oFurafollas

Aquarium DIY Lights v. 2 (Part I)

In this version I want to upgrade the hardware and the electronics.

I don’t have tecnical drawings either schematics of the first two versions. I plan to make some technical drawings so if anyone wants to make somethings similar will be able to do it. I also intend to design a PCB and sell it at tindie. The schematic will be free and the same for the sketch.

Hardware

In this version I want to change the LEDs, I want to use the LEDs without PCB. They are cheaper and I think that the heat will be dissipated more effectively.

Another change is that I want to use LED lenses, one benefit of using lenses, it is that I can use the ones with a 15º focus so the beam will be directed to the aquarium. By doing this the light can be placed at a height enough to work in the aquarium without having to take it off. Right know (without lens) a lot of light goes to the sides of the aquarium.

I like the heat sink I choose for the last version. It’s cheap an has a perfect size. The idea for this version it is to place the holes between the heat sink fins and use the LED lensed that have screw holes to hold the LEDs in place.

In v. 0 I use an aluminum sheet and some brackets to hold the fan over the heat sink and also for the hood. This time I have a 3D printer and the idea it is to design a bracket to hold the fan and I will try to reduce the size of the whole light.

Electronics

In the last one I used and Arduino Pro Mini, in this one, I’m between an ESP8266 or an ESP32. Either of those are able to connect to the WiFi so it will be possible to control the light and also to display info into my iPhone.

Some variables can be modified, for example, the summer sunrise, the maximum intensity or the winter sunset. To change their values I’m thinking of developing a specific iOS app. Another benefit will be the ability to display all the data using graphs.

An alternative could be my existing Arduino Commands app. It can be used to control and display info but it is not possible to have graphs.

My intention is to desing a new PCB. All the component will be easily replaceable and easy to find. The schematic, sketch and app will be free. If everything works perfectly the idea it is to sell kits of the PCB on Tindie with or without the components.

Aquarium DIY Lights ( v. 0 )

The next month we are going to move to our new home and I’m planning to upgrade the lighting system for our aquarium.

Aquarium lights are really expensive. For ~2000 lumens you have to spend at least 150€, and I wanted a minimum of 4000 lm.

So I decided to do it myself. Components aren’t expensive at all and I had some free time.

The aquarium I was planning to light up it’s a small cube of ~30cm (30L) heavily planted with a Betta and some Neocaridinas.

Power supply

My first choice was a 48v 3A crappy power supply from china, the cheapest I could find on eBay. That, wasn’t a good choice at all. After two months the main inductor heat up so much, it fall of.

I tried to solder it back to the PCB but the repair only last a couple of day. I solder it back again and this time I also added a PC fan to try to lower the temperature. And after a big spark a couple of days later, I decided to buy a better quality one.

So I through it away and bought a decent one, the second option was a MeanWell 48v 3A. It works perfectly and doesn’t heat up at all. The first one cost ~13€ and the MeanWell ~20€.

LEDs

I bought the LEDs from eBay, they are 3w individual LEDs in different temperatures. There are in total 24 (8 neutral, 6 cold, 6 warm and 4 full-spectrum).

Each LED draws 700mA. When 12 are connected in series they require approximately 42v.

LED Drivers

There was multiple options here. I ended up buying the MeanWell LDD-700H. They work with a maximum of 52v so they work perfectly with the 48v power supply and I only need 2 to drive 24 3w LEDs.

The other option was the cheap modules from eBay but they only are capable of powering 5 LEDs each and that’s a lot of wiring. And the total cost it pretty much the same.

Micro Controller

I used an Arduino Pro Mini, it is powered up by a 12v power supply. It is connected to a RTC to keep track of the time and also to a LCD display 2004 to show the data.

The Arduino controls the LED drivers with PWM. Both LED channels are independent, and the Arduino regulates the light intensity in function of the day of the year and the hour of the day.

The Arduino sketch calculates the sunrise and sunset hour depending of the day of the year. Sunrise hour goes from 6 in summer to 9 in winter and sunset from 11 to 8 respectively.

