Simulation - How?

[instantsquid]

Yet more questions from the computer programmer who can't program his ProfiLux :o

Have a look at the screen shot below - unless I'm missing something, the settings on this screen have no effect on my lighting whatsoever.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/GHL1.jpg

I've got my moonlight LEDs on L3 - set up here:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/GHL2.jpg

The moonlight LEDs come on gradually, fading in as my last set of T5 tubes fade out. At 22:00 they are on full. At 22:30 they reduce down to 30% for overnight, finally reducing to 0% at 05:30 - really just to give the tank some complete darkness before "dawn".

My assumption was that the "simulation" settings would work on the moonlight LEDs (I've specified L3), but nothing on this screen seems to do anything to the lighting.

Anyone got this all working lovely? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

[bubbling-under]

Hi there ... I have managed to get this working and from what I can see, your configuration is correct - my LED's are very much affected by the moon phases... going from nothing to full brightness over the period

However I do have problems if I configure my LED's on ports 3/4, they will not work on these ports full stop - so my problem is a little different to yours.
However I would suggest it may be worth moving them to ports 1/2 just for a test - it resolved the immediate issue for me. Steve is currently looking into my problem

[stevew@reefdreams]

Hi Ian,

It looks like you have this set up correctly :)

The Moon simulation works over and above your settings, it doesn't alter your settings or change the graphs.
Looking at your settings above, the moon is at ~80% of full moon.

Therefore with your settings as they are, your moonlights will increase from 0 -100% from 9.45 till 10pm. The moon phase is active from 10pm so it will only reach 80% of the 100% set. Then from 10.30pm it will dim over 15 minutes to 80% of the 30% you specified. So if you look at the LED lighting as a power 0-100. you will be getting currently a power of 80 dimming to 27 with the moonphase. It is pretty difficult to determine the difference by eye between 30% and 27%.

Over the next 2 weeks as the moon becomes full and then reduces to zero at the new moon, you will see a much bigger difference with the moonphase turned on. But while the moon is close to 80-100% of full brightness you will probably think it is not having an effect.

I hope that makes some sense, you could always prove this by advancing the date to the next new moon.

Steve

[instantsquid]

Right, that does make sense. I think I was expecting a more extreme effect - as you say, the difference between 80% and 100% of the 30% I've set for overtime moonlighting is very subtle. Need to have a bit more of a play with it methinks.

Following on however, looking at the first picture above - what does the "Clouds" settings actually have an effect on? All dimmable lights? Only the moonlights? Does it run all day, every day?