chinese led lights

[jefftse]

Originally Posted by SaltyJim

I just got my A4 unit yesterday, will post pics later if no one else has.

There *is* a heatsink, and the weight of the unit was surprisingly heavy. Heavy enough I have to change my hanging system from what I had for my Geissman 250 fixture.

My one complaint, the fans are on all the time when the dimmers are turned off. Not really a problem if using timers, but could be an issue for trying to use a controller. For anyone that has not yet ordered from Sam, ask him if they could put the fans on a separate power switch.

Let us know what you think and do a review if you can. I'm waiting some reviews before ordering my 3 A8s.

[biecacka]

Are you going w the A8? What size tank and why those over the "normal" fixtures and how much are the A8. One salesperson recommended the A8 for my tank but never gave me a price.
Corey

[WinnipegDragon]

My A4 also showed up today, it's sitting in a box at home while I am at work.

Sadly my Apex has not shipped yet so I have no idea if I can hook up the VDC or not. Regardless I'm going to crack it open and see what I can figure out about the drivers. Hopefully they are Meanwell or something else semi-standard!

[Amoore311]

With a picture of the fixture opened exposing the drivers and all that good stuff we should be able to figure out if they would be compatible with the Apex or not.

I can post a picture of the VDC port on my Apex when I get home if that will help you figure it out.

[jefftse]

Originally Posted by biecacka

Are you going w the A8? What size tank and why those over the "normal" fixtures and how much are the A8. One salesperson recommended the A8 for my tank but never gave me a price.
Corey

That's what I'm planning on. 3 A8s for my 180g. just want to hear the review and someone figures it out with apex before the purchase.

[WinnipegDragon]

I have the VDC cable on order, I know it just ends at bare leads so no issue there. Just need to see if the potentiometer is easily bypassed and if the driver is a standard 0-10VDC...

Won't get pics for at least 4 or 5 hours though. I'll be sure to post when I do.

[bhazard451]

I got my A4 today too as well.

Its a solid, heavy, well built fixture. I have to really be careful hanging this from a shelving bracket as it is easily 10lbs. Might take a day or two to figure it out.

I kinda want to run it before I crack it open. Unit didn't come with any instructions, so we'd have to figure out the internals and disassembly on our own.

[WinnipegDragon]

I've pulled mine apart and taken a look at the internals. I've taken pictures but I have to get the kids to bed before I can upload them.

My thoughts:

Heavy, solid case, well assembled, decent cable management. Heatsink is huge, basically the size of the whole unit. Quick disconnects all over the place.

The drivers have no label except for the voltage. No model/part number on top or bottom. Just a black mystery box. It has a 4-pin quick disconnect to the potentiometer which I assume are two for the on/off, two for the dimmer circuit. I'm no electrical guy someone else will have to take a meter to it and sort that out.

The other thing is the cable to the pot is *very* short. Like maybe three inches. Not alot of play for splicing and rewiring but it should be doable.

[AcroBluz]

Looking forward to seeing the pics. If I can get these to be controlled by my apex that would be sweet

[WinnipegDragon]

Originally Posted by AcroBluz

Looking forward to seeing the pics. If I can get these to be controlled by my apex that would be sweet

Same here.

The two issues to that goal: Getting the wires sorted out and the short length of wire. If someone wants to crack their driver open they can probably tell us more, but that's not going to be me

I've already voided my warranty more than enough, thanks

[bhazard451]

Not sure if this would be a good way, but I wonder if you can tap (splice) into the dim+ dim- wires without removing them from the potentiometer.

I used these for my car headunit. Worked great. Not sure if it could work in this application though.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP60...onnectors.html

The other way would be to remove or cut the dim+ dim- wires from the potentiometer and either solder it to the VDC cable, or use quick connectors like these.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP50...rs.html?tp=990

Finding out which wire is which is the vital part.

[AcroBluz]

I just purchased 2 of the 120w and am waiting on a response from Hendy about customizing the a4's

*i just got a response and he indicated that he could do:
4 - 400nm
20 - royal blues*460nm
24 - white 12000k

Since there are 24 led per switch would I do the 400nm and royal blues on one and the others on two?

[WinnipegDragon]

As promised, here are my pictures. If you want more detail just click and it will take you to a high-res shot on Flickr.

First, the exterior of the unit showing the new control layout and power connectors:


Top by TKIY, on Flickr

And the LED array:


LEDs by TKIY, on Flickr

Cracking the case open is just a matter or removing 8 screws. There are four quick disconnects you need to separate in order to fully open the case, one from each driver to the LED arrays, and one from each driver to the two potentiometers.

