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LED Dimmers - Anyone got one of these??

Aleman

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2022
Messages
81
Location
Blackpool, UK
OK, so I have two Dennerle Trocal LED lights (120cm) in my hooded tank connected up to the Trocal controller. Brilliant pieces of kit! However, due to the placement of my, fixed, internal filter I can't have on placed towards the back of the tank as I only have 88cm of space there. This means that light on my stem plants was pretty limited, and may well be the reason for my Alternanthera reinekii melting. After a bit of thinking, I decided to buy a "cheap" LED unit to go at the back and supplement the light., and selected a SuperFish 74 ... Does the job well, and when it comes on it really cranks up the pearling. It is a manual light though, and I've been spoiled with the Trocal controller, so had a look on the Bay of E to see what was available. I decided on one of these from this seller

LEDdimmer.jpg
LEDdimmer2.jpg

And it works great ... manually :( ... I just can't seem to get it to work correctly in "User Defined" mode ... Hell I can't get it to work correctly in "Timer mode" ... It goes through the "Program" but never turns off.

This is what I've set according to Part 08

L1 - 16:00 to 16:30 Brightness 0 - Changed from 10
L2 - 16:30 to 17:00 Brightness 40 - Changed from 50
L3 - 17:00 to 17:30 Brightness 60 - Changed from 80
L4 - 1800 to 21:30 Brightness 100
L5 -21:30 to 21:45 Brightness 80
L6 - 22:00 to 22:15 Brightness 50
L7 -22:30 to 22:45 Brightness 10
L8 -23:00 to 15:59 Brightness 0 - The 15:59 cannot be changed.

One thing I'm thinking, having just typed that out, is that perhaps they don't like to intervals starting and stopping at the same time ... L5 stops at 21:30 for example, and L5 Starts at 21:30 ... I may just try setting it up to stop at 21:29 and start at 21:30 ... in spite of the example User defined schedule showing otherwise.

All/Any ideas welcome :D
 
I don't have that controller but a similar one. When it turns off it flickers so I put it on a timer and that worked fine.

Anyway, so does it go through your programmed schedule following the intensities you've set?
What happens when it gets to 23:00?
 
Anyway, so does it go through your programmed schedule following the intensities you've set?
Yes, that part of it is great
What happens when it gets to 23:00?
It jumps up to full brightness and stays on.
Is it one of these ones that ramps during the period - so it spends from 23:00 to 15:59 gradually ramping down to 0?
It could be, it's "implied" by the documentation, but not explicitly stated. You may be on to something here, I will remove the light from the tank, and have a play with "Short" schedules. ... Something else to do on "Water Change Day" :rolleyes:
 
Well I think I've solved it.

Although it is implied by the, so-called, "manual" that transitions are gradual between levels, it doesn't appear to happen, or maybe it's so gradual that I don't notice it. When I did the short duration schedule, it did step between them quite quickly though, with a wider time period, it must be less noticeable.

SOLUTION : Set the first interval (L1) to the time that you want the light off, in my case from 22:30 to 16:00, and set the intensity for that period to 0. Then go through as normal with the remaining 7 steps setting the desired duration and intensity for each. This is what I ended up with.

L1 - 22:30 to 16:00 Brightness 0
L2 - 16:00 to 16:30 Brightness 20
L3 - 17:00 to 17:30 Brightness 60
L4 - 1800 to 21:00 Brightness 100
L5 -21:00 to 21:15 Brightness 80
L6 - 21:15 to 21:30 Brightness 50
L7 -21:30 to 22:00 Brightness 30
L8 -22:00 to 22:29 Brightness 10
 
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