Has anyone ever attempted a DIY LED program, such as sunrise/sunset, cloudcover, etc?
Some of you may recall that I bought a pair of PacSun LEDs and that the master unit took a swim in the tank. I asked the local distributor, who told me he'd contacted the manufacturer, who told him the unit was entirely shot - he then offered to sell me a new unit at his cost, which was significantly lower than retail, but still out of my price range for the moment.
I was cleaning out the garage today and decided I'd crack the case open. Most of the electronics looked to be shot based on the corrosion, which I expected.
I pulled a rather well diagrammed PCB off an aluminum heatsink - my thinking was that I'd reuse the heatsink on some sort of DIY build. The LEDs were soldered to the PCB, which was held to the heatsink with approximately 100 screws. After pulling it off, I was curious to see if the LEDs were shot or not.
I grabbed a 9v battery, stripped a couple wires down, and secured them to the battery. I then pressed the bare wire to the solder joints, which were already marked for polarity, and nearly blinded myself and burned my finger off in the process. IT WORKED!
Wondering if this was a fluke, I tried three more - all success! I even tried an entire series, to no avail (it's about 8-9 LEDs), which was no surprise given the low voltage of the battery. I did find it would power three LEDs approximatley 1/4 of the way.
Since discovering the LED array still works, I'm considering a DIY style build instead of replacing the unit. It would most likely cost a small fraction of what a new one would.
Now here's the tricky part - I don't have an aquarium controller (looking to buy an Apex but not for a while). I've read of success stories of DIY builds being controlled with an Arduino controller board and open source software, but this is something I'm not very familiar with.
In looking at a parts list, most of my major expenses are out of the way aside from the controller. Only a few things that need to be replaced - wires, power block, heat sink fans. I might even be able to encase it all in the original enclosure.
Any thoughts? This has me very excited about the prospect of getting some lighting sufficient to start housing corals. :yay:
I also need some help identifying replacement parts as I'm not much of an electrical component guru.
Some of you may recall that I bought a pair of PacSun LEDs and that the master unit took a swim in the tank. I asked the local distributor, who told me he'd contacted the manufacturer, who told him the unit was entirely shot - he then offered to sell me a new unit at his cost, which was significantly lower than retail, but still out of my price range for the moment.
I was cleaning out the garage today and decided I'd crack the case open. Most of the electronics looked to be shot based on the corrosion, which I expected.
I pulled a rather well diagrammed PCB off an aluminum heatsink - my thinking was that I'd reuse the heatsink on some sort of DIY build. The LEDs were soldered to the PCB, which was held to the heatsink with approximately 100 screws. After pulling it off, I was curious to see if the LEDs were shot or not.
I grabbed a 9v battery, stripped a couple wires down, and secured them to the battery. I then pressed the bare wire to the solder joints, which were already marked for polarity, and nearly blinded myself and burned my finger off in the process. IT WORKED!
Wondering if this was a fluke, I tried three more - all success! I even tried an entire series, to no avail (it's about 8-9 LEDs), which was no surprise given the low voltage of the battery. I did find it would power three LEDs approximatley 1/4 of the way.
Since discovering the LED array still works, I'm considering a DIY style build instead of replacing the unit. It would most likely cost a small fraction of what a new one would.
Now here's the tricky part - I don't have an aquarium controller (looking to buy an Apex but not for a while). I've read of success stories of DIY builds being controlled with an Arduino controller board and open source software, but this is something I'm not very familiar with.
In looking at a parts list, most of my major expenses are out of the way aside from the controller. Only a few things that need to be replaced - wires, power block, heat sink fans. I might even be able to encase it all in the original enclosure.
Any thoughts? This has me very excited about the prospect of getting some lighting sufficient to start housing corals. :yay:
I also need some help identifying replacement parts as I'm not much of an electrical component guru.
