I am looking into making an automatic dimmer for my LED array on my aquarium to "simulate" sunrise and sunset. I have been looking through the forums but I am having problems finding a simple set up. All I am looking to do is automatically brighten and dim my LED's, not add and LCD or other functions. My current set up contains
6 Cree XP-G (R5) Cool White LED's
6 Cree XP-E Royal Blue LED's
2 3023-D-E-1000PmA Wired BuckPuck's
2 24VDC 6.5A 150-Watt Power Supply's (one for each 6 LED string and BuckPuck)
I was going to get another buckpuck, and led's to play with before deploying to my tank so I can fine tune everything. I just don't know what else I would abosolutely need to get this project started (circuit wise) as I have never played with anything like this before. Just some basic help on where to start off would be much appreciated.
BTW I was looking at getting either the Uno or Mega2560(yes overkill for this project but leaves room for the future)
I think you can just use standard PWM dimming by connecting a PWM Arduino pin to the control input of the buckpuck module. I note these modules can output a 5V supply but only upto 20mA which is not enough to drive a standard Arduino board.
Your part number seems not to exist, I presume you mean the 3021-D-E-1000?
Your power supply is 6.5A but you won't need more than 2A and you say you have two supplies - one is plenty!
I have 2 supplies currently to turn on the blue and white independently and the 6.5A supplies were cheaper than the 4.5A ones I know they are overkill but I may upgrade my 55 gallon in the future which I will need this much for that then I can get smaller supplies for the 14G Nano I currently have this set up on. the BuckPuck is the 1000P which is 1000mA with a potentiometer, hence the P. I know I have to take the potentiometer off and wire the Arduino to those leads just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be in dire need right away for a timing source (as many people put this on) or any thing else I couldn't just go to RadioShack for. Like I said simple just to dim my lights and you answered that, thanks for the info.