What's in the box?? (NP K7V3!)

Beau_B · May 13, 2022

I WON! @noopsyche had a prize thread a little while ago that only requirement for entry was basically raising your hand, which is quite refreshing in the era of social media spamming.

As a result of my incredible photography skills and self promotion, I was selected to receive a new Noopsyche K7 V3 to test and report on.

Accordingly, a little box arrived in the mail, having gone through a rough final leg at my doorstep in the pouring rain. Everything survived, the mounting arm suffered a spot of chaffing (haven't we all) but a dab of paint will take care of it.

Pretty straightforward packaging - inside the basic box was lots of bubble wrap and other protective bits, everything arranged neatly like a puzzle.

The fixture itself has some heft (thanks to the glass lenses and sizable aluminum heat sink). The directions ignore the mount arm assembly process, but with a little critical thinking it goes together without issue. The lower block, that which holds the large thumb screws to tension against the aquarium, is made of dense plastic and the holes for the assembly screws aren't pre-chased so it's a bit stiff going together and care is needed not to get them crooked. Phillips screwdriver is obviously required!

My first hurdle is that my large reef tank's cover doesn't accomodate the mounting bracket. I am looking at changing my lighting system entirely, so perhaps a wall mounting or hanging setup is in the immediate future. More on that as it develops.

In the interm, to experiment and witness the light performance without disrupting the big tank too much, I'm going to put it on my nano; a Waterbox Clear Mini 16 that is only a couple months old. It's destined to be a clown/nem tank, but will now be a testing ground for the K7 V3!

Stay tuned for Episode II : The controller.
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOdlDHtzPonM0VYUV8RGsGbvYq-fxZbCEIMkFQV

glb · May 13, 2022

Very cool. Congrats!

Reefer Reboot · May 13, 2022

Nice score! Could I ask a favor from you. @neon_reefer was looking for the mounting hole dimensions to possibly make a t-slot mounting bracket for these lights. ( See https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/neptune-sky-mount-for-8020-rail.910883/#post-10201053 )
Is yours still accessible enough to get these dimensions for us? TIA.

neonreef3d · May 13, 2022

Reefer Reboot said:
Nice score! Could I ask a favor from you. @neon_reefer was looking for the mounting hole dimensions to possibly make a t-slot mounting bracket for these lights. ( See https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/neptune-sky-mount-for-8020-rail.910883/#post-10201053 )
Is yours still accessible enough to get these dimensions for us? TIA.

Thanks for that, I already got the dimensions for the hole spacing for the LED unit. Good looking out

Gtinnel · May 13, 2022

It’s not hard to hang them. I have mine hung from two parallel t slot rails.

noopsyche · May 20, 2022

I guess you installed M3 screws

, however the screws here should be M4:

Beau_B · May 20, 2022

@noopsyche Interesting. I used all the screws in the package, and that was the only one left. I will investigate, as I did think it seemed odd to have a flat head screw there.

I have to use a different arrangement (no arm) to put over the full DT, so it won't matter, but getting the right size will!

noopsyche · May 20, 2022

Possibly mount the M4 screw other position?

Beau_B · May 21, 2022

Sorry for the delay, I've been dealing with a host of other things, not the least of which is a rockscape collapse in the DT. I built some overhanging rock and then errantly stacked other ontop of it post-design to get more mounting area. Was fine for perhaps a year, but woke up to find mayhem a few days ago. I want to blame the urchin, but I think it may have just been a multi-factor failure. Adjustments have been made and fortunately it doesn't appear I lost anything. I still need to relocate some corals that were displaced, but that's a whole separate problem.

THE CONTROLLER:

After setting the light up, I plugged everything in, and unfortunately nothing happened. I looked over the documentation and didn't immediately see an issue. Disappointed I began pushing buttons on the fixture like a 5yo (or Homer Simpson). That produced some light! However, it was just a plain blue and not what I expected, and I couldn't make any adjustments. More pressing caused the indicator light on the fixture to flash green, flash blue, flash orange at different times. None of which seemed to correspond with what was in the guidebook. Frustrated, I turned to the controller.

After plugging the controller in, I started to navigate the menus. It was relatively easy to go forward, but it wasn't immediatly intuitive, as I had predicted. I did figure out the key to navigation was holding the confirm button for 3s to move back. It is not as elegant as some other controllers, but also not difficult once learned. The bigger issue was no matter what I did on the controller, nothing happened on the light.

