PWM Driver Dimming not as strong?

[HydroRay]

Hello!

I was able to hook up my eud-600s210dt driver to a pca9685 to control my lights. Before I was able to set that up I simply had a knob that I hooked up to the dimming cord. https://www.amazon.com/Controller-Dimma ... 150&sr=8-7

I found that the knob would let the lights get much brighter than my tech-savvy option and was wondering why that is...

After researching the driver a bit more it looks like it's default setting is 0-10v (and not pwm). Do you think that would affect the capabilities when using the pca9685? If so, the only way I've found to change the driver's settings is to purchase a programmer https://www.inventronics-co.com/product ... -downloads and hook it up to that. Does anybody have experience with programming the driver itself?

I thought for a second it might be a power issue (because the board runs from 3.3v or 5v and not 10v), but the knob only has the two wires and isn't getting extra power from anywhere.

The last thought I had was that I might not have the programming right. Here's the code I've got right now:

Code: Select all

pca9685:
  frequency: 1220Hz
  address: 0x40

output:
  - platform: pca9685
    id: "Microgreens_Dimmer"
    channel: 1
    
light:
  - platform: monochromatic
    output: "Microgreens_Dimmer"
    id: "Micro_Light"
    name: "Microgreens Dim"
    entity_category: ""
    icon: "mdi:lightbulb"
    default_transition_length: 7.0s
    gamma_correct: 1.0

Is a higher frequency better to use to get the full range, or should I be going lower? From what I could find the max frequency is right around 1300Hz

Any help to get my lights as strong using technology (so I can make them run automatically) as the knob would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

[LEDG]

How is your circuit wired?

[HydroRay]

I had

purple (dim+) - at PWM
nothing - at V+
grey (dim-) - at GND

I ended up buying the PRG-MUL2 programmer (about $50USD), set my driver from "0-10V Dim rate Fast" to "PWM Logic +", added the black 12V wire from the driver to the middle V+ on pca9685 (although honestly I have no idea if it made a difference haha) and poof!

Under the 0-10v setting my lights wouldn't turn on until it was at 19%, and wouldn't brighten very much at all.
Now under PWM Logic+ my lights turn on at 8%, and at 100% brightness PAR is over 3x what it was.

An interesting note I found while programming the driver: The factory default is at 1.827 current where the max is 2.1. I put a driver at the max just to see if it was any stronger and it ended up increasing the output by 20%. For me, I don't need the extra power (growing lettuce, basil, and microgreens over here... crazy, I know) but if any of you do, consider pumping up the driver settings.

Another interesting note: I plugged in the manual dimming knob and it no longer works. Not sure why or how, but it either turns the lights on 100% or completely off.

Last note: I tried at both 500 and 1200 Hz frequency and didn't notice a difference. No clue what it means.