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Boxerboy 
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 Topic: Apex dimming question
Posted: April 06 2013 at 7:46pm |
hey ive recently gotten an apex and i have a Live rock and reef type led fixture with two knobs to dim the blue and the white( a potentiometer I believe they are called)
Anyway i wanna know if i can take out the dimmer knobs and hook it up to the variable dimmer ports on my apex. I believe i would just hook the ground and live wire up to the correct wires on a rj45 pigtail. My concern is that maybe my apex is not meant for this and i dont want to do any damage.
anyone have any experience with this?
thanks!
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Posted: April 06 2013 at 8:53pm |
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You should be able to do this. The dimmer switches are doing the same thing as the vrsp ports would be doing. Once you have the apex dim cable neptune wires the red and black backwards. So on the cable red is black and black is red if that makes sense.
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Boxerboy
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Posted: April 07 2013 at 9:33pm |
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Awesome! Thanks
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uteman58
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 11:45am |
Boxerboy, I'm curious if this solution has worked for you. I have the Live-Rock-N-Reef 250W LED pendants. I removed the dimmer knobs and hooked up the Apex 2 channel dimmer cable to the LED ballast as follows: V1:Blue channel red Apex cable to black ballast black Apex cable to red ballast yellow wire no connection V2 White channel - Same as above.
The dimming does not work. I have verified my Apex programming by using a 0-10 DCV volt meter. My RampUp and RampDn profiles work with my V1 & V2 ports. The voltage ramps up gradually from 0 to 10V and down from 10V to 0 as expected. I have tested the LED dimmable ballasts using a 9V battery. The black (+) and red (-) produces a 90% light setting.
I'm stumped.
Variable Speed Ports: Fallback OFF Set OFF If Time 12:58 to 13:00 Then RampUp If Time 13:00 to 13:02 Then RampDn
Profiles: RampUp (PF1) Ramp Time = 5 Start Intensity = 0 End Intensity = 100
RampDn (PF2) Ramp Time = 5 Start Intensity = 100 End Intensity = 0
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uteman58
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 11:47am |
Correction to Apex setting posted above: Variable Speed Ports: Fallback OFF Set OFF If Time 12:58 to 13:00 Then RampUp If Time 13:00 to 13:02 Then RampDn
Profiles: RampUp (PF1) Ramp Time = 2 Start Intensity = 0 End Intensity = 100
RampDn (PF2) Ramp Time = 2 Start Intensity = 100 End Intensity = 0 |
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 11:59am |
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You will need I cable per fixture. Since there is two drivers one for blue and one for white. So for vrsp 1-2 that cable will be for one fixture. And vsrp 3-4 would be for the second fixture if you have more fixtures you will need
A vsrp module and cables.
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 12:08pm |
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the Apex V1-V4 ports are PWM ports not Analog voltage ports. If this is the case then it may not work connecting it directly to the POT connections on the LED driver. Wouldn't you need the VDM (or what ever that other dimmer module is that Apex offers) in order to convert the PWM to analog 0-10V?
In addition, If the driver is providing it's own internal bias voltage for the POT (Like the Maxwellen drivers do) then connecting the Apex won't work either. You would have to make sure that the LED driver requires an external dimmer voltage (like the MeanWell drivers) in order for the dimming to work.
Hope that helps.
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 12:11pm |
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That is a good point Jeff, I would need one in front of me to test one.
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uteman58
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 12:18pm |
Aquarium Creations, Just to be clear I am using the 2 channel Apex cable. It has two cables (thus 2 channel). It connects to the Apex V1/V2 ports via a single RJ45 connector jack. I have wired both V1/V2 to a single pendant. V1 wire to blue and V2 wire to white.
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uteman58
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 12:28pm |
Krazie4Acans, I tested the variable speed ports using a 0-10V meter. When on it reads 10V. When off it reads 0V. When testing RampUp and RampDn it will gradually increase or decrease from 0-10Volts. Below is an exerpt from the Neptune comprehensive guide. The Apex base module is ‘plug and play’ and will automatically recognize AquaBus modules as soon as they are connected to it and in the case of the EB8 it will automatically create 8 outlets for you with various default programs (pump, light, heater, etc.). It will also create 4 variable speed ports to be used with 0-10v controlled power heads or dimmable lights and 3 virtual outlets for audible alarms and email alerts (the Apex Lite and Jr. do not have the variable speed ports).
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 2:51pm |
 uteman58 wrote:
Krazie4Acans, I tested the variable speed ports using a 0-10V meter. When on it reads 10V. When off it reads 0V. When testing RampUp and RampDn it will gradually increase or decrease from 0-10Volts. Below is an exerpt from the Neptune comprehensive guide. The Apex base module is ‘plug and play’ and will automatically recognize AquaBus modules as soon as they are connected to it and in the case of the EB8 it will automatically create 8 outlets for you with various default programs (pump, light, heater, etc.). It will also create 4 variable speed ports to be used with 0-10v controlled power heads or dimmable lights and 3 virtual outlets for audible alarms and email alerts (the Apex Lite and Jr. do not have the variable speed ports). |
Good to know. Stan That would just leave the question of whether your drivers use an internal bias voltage or have it added on external to the driver but still inside the LED housing. Since you have measured the voltage output from the apex and it's going from 0-10V then I would measure the two wires that were connected to the POT and see if they show 10V as well. If they do then you will have to dig deeper into the fixture to see if there are wires that you can connect directly to the driver without external power. If there are then you need to connect to those for it to work. If the wires go directly from the ballast to the POT then the bias power is internal to the driver and you would need to change out the drivers to get the dimming to work.
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uteman58
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Posted: April 08 2013 at 9:37pm |
Krazie4Acans, Thank you for getting me thinking more about dimming issues with my live-rock-n-reef 250W LED pendants. It appears they are not Neptune Apex compatible. After exhausting review on the ballasts I discovered the following: 1. The ballasts are Dongguan HWAMAI HM100-100102-RD dimmable ballasts (whree wire on dimming cable: black, yellow, red). 2. The -RD stands for resistance dimming. This accounts for the three wire dimming cable attached to the dimmable LED ballast. I don't see how this fixture will ever work with a 0-10V analog controller. Unless anyone out there has any further ideas I guess I will be going back to live-rock-n-reef to exchange for a more suitable LED lighting solution. I pray they are acceptant as I purchased them with the understanding they were compatible. Thanks again for your help.
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: April 09 2013 at 7:07am |
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Stan, you are correct. Those ballasts use an internal 10V bias voltage and cannot be used with a controller that provides it's own voltage control.
While the drivers with the internal bias are great for DIY, because they don't require anything more than a POT to control the dimming, they are not controller friendly. You would need a driver more like the Meanwell drivers with the D on the end of the model number as they require and external voltage source.
Glad we could help you get the answer, even if it is a less than favorable one. Krazie
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