# Light Control software automated for aquariums



## molton (Mar 29, 2014)

Hello. I made light control software last year that I ported to the very low power, very small, low cost Raspberry Pi computer system that controls levels of light using DMX communications, which is what is used on many modern controllable LED drivers and would be a very cheap way to automate a system where aquarium lighting changes throughout the day, giving fish and plants a more natural daily light cycle and you a cooler aquarium to look at.

The software is free to use. I recently made a custom version specifically for aquarium lighting applications. The program automatically runs the 24-hour light timer feature that keeps the lighting at the same levels at the same time everyday. It calculates the differences in light levels and slowly changes the lighting over the course of every hour giving smooth light changes you don't really notice until they have already happened. You would need a Raspberry Pi computer (~$30), a USB-RS-485 communication device (~$30) and a DMX controlled LED light grid. Once the computer is setup, you would not need a keyboard, mouse, or monitor plugged into it in order for it to work, it just needs to be plugged into it's tiny 5-watt power supply and the lighting. 4 colors of light like red,green, blue, and white would give you good flexibility over how you change the light throughout the day, add UV, turquoise, etc for even more custom lighting. I have info on my the forum on my website on some ideas of good hardware to use for this.

http://www.lightput.com/


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## molton (Mar 29, 2014)

I didn't see a way to edit my post so I'm double posting. I got an email wondering about what I meant by a "DMX controlled LED light grid" basically I mean LED's that are powered by an LED driver that can be controlled through a system known as DMX. I have information on different places to get DMX LED drivers here http://lightput.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=520 great deals on Aliexpress.com but also issues with getting exactly what I ordered sometimes.

also, you could use lightput with a windows computer, but the extremely low power consumption and tiny size of the raspberry Pi makes it perfect for running all day without having to look at it. The only problem with the raspberry pi is it has no real time clock to keep track of what time it is in case of power loss, but you can buy a clock unit for it on ebay for like $5. I just got one and I'll detail how I get that working on my forum. I apologize if that forum is so shutdown to users, I don't have time to deal with the spam


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