Digital Lighting Controller - Single Driver 10v

DeMoNeye

DeMoNeye

Well-Known Member
Just about to start building a 4 cob cree led rig for my small glowworm.

Only running one Meanwell driver and intended to use potentiometer dimming but recently came across articles talking about digital pwm devices that mimic dawn, dusk etc.

Anyone had any experience with such a thing or know where to buy one. I suppose I'm venturing into something like a RaspPI or Adrino - two learning curves I'd rather not venture into...
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
Look up the Typhoon or the Storm X
@robincnn sells one
@welight $ cutter.au sells one
@growmaus probably keeps up to date the most since reefers were some of the first to use these....aka fish guys.

The arduino option can be done for about $10 and couple of hours. If you went this route, I will even drop you some code, which you can copy and paste.

The arduino micro would be paired with PWM controller board which utilized the 4 wires coming out of the your driver for PWM control....about $10.

Since you have 1 driver and assuming diodes wired in series? then your options are very limited in what you can actually do and the learning curve is easy with that in mind....You can dim in time for instance, but you wouldn't be able to do something fancy like say dim diodes individually, but that is a hardware ie driver issue not a programming issue.

:peace:
 
ReddEyez

ReddEyez

Well-Known Member
I hear you man, me neither. I am not familiar with arduino This showed me how easy it is to hook up the storm controller. It is easier than I thought.
http://www.menarilighting.com/rapidled/documentation/LDD-HW Dimmable Driver and Storm Controller Wiring.pdf

Here is a great thread that should help (or confuse) you, lol.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/on-off-functin-for-meanwell-hlg-style-drivers-using-dimming-and-arduino.910592/

Here is a link to some controllers.
http://www.rapidled.com/storm-sunrise-sunset/

Hope that helps man, good luck! :joint:

Edit, Abiqua beat me.
 
V

VegasWinner

Well-Known Member
All of those controllers will not dim a mean well hlg style driver or any 10v driver. Those controllers are designed to dim LDD mean well drivers not the type you are using. Those controllers will turn drivers on and on with additional hardware. Diming can be achieved if you invert the signal and build a circuit to amplify the 5v pwm signal to a 10v pwm signal. Aquarium controllers were designed for 3w and 5w led systems.
I have designed a controller that is arduino based that generates a 10v pwm signal. See on/off function for mean well drivers. Peace
 
P

PiKasso

Member
@VegasWinner i see everyone talking about the HLG dimmable driver (B type) not dimming all the way to 0%(off) but rather 10% without additional hardware like the PowerSwitch Tail 2... well, i came across meanwells ELG 240C

http://meanwellusa.com/productPdf.aspx?i=331

which says comes with DALI(not sure what that is) and dim-to-off
....also spec sheet says dimmable 0-10v as opposed to 1-10v like the HLG... would choosing this driver eliminate the need for the PowerSwitch tail?

will the Storm LED Controller with 10V Analog Converter from rapidled and that ELG meanwell give me the dimming/sunrise/sunset capabilities im looking for and shut off COMPLETELY without the ac relay(PowerSwitch) or using external analog/digital timers to plug my lights into??
 
R

rhygin77

Member
If you go to the specific product pages, I don't think those are stocked yet (although it looks like they'll be getting them in early Dec).

VegasWinner and others know way more about this than I do, so I defer to them, but yes, it's my understanding that with a 0-10v signal or a 10v PWM signal, you can dim to 0%. From looking at the bluefish, I'm pretty sure you can set either 5v or 10v output for each channel (independently).

For me, I'm growing a bunch of cacti that all are photoperiod sensitive, but they all respond to different day lengths. So it's important to be able to set a geo-located day length that varies throughout the year. Whether that's important for cannabis (as opposed to a simple on/off cycle) is up to you. I've done fine (for cannabis) with a simple timer.
 
P

PiKasso

Member
Thats another thing i am contemplating @rhygin77 .. i havent seen enough testimonials from ANYONE saying that they have experienced a difference in their cannabis harvest using a sunrise/sunset dimming technique, to seal the deal for me to add the extra $100+ to my build! ... Might just add a 100K potentiometer for dimming with my timers and call it a day
 
V

VegasWinner

Well-Known Member
The best use of a lighting controller is to replace the timers otherwise it is an expensive switch. Check out the GrowGreen controller does 8 channels
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
rhygin77 said:
it's my understanding that with a 0-10v signal or a 10v PWM signal, you can dim to 0%.
Click to expand...
The MeanWell drivers used to be 1-10V PWM. Which means you can't dim them to 0% and you need a relais that can cope with the inrush.

