Aquarium Controller Cabinet, Product?

[Elder1945 Verified Sponsor]

probably to be

@Elder1945 please see post above this one.

The boards and cabinets are not cross-compatible, However, if you want to modify them that should be quite easy. As for the black nothing yet, We plan on launching black as a color option but it will take some time.

 

[Jason Roth]

The boards and cabinets are not cross-compatible, However, if you want to modify them that should be quite easy. As for the black nothing yet, We plan on launching black as a color option but it will take some time.

why can’t that countersunk section be mounted to the board? Take board face off and cut section of it out where I want countersunk section. And screw it in? Only difference I can imagine is width of board face is different than cabinet face.

how wide is the cabinet face?

what glue/adhesive do you use when attaching the rear cable management pieces to the back of the board?

 

[Oberst Oswald]

Following

 

[Jason Roth]

@Elder1945

 

[Elder1945 Verified Sponsor]

why can’t that countersunk section be mounted to the board? Take board face off and cut section of it out where I want countersunk section. And screw it in? Only difference I can imagine is width of board face is different than cabinet face.

how wide is the cabinet face?

what glue/adhesive do you use when attaching the rear cable management pieces to the back of the board?

Yes, The faceplates will fit on the Standard Controller board with a bit of modification.

 

[siggy]

How has the New product been received?

 

[Jason Roth]

Yes, The faceplates will fit on the Standard Controller board with a bit of modification.

That’s great. What about my other questions?

 

[SteveJacobs]

Ok so I'd like to kind of 'Build Thread" my experience with the cabinet that I just received an hour ago. Seems like there has been a bit of a lack of information about how a user would interact with this product, what does it look like when all our cords are jammed in there etc.
So, out of the box, this is what you get, steel square in shot for sizing:

 

[SteveJacobs]

The material is LIGHT, very light.
Being transparent, the cabinet was damaged on arrival.
A small 4 inch piece broke off the corner of one of the side panels.
For some reason, given it is sooooo light I had a desire to gently bite it, as it felt spongy.
the gentle canine marks remained.

 

[SteveJacobs]

No problem, I thought let's do what all reefers do and repair that broken piece of PVC from the $400 cabinet you just bought without approval from your partner.
Nope. Turns our PVC solvent / cement does not work on "Expanded PVC". Well, this is what 2 minutes of googling after the fact has possibly revealed. Love to hear if someone does know how to glue expanded PVC.
Next up, assembly............

 

[SteveJacobs]

Ok and I know the dimensions were always clearly published, but to me, this is smaller than I expected.
I'm a GHL controller guy, so maybe my expectations were set a little high, but at the moment, I can't see were I'm going to be able to fit a Powerbar in this. Nor where any reagants / reference fluids below my KH director (ion director coronavirus pending) will fit.
Hopefully I'm wrong, or maybe that's not what it was designed for, but one of the faceplates is named "KH Director Faceplate" which to me implies that it can all fit in here.
Let's see how it goes.

 

[SteveJacobs]

OK so assembly time 7 minutes. 7 minutes, excellent.
I may be slightly more proficient than most with my crappy 15 year old cordless drill, but start to finish, 7 minutes, in total.
There is even a few more screws put in there in case you lose some, nice.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Let's talk about Magnets.
OK, so the magnets are terrible.
Based on the warning text in the assembly instructions, I thought the face plate would fly across the room and slam against the body. No, they are terrible.
So much so, that there are 1/8" bolts pre-drilled into the face plate to insert into 4 holes drilled into the main part of the cabinet. I assume this is possibly to compensate for the lack of magnetic force. And given that the bolts are threaded, all of them snag against the hole as you push them together.

The last moment before you push them together yourself, the magnets kick in an kind of assist in closing.
Its like trying to magnet your kids school report card on the refrigerator, and needing to spend 2 minutes to feel a mild magnetic sensation, only to know it will be on the floor in the morning as the magnet wont hold.

 

[SteveJacobs]

The face plate leans back at an angle.
There is around an inch and a half difference, I assume so that the viewing angle is more convenient.
Seems like a good feature, but makes you feel a tad uneasy like staring at an Escher photo for too long.
Hopefully it helps in using the controllers and that it was only put in for this reason, and not to counter balance the weak magnetic force.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Will a GHL Powerbar fit horizontal, front to back.
No.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Will a GHL powerbar fit vertical, top to bottom?
Yes, quite nicely too.
Although looking in will mean cord management mayhem as unless you add some custom wire concealers, or an internal wall plate on the inside of your wire management ready cabinet controller, it's going to look messy.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Will anything fit on the top power converter ledge on the inside of the faceplate?
Nope, nothing of mine, waste of space.
Are the other ledges nicely sized?
Yes.
Are there any other things included to hide / manage wires?
No.

 

[SteveJacobs]

Is there potentially an option to mount the KH / Ion Director inside if I place a surface between the 2 power converter ledges?
Maybe.

 

[Jason Roth]

@SteveJacobs Yeah I’m curious on the adhesive used as well. I asked on a previous post. @Elder1945

 

[Elder1945 Verified Sponsor]

Is there potentially an option to mount the KH / Ion Director inside if I place a surface between the 2 power converter ledges?
Maybe.

There is a shelf that is on its way and what I hope more faceplates. The shelf be placed in the same locations as the smaller shelves on the walls.