electronics programming?

I am planning my next build and kinda thinking about lighting.
What I am planning on doing is some LED stuff. I want to have my blues on a controllable dimmer <-- this part i am capable of right now
So instead of having to sit there and manually adjust my led's every single day, I wanted to put them on a program that would start out dimmed, go bright for morning and night actinics, then go down to low power for night time and then be off for a few hours... then repeat every day.

Is this possible anyone?

 

Yes and no.

Easiest and least expensive way: It is possible if you have a computer hooked up to the lights, but it would have to be on 24/7 and the program must always be running. You could build an onboard computer, but this will take time, money, and you need the right skills.

II would just see if a controller and regulate that for you.

 

Very possible.... but would be better off using a RK or Neptune or whatever with a 10Volt light control output. End up being more reliable, less work, and more functionality.

 

Thanks guys... Looks like I'll be dropping some $$$ on a controller!
Does anyone know off hand which ones have a 10v controllable output?

 

Not sure if you're familiar with Arduino, but I've read of people doing this exact thing for cheaper than the price of a controller but more of a pain to build. Soldering and programming skills are required along with quite a bit of patience. I'll post some links if I can find them.

 

thanks... maybe im missing some stuff but i thought that arduino could only program up to 8 things?

 

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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NY
Posts: 10,494


www.ardunio.cc is the homepage for Arduino. It's a board (hardware) and development environment (software on your PC) designed to make it easy for average people to create projects based on the AVR microcontrollers from atmel. Check out that site, and the forum located there, for some ideas on how people are using arduinos. I'm really thrilled I stumbled across this stuff, because it lets IT folk like me do dangerous things out in the real world, instead of being confined to the digital world.

You can download the software from that site. You'll need hardware, too - an ardunio-compatible board. The current official board is called the duemilanove. You can buy one from a number of vendors listed on that site. Since it's an open source project, you can also get a clone from a number of vendors. This is the route I took, since it's cheaper and gives you only what you want. The duemilanove runs about $30, and has onboard USB connectivity for programming, plus some other features I didn't care about. Since I set out to design something to build and leave in place, I went with a solution that keeps the board pretty stripped down.

www.moderndevice.com is the vendor I used for the board. I bought their kit called the RBBB (really bare bones board), and their USB-BUB, which is a dongle that lets you plug it into a PC's USB port to program it. The RBBB kit is about $12, and the BUB is about $12. You'll only ever need one BUB, you can re-use it - so for additional projects, you only need the controller.

Also, I have an RTC (real time clock) in my project to keep track of time. The Arduino has timekeeping ability, but it's reset when the power goes out. Adding a hardware RTC lets you keep track of the time with a battery backed-chip, so when power comes back on, the controller knows what time it is. I bought a raw chip (DS1307) and added a few external components to get this capability, it was maybe $5. You can get pre-made RTCs based on this chip for around $10 - $20.

If you get drivers that can take a PWM signal, that's all you need, besides hookup wire, a project box to put it in, and some other odds and ends. The Arduino has 6 PWM outputs, so you'll be able to program 6 channels of LED lighting from it.

So I guess in my eagerness I was misrepresenting cost a bit. You could be functional for maybe $40 - $50 investment, if you're choosy, and want to control a few channels of LED lighting.

I'm not online much right now (no internet connection at home until next week) but lemme know if you have more questions, and I'll answer when I get a chance.

Of course, the above applies if you want an LED controller. The arduino can also function as a controller for your entire reef, the sky's really the limit. There's an active thread in here about someone who's making an arduino-based reef controller called the reef buddy, and there are several other threads and blogs out there on the internet about doing this, too - I have many of them bookmarked, but the bookmarks are all on my home PC which, of course, is offline right now. But, other people are interfacing with temperature sensors, pH probes, LCD screens, auto topoff devices, automated water changing, etc. - hardware cost grows a bit as you add functionality, but it's on a vastly different price scale than most commercial solutions, which of course are aimed at people who want something out of the box, instead of DIY.



__________________
Inconveniencing marine life since 1992

"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)

Yes, I stole it..... But, at least we know who to thank.;D

 

Aduino Duemlanivoea. This is a pre-built, one piece unit that hooks to a computer (hopefully an HP mini in my case ). You'll have to write the code, written in "C", yourself or search for a program that will give you the code. It can do the stuff you & I are looking for. (i.e. dim-able lights and controlling equipment.)

EDIT: this costs just $39 & came out in 2009, hence the name, meaning Aduino 2009. This is the newest version.

 

Check out Matt's post on the Reef Angel. It's built in the Ardunio, has a large library of code written, has a demo program built in and will hook directly up to your LEDs

 

I did happen to see this actually. It seems cool. I'll go with that if I have the money. I kind of want to go the DIY rout though. Like the netbooks too.