Brand New Tunze Osmolator won't work..... Constantly beeps/all lights flash

[Enjoy]

Just hooked up my brand new Osmolator for a build I am doing in an office lobby. I run one of these at home and have had great results (which is the reason I purchased this again).

The pump is connected and inside a 5g bucket filled with RODI.
The controller is mounted on the wall above this tank.
The sensor is mounted in the magnet about 1/2" above the water line.

The controller should register that the water level is low, and engage the pump.
It does not.

When I plug the unit in, it just starts to beep every 2-3 seconds, and all of the lights flash at the same time - every time it beeps.

Any idea what the problem is?
I recorded a video to post on youtube, so that you can see exactly whats going on - but it's taking forever to upload a :30 second video.

 

[rvitko]

Either bad power supply or the controller is near an electromagnetic field. It sounds like it is cycling off and on, every time it tries to trigger the pump, it resets as it is not getting enough power. Verify that you have not swapped power from something else and you are using the osmolator power supply. If you have a voltmeter you can test the power supply and confirm, it should be 11V output and this tends to happen when they are below 9V. Most aquarium equipment tends to use this same DC tip 2.5mm by 5 mm and half the time I see this, the power supply from something else has been misconnected, for example an Apex or fan, the other half of the time, the power supply is a dud and is weak. A nearby electromagnetic field can cause interference at the controller and tightly bundling the wires, especially the float and osmo pump wire can feed interference into the controller, the pump is a brush motor and creates some field, the float wire can then serve as an antenna and carry it to the processor. Since you have another a simpler test might be to borrow your power supply and I would bring the pump as well for the sake of argument. If you can find the cause we can send the part on Monday after the holiday.

 

[Enjoy]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I checked voltage coming out of the power supply, and I am getting 18-19V.

I completely removed the osmolator and all of it's components from the sump and took it into another room to check if it was interference from another component. It did the same exact thing.

If I disconnect the pump, it doesn't change anything.

Any other ideas? Could it possibly be a bad unit?

Thanks!

 

[Enjoy]

Video finally uploaded...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YLeZacIGqhE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://youtu.be/YLeZacIGqhE

 

[rvitko]

The power supply should put out a maximum of about 12V, it is rated at 11V DC, at a higher voltage it shuts off as a safety. Is it possible that the power supply was swapped with another piece of aquarium equipment, for example a controllable Stream pump or Ecotech pump? These are generally 18-24V.

The power supply should look like this except with US prongs.

http://www.tunze.com/details.html?&L=1&C=US&user_tunzeprod_pi1[prodid]=5012.010

 

[Enjoy]

It's a bummer this is not working - I had to go to work everyday over the holidays just to refill with top off water.

"Tunze" is printed on the power supply, and I do not have any other Tunze equipment so far on this tank. It looks just like the one in the picture but with US prongs.

Maybe I am doing something wrong when checking the voltage?

 

[Enjoy]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pSIXbJ16vO4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[rvitko]

It looks like you are testing correctly, if you PM me your address we will send a new power supply and it should be solved.

 

[Bryan]

You really need to test the power supply under load, typically they will always read high when open.

It's a bummer this is not working - I had to go to work everyday over the holidays just to refill with top off water.

"Tunze" is printed on the power supply, and I do not have any other Tunze equipment so far on this tank. It looks just like the one in the picture but with US prongs.

Maybe I am doing something wrong when checking the voltage?

 

[rvitko]

I am pretty sure it is a problem power supply, it shouldn't be that high

 

[Bryan]

Think you are right, just measured mine, output is rated at 11v, on multimeter just under 12v with no load. Switching power supply so that seems right.

 

[Enjoy]

PM sent Roger, Thanks.