Here is the heatsink and the cables pulled through it:


Heatsink by TKIY, on Flickr

The other half of the case holds the drivers, cabling and fans:


DriversAndFans by TKIY, on Flickr

As you can see the driver has almost no information on it, and nothing like a model number anywhere:


DriverDetail by TKIY, on Flickr

This is the very short cable that connects to the pot:


PotConnector by TKIY, on Flickr

And here is the PCB that the pot is connected to:


PotPCB by TKIY, on Flickr

I can't figure out how to get a better look at the LEDs short of pulling the whole heatsink. The screws on the face of the LED arrays don't seem to do anything?

Anyhow, as you can see if you wanted to swap in a pair of other drivers, I think it would be fairly easy to do so. I've asked Sam if he can give me details on the drivers and the leads going to the pots, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Still, for $230, the case, heatsink, and LED arrays are probably worth it. A little manual labour would allow you to swap in drivers of your choice and bypass the pots entirely.

[bhazard451]

That looks really confusing compared to a meanwell driver. Hopefully the pots 4 wires contain all the leads we need. Being 4 black wires on a quick connect doesn't help.

Not sure if you can bypass the pots completely, as they also control on/off.

[WinnipegDragon]

Thin wires too. 28AWG.

[biecacka]

Jeff why did you choose the A8 over the 120watt dimmable?
Corey

[bhazard451]

From Sam,

"About the WIRE, you can test the connectors(End of the Plug) “DIM+ and DIM-" by multimeter.
Red wire is + and black wire is – if you open it.

Our power supply is 580mA(55-75V). 2pcs Power supplies in one light."

[WinnipegDragon]

Originally Posted by bhazard451

From Sam,

"About the WIRE, you can test the connectors(End of the Plug) “DIM+ and DIM-" by multimeter.
Red wire is + and black wire is – if you open it.

Our power supply is 580mA(55-75V). 2pcs Power supplies in one light."

Yup I got the same detail from Sam this morning.

So I'm not sure if this is going to be compatible with the 0-10VDC standard that the Apex supports or not?

[Ianwraab]

Originally Posted by WinnipegDragon

Thin wires too. 28AWG.

Ok thin wires, confusing setup, GENARIC materials.

First, thin wires don't matter as long as they can carry the load...

Second, this is built in a fast in fast out facility on the other side of the planet
They don't even drive on the same side of the road what did you expect

Third, this is why we save so much money

I'm happy.. See growth... I saved $600...

P.S. I'm running (2) 55x3w 90deg lens dimmable black box on a 125 gal 48x24x30

[sjfishguy]

These are just the eshine LEDs with a different name slapped on them right? And is there a benefit to the round array/pucks vs. the straight lines?

[ghrorick]

E-mailed sam the other day. He told me to get 3 a6s for a 180 gallon (6x2x2)and 2 a4s for a 120 gallon (4x2x2). I understand 2 a4s for the 120 (which I am debating getting 2 a6s since this is a sps tank and I want to get some violet and uv as well). doesn't 3 a6s sound a little excessive for a 180 gallon? I guess I could go that route and switch out the corals in each tank (have soft corals in the 180 gallon).

[WinnipegDragon]

Originally Posted by Ianwraab

Ok thin wires, confusing setup, GENARIC materials.

First, thin wires don't matter as long as they can carry the load...

Second, this is built in a fast in fast out facility on the other side of the planet
They don't even drive on the same side of the road what did you expect

Third, this is why we save so much money

I'm happy.. See growth... I saved $600...

P.S. I'm running (2) 55x3w 90deg lens dimmable black box on a 125 gal 48x24x30

Oh, I'm not complaining at all. These are an absolute steal for the price. I'm just listing the hurdles we would have to overcome if we were going to dim these and do sunrise/sunset on the Apex. Things like thin, short wires are just going to make it a little harder to modify.

[WinnipegDragon]

Originally Posted by sjfishguy

These are just the eshine LEDs with a different name slapped on them right? And is there a benefit to the round array/pucks vs. the straight lines?

I think you get less of a disco effect with the arrays and stronger shimmer.

[WinnipegDragon]

Well my buddy here at work is an electrical engineer and he's going to bring his meter in to work tomorrow, I'm going to bring the light, and we are going to figure out the pinout on the pot connector.

I'll report in once we know what cable is which.

[sjfishguy]

Originally Posted by WinnipegDragon

I think you get less of a disco effect with the arrays and stronger shimmer.

Can anyone else confirm this? Interesting