Coral Hind August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 So I went away for the weekend and I checked in on my tank Saturday night via the web. Everything looked fine except the tank was a little warmer then normal but I figured it was because the AC was raised to 78. When I checked it again Sunday morning the temp was at 83.9 and the chart showed that it had been slowly rising all night. I couldn't figure it out because the status screen showed everything was off. I cut the weekend short and raced home to find my 250w MH light still on and had obviously been cooking my tank all night long. The issue is that the #8 outlet is not switching off even thought the base unit is showing that it is off. Unit is only 6 months old so I will be calling Neptune today. Has anyone else had this problem?
jnguyen4007 August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 So I went away for the weekend and I checked in on my tank Saturday night via the web. Everything looked fine except the tank was a little warmer then normal but I figured it was because the AC was raised to 78. When I checked it again Sunday morning the temp was at 83.9 and the chart showed that it had been slowly rising all night. I couldn't figure it out because the status screen showed everything was off. I cut the weekend short and raced home to find my 250w MH light still on and had obviously been cooking my tank all night long. The issue is that the #8 outlet is not switching off even thought the base unit is showing that it is off. Unit is only 6 months old so I will be calling Neptune today. Has anyone else had this problem? Dave, If you haven't done so, double check your ACIII program to make sure that nothing was changed before you call Neptune.
Origami August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 I had an SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) burn out on one of my DC8's when it was fairly new. It blew when there was an overcurrent event because of a bad ballast. Neptune fixed it at no charge to me as the unit was still fairly new.
Coral Hind August 31, 2009 Author August 31, 2009 My program was fine. The display would show that it was off but the relay never opened. I called Neptune and outlets #4 and #8 are different then the others. Those two are prone to the contacts welding together with high inrush current devices such as large pumps and ballasts. Any loads like that should be plugged into #'s 1-3 and 5-7. I gave the DC8 two hard hits and the relay opened back up.
jnguyen4007 August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 My program was fine. The display would show that it was off but the relay never opened. I called Neptune and outlets #4 and #8 are different then the others. Those two are prone to the contacts welding together with high inrush current devices such as large pumps and ballasts. Any loads like that should be plugged into #'s 1-3 and 5-7. I gave the DC8 two hard hits and the relay opened back up. That is good to know.
ctenophore August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 I've had a similar problem, but my outlets were switching on or off randomly across 3 daisy chained DC4/DC8s. I think I may have traced it to my new chiller installation, as one of the control wires was ziptied to the romex feeding the 240v 30a chiller power supply. A physicist friend of mine mentioned that it's possible the startup current draw of the chiller firing up could be causing enough interference on the control line to artificially signal the relays to move. So far it's been 12 hours and I haven't seen an incorrectly set outlet. Fingers crossed.
DaveS August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 I've had a similar problem, but my outlets were switching on or off randomly across 3 daisy chained DC4/DC8s. I think I may have traced it to my new chiller installation, as one of the control wires was ziptied to the romex feeding the 240v 30a chiller power supply. A physicist friend of mine mentioned that it's possible the startup current draw of the chiller firing up could be causing enough interference on the control line to artificially signal the relays to move. So far it's been 12 hours and I haven't seen an incorrectly set outlet. Fingers crossed. Yes, low voltage lines running in parallel with high voltage (i.e. 120 much less 240) can cause lots of interference. This goes for Ethernet wiring too!
Origami August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 My program was fine. The display would show that it was off but the relay never opened. I called Neptune and outlets #4 and #8 are different then the others. Those two are prone to the contacts welding together with high inrush current devices such as large pumps and ballasts. Any loads like that should be plugged into #'s 1-3 and 5-7. I gave the DC8 two hard hits and the relay opened back up. Ah, that's right. I'd forgotten that outlets 4 & 8 were relays. They work well with low-current loads where the SCR's on outlets 1-3 and 5-7 don't always behave as well with low current loads. Anyways, be aware that the SCR-controlled outlets are not individually fused, so if you exceed their rating, the SCR will blow while the strip's fuse may not. This is what happened to me. I had a failed Ice Cap ballast that blew the SCR when the outlet was turned on.
Gatortailale August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 Glad you got home to save tank; stinks you had to cut trip short. Do you have these statements to turn lights off - I have them on my AC III to keep from cooking tank. If Temp > 82.0 Then LT1 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT2 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT3 OFF
Sikryd August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 Glad you got home to save tank; stinks you had to cut trip short. Do you have these statements to turn lights off - I have them on my AC III to keep from cooking tank. If Temp > 82.0 Then LT1 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT2 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT3 OFF That's always a good idea. There is a statement you can add too if you want them to turn off for 30min and then re-check to fire up. I had it in my old ACIII - the APEX has a new user interface though and all I have to do is at the amount of time. I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered what statement was there since it was a mechanical failure though. Gotta hate those. Cuttin' a trip short is never fun, knowing there is an issue with your tank via the web.....priceless.
Coral Hind August 31, 2009 Author August 31, 2009 Glad you got home to save tank; stinks you had to cut trip short. Do you have these statements to turn lights off - I have them on my AC III to keep from cooking tank. If Temp > 82.0 Then LT1 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT2 OFF If Temp > 82.0 Then LT3 OFF I do have safe guards like. The ACIII showed they were off but as Sikryd mentioned it didn't matter because the relay contacts were melted together. So even thought the controller was calling for it to open it never did. Everything looks fine and there are no loses.
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