K7 V3 User Discussion Thread-Frequently Asked Questions

Gtinnel · Oct 27, 2021

@noopsyche the power cord was just long enough. I need to adjust them but so far I'm liking them.

I think I could only fit 2 more.

Gtinnel · Oct 27, 2021

Ok I do have one small gripe. In my previous picture notice how the center light is level, or at least close to level. I looked over just a minute ago and it was leaning to one side. I went and looked at it and the claw had cracked where the screw goes into the center. I've added some epoxy to glue it back together so in the end it isn't that big of a deal, but it could be if another one breaks and drops the light into the tank.
I wish they would've been made more sturdy. I would've gladly paid more for them to be sure my lights won't fall.

noopsyche · Oct 27, 2021

Gtinnel said:
Ok I do have one small gripe. In my previous picture notice how the center light is level, or at least close to level. I looked over just a minute ago and it was leaning to one side. I went and looked at it and the claw had cracked where the screw goes into the center. I've added some epoxy to glue it back together so in the end it isn't that big of a deal, but it could be if another one breaks and drops the light into the tank.
I wish they would've been made more sturdy. I would've gladly paid more for them to be sure my lights won't fall.

So sorry to hear that;Nailbiting has it been found to be cracked when it is installed?
The material of the claw is not metal , it is insulated to prevent leakage

Gtinnel · Oct 27, 2021

noopsyche said:
So sorry to hear that;Nailbiting has it been found to be cracked when it is installed?
The material of the claw is not metal , it is insulated to prevent leakage

I knew it was plastic and expected it to be, but it's not very sturdy plastic.

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

Ok so I've only had the lights on the tank for a few hours before I had them go off for the night and I can honestly say that I am more than impressed with the spectrum and the colors that I see in some of my corals. This is with the intensity set low to let my corals acclimate over the next few days. I have a toadstool leather that I've never seen anything other than brown on it, when the polyps retracted tonight the flesh was glowing a faint green color.
The controller is cheap feeling, but I didn't think programming was as nearly as bad as I was expecting. If you sit down with a piece of paper and write out what you want your 8 sets to be I thought programming it was fairly simple actually.
I am also very un-impressed with the claw part of the mounting. Mine are now also zip tied to my bar so that if the claw breaks my lights hopefully don't go for a swim. I'm planning on eventually changing my diy fixture to where I can mount the lights directly from the 4 screws that are on the body of the light, instead of transferring the weight (which isn't that much weight) to the single screw mounted in the flimsy claw.

Overall I am extremely happy with the lights so far, and for anyone who reads this I did not win my lights. I only mention it because it seems like everyone else on this site who has them just won them. I'm sure that's a gross exaggeration though. It probably feels that way because some of the people who won them feel obligated to share their opinions. I feel the need to share because I believe they're a great light for the cost. They have a few small short comings but at this price you can't expect everything to be perfect and Noopsyche still came fairly close.

mdb_talon · Oct 28, 2021

Gtinnel said:
Ok so I've only had the lights on the tank for a few hours before I had them go off for the night and I can honestly say that I am more than impressed with the spectrum and the colors that I see in some of my corals. This is with the intensity set low to let my corals acclimate over the next few days. I have a toadstool leather that I've never seen anything other than brown on it, when the polyps retracted tonight the flesh was glowing a faint green color.
The controller is cheap feeling, but I didn't think programming was as nearly as bad as I was expecting. If you sit down with a piece of paper and write out what you want your 8 sets to be I thought programming it was fairly simple actually.
I am also very un-impressed with the claw part of the mounting. Mine are now also zip tied to my bar so that if the claw breaks my lights hopefully don't go for a swim. I'm planning on eventually changing my diy fixture to where I can mount the lights directly from the 4 screws that are on the body of the light, instead of transferring the weight (which isn't that much weight) to the single screw mounted in the flimsy claw.

Overall I am extremely happy with the lights so far, and for anyone who reads this I did not win my lights. I only mention it because it seems like everyone else on this site who has them just won them. I'm sure that's a gross exaggeration though. It probably feels that way because some of the people who won them feel obligated to share their opinions. I feel the need to share because I believe they're a great light for the cost. They have a few small short comings but at this price you can't expect everything to be perfect and Noopsyche still came fairly close.

