apex/ stevesled question

[bwig333]

Guys I have a stevesled retro kit on my tank. 21 royal blue 3w leds, and 21 neutral white 3w leds. I have a dimmer switch for each set(white and blue). They are currently plugged into my apex controller. When the lights come on they are set at a preset intensity(what I thought looked best) and are on from 8a to 8p. I am trying to grow sps and feel that my lighting sequence may be to long or to intense. So i am trying to figure out a few things. 1) can you program stevesleds retro kit to ramp up/down in intensity? if yes 2) does anyone know/and can share a program to ramp intensity to make a more natural sunrise--midday--sunset with my apex? Thanks

 

[Mike M]

I've got mine going through a VDM for my AI Sols but I am guessing the programming ideas would be the same if you have dimmable ballast and 0-10v inputs that are connected to your variable speed/dimming ports. I setup some profiles for Ramp Up, Ramp Down, On, for each LED type and then an additional Moonlight profile for my Royal Blues. I'm new to programming so there may be a much better way of doing this:

So, for example:
White Ramp Up Profile would be Ramp Time = 60; Start Intensity = 0; End Intensity = 75
White Day = Ramp Time = 1; Start Intensity = 75; End Intensity = 75
White Ramp Down Profile would be Ramp Time = 60; Start Intensity = 75; End Intensity = 0

Duplicate for each LED type and then add a Moonlight:
RB Moon Profile would be Ramp Time = 10; Start Intensity = 0; End Intensity = 4

Then for each LED Driver the Outlet Program I have is like this (take out the "moon" line if it is the white LEDs):
Fallback ON
Set OFF
Fallback ON
Set OFF
If Time 14:00 to 15:00 Then rb_up
If Time 15:01 to 23:00 Then rb_day
If Time 23:01 to 00:00 Then rb_down
If Time 00:01 to 04:00 Then rb_moon
If Time 04:01 to 13:59 Then OFF

 

[Grant]

@MBSL55 wrote:

For this, you actually don't need the rb_day profile. You could just do this:

Fallback ON
Set OFF
If Time 14:00 to 23:00 Then rb_up
If Time 23:01 to 00:00 Then rb_down
If Time 00:01 to 04:00 Then rb_moon
If Time 04:01 to 13:59 Then OFF

The lights would ramp up for an hour (assuming you have your time set to 60 minutes in the rb_up profile), and then just remain at the maximum setting until the rb_down profile kicked in. That's how I have mine setup, and it seems to work.

I have my blue LEDs start to ramp up about 30 minutes before the white LEDs start. Then I have the white's ramp down an hour before the blue, so that I have some "moonlight" time at the end before they shut off completely.

 

[Mike M]

Thanks! I'll give that a try. That will free up 3 profiles.