At this stage I determined the light and controller were not factory paired. I reset the controller (hold left and right buttons for 3 sec) and then did the process to link the two together. Took a little coordination, but easy enough.

BINGO! Suddenly the light responded, and looked more like a proper spectrum. It wasn't the appropriate setting for the time of day though, so back to the controller and adjust the time. I ended up setting it not to local time, but adjusted so that the pre-program fit my daily schedule.

I have since set the light to a lower power by going in and modifying the levels for each time sector under the LPS group. I wish there was a way to move then entire program up/down in intensity (and maybe there is that I don't know about) rather than having to change each color percentage in each time slot. It's a little tedious and some of the jumps between percentages are drastic. Presumably because some led chips turn off or on depending on overall power required.

I have had the light running over the little tank for about a week now, and my primary take away is that the spectrum is more purple than I care for. I would assume that's the "UV" or D-group running higher than I might like. Next step I'll take some pics or vid while adjusting the program to compare the different channels. I will confess that I'm not a big fan of having that much adjustablity, as I don't really know what I'm doing when changing color percentages.

noopsyche · May 21, 2022

hey, can I help?

Looks like you're trying to figure it out yourself ，You can use the preset directly, no need to adjust

I'm sorry I've been busy lately and haven't been able to offer some tips to you

Beau_B · Jun 5, 2022

Very quick post: I’ve been away for a week and couldn’t mess with the tank at all. This morning I put the Noopsyche on the light rail, and left it on the low-settings I used for the nano. Will need to spend some time with the controller and map it to mimic the Kessil settings.

First reaction? The shimmer is slightly less, but color matching is impressive. There isn’t a major line between under the Kessils vs K7 V3. Definitely a little static, particularly on the sand in the back, but it’s not disco-ball, just a little graining.

I’ll probably leave it low for a couple days and start messing with the schedule then. Corals seem to have been stable the past week but PO4 is elevated (probably pellet induced) and I haven’t remounted the bulk of the SPS frags after the rock slide.

Quick unfiltered IPhone 7 shots. At this time of day, Kessils are at 28% color 66% power. See photo for NP settings.

noopsyche · Jun 6, 2022

Your tank looks more beautiful than before

Beau_B · Jun 9, 2022

A few days worth of observations:

Changed to LPS/SPS map with some slight time adjustments. Moved the first on to earlier in the day, and shifted and shortened the high points down and hour (less). Spectrum is pleasant throughout.

Color blending is still outstanding. I cannot over state how nice it is to not have any disco ball as is common with many lights. The overall effect is close to Kessil.

The spread is less than the 360x. I don’t have any quantitative data other than the spill is less and the highly scientific method of holding my hand up around the fixture shows a tighter pattern. This might be good for some tanks or a downside. I’ll look into trying to measure this some how.

The fan is automatic, and comes on and off regularly. Every 5-10 minutes it’s on for 15-20 seconds would be my guess. It’s disappointingly loud. Not obnoxious, but definitely noticeable. With the Decibel X app, and standing in front of the tank I go from 40-42dB to 44-46dB. Doesn’t seem like much but I can hear the difference from the neighboring room. It’s not enough to dislike the light, but it does compete for the loudest equipment on the tank (currently the skimmer). I would imagine running 3 of them on this tank might create a concert of sound as they cycle at different times.

No noticeable change in coral behavior, which is good!

Projects with Sam · Jun 9, 2022

I do hear the fans kick on now that you mention it with 3 lights though one seems to be on at all times so its more constant and probably less noticeable (I should get 4!) I too have a super quiet tank with my main noise contenders being my skimmer and my lights. Maybe I'm getting old and loosing some hearing or the kids' constant din has acclimatized me to background noise but the fans don't really bother me. Compared to my old black box specials, its like I'm tiptoeing through a quiet library.
I think having them in the hood with something to muffle the open-side of the fan helps a lot too.
Great review sofar!

Beau_B · Jul 25, 2022

Whoops! Time flies in the summer.

No news is good news though. I really don’t have anything to report. This light is keeping up with the Kessils.

Still have it mounted center on the tank with the Kessils on the wings. Can’t easily see where one starts and the other ends.

Corals have been doing their thing. PO4 is still a little elevated but I’m just letting it go… increased skimming and fuge light time.

I have had to move some pieces for other reasons and am working on a long-term fix for my aquascape crumble, but otherwise all good in the hood.

Now with the app coming out for new fixtures, this will be a real winner.

IPhone w/orange lense: