PWM frequency

[fietsenrex]

probably a software related question but it's due to hardware that I have to ask it..
I've got 12 vero18's running over my tank each has it's own LDD-1000H
they run fine.. sort of..
because they are insanely powerful I've got them running at 15% power on the high sun setting and 5~10% at mid sun and 2% at low sun (off at moon)
but here comes the sort of.. part,
during ramping they are flickering which I get annoyed by, it's barely noticeable but I can still see it sometimes
and at the high sun setting there is a slight high pitch noise, like a phone charger running idle, also barely noticeable but it's there

so it there a way I can set the PWM frequency from 500-ish to about 980-ish? or is that already done between versions 1.6 and 2.3?

[Rob F]

Sounds like you have more than enough light. :) You can change the PWM frequency in the power bar sketch. Currently its at 1600 which is probably too high. In the power bar sketch v2.3 at line 651 you'll see the 1600 and can change it there. I think 400 is the lowest setting. Let me know how it goes and what you settle on.

[fietsenrex]

hhmmmm strange, yesterday I measured 515Hz on one of the colored channels...
here are some measurements from yesterday:




keep in mind that this is still V1.6

[Rob F]

That is strange, the signals come from the PCA9685 chip and all channels use the same setting so I would expect them to be the same. Not sure what to think. Hopefully adjusting it will cause the flicker and buzz to go away.

[fietsenrex]

oh btw, the first is measured in channel 1 and the second and third on channel 4

I had a short in one of my driver boxes which caused the resistor to burn up so I retrofitted a 4.7K "normal" resistor on the affected channel.
good thing I didn't fry the entire controller.. or at least I think..

but as soon as 2.3 is running smoothly I'll adjust the frequency ;)

[Rob F]

That's strange, I don't think my meter reads frequency so I can't see what I get.

If only the resistor burnt up the controller should be ok, if the channel still works with the new resistor it should be ok, it would have knocked out the PCA9685.

Are you having any problems with 2.3? I think its running ok. You should upgrade as there were some issues in 1.6 that was fixed. Nothing to major but still issues. Did you get 2.3 to compile?

[fietsenrex]

haven't had time to try it yet :(

[Rob F]

I hear you, not enough hours in the day. Well I'm off to bed, have a good night or day, I think you're day.

[fietsenrex]

yeah day, I'm at work now killing some time :P
have a good night ;)

[fietsenrex]

got version 2.3 running, now going to change the frequency..
but.. the eeprom was cleared so I need to calibrate my dosing pumps again....

---

so the humming is disapeared, the flickering is almost gone now..
think it has something to do with the wire gauge..

but my pumps and heater are always switched of...
the schedule is still the same, it says on@00:00 and off@00:00
feeder is disabled and times are set to 2300 and 1100
outlets are all switched on in the feeding sub menu.

[Rob F]

When I updated from v1.6 to v2.0 I had to make a bunch of adjustments to the eerpom on the mega so you need to go to "settings", "system" and restore the defaults. This won't happen again. I also redid the dosing pump code in 2.0 I think, when you change the settings now they update as you change them so the manual dose button does what it should without leaving the page.

The schedules should sort out after your reset to defaults, unfortunately you'll have to set everything again. This should happen again.

When you say your lights are flickering is it fast or a like a pulse? When I made my light at lower values the lights were pulsing a bit, it turned out to be the meanwell powersupply, apparently it didn't have enough capacitors on it. I added two large 63v 1000uf cap on the power coming out and it solved it.

[fietsenrex]

ok thank you.
It's currently running in manual mode so it should remain fine didn't notice any gurgling last night so my pumps remained running.
I'll try it out when I get back from work and see what happens.

how do I determine if there aren't enough caps in the PS?

[Rob F]

I'm not sure on the caps, when it was happening to me I posted it on a forum and someone suggested the caps so I tried it and the problem was gone. It wasn't flickering though, it was like the PWM value was fading from 20-30 in a second or so by itself. Kinda like lights in the house will dim for a second if the power almost goes out. At times I guess it was drawing more current so the voltage was dropping and coming back. With caps the voltage doesn't drop if a quick load is put on because the caps have the extra power in them, something like that. :)

[fietsenrex]

Well I think its still not working as supposed..
Did the reset, got everything on schedule again.
But nothing changed..
Pumps are still switching off as soon as I hit resume..

[Rob F]

I think I miss read your outlet issue. Are the outlets that go off the schedule set to 0:00 on and 0:00 off? If so that's the problem. Now when the two schedule times are the same nothing happens, the outlet will always be off. In the schedules on your heater outlet press the schedule 1 time and hold it for about a second. The controller will beep and you'll get a new option that says always on or always off, press momentarily to switch between the two options. If you press and hold it for another second it'll go back to the schedule time.

[fietsenrex]

thanks :D
simple case of RTFM...

everything works as supposed

[Rob F]

Great glad to hear.