Started working on my lights

T

tdsapp

Well, I started up working on my LED fixture. Right now I am using an Arduino UNO as a controller, a real time clock (RTC), and controlling about 80 LEDs. I might end up adding a temperature probe as well to have the Arduino monitor the water temperature as well. However for now I am only going for the lights.


Lights800px.jpg
alt="">


This is where I have the sample circuit wired up on a breadboard. I am using two power supplies, one for the controller and another one for the LEDs. I was going to use a power supply from an old printer but it will only allow me to run about 21 LEDs and I need quite a few more than that.
 
I have been toying with the idea of doing something like that. Are you writing your own code or using something from the intertubes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@titusmaul wrote:
I have been toying with the idea of doing something like that. Are you writing your own code or using something from the intertubes? said:
I am writing my own code... I have been programming for a long time so I am wanting to do it just because I am a geek like that. [smilie=lol.gif]

It's actually a fairly simple programming language. For the circuit above I had a potentiometer and as I would turn it up and down it would set the value for the PMW on the pin. The PWM is how I am dimming the LEDs.

The code for that just took this... I could probably turn the ReadPot() function into a single line but I have not tried it yet. (Yes, with the Arduino UNO a single line of code is important considering the memory "features" of the board.)


void loop() {
analogWrite(3, ReadPot());
}

float ReadPot() {
float potValue = (analogRead(A0) / 4);
return potValue;
}



Tim
Click to expand...
 
(Yes said:
Yea - they are interesting little beasts. My primary worry if I go down the path of using one to control SOMETHING I am going to try and make it control EVERYTHING. I am not very good at controlling scope creep in my personal projects. On that note it is a good thing i got into reefing because that does not get out of control at all.

I was looking at doing a full tank manager package with the Arduino. Lighting would be the primary driver because I am looking at moving to dimming LEDs a secondary driver would be the ability to build once and control a number of tanks. I was thinking of sticking with X10 as a control bus for power simply because I can get stuff for pennies on the dollar. I also would like to write a iOS app to manage and monitor the setup if I ever did it.. On the plus side if I did it and reached all of my goals I would have a DIY unit that does what I want for only 2 or 3 times the cost (man hours + cash) of a Apex!
Click to expand...
 
Check out the ReefAngel code on github. It already has the code completed and tested for a most of the features you're wanting to implement.
 
How is the project going? If you need help, I got people. I'm president of Tarrant Makers and arduino is one of our areas of interest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top