Secondary Led Lighting Circuit Project

[kaivalagi]

ignore me

 

[drsquirrel]

Could use a large enough capacitor to provide some power to dim the lights at the end of the cycle...

 

[kaivalagi]

Could use a large enough capacitor to provide some power to dim the lights at the end of the cycle...

You mean a simple ramp like this (please excuse the poor drawing, it's not good using a mouse for this...):

But for a series of LEDs?

Wouldn't that require quite a large size capacitor to give me a a fair few seconds of fade time? I discounted this one very early on for that reason. It would be fine if the space required is like a smallish battery...even if I needed 10 units, each AA size, for a strip to fade over the course of 10 seconds that might be tempting...then I just build two of those for white and blue strips, and come up with a circuit to handle white or blue on/off to drive them.

 

[drsquirrel]

You'd need to calculate it to find out, but probably not small

This is why I thought a battery with a charge circuit would give you a good hour on say, a 18650 (specially considering as you dim them they draw is less...).

1x 18650 2600mAh runs my SSC P7 LED for around an hour at full pelt...

 

[chrisbassist]

But it intreagues me, take away as many little bits to do with your fish that aren't enjoyable, even something as small as turning on/off lights etc, and you're left with that little bit more to enjoy watching... and other reasons too i'm sure.

I'm afraid I'm a little confused with how complicated you're making it...

Who says circuit development/design isn't enjoyable? Some of us do enjoy it - why not combine the both

Buying the 2 extra timers would "work", and be simpler - what's the fun in that?

I'm sure you do find it enjoyable, and if i knew anything more than the very basics of electronics, I may well enjoy it too... although i do know more than very basics, it's not really in the right area... I'm a sound engineer (or was, currently not working so i can look after my little girl)

 

[Jonny_russell]

You'd need to calculate it to find out, but probably not small

This is why I thought a battery with a charge circuit would give you a good hour on say, a 18650 (specially considering as you dim them they draw is less...).

1x 18650 2600mAh runs my SSC P7 LED for around an hour at full pelt...

PLEASE find a solution to this

i'm ok with a soldering iron but i couldnt design a circuit ..........

the lighting on my tank has done my head in for a long time


it should be easy and cheap to make a timed circuit that lets increasing and decreasing light into the tank

i had some blue leds that i wanted as a moonbeam - looked ok for a bit but really far too blue and focused for a real lighting system

i would love to know if you can solve the smooth progress from daylight to dusk to night to dawn etc............

 

[kaivalagi]

You'd need to calculate it to find out, but probably not small

This is why I thought a battery with a charge circuit would give you a good hour on say, a 18650 (specially considering as you dim them they draw is less...).

1x 18650 2600mAh runs my SSC P7 LED for around an hour at full pelt...

Yeah I know, I need my LED strips to turn up then I can see what I am working with

I need to either get hold of a good analog circuit simulator app or get myself a breadboard and a bunch of assorted bits and have a play I think....I'm near a Maplins tomorrow (with the wife )

PLEASE find a solution to this

i'm ok with a soldering iron but i couldnt design a circuit ..........

the lighting on my tank has done my head in for a long time

it should be easy and cheap to make a timed circuit that lets increasing and decreasing light into the tank

i had some blue leds that i wanted as a moonbeam - looked ok for a bit but really far too blue and focused for a real lighting system

i would love to know if you can solve the smooth progress from daylight to dusk to night to dawn etc............

If you just want to dim your lights you just need to cut back the current, I guess you could use a resistor in parallel to the led's to do that, splitting the current between. You just need to know the resistance of your LEDs to know how the current would be split. I will probably have a complicated microcontroller based solution, not because it is needed, but because I want to use a PIC for more things longer term and also have a basis to improve this projects solution long term if I want to. These PIC microcontrollers can do so many things - much more is possible than it was when I was at uni.

I am getting back on my feet with electronics after many years away, I have forgotten so much. I have found there are quite a few helpful sites out there to pick up ideas/circuits/help etc, try searching for help and guidance and you'll find it. Examples are:
http/www.instructa...ade-on-and-off/
http/www.allaboutcircuits.com/
etc

 

[drsquirrel]

Jonny_russell

There are units out there that do this, you can even stagger your tubes on too - they tend to be high end and a bit expensive.

Making something that is timed or programmable is slightly complicated - as in electronics timing is not a simple matter (on the cheap). The main issue here is turning down the lights before they shut off, if it was just on and off an hour earlier, timer sockets would be perfect, what we need is a timer that tells it when to ramp down but doesn't cut the power immediately.

I'm sure you do find it enjoyable, and if i knew anything more than the very basics of electronics, I may well enjoy it too... although i do know more than very basics, it's not really in the right area... I'm a sound engineer (or was, currently not working so i can look after my little girl)

I like electronics (and a bit of AV too, just HT stuff)... but I think if I worked in them areas - I wouldn't enjoy them so much whilst at home. i.e. I'm a developer and at home I don't care so much for it.

 

[kaivalagi]

I'm a developer and at home I don't care so much for it.

I go through spells myself, I do love technology and enjoy the challenge, but sometimes enough is enough, for a while

I am sure once I start my new contract on Monday I will not want to put so much effort into this project and other Linux community stuff I do. The contract is only for 6 weeks so I'll be able to finish this project during May, if I haven't already done so by then.


edit: I have a compiling app which seems to be doing the right things in simulations (i.e. ramping up the duty on PWM output smoothly), but I need to read up on I/O handling with this MikroC I am using (C for PIC) cause I think I have made a couple of bad assumptions.