09-27-2018, 12:03 AM
Ah beautiful, the last thing to verify is that 0-3.3v is actually a positive voltage and not a negative, this is important. The other Fluval light had a negative PWM so it's possible on this too.
To verify positive voltage, make sure the GND probe from meter is definitely on a common GND from light which sounds like you have and then put the positive probe on the pin going to LED board, if you don't have a -3.3v on the meter it should be positive voltage. So make sure that negative symbol isn't on the meter with 3.3v or whatever showing.
You mentioned 24v on the LED board, where is that coming from, does the bluetooth module have anything to do with it? As in 24v goes into that board then from there to the LED board? Looking at the images I'm guessing the 24v goes directly to the LED board and 9.5v is sent to the module for power it up. If that's correct and you power up the LED board with the 24v power source you should still have 9.5v on that pin without the module plugged in.
So we know 3.3v is the max voltage but controller puts out a max of 5v on the LED channels which is too much. It's possible that PWM converter you have will drop the voltage to 3.3v but you'll have to play a bit with input voltage to converter but we can figure that out later.
If you can verify the 0-3.3v is definitely positive voltage and the 24v from DC adapter goes into LED board then all you should need to do is leave the bluetooth module unplugged, connect a common GND from controller to that GND pin on the 7 pin header on LED board. On controller you can connect to 1 of the 2 GND's beside the LED ports. Then set an LED channel on the controller so it outputs 1v, about 820 on the slider, and touch that wire to one of the 5 3.3v pins on LED board. Some of the LED's should light up about 1/3 brightness. If that works you can connect all 5 channels from controller and they should all work. Of course be sure not to set the LED sliders on display over 2500 otherwise voltage will start going about 3.3v and hurt the light. It wouldn't be a good idea to move the sliders with the controller connected, as you know sometimes the touch can respond somewhere else and a channel might go full level sending 5v to the light. If the light looks about a 1/3 bright it'll change with the slider no need to test unless you disconnect and reconnect first.
Now with all that said the disclaimer lol, this is all at your own risk, I would hate to see a message saying something went wrong. I'm confident enough if those other test check out that I would do it if it was my light but that doesn't say much. :) But yeah it's very simple setup, the only concern I have is the 3.3v signal is negative because the other light is but the volt meter should tell you that if used correctly. Also when you connect the first 3.3v to the LED channel from controller set at 1v for just a quick second, if light doesn't flash on something isn't right, if it does you should be ok to leave it. One day I plan to have some lights available and this is the method I was planning on using as it's common and cheap method, without the module there's 50 cents of parts plus LED's.
To verify positive voltage, make sure the GND probe from meter is definitely on a common GND from light which sounds like you have and then put the positive probe on the pin going to LED board, if you don't have a -3.3v on the meter it should be positive voltage. So make sure that negative symbol isn't on the meter with 3.3v or whatever showing.
You mentioned 24v on the LED board, where is that coming from, does the bluetooth module have anything to do with it? As in 24v goes into that board then from there to the LED board? Looking at the images I'm guessing the 24v goes directly to the LED board and 9.5v is sent to the module for power it up. If that's correct and you power up the LED board with the 24v power source you should still have 9.5v on that pin without the module plugged in.
So we know 3.3v is the max voltage but controller puts out a max of 5v on the LED channels which is too much. It's possible that PWM converter you have will drop the voltage to 3.3v but you'll have to play a bit with input voltage to converter but we can figure that out later.
If you can verify the 0-3.3v is definitely positive voltage and the 24v from DC adapter goes into LED board then all you should need to do is leave the bluetooth module unplugged, connect a common GND from controller to that GND pin on the 7 pin header on LED board. On controller you can connect to 1 of the 2 GND's beside the LED ports. Then set an LED channel on the controller so it outputs 1v, about 820 on the slider, and touch that wire to one of the 5 3.3v pins on LED board. Some of the LED's should light up about 1/3 brightness. If that works you can connect all 5 channels from controller and they should all work. Of course be sure not to set the LED sliders on display over 2500 otherwise voltage will start going about 3.3v and hurt the light. It wouldn't be a good idea to move the sliders with the controller connected, as you know sometimes the touch can respond somewhere else and a channel might go full level sending 5v to the light. If the light looks about a 1/3 bright it'll change with the slider no need to test unless you disconnect and reconnect first.
Now with all that said the disclaimer lol, this is all at your own risk, I would hate to see a message saying something went wrong. I'm confident enough if those other test check out that I would do it if it was my light but that doesn't say much. :) But yeah it's very simple setup, the only concern I have is the 3.3v signal is negative because the other light is but the volt meter should tell you that if used correctly. Also when you connect the first 3.3v to the LED channel from controller set at 1v for just a quick second, if light doesn't flash on something isn't right, if it does you should be ok to leave it. One day I plan to have some lights available and this is the method I was planning on using as it's common and cheap method, without the module there's 50 cents of parts plus LED's.
