# New to Led lighting and control box’s



## Paul’s fishroom (22 Apr 2021)

Hello all , I’m only just gotten back into the hobby, after a break of some years. I have a bank of four tanks with 3w leds spot mounted above each tank. It’s working well and I’m please with the plant growth. My question is currently I have each lamp running into a extension lead that plugs into a timer. I believe these days you can buy a some sort of “ control box” that will allow you to both bring the light on and off gradually like sunrise/ sunset and also control the time period? Going online I can find ones for specific makes of led light systems. Does anyone know if the is a system that allows mixed lighting that isn’t tailored to one make of lighting? Thanks


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## Nick potts (22 Apr 2021)

What type of lighting is it (brand etc) and what power supply do they use?


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## Paul’s fishroom (22 Apr 2021)

Sorry they are just bright white 3w led spots
Lights from the led warehouse 6500k I think , direct wired into the household 5amp plug no sort of led driver box that I can see.


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## Nick potts (22 Apr 2021)

Ah ok, I don't know enough about electrics to advise you (to dangerous  ), but I think you will need a dimmable LED driver and to make sure the LED's themselves are dimmable.

Do you have a link to the lights?


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## oreo57 (22 Apr 2021)

Paul’s fishroom said:


> Sorry they are just bright white 3w led spots
> Lights from the led warehouse 6500k I think , direct wired into the household 5amp plug no sort of led driver box that I can see.


Driver circuitry is inside the bulb.
The bulb needs to be labeled " dimmable" and type of dimming needs to be stated.
 IF dimmable most likely triac dimming like a normally incandescent.
Controllability is unlikely or complicated.
There are manual/app based remotes.








						Triac LED Dimmer 100-240VAC Wireless RF Dimmable Push Switch 2.4G Remote Controller Single Color LED Bulb Lamps Dimmer - Walmart.com
					

Buy Triac LED Dimmer 100-240VAC Wireless RF Dimmable Push Switch 2.4G Remote Controller Single Color LED Bulb Lamps Dimmer at Walmart.com



					www.walmart.com
				




Again though the bulb needs to be listed as dimmable.


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## Paul’s fishroom (22 Apr 2021)

Ok thanks nice to know.


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## dw1305 (28 Apr 2021)

Hi all,


Paul’s fishroom said:


> Sorry they are just bright white 3w led spots
> Lights from the led warehouse 6500k I think , direct wired into the household 5amp plug no sort of led driver box that I can see.


If they are dimmable 240V LED lamps (GU10) you can add in a <"manual "trailing edge" dimmer switch"> (like you use for house lights). Marcel  @zozo is the man for this sort of thing.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (28 Apr 2021)

As Oreo already said, the lamp should be labelled dimmable...

For timer options with sunset en sunrise, you could go for GU10 or MR16 12 volt dimmable LED spots. And search eBay, amazon or Aliexpress for Wifi or Bluetooth LED timer controler. For example this RGBW wifi controler.









						Mi Light Timer WiFi RGB RGBW LED Strip Bulb Lamp RF Remote 4-zone Controller  | eBay
					

Program 1 (RGBW Fade In Fade out). RGBW light bulb/down light, dual white light bulb/down light, etc. With this simple WiFi. To dim all RGBW lights at once or change the color, first press \'Master ON\' to do this with individual lights, first press \'ZONE ON\'.



					www.ebay.com
				




It has 4 channels even tho it says RGB and W colour doesn't matter, the output is 12 or 24 volt depending on how many volts you put in. All channels get the same output and a 12 volts or 24 volts dimmable LED spot in white colour can be connected to each channel. If you don't exceed the Max Amp rating you can put more spots per channel connected parallel.

The timer and sunrise sunset settings can be controlled via Wifi and Phone App.

I have seen a few that are able to do the same at VAC220 but these aren't really popular and not easy to find. I've personally used the
TC423 fo control VAC 220 dimmable LED lights. It's a 5 channel controller with 220 volts in and output. And needs to be controlled/SET via PC software.








						TC420 TC421 TC423 Time Programable RGB LED Controller Dimmer DC12V/24V 5 Channel  | eBay
					

►High- compatibility: support 1 to 5 channel output for RGBW/RGB/dual color/single color LED lights. Output: 5 channels. ② CH2: It is the load output second channel negative pole;. ① CH1: It is the load output first channel negative pole;.



					www.ebay.com
				



But IMHO it contains crapy firmware same as the TC421 and I didn't like it and it can't be flashed to the older (TC420) version I liked a lot more. So I discontinued using it. But it does the job. It could be you're less spoiled than I am and this it might be what you want.

Other options depending on how much light intensity you need look at the nowadays Smart LED Bulb spotlights... These are 220VAC and can be controlled similarly to the first controller I linked to, but then need to controlled and set separately per bulb over the same App.

Could be I missed something because this stuff regarding Home Automation is developing rather fast... Maybe there are newer option out there i yet don't know about.

Search for "PWM LED timer controller" and dig through the results.


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## zozo (28 Apr 2021)

Actually, I have a few smart bulbs in use and now that it is mentioned... In the phone App, you can create groups and make the group of lamps do the same thing at the same time as group settings.


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