you'll of only fried your LDDs or whatever your using as LED drivers as they'll of fried before allowing the wrong polarity to the LEDs.

Yeah, far from my finest moment lol. Hooked up the Meanwell HLG PSU back to front on my driver board, when I powered it on it blew the solder joint off the positive lead going to the controller board. I fixed that issue, powered everything on again and lost the LDD on channel 1, powered off, removed the LDD and when I powered on the light again the LDD on channel 3 went. That's as far as I got, after much cursing. I've got two replacement LDD drivers sitting next to me now to replace the drivers I know I fried. I'll be testing the other 4 this evening to see the real extent of the damage. As you said, the LDDs usually fry before passing off any voltage, I hope that this is the case and I haven't damaged any of the NB arrays. If I have, this will turn into a very expensive mistake by me.

[Benny314]

Live and learn.

My best blunder was when I wired up the power board that sits under my cabinet; I managed to wire in a dead short. When I plugged it into the mains to test it, the RCD immediately dropped in the house. I reset it and like a mug plugged it in again to the RCD dropping straight away. The 3rd time of doing it the rocker in the plug socket I was using fried and now there's a plug in the kitchen that you can't turn off as the rocker is melted lol. This was about 01:00 as I thought doing some mains voltage wiring while staying up late to get ready for my night shifts that week was a good way to pass the time............

Any electrical work when your tired or not paying full attention never goes well in my experience hahahaha.

[RollaJase]

Live and learn.

My best blunder was when I wired up the power board that sits under my cabinet; I managed to wire in a dead short. When I plugged it into the mains to test it, the RCD immediately dropped in the house. I reset it and like a mug plugged it in again to the RCD dropping straight away. The 3rd time of doing it the rocker in the plug socket I was using fried and now there's a plug in the kitchen that you can't turn off as the rocker is melted lol. This was about 01:00 as I thought doing some mains voltage wiring while staying up late to get ready for my night shifts that week was a good way to pass the time............

Any electrical work when your tired or not paying full attention never goes well in my experience hahahaha.

Ouch, yeah, that's not fun. Live and learn indeed. What annoys me is, I had everything up and running, no problems besides my 6th channel not working (tested LEDs from channel 6 on channel 5 and no issues there). I pulled the light apart to troubleshoot, put it back together and here we are. In hindsight I should have left it until the morning.

[RollaJase]

Update on the light. As per Ben's recommendations, I removed all drivers from my controller board and tested each LED channel one by one with one of the new LDD drivers, all worked fine, still having issues with channel 6. I then tested the existing 4 LDD drivers and they didn't pop. I installed one of the two SCW drivers to test the arduino, it powered on and I am getting 12v through the fan headers. I installed the other SCW driver after installing the BF Mini and that powered on with no trouble either. An odd issue I am having though is that even though the light schedule says the light should be off, some channels are still powered on, seems to be channel 3&4, the Royal Blue channels. I am able to access the BF mini over wifi with no problems, but, I am unable to have any of the settings that are changed through the app apply. I know electric imp were having issues, the service status says all systems are normal though. I'll leave things for tonight and will try again tomorrow. Hopefully things have rectified themselves if it is a software issue.

[vlangel]

Update on the light. As per Ben's recommendations, I removed all drivers from my controller board and tested each LED channel one by one with one of the new LDD drivers, all worked fine, still having issues with channel 6. I then tested the existing 4 LDD drivers and they didn't pop. I installed one of the two SCW drivers to test the arduino, it powered on and I am getting 12v through the fan headers. I installed the other SCW driver after installing the BF Mini and that powered on with no trouble either. An odd issue I am having though is that even though the light schedule says the light should be off, some channels are still powered on, seems to be channel 3&4, the Royal Blue channels. I am able to access the BF mini over wifi with no problems, but, I am unable to have any of the settings that are changed through the app apply. I know electric imp were having issues, the service status says all systems are normal though. I'll leave things for tonight and will try again tomorrow. Hopefully things have rectified themselves if it is a software issue.

Wow, its good that you know so much about all the electronics. I wished I had that sort of knowledge and skills but since I don't I will just stay with my set on the tank and plug in T5s.

[jedimasterben]

An odd issue I am having though is that even though the light schedule says the light should be off, some channels are still powered on, seems to be channel 3&4, the Royal Blue channels.

That's really odd. Got a pic of how you have the jumpers for that channel?

[RollaJase]

Wow, its good that you know so much about all the electronics. I wished I had that sort of knowledge and skills but since I don't I will just stay with my set on the tank and plug in T5s.

I've always been pretty good at pulling stuff apart and putting it back together again . Electronics have always been a passion of mine though. With how these LED kits are going, everything is basically plug and play now, much easier than a few years ago where it involved a lot more soldering.

 

That's really odd. Got a pic of how you have the jumpers for that channel?

Average picture but here are how the jumpers are. I haven't played with them since getting the board besides putting the fan control on the UV channel, was supposed to follow up on what the gang select jumpers do...

[jedimasterben]

I've always been pretty good at pulling stuff apart and putting it back together again . Electronics have always been a passion of mine though. With how these LED kits are going, everything is basically plug and play now, much easier than a few years ago where it involved a lot more soldering.

 

Average picture but here are how the jumpers are. I haven't played with them since getting the board besides putting the fan control on the UV channel, was supposed to follow up on what the gang select jumpers do...

Channel gang select means that you can put a jumper linking CH2 and CH3 and both will be controlled by either CH2 or CH3 of the BF mini.

 

In this example I made a while back, only CH2 and CH5 are active on this board, and there are jumpers from CH1 to CH2, and CH2 to CH3, which are all controlled by CH2 on the BF Mini, and then CH4, CH5, and CH6 are all jumpered and controlled by CH5 of the BF mini. And last, CH5 also controls the fan outputs on this board.

 

[RollaJase]

Channel gang select means that you can put a jumper linking CH2 and CH3 and both will be controlled by either CH2 or CH3 of the BF mini.

 

In this example I made a while back, only CH2 and CH5 are active on this board, and there are jumpers from CH1 to CH2, and CH2 to CH3, which are all controlled by CH2 on the BF Mini, and then CH4, CH5, and CH6 are all jumpered and controlled by CH5 of the BF mini. And last, CH5 also controls the fan outputs on this board.

 

Hmm, I see, thanks for explaining that. I'm using all the channels individually with channel 1 & 2 sharing whites and channel 3 & 4 sharing the blues. So, realistically I could have channel 1 & 2 controlled from a single slider in the BF mini and I could do the same for channel 3 & 4, good to know. You couldn't see anything wrong with how I have things set up?