The new lab, again and a fish light controller
Nothing special in todays update but I figured I’d post a few things for the fun of it. First off I guess is my lab. I’ve been using it for a month or so. A little small, but at least it’s not at work.
Nothing to write home about I guess, but I feel comfortable here! Anyways, my little project for the day is the fish light. My bulb burnt out in my fish tank and since it was a high UV one I’ve decide to make an LED version. Since I have an array of LED’s I decided to go with some Whit, UV and a few red ones for good measure (I don’t like blue LEDs).
And here’s the breadboard, messy!
The LED’s are driven on 4 channels with PWM output on separate channels. The idea for me is to provide an on-timer for the cycles through the day and to provide a source of UV light for the plants. The diodes are driven by 4 TIP117’s so that each channel (White, UV, Red) can be controlled individually based on whatever profile I want.
Unfortunately I’ve discovered that the number of LED’s that I used is insufficient for use in the tank, not enough light. So I’ve ordered over 500 white LED’s and 150 UV led’s and 100 Red LED’s. I won’t use them all but it’s always good to have LED’s. One issue may be driving all of these LED’s. I have a maximum output of 1A on each of the PNP TIP117’s so an output of about 14W is all I can produce. Hopefully that’ll be enough!
Anyways, here’s hopin’!
Hey Steve,
read through most of your “junk”, must say I’m impressed. Hope the viscometer is working out well and the fish will be happy with their new light installment!
Greetings
Thanks Henrik! 🙂