The newer models do allow dim-to-off. You can see in the specs which do and which don't support it.
 
R

rhygin77

Member
wietefras said:
The MeanWell drivers used to be 1-10V PWM. Which means you can't dim them to 0% and you need a relais that can cope with the inrush.

The newer models do allow dim-to-off. You can see in the specs which do and which don't support it.
Click to expand...
Totally. I was referring to the new ELG ones. Which I actually learned about from you.
 
Buddhafamily456

Buddhafamily456

Member
Is it possible, that using what you said, that you could set separate dimming zones in-line off of the same driver if you’re using one driver to control both white and red light?




VegasWinner said:
All of those controllers will not dim a mean well hlg style driver or any 10v driver. Those controllers are designed to dim LDD mean well drivers not the type you are using. Those controllers will turn drivers on and on with additional hardware. Diming can be achieved if you invert the signal and build a circuit to amplify the 5v pwm signal to a 10v pwm signal. Aquarium controllers were designed for 3w and 5w led systems.
I have designed a controller that is arduino based that generates a 10v pwm signal. See on/off function for mean well drivers. Peace
Click to expand...
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Nope!
If you want something like that you need at least addidtional LDD drivers but these only work with 36 or 48v CV/CC drivers (depending on input voltage of the LDD's). But you could use two drivers, one for the reds and the other for white LED's. These controllers have at least 6 pwm channels(storm, stormX has 16 channels).
Maybe you need an 5v-to-0-10v extension card for each channel. Or you take just the bluefish controller with no need for such extension cards.

If you only need it as timer, for dimming and for sun set/sun rise simulation I would use the Amelech controller + hub set from pacificlightconcepts(only 64$). The hub can work with several controllers and setup is pretty easy and can be done by every mobile with a browser installed. Hub is 35$ and every other controller is another 29$.
They are already on the list for the next lights. The cheap Sonoff's often loose the connctions and have caused a few issues. For my next light I want something that works with and "more important" without internet connection and the Amelechs with it's own hub(server) offer that.
 
Buddhafamily456

Buddhafamily456

Member
So it seems like my best bet would be to run white leds, reds, far reds, and blues on separate drivers with a hub for each one.. which maybe might get expensive as opposed to just one of the bluefish controllers, but you’re saying if I had a driver that was only putting out 24v then the bluefish controller wouldn’t work?



Randomblame said:
Nope!
If you want something like that you need at least addidtional LDD drivers but these only work with 36 or 48v CV/CC drivers (depending on input voltage of the LDD's). But you could use two drivers, one for the reds and the other for white LED's. These controllers have at least 6 pwm channels(storm, stormX has 16 channels).
Maybe you need an 5v-to-0-10v extension card for each channel. Or you take just the bluefish controller with no need for such extension cards.

If you only need it as timer, for dimming and for sun set/sun rise simulation I would use the Amelech controller + hub set from pacificlightconcepts(only 64$). The hub can work with several controllers and setup is pretty easy and can be done by every mobile with a browser installed. Hub is 35$ and every other controller is another 29$.
They are already on the list for the next lights. The cheap Sonoff's often loose the connctions and have caused a few issues. For my next light I want something that works with and "more important" without internet connection and the Amelechs with it's own hub(server) offer that.
Click to expand...
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
Nope!
If you want something like that you need at least addidtional LDD drivers but these only work with 36 or 48v CV/CC drivers (depending on input voltage of the LDD's). But you could use two drivers, one for the reds and the other for white LED's. These controllers have at least 6 pwm channels(storm, stormX has 16 channels).
Maybe you need an 5v-to-0-10v extension card for each channel. Or you take just the bluefish controller with no need for such extension cards.

If you only need it as timer, for dimming and for sun set/sun rise simulation I would use the Amelech controller + hub set from pacificlightconcepts(only 64$). The hub can work with several controllers and setup is pretty easy and can be done by every mobile with a browser installed. Hub is 35$ and every other controller is another 29$.
They are already on the list for the next lights. The cheap Sonoff's often loose the connctions and have caused a few issues. For my next light I want something that works with and "more important" without internet connection and the Amelechs with it's own hub(server) offer that.
Click to expand...
Looks nice, do you know if that type of controller would allow to control enviroments, fans, and/or incorporate sensors?
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Yepp!
I've posted the links above for full specs and prices. Most of them should be able to do that.
Some CPU fans are for instance controlled via pwm and should work and also different sensors should also be possible. Which and how much depends on the controller. Bluefish seems to be the latest and should offer a few more features.
 
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