Production Changes

CaptainRon · Feb 19, 2012

I've noticed that the manual I have with my Maxspect P series is different from the manual I downloaded from the CoralVue site with respect to the LEDs included in channels C and D. I have three P series units over my 93 Gallon cube and I believe one of my units is different from the other two. Just looking at the LEDS by channel, it appears that the LED color is different on the one unit compared to the other two. While changing optics, I noticed a number inside each unit. Is there a way to confirm if I have two different LED configurations on my lights - perhaps by the number I noticed? I'd like them to be the same, but without taking off an actual LED, they don't seem to have any markings that indicate what each LED "bulb" is. In short, I'd like to know if there is a way I can confirm whether or not I actually have two different production runs.

Also, When I programmed P1, everything seemed to go ok until all the LEDs where supposed to go off (I have all four channels programmed to off on TP8, TP8 is turned on). The first night, two channels remained on after they should have turned off. The second night, all channels innitially went off at the correct time. However I went to check on the tank several hours later and found that two channels where turned on to two and three percent. I confirmed that there was no programming indicating the lights should be on, but yet there it was. Is there something I can do to reset the units or something? Is there something else I can check to ensure my tank goes dark?

Finally, I was curious if there were any plans to have any sort of computer interface for these lights? I was on the fence between these lights and another brand, in the end the full light spectrum and configuration options offered by the Maxspect units won me over. However I do still wonder about the ability to control them via computer.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Ron

Chris@CoralVue · Feb 20, 2012

Ron,

You probably have one of the earlier version P modules with a different firmware and LED layout. The older version uses the Bridgelux LED chips and is without the 420nm Super Actinic (instead it has 405nm violet).

Please check the photo-period programs to make sure there are at least 2 time points set to 0 to ensure the channels stays at 0% during night time (refer to the table below),

	TP1	TP2	TP3	TP4	TP5	TP6	TP7	TP8
	10:00	13:00	14:00	16:00	19:00	20:00	22:00	23:00
Channel A	OFF	10%	30%	100%	100%	25%	10%	OFF
Channel B	1%	30%	75%	100%	100%	75%	30%	1%
Channel C	1%	30%	75%	100%	100%	75%	30%	1%
Channel D	OFF	10%	30%	100%	100%	25%	10%	OFF

If the photo-period programs are set properly and the light still turns on a few percentage, then it should be the weather mode with the older firmware. Try disabling the weather mode and see if this is fixed.

To permanently fix the issue, you'll need to have your LED module firmware updated.

Thanks,

Chris
CoralVue

CaptainRon · Feb 21, 2012

Thanks for the response Chris. I know when the units were purchase, two came in right away and one of them came in a week or so later. It would appear that perhaps I have two older units and one newer one. Can I get the two older units updated to match the newer one?

The programming I've entered is similar two what you have shown, but TP 8 is set to off for all 4 channels. Are you saying that TP 7 AND TP 8 should have all four channels set to off? Also, I've disabled the dawn/dusk feature as well as the weather feature.

If I do need to get my units updated to a current firmware, how is that completed?

Thanks for your help,
Ron