Enigma's 2012 Nano Contest Entry

[sphelps]

Well if they are quite then nevermind but if you do need to slow them down it's an easy option instead of buying another power supply. No cable but easy to rewire by taking red wire from fan 1 to + power, black wire from fan 1 to red fan 2, followed by black fan 2 to - power.

LED layout looks good, why doesn't it work?

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by sphelps

layout looks good, why doesn't it work?

I'm guessing I did something wrong. I haven't figured out what, though.

The Apex works. The VDM appears to work. The lights on the eln-60-48p drivers don't work. The issue isn't with the lights, as when tested independently of the drivers they work.

I'm thinking it may actually be an issue with a splice: specifically the ones that run to the VDM. I'm going to pull all the wiring apart, redo the splices, and check again. Hubby is going to help me trouble shoot this.

In the event we can't get it fixed, I may need to recruit a guy I know (*cough**cough*) who happens to be really good at this stuff. While I really want to do it myself, this is very much a make it or break it part of the build.

[sphelps]

Not to point out the obvious but you know ELN-60-48P drivers are PWM controlled right? Shouldn't you be using ELN-60-48D drivers which are 0-10V? I actually haven't done that much with meanwell or APEX but I believe APEX is 0-10V based and you need the D drivers.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Not to point out the obvious but you know ELN-60-48P drivers are PWM controlled right? Shouldn't you be using ELN-60-48D drivers which are 0-10V? I actually haven't done that much with meanwell or APEX but I believe APEX is 0-10V based and you need the D drivers.

Oops! My bad. It is the 48D drivers that I've got.

Everything looks like it should work.

[sphelps]

Have you tried supplying the meanwells with a straight 10V signal?

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Have you tried supplying the meanwells with a straight 10V signal?

Not yet. When I get the opportunity to work on it again I'll try a 9V battery to start. From what I've read, that is what most people do. I have wiring to do that, I just don't have the batteries yet.

I have a 0-13V VDC moonlight driver (for the four blue LEDs), but I'm hesitant to try that. Do you think it would supply too much power? Or, would the variable nature of that driver render the experiment useless?

This has been a huge exercise in frustration. I'm electrically stupid, and no matter how much I read, or how much I try, I just don't get it. My brain just isn't wired for it.

[sphelps]

You could use a potentiometer with that power supply to test the dimming. Not sure I'd hit it with 13v even though I doubt it would cause any damage but without knowing for sure I just wouldn't.

So how did you get the lights working without the drivers and how did you verify the Apex and dimming module are working correctly?