Hello,
I'm in the early planning stage of this project, no parts/quantities have been selected just yet. (It's for a fish tank light). I have background with electronics, in the automotive sector, but not as designer. I've never experimented with transistors so far, and watching tutorials isn't working for me, I need to play with it, but unfortunately I don't have any on hand right now.
I need a bit of help to figure a way to control two blocks of LEDs. One block has first priority, and is made of white LEDs, either 1 or 3 Watts, and the other is made of blue LEDs of the same W.
The way I want it to work is this:
Some of the features I'd like are:
What I figured so far is I will be using a 12V DC power supply, as I have tons on hand I'm not using, and I want blocks made of a resistor wired with a pair of LEDs and put as many as I want of these blocks to scale the lamp for various size aquariums, from my mum's 5 gallons to my big 6 foot tank and every other sizes. They would have common positive, switched ground, and the dimness controlled by a generic PWM module.
Thanks for reading
I'm in the early planning stage of this project, no parts/quantities have been selected just yet. (It's for a fish tank light). I have background with electronics, in the automotive sector, but not as designer. I've never experimented with transistors so far, and watching tutorials isn't working for me, I need to play with it, but unfortunately I don't have any on hand right now.
I need a bit of help to figure a way to control two blocks of LEDs. One block has first priority, and is made of white LEDs, either 1 or 3 Watts, and the other is made of blue LEDs of the same W.
The way I want it to work is this:
The white LEDs would be binary, either off or full brightness.
The blue LEDs would be either off, 40% on or full brightness.
I want the blue light to be either dim (or off, whichever the easiest) when the white light is on, no matter where the switch is for the blue light.
I have done something similar before, a bunch of wires, resistors, and relay held by cable ties, where the relay would cut the power of the blue LEDs whenever power was applied to the white ones. The cons of this are mainly the noisy relay, and the crude MO. I'd like a bit more refinement on this project.The blue LEDs would be either off, 40% on or full brightness.
I want the blue light to be either dim (or off, whichever the easiest) when the white light is on, no matter where the switch is for the blue light.
Some of the features I'd like are:
Like I said above, have the blue LEDs on dimly when the whites are on (I prefer that look in my tanks)
Fade-in when switching on (and from dim to bright in the blue LEDs' case)
Silent and simple operation/circuitry (no programming experience).
Fade-in when switching on (and from dim to bright in the blue LEDs' case)
Silent and simple operation/circuitry (no programming experience).
What I figured so far is I will be using a 12V DC power supply, as I have tons on hand I'm not using, and I want blocks made of a resistor wired with a pair of LEDs and put as many as I want of these blocks to scale the lamp for various size aquariums, from my mum's 5 gallons to my big 6 foot tank and every other sizes. They would have common positive, switched ground, and the dimness controlled by a generic PWM module.
Thanks for reading