In summer that are too many light hours so what I did was to reduce the intensity of the light for some hours. the intensity follows the graph of the picture. The red line represent the white LEDs, the blue the full-spectrum and the green parabolic curve the fan speed.

By doing this the aquarium is illuminated for the most part of the day and there wasn’t excessive lighting for the plants or the fish.

The LCD display the current time and date, the sunrise and sunset hour, the maximum light intensity of the day (for each channel), the current intensity and the fan speed.

I checked with a BH1750 light intensity sensor and it can achieve an approximately 9000 lumen at maximum intensity.

Hardware

The LEDs are mounted to a 120x100mm aluminum heat sink bought at eBay and the fan is mounted with a L shaped aluminum profile.

The housing it was made with a 2mm sheet, I used a hack saw and a drill to shape it.

v. 1

I did a PCB to upgrade the electronics but I made some error an I wasn’t able to use it.

At the end… I didn’t changed anything. All the upgrades will be on version 2.

8bit Computer (Part II)

All the schematics are almost finished, only the Control Logic Module is still in progress.

If you followed Ben videos you will probably find some differences. Most of the changes are due to IC stock or for future upgrades.

Here they are…

Clock Module

I added a power button with a NPN transistor and also modified the logic to reduce the number of IC from 3 to 2.

Program Counter Module

This program counter counts up to 255 ( 2⁸ ) so longer programs can be added. Malvinos original design counts up to 15 ( 2⁴ ).

Control Logic Module ( Instruction Register + Control )

Still working on it…

Memory Module ( Memory Address Register + RAM )

Instead of the 74189 that I couldn’t find I used the LY6264. It needs an additional transceiver that I forget to add to the schematic.

A.L.U. Module ( A Register + B Register + Arithmetic )

The design is the same as Ben but I’m thinking of adding 8 more signals to the Control Bus so for example I can add a B Register Out.

Output Module

Here an alternative to the 4bit register used previously. An 74xx273 with an 74xx08 to AND the EN with the CLK.

The EEPROM is an AT28C64, there is no stock of the 28C16.

I use EasyEDA for the design of the circuits. In some of the captures some components are highlighted in red, there is nothing to highlight, is a bug.

8bit Computer (Part I)

Recently, I found the YouTube playlist by Ben Eater about 8 bit computers. I always been fascinated by electronics and computers. After watching the complete series, a huge mystery dissipated and I finally understood how the first computers works.

An 8-bit computer is a piece of art and I want one on my office wall. So I decided to make my own version of a SAP-1 (Simple as Possible).

Breadboards are very useful but for a permanent design are not that great and also… are ugly as fuck and I don’t want more than 10 breadboards hanging on the wall. Another problem, if someone hit it accidentally it will probably unplug something, and troubleshooting it’s not one of my favorite hobbies.

So what I decided is to use PCBs. I used some of those chinese pcb manufacturers in the past and it’s really cheap to produce a good looking pcb.

What I’m planning on making is to have multiple PCB each one with a specific function an all of them connected by 2 buses, an 8bit bus for data transfer and the other one for signals.

The main purpose is to be able to display each step of the computer. To achieve that, all components will have its content displayed with LEDs and all the active parts will have some kind of flag.

I’m currently reading the book that Ben uses for reference, Digital Computer Electronics by Malvino. The problem is that a lot of the components used are really dificult to find or they’re really expensive. Paying 25€ due to shipping costs for an IC that cost .2€ it’s not an option.

I’m looking for components at Futurlec and LCSC, most logic gates are available in LS or HCT form.

I made some changes in the design. I decided to use the 28C64 insteed the 28C16 EEPROM, this last one is unavailable and the ’64 it’s easier to write (doesn’t require a pulse).

Another change it’s the RAM. I’m going to use a LY6264 8K x 8, I could not find the one that Ben uses.

I’m currently working on the schematics of each module, trying to use easilly available parts with a similar function. Once I finish al the schematics I’ll posts them.