Informal get together for locals

[Pittsburgh]

Very enjoyable indeed! It was great to meet everyone and to see Kevin's set up. Very cool and educational.
I was very happy to empty my frag rack going into the meeting. Little did I know that it was going to be full again with what others shared with me.

I should be able to make it to the next meeting on the 22nd, unless anything urgent comes up. I'm sure that Ted's tank is just as great and unique in it's own way. So I'm looking forward to seeing it and to hang out for a bit.

 

[JaimeAdams]

A big thank you to everyone for the frag donations I will try to keep them alive as my tank goes through erratic shifts on it's way back to normal. I can't thank everyone enough for the pieces you guys brought. Kevin's setup was really nice and well organized. It was really awesome. Thank you so much for hosting, Kevin. I have to admit that my favorite part was taking to Tracy about her depression glass. I will see everyone next month.

Kevin, did you figure out the lights?

 

[kevinl]

You know what Jamie, It was the Voodoo gods.
They have not done it since. u know the saying, & it seems to happen often to me. I finally have people over to view my hard work &&&& my lights decide to do the disco dancing thing.
I still have to look into it & try to figure it out as I want to add more lighting to the tanks.

 

[MondoBongo]

You know what Jamie, It was the Voodoo gods.
They have not done it since. u know the saying, & it seems to happen often to me. I finally have people over to view my hard work &&&& my lights decide to do the disco dancing thing.
I still have to look into it & try to figure it out as I want to add more lighting to the tanks.

what kind of lights are you running, and what is the disco effect you're talking about?

 

[acer]

Mondo- He is running an Apex controller with Ecotech 2nd gen LED's. They were turning on /off randomly - not all at once - I think he had a total of 4 units and first one would turn off- then turn back on , than a different one would turn off, etc.

Are you going to try to come up north to my place next month?

 

[MondoBongo]

i was having a similar problem with my AI Vegas. lights would randomly shut down individual pucks, sometimes up to three in a unit, and then come back on. the problem partially resolved itself when i hooked them to the little AI Controller (not the director, the thing that looks sort of like an iPod), but not entirely.

my best guess is that it is an overheat condition in the hood, and the lights are shutting off pucks to help protect them from damage.

i won't be around then unfortunately, going to be doing a little traveling for thanksgiving.

although i do have some more frags that about ready to be sent out. i know i owe Dave several since i missed him in the last round, but i trimmed back quite a bit of my ORA Green Scripps, as it was starting to get a little out of control.

 

[kevinl]

Mondo,
I have 4 Radions, 2 XR30 pros & 2 gen II. 2 for each tank, both sets hung on rails in open air & both sets feel cool to touch & air movement.
As Ted said, run through Apex using a WXM module. This module controls all 4 lights & 4 MP40's. Fair to say 1 light did this when I only owned 2 lights (gen II's) to start & no Apex.
I have noticed this from time to time and you kind of think (wt?) not all that often though, but the night everyone was over it really acted up. One would go off then on, then all 4 would go off & it was happening every 2 minutes or so. ?? Could be all the body heat, since there were 7 people here?? LOL.
I prob should try new firmware for both WXM and lights, BUT that's where I go astray. Downloads never seem to go well for me.
Thanks for taking an interest.

 

[MondoBongo]

Light woes are a massive PITA, and of course it would act up the worst when people are over.

Hopefully you get it sorted. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with that configuration.

 

[MondoBongo]

For what it's worth, I ended up getting new driver boards for my Vegas, that mostly solved the problem.

 

[acer]

I cant get the moonlights to work on my Radion XR30 gen2. I do not have the wireless module and have tried the wired link to my laptop a few times and have been able to do everything but get the moonlights working. So I am doing something wrong or it is glitched. That would be a good thing to do during the get together next month.

 

[kevinl]

Did you try one of their preset programs, not sure if moonlighting is part of any of them. I used one & then modified it some but I didn't run moonlights.

I use Fusion with Apex and is a lot easier now.

You are talking about using the blue & royal blue channels for a set amount of time, Right?

 

[acer]

lol = it was a few months ago now and I cant remember what I was trying to do. But I know you are supposed to have a moonlight type of light at night and it did not work - maybe it was a "preset" - I will have to get out the USB cable and check it out again.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Make sure the schedule you are using leaves some light on during the night. From what I understand, the automatic moonlight adjustments won't turn the lights on but will dim them if they are part of your schedule.

Ivan

 

[acer]

hmm... ok maybe that is the key i have the lights going down to zero, so the moonlights are also zero.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

If you click on the ? icon beside "Lunar Phases" it should open a pop-up that explains things. There is a video linked at the bottom of the pop-up that shows you how to program it.

- Ivan

 

[acer]

Thank you - I will try this weekend again.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Just curious, but with all the renewed local interest, why is the energy not being directed to supporting the club?

The club only works if people show up for meetings and contribute.

 

[acer]

Hi Bean- I sent you and several others PM's and Emails that used to be active in club and would enjoy Sushi with after club meeting with when I started to get back into the hobby this summer. I never heard back from you - what ya up to? Yes- I continue to support the club and encourage others to do so as well.

When I got back into the hobby, I noticed the Pittsburgh area here on R/C or the official website was not very active - in fact the meeting schedule was not even up to date. I tried to make contacts , as stated above- but did not get many returns to my inquiries. So, I got the idea of starting the thread here about having the informal "get togethers" to try and get some people into the social aspects of the hobby and several of us are having fun with it. It was originally just meant to be a way for me to get to know others in our area that are currently active in the hobby until I got back into the club.

I have made several inquiries, contacts, etc. in the past months toward the club. But, apparently the club is going thru some transition of leadership, the website doesn't work well, etc. Apparently, I missed "a lot" regarding the club during the years that I was gone - you probably know more about it than I do. When I did have contact with leadership in the past several months all I got was "warnings" about stuff that cant be done and that the club can't support or allow mention of the "get togethers" on either the website or the PMASI facebook page due to liability reasons.

AS has been stated many times before: our "get togethers" are NOT meant to be in competition of the club. Rather, they are to be in an addition to the club as there is much less formality, no speakers or programs, just local people socializing and sharing and letting others see how they setup their tanks, systems, lights, etc. I plan on joining the club again as soon as I can. I have had plans on the same dates as the meetings and Saturdays on a whole are hard for me. Plus, you cannot join online due to the website not working. Are you still active in the club? I have not seen a post from you in some time - where did everybody go since I left about 3-4 years ago? If you did not know I left the club and the hobby for personal health reasons ( nothing to do with the club in any way).

I hope to see you soon in person either at a "get together" or at the club meeting or both. PM me anytime to talk.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

When I did have contact with leadership in the past several months all I got was "warnings" about stuff that cant be done and that the club can't support or allow mention of the "get togethers" on either the website or the PMASI facebook page due to liability reasons.

This is the primary reason I'm not looking to join a club - too many legal concerns, rules, etc. Sadly, you see it everywhere. Look at kids' sports. Most leagues, clubs, etc. that I've been involved with have turned into nothing more than a power struggle supplemented with hand-wringing.

I'm also not a big fan of driving to the other side of town for a monthly meeting that may or may not be informative and relevant. I like the idea of informal "get togethers" because they don't come with all of the baggage. If there is ever one closer to me (I can't host right now), I'll probably attend.

- Ivan

 

[BeanAnimal]

Hi Bean- I sent you and several others PM's and Emails that used to be active in club

Ted - in a nutshell, I took a step back from the club about 18 months ago. I let the board and membership know that I would not be participating for the foreseeable future, but was not leaving the hobby. I have had a lot going on here at home and with my business.

I don't even look at PMs here and have spent scant time here in the last 18 months as well. Sorry I missed your attempts to contact me.

As you may have figured out by now, Dave and Amanda have left the area and other board members have dropped off. The current board is working hard to get things back on track.

The "website": Dave is taking care of it from Fiji and yes it has been down a lot. That said, when it was "up" it was not used by more than a few folks anyway and only really served as a meeting reminder. The biggest issue is on the administrative side, as it is tied into our membership database and the lack of functionality has made it hard for the board to send out reminders, etc.

When I did have contact with leadership in the past several months all I got was "warnings" about stuff that cant be done and that the club can't support or allow mention of the "get togethers" on either the website or the PMASI facebook page due to liability reasons.

I have no idea who you talked to or what you asked specifically.

That said, nothing has changed in that context. The bylaws are the same, as are the PMASI forum rules.

As for using the PMASI FB page or PMASI forum to organize "get togethers": It would be one thing if those participating in the meet-ups where club supporters. The current board is working extremely hard to rebuild interest in the club and I can see why they would frown upon posts aimed at organizing meet-ups for folks who openly have no intention (see Ivan's silly post below, and several others here) of supporting the club.

AS has been stated many times before: our "get togethers" are NOT meant to be in competition of the club.

You folks are (clearly) free to do whatever you wish. It is nice to see local interest in the hobby. In that context, I saw this thread and simply wanted to remind folks that the club still exists and the board is working extremely hard to renew interest. They can use ANY help they can get.

I may be more active in the coming year if I can manage some free time.