You almost have me convinced. I been so close to pulling the trigger for a few days. My luck I will finally decide and the 15% discount will be gone. I know the 25% ends in a few days.

noopsyche · Oct 28, 2021

Gtinnel said:
I am also very un-impressed with the claw part of the mounting. Mine are now also zip tied to my bar so that if the claw breaks my lights hopefully don't go for a swim. I'm planning on eventually changing my diy fixture to where I can mount the lights directly from the 4 screws that are on the body of the light, instead of transferring the weight (which isn't that much weight) to the single screw mounted in the flimsy claw.

Hi,Gregory
We have never meet the situation of broken claws.There is a metal in the middle of the claw and screwed together to prevent it from bursting.
I am actively dealing with this. Is it convenient to take a picture of it?
like files:

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

noopsyche said:
Hi,Gregory
We have never dealt with the problem of broken claws.There is a metal in the middle of the claw and screwed together to prevent it from bursting.
I am actively dealing with this. Is it convenient to take a picture of a paw?

It cracked on the plastic beside the metal threaded sleeve. I actually had one of the paws that has the plastic crack on one of the arms where it attaches to the light also, but that one was probably user error by tightening it too tight (I have a tendency to do that). The one that cracked in the middle wasn't too tight and actually couldn't be tight because the head of the screw had to stick up to slide into my t slot channel.
It is not convenient to remove the lights, ecspecially now that I have zip ties around them, I can try to take a picture from the side but I doubt you'll be able to see anything, and even if you did all you would see is the 2 part epoxy I put in there to hold it together. Here is a picture of a paw where I've drawn a red line to show where it cracked. It cracked from the sleeve to the outside edge.

The alarming thing is that it was hanging there level and then a little later I looked over and it was hanging crooked. Which means it either just broke while just hanging there, or even more likely it was fractured and then let go while hanging there.

In my case I'm not worried about it and it's not that big of a deal, if you are asking about it to try to fix what is possibly a potential flaw then good for you and as a company you've earned that much more respect from me.

noopsyche · Oct 28, 2021

Gtinnel said:
It cracked on the plastic beside the metal threaded sleeve. I actually had one of the paws that has the plastic crack on one of the arms where it attaches to the light also, but that one was probably user error by tightening it too tight (I have a tendency to do that). The one that cracked in the middle wasn't too tight and actually couldn't be tight because the head of the screw had to stick up to slide into my t slot channel.
It is not convenient to remove the lights, ecspecially now that I have zip ties around them, I can try to take a picture from the side but I doubt you'll be able to see anything, and even if you did all you would see is the 2 part epoxy I put in there to hold it together. Here is a picture of a paw where I've drawn a red line to show where it cracked. It cracked from the sleeve to the outside edge.

The alarming thing is that it was hanging there level and then a little later I looked over and it was hanging crooked. Which means it either just broke while just hanging there, or even more likely it was fractured and then let go while hanging there.

In my case I'm not worried about it and it's not that big of a deal, if you are asking about it to try to fix what is possibly a potential flaw then good for you and as a company you've earned that much more respect from me.

It may be a fracture. It has a strong load-bearing capacity and sufficient support.There has never been a problem with the paw used by the customer
So we concluded that it was broken before you get it. We want to know if you are willing to accept that we sent you new claw?

BroccoliFarmer · Oct 28, 2021

Gtinnel said:
Ok so I've only had the lights on the tank for a few hours before I had them go off for the night and I can honestly say that I am more than impressed with the spectrum and the colors that I see in some of my corals. This is with the intensity set low to let my corals acclimate over the next few days. I have a toadstool leather that I've never seen anything other than brown on it, when the polyps retracted tonight the flesh was glowing a faint green color.
The controller is cheap feeling, but I didn't think programming was as nearly as bad as I was expecting. If you sit down with a piece of paper and write out what you want your 8 sets to be I thought programming it was fairly simple actually.
I am also very un-impressed with the claw part of the mounting. Mine are now also zip tied to my bar so that if the claw breaks my lights hopefully don't go for a swim. I'm planning on eventually changing my diy fixture to where I can mount the lights directly from the 4 screws that are on the body of the light, instead of transferring the weight (which isn't that much weight) to the single screw mounted in the flimsy claw.

Overall I am extremely happy with the lights so far, and for anyone who reads this I did not win my lights. I only mention it because it seems like everyone else on this site who has them just won them. I'm sure that's a gross exaggeration though. It probably feels that way because some of the people who won them feel obligated to share their opinions. I feel the need to share because I believe they're a great light for the cost. They have a few small short comings but at this price you can't expect everything to be perfect and Noopsyche still came fairly close.

