Dimming Aqua Ray Leds

[DarrenUnwin]

Hi all, hope your all had a great christmas and lots of marine presents

I have recently installed the Aqua Ray LED lighting units on my tanks and would now like to get hold of a dimmer unit \ timer to simulate sunrise and sunset.

I have searched the forums but many topics are about do it yourself rigs. I dont have much electrical experience so was hoping that some one had already found a unit I could purchase which would be compatible with the AquaRay unit and would simply need plugging in.

I've heard that the company who makes Aqua Rays are to bring out a unit I havent seen anything to date.

Many thanks for your replies and have a great new year.

 

[Steven Tarise]

Apparently, this sort of equipment is something TMC is looking into releasing for their Aquabeams (the lights), as part of the Aquaray range (had to get that point in. People call the LED units Aquarays, but that is the name of the whole TMC lighting range. The LED units are called Aquabeams). That is, they are working on them if you believe the pre-launch marketing gumph, and bearing in mind the TMC development cycle not being the quickest (think the Aquabeams were delayed by the best part of a year), it could be some time before you see anything official.

 

[SkiFletch]

Dimming an LED is pretty simple, you can just do it with a garden variety potentiometer. I assume these LED's have a DC power supply that plugs into the unit? If so, if you wire a potentiometer in-line with the power supply it should work just fine at dimming them. LED's draw very little current, and thus just about any pot should work just fine.

 

[DarrenUnwin]

Thanks Guys and sorry about the name thing, you are correct, I had just finished reading a previous thread on the DIY version so I must have got carried away

The Unit does have a power pack which powers both LED strips, I'll do a bit of searching now I have some idea of what to use to control them.

Cheers

 

[rabbut]

The method Ski describes would reguire manual adjusting of the outputs wouldn't it?

I would look at doing a capasitor-resistor combo for automated dimming on and off. You will need a large capasitor and resistor mind, or the fade times will be quick...

All the best
Rabbut