Honestly, there was no implied, expected or requested obligation. As you said, these are just pretty awesome lights once you get past the controller. I am sharing with the community because of the runaway inflation on the premium brands..it’s nice to let people know there are affordable options out there. My obligation was to our community.

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

NJTaxMan said:
Honestly, there was no implied, expected or requested obligation. As you said, these are just pretty awesome lights once you get past the controller. I am sharing with the community because of the runaway inflation on the premium brands..it’s nice to let people know there are affordable options out there. My obligation was to our community.

There was no intent in my comments to insinuate that you or any specific user only posted a review because of the fact that they won the lights.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who would dismiss someone's review based solely upon the fact that the reviewer didn't pay for the lights, whether the reviewer is genuinely leaving the review because the product is worth reviewing. I felt the need to state that I paid for them for the same reason you felt the need to state that you didn't pay for them, transparency. If anything my stating that I paid for the lights and feeling the way I do about them helps validate that your review comes from your opinions and not from feeling pressured to review them.

I do believe your opinion was nothing more than your honest opinion, but I don't see anywhere else where you have reviewed lights in the past. So I suspect the fact that this is the first light you've reviewed and probably (although I'm just guessing at both of these things) the first lights you've ever won, that people could see that as you feeling like you had to leave a review. Whether you realize it or not.

Hopefully you have not taken offense in my stating this the way I did, I sincerely did not mean to offend you or anyone else.

BroccoliFarmer · Oct 28, 2021

Gtinnel said:
There was no intent in my comments to insinuate that you or any specific user only posted a review because of the fact that they won the lights.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who would dismiss someone's review based solely upon the fact that the reviewer didn't pay for the lights, whether the reviewer is genuinely leaving the review because the product is worth reviewing. I felt the need to state that I paid for them for the same reason you felt the need to state that you didn't pay for them, transparency. If anything my stating that I paid for the lights and feeling the way I do about them helps validate that your review comes from your opinions and not from feeling pressured to review them.

I do believe your opinion was nothing more than your honest opinion, but I don't see anywhere else where you have reviewed lights in the past. So I suspect the fact that this is the first light you've reviewed and probably (although I'm just guessing at both of these things) the first lights you've ever won, that people could see that as you feeling like you had to leave a review. Whether you realize it or not.

Hopefully you have not taken offense in my stating this the way I did, I sincerely did not mean to offend you or anyone else.

No offense at all. You're a good guy!!

galmase · Oct 28, 2021

Hello,
I'm thinking of getting these new lights. Can i use the k7 pro v2 brackets on these?
Thanks.

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

@noopsyche well paw number 2 was broken when I got home from work. Luckily it was caught by a zip tie. I'm busy at the moment but I will take and post a picture this evening.

Seriously IME anyone looking to get the lights the paws that attach to the lights are garbage, I'm just really glad my light didn't take a swim

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

@noopsyche
Here are picture I took just a few minutes ago before gluing it back together with JB Weld 2 part epoxy. Honestly I think I can 3d print a bracket stronger than these things. The light wasn't even touched from the time it was okay until it broke.

Here you can see the left light hanging crooked

Here is a close up of the underside of the paw. Again the screw in the paw was not tight at all. The only thing that is holding it to not break completely in half is the plastic being attached (I'm assuming to the knurling) of the threaded sleeve. The plastic is completely separated right down the middle.

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

The one I crudely fixed in place is still holding so I think I will take them all down this weekend and go ahead and add the epoxy before they break.

If the worst complaint that I have is that little plastic bracket is flimsy then this doesn't change my opinion of the actual light at all.

Gtinnel · Oct 28, 2021

@noopsyche I think I just realized why they broke. When mounted onto your arm the top center of the paw sits up tight against the metal bracket, correct? If so that would prevent the paw from being allowed to flex in the middle. With my setup they are hanging from that center screw. Where they are not tight up against anything above the center it allows the ends of the paw to flex down, which puts the force in the center and it cracks. That would explain why you never experienced a failure. If you hang the light from that one center screw it will break.

I now believe it was the way I installed them that is causing the failure but I still feel they should be sturdy enough to withstand the small amount of force caused by the way I've